ISIS, nuclear apocalypse and hypocrisy: What we do best.



A nuclear apocalypse is looking more and more likely. image courtesy io9

Mumbai, Baghdad, London, Beirut, Peshawar, Kabul, Kuwait, Lahore, Nairobi... Just a few cities I could list out of recent memory which have witnessed coordinated suicide attacks resulting in civilian massacres. Paris is the latest in this list.

courtesy: cnbc

 

 

Such an atrocity may bring a hasty, ill-advised backlash by the French government and her allies. But no meaningful action will be taken by any nation or alliance to get rid of ISIS. This is because all decisions will be based on ill-intent, malice and greed.
 

 

While European right-wing is spoilt for choice on how to exploit the Paris attacks to shut our gates to refugees, make more war overseas and demonize millions of European Muslims; I am dreading what awaits humanity if they got their wish.
 

 

Douglas Murray and Richard Dawkins are still  parroting on about how uncivilized  the Islamic religion is.

They, of course are doing what they do best. Being bigots.

Before we ask whether Islam is the cause of such horrendous violence, we must ask first where do these people come from, what drives them to do such evil and who controls them? Popular answers are that these are individuals radicalized by political islamism, driven to violence by hate preachers and they are instructed to do so by ISIS or Al-Qaeda.

Political islamism has been around for a long time as a general nuisance in Muslim societies. They fail in elections and go through cycles of popularity depending on how bad the dictators get.  Hate preachers can be controlled by vigilance and effective law enforcement.

But what about ISIS? 

The ideological nerve center for the current wave of terror is in fact a manufactured entity. It smacks of think-tank naivete and juvenile policy blunders. Someone collected venomous vipers from around the world in a bag and then carelessly dropped it over Syria. And then they ran for their lives.

This is what US and Co. do when Saudis, Turks and Israelis get twitchy about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
 

 

Israel did what it does best: Make a fuss and divert the world's attention from its ongoing apartheid against the Palestinians.

courtesy ibtimes.

 

 

And Saudis did what they do best: Bankrolled another jihad, blessed by their US and EU patrons. Turks joined in.

 

Arab spring didn't quiet catch on in Syria. Assad regime may have been as bad as other dictatorships, but the Syrians turned out to be less bitter than Egyptians. One factor was that Muslim Brotherhood (political islamism) had little political clout in Syria, the other; Assad, despite his cruelties, has a very loyal support base in many parts of the country.

 

As early as 2011, analysts at Stratfor (as exposed by Wikileaks) were predicting a limited regional war between Israel and Syria to solve the Hezbollah problem once and for all. Same group of analysts were also spotting Jihadi propaganda in Arabic newspapers in the guise of defending human rights of Syrian Muslims. 'It's the Saudis', remarks an analyst on a news piece quoting a rebel leader's call to arms. In 2013, UK and France were planning to arm  the rebel groups in Syria. Nowadays, US secretary of state cannot stop mentioning the 'moderate' groups whose aspirations of toppling the government have been dashed by the Russian intervention.

courtesy: wall of controversy

 

 

One must give credit to the Saudis and Qataris for not doing this Jihad business half-heatedly. Once they decide to go to war, they make sure that there is enough manpower and dollars to bankroll it for a long period of time. A thirty year war we hear.. with the sole aim to weaken Iran's position in the region.

 

But at this juncture, once the many headed hydra of Islamist insurgency has established itself in the region, Iran did what it does best. 

Iran compromised without losing influence in the region. Russia came to the rescue.

 

I wonder why ISIS has posed no real threat to Israel, Saudi Arabia or Turkey? Even when Turkey had the opportunity to play a decisive role in getting rid of ISIS. They only pretended to play the role for a few days.

 

Then it became clear that they also were doing what they did best. Killing Kurds.

 

These thirty years look very lucrative for certain industries. Someone has to make the daily load of bombs to be dropped on a vast area. And who makes the expensive fighter jets to be sold to the Arab states? And boots on the ground are always good business of the military industrial complex.

 

There is a price to remain in power in the Middle East. You have to buy protection from the West and hire mercenaries to fight your wars.

 

What if you can't afford it?

Well, spring comes every year. It could be your turn in a few months..
 

 

While all this goes on, thousands of innocents are being killed in the conflict zone, in Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon. With civilian lives lost on European soil, a EU/NATO invasion is becoming more and more likely. But this time, Putin's Russia may be ready and waiting to settle old scores.
 

 

And then we will all do what we do best. Fight another world war and kill each other!

What so special about the Ahmadis?

Ahmadiyya Muslim Annual Convention; Jalsa Salana 2014

What is so special about the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community?

 

Those of us who count themselves to be the part of this movement will have many answers to this question.

 

But the most important answer in my eyes is that the Ahmadi Muslims follow a Caliph, the Khalifatul Masih, who they believe to have been chosen by God, through the democratic vote of a large electoral college comprising of representatives from all over the world.

Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V, Mirza Masroor Ahmad.

 

 

There are tens of millions of Ahmadi Muslims in the world and they are not short of adversaries; mostly their coreligionists, who have been told that Messiahs have to fly down from the skies on the shoulders of angels.

 

The community would have been just another sect in Islam if it was only a theological argument about the nature of prophecy and the revival of faith, but the fact is, it is much more than that.

 

Ahmadiyya Islam is the only solution to the scourge of violent extremism which has engulfed the world of Islam.

 

Sir Zafrulla Khan, the Pakistani Ahmadi jurist and statesman, while speaking at the first constituent assembly of his newly founded homeland, warned his countrymen that 'in place of the ideals set up  by Islam, people may fall into the error of substituting tinsel limitations and narrow bigotries'.

 

 

Sir Zafrulla Khan

 

A companion of the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement and his succssors, Sir Zafrulla was acutely aware of the takfiri mindset of many Muslims. Saudi Arabia was gradually rising as the power-broker in the middle-east and the Wahabi/Salafi House of Saud had no intention of letting any tolerant version of Islam to prevail if they could help it.

 

Wahabism or its tributaries had opposed Ahmadiyya Islam since its inception. But the rise of the Saudis had given Wahabism a source of power and influence which grew steadily across the Muslim world. Debates and fatwas of heresy were no longer sufficient to curb the growing intellectual and spiritual impact of the Ahmadiyya caliphate.

 

When the universal declaration of human rights was being debated at the UN, Saudi Arabia disagreed with the clause on the rights of an individual to adopt any faith they choose. Sir Zafrulla, an Ahmadi Muslim and the delegate for Pakistan not only supported the UDHR but declared that Islam advocates the full freedom of conscience. Saudis disagreed and also noted that Zafrulla did not belong to  mainstream Islam.

 

A prominent Iraqi journalist Ali Effendi revealed that in 1949 he was asked to write against the community in Arabic newspapers by certain 'agents' of imperialism. Instead, Mr Effendi defended the community by writing a tract listing the services of the Ahmadis for the rights of Palestinians and other Arab nations on various forums. A few years later, a violent movement broke out against the Pakistani Ahmadis in Pakistan. One of the main demands of the agitators was to remove Sir Zafrulla Khan from his post as the foreign minister.

 

Strangely enough, in the coming years, Saudis and their Arab allies could not thank Sir Zafrulla enough for being the lone warrior for the Palestinian cause at the UN.

 

Recently, Wikileaks latest project, Saudi Cables revealed that Prince Nayef himself had instructed his embassy in Indonesia to increase their activities against the Indonesian Ahmadis.

 

I wasn't surprised to learn that. In fact, the Saudis were instrumental in severe persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, even getting them declared non-Muslims and banning their entry to Makkah. I have discussed this in great detail in my blog here and here.

 

Prince Nayef, the hardline Wahabi/Salafist Crown prince who died in 2012. (Image courtesy Wikipedia)

 

The cable from Prince Nayef to Saudi embass in Jakarta: (source Wikileaks)

Prince Faisal, later the Saudi King, knew of the community as early as 1924. He knew Sir Zafrulla Khan personally. Faisal, dreaming of a caliphate of his own, assumed the leadership of the Arab world already in tatters and in deep political turmoil, and used his oil money to fund a global takfiri campaign. His first target was the Ahmadis.

 

Faisal withi a young Muammar Qaddafi (Image courtesy Wikipedia)
 

After he was assassinated, King Faisal's successors dove head first into the business of Jihad. Afghanistan and Pakistan became their playgrounds. Whereas their bigoted worldview and a thirst for blood has helped maintain a favourable economic outcome for the West, Taliban and other subsidiary Jihadi organizations have continued to target Ahmadis in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia in the last 30 years.

 

In 1984, Gen. Zia, another sworn ally of Saudi Arabia and the US attempted to incarcerate the Khalifatul Masih, but failed.

General Zia's draconian laws resulted in state sponsored persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan.

 

 

Khalifatul Masih IV moved to London and continued his mission with much greater effectiveness in the UK. Zia, like Faisal left the world unrequited in his dream to destroy the Ahmadiyya Caliphate.

 

Post Soviet war Taliban had a short-lived Emirate (wannabe caliphate) of their own which died its own death. Mullah Omar and his advisers turned Afghanistan into a haven for the jihadis and invited a destruction upon their people which continues to this day.

 

Now everyone is talking about ISIS and their Caliphate, of Boko Haraam, the new Taliban in Afghanistan and ex Al-Qaeda groups pledging their allegiance to the so-called caliph Baghdadi. 

 

Post revolution Shia Iran and numerous Western misadventures have caused this takfiri fervour to intensify. Sponsoring one murderous campaign after another, we can sense the desperation of a dying empire. An empire built on misplaced sense of entitlement to lead the Muslim through force and coercion.

 

Jesus, the Messiah to the children of Israel,  once spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and of creating new heavens and a new earth. Of course he meant that his coming will transform the spiritual life of the Jews and will give them a new purpose to make the world a better place. In Islamic terms, Jesus was a caliph to Moses and David.

 

Islam is need of its very own true Caliphate. 

 

Ahmadiyya Caliphate has been winning the hearts and minds for the past 100 years and this conquest is destined to save the world.

  

UK will host over 30000 Muslims from across the country and around the world this month at the Jalsa Salana. They will renew their pledge to the Khalifatul Masih in a global Baia'at ceremony, promising to carry on the mission to create new heavens and a new earth.

 

 

 

Bai'at: The Pledge of allegiance to the Khalifatul Masih:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My pervious posts on Jalsa Salana UK:

The real war front against Islamic extremism

A photographic journey through Jalsa Salana

 

 #JalsaUK

 

 

 

 

 

Qadri's 'fool them twice' curriculum

No curriculum could have saved this family from radicalization. source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/missing-muslim-bradford-family-parents-missing-sisters-do-not-support-their-actions-1506913

 

 

 

Families fleeing the UK to join ISIS is no joke. But recruiting a rent-a-cleric to issue new fatwas shows the naivete of the UK establishment trying to deal with this crisis. The infamous Dr. Tahirul Qadri has been the go-to fatwa guy for some Whitehall pen pusher or a very incompetent think tank. A few years ago, he issued a fatwa against terrorism, which is in the same league as fatwa against snowmen. Those who ordered the fatwa should at least have changed the title of the memo that was circulating in the internal emails.

 

They could have asked for a 'fatwa against evil', overarching all bad things.

 

Now comes the latest gimmick. A curriculum to combat radicalization in Muslim children. According to Tahirul Qadri, this should be made compulsory in British schools. Apparently this publication contains all the counter-arguments to successfully combat the poisonous ideology of ISIS.

 

Only if things were that simple. It is easy to churn out booklets and articles on any subject. Internet is full of such expert blogs and websites which are always used as vehicles for advertising other products. The product in this curriculum is not peace or counter-terrorism, it is the author himself.

 

Mr. Qadri is a proven liar and cheat, who has also been hired by the Pakistani establishment for his rabble rousing skills in his native country to pressurize the democratically elected Sharif government into subservience.

 

Qadri addressing a crowd of his followers from his 'container' during the 2014 anti-government sit-in. (source:http://journalismtimes.com/actual-pm-pakistan-shahbaz-sharif-dr-tahir-ul-qadri/#prettyPhoto)

 

 

He doesn't live in Pakistan, but his livelihood appears to be based on the Minhaj foundation network of educational establishments in Pakistan. He is a skilled orator, and a master manipulator; bread and butter for the evangelical clerics from southern Punjab. He is extremely ambitious and has rose to prominence thanks to the superstitious nature of the 'sufi' Barelvi Islam. Qadri is famous for sharing spiritual experiences and dreams which somehow result in increased revenue for his Minhaj foundation.

 

Barelvis form the majority of the Pakistan diaspora in the UK. Most of the immigrants who came to the UK decades ago belong to this sect which takes its name after the city of Bareli in India where the founder of the sect, Ahmad Raza Khan was born. Ahmad Raza spent most of his life fighting a sectarian battle against the Deobandi and Wahabi clerics. His fatwas against these sects make an entertaining read; full of floral language and meticulously outlining all possible scenarios where the heresy of those infidels could be identified and shunned. Takfir was a favourite pass time of an average cleric in pre-partition India. It became a vocation after Saudi influence reached the newly found laboratory of Islam, Pakistan.

 

Mr. Qadri is a follower of Ahmad Raza, although many of his co-religionist Barelvis also have declared him an infidel and a crook.

 

Qadri was too much of a maverick to stick with the crowd. He carved out his own little sect which revolves around his person; a pseudo-sufi cult which has a religious face, Minhajul Quran foundation and political face, the PAT (Pakistan Awami Tahreek). His followers consider him to be the Sheikh-ul-Islam, a grand title for an intellectual pygmy. Some even elevated him to the title of the 'Mujaddid', the reformer of this era, but this claim would have been a step too far. To date, he has abstained from proclaiming this title for himself.

 

Mr. Qadri has been busy producing booklets on various contemporary and classical Islamic issues, none worthy of any scholarly merit, especially nothing to shift the Pakistani Muslim mindset to a better more enlightened understanding of the world. His spiritual and intellectual heritage is based on meaningless debates on matters of history and dogma which have no relevance to the modern world. He has tried to break free from that mould to appeal to a more educated audience with some success, but he  still belongs to  the same tradition which has given nothing to the Muslim world but endless schisms and divisions. They can't even agree on sighting of the new moon on the same day!

 

Mr. Qadri's tolerance mantra is not only superficial, it is a deception. As a young cleric of rising fame during General Zia's dictatorship, Qadri claims to have forced the dictator's hand to create the infamous blasphemy laws. According to Qadri himself, not even children or insane people could be spared their life if they had insulted the Prophet of Islam.

 

Qadri taking the credit for introducing the death penalty for Blasphemy in Pakistan (source http://www.downvids.net/mullah-tahir-ul-qadri-caught-red-handed-telling-the-most-blunt-434499.html)

 

 

Freedom of religion and expression is a fundamental human right and the Quran enjoins all Muslims to establish and safeguard this right for all mankind. Tahirul Qadri's ideological foundations are still deeply rooted in the small-minded distortion of Islam that indoctrinates all its followers to keep the avenue of violence open, albeit theoretical. It is this fundamentally flawed ideology which he cannot correct without reneging on his own claims and more importantly, to go against the very core of his barelvi beliefs.

 

The most recent ISIS recruits, three Bradford sisters and their children are a typical example of the impotence of this so-called sufi Islam. Barelvis have long been loosing ground to the more puritanical Wahabi beliefs in all over the world. First and second generations of many immigrant families have been abandoning their highly ritualistic, traditional Pakistani Islam to join the more puritanical and seemingly more intellectual wahabi/salafi Islam.

 

They keep what is common between the two sects; lack of tolerance for those who criticise Islam and absolute rejection for those who chose to leave Islam. According to them death is the only Islamic punishment for those who insult Islam or become apostates. Why do they act surprised when some of their children take such horrendous beliefs to their logical conclusion and travel to Syria?

 

Islam is need of reform and a return to the fundamental truths and principles of freedom and respect as outlined in the Quran. And for that to happen, selfish and opportunist clerics like Qadri must be challenged. They have fooled their followers for too long. Will the British public, including the British Muslims continue to play fools for such charlatans?

Jihadi Johns and Jihadi Janes

The so-called 'Jihadi' John. image courtesy telegraph.co.uk

As long as the narrative of Muslim victimization by the West will prevail among the Muslim youth , cases like that of Jihadi John and of absconding would-be-Jihadi-brides will keep on happening.

 

It is easy for organisations like CAGE to blame the security agencies for exploiting Emwazi and others like him for some vague, half-baked undercover operations. But this stance only reinforces the view that many bright, young Muslim men and women are being viewed as the enemy without any justification. I for one cannot believe this narrative.

 

We can see a thriving and diverse, young, Muslim subculture in all major cities of the country. Teenagers, university students, graduate workers and young skilled migrants from all over are thrown together in Islamic societies, mosque study circles, sheesha lounges, snooker clubs etc.

 

Some of these gatherings are either run by or are frequented by politically motivated Islamists. Add to this mix the poisonous Salafist/Wahabi preaching and you get a generation of cultural narcissists who have lost their minds to the myth of a global Islamist state.

 

IS may be condemned in these circles, but there will be some who will marvel at its successes. Israeli atrocities, the massacre of the Rohingya people, the Chinese suppression of the Uyghurs and the drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan are also hot topics in such gatherings.

 

Young girls wishing to be empowered look to break free from a South Asian/Middle Eastern patriarchy only to fall prey to the promises of an even more misogynistic radical cult.

 

We did not lose these teenagers after the intervention by MI5. In fact, a majority of these gap-year Jihadis have surfaced in Syria to the shock and horror of their families as well as to their respective governments.
 

 

We had lost them between their mosques and University campuses.
 

 

MI5 picked on only the most rotten ones. I do not say that the over-zealous security agencies are not to blame for pushing a few psychopaths over the edge; but that they are also guilty of entrapping some dimwit fantasists and in doing so, providing the media with an all-you-can-eat buffet of potential Islamophobic headlines.

 

Parents, Imams and charismatic preachers are the main culprits. If your faith does not offer you reconciliation between your spiritual needs and the world you live in, and pitches you against the very society you inhabit, that faith needs to be discarded. These young people have been fed this dogmatic faith at home, at their mosques and in their university's Islamic society.

 

Regardless of what the 'moderates' among the Sunni and Shia clerics say to condemn ISIS and the wayward youth who go and join them, the real problem still remains.

 

Why is that hundreds of Islamic Organisations in the UK have failed to gain consensus on the most basic of issues. i.e., freedom of conscience. Those who have spoken against the issues of apostasy and blasphemy have been sidelined. The mainstream is pretending its best to reform, but there is no evidence of actual reform taking place. If over 20% of Muslims feel some kind of sympathy for the Charlie Hebdo murderers, many would have only condemned it conditionally.

 

I say this because the 'Preacher Circuit' of Muslim clerics around the UK is overwhelmingly represented by political Islamists. People who can produce moderate views for the consumption of the others, but for their own congregations they speak about the Utopian 'Islamic state' where punishments for apostasy, blasphemy and adultery/homosexuality would be carried out. Such preachers are routinely barred from university campuses but their notoriety only helps their impact online.

 

As long as we have such preachers who are deluding their audiences about the ideal Islamic state we cannot feel safe. We need to challenge these people publicly, in their congregations, on their TV channels and websites and twitter-feeds. A robust and aggressive theological debate which should be led by reasonable Muslims themselves is the best way forward. When they are defeated ideologically at home, we will be able to defeat them overseas as well.
 

 

Guardian's Blogging the Quran: One of the most effective ways of bringing the debate within Islam to the public.

 

 

Our Media can help by allowing the reformists to have their say against such hate preachers and by hosting and publishing such debates for all to make up their own minds about Islam and Islamism.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, One of the leading reform movements in Islam is based in the UK. The current head of the movement, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih, Mirza Masroor Ahmad has called for greater scrutiny of the content of what is being said by the clerics. Also, he has advised that law enforcement agencies should be armed and ready for any attacks on the targets at home. In his speech at a major peace symposium last year, his Holiness also pointed out to the fact that ISIS has a continuous and robust supply line of arms and other resources.

 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V

 

 

Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V will be speaking again at a similar event on 14th of March this year.

ISIL/ISIS: How to defeat them. (BBC Three Counties Radio Contributions).

BBC Three Counties Radio 25th of Sep, 2014

BBC Three Counties Radio 18th of Sep 2014



BBC Three Counties Radio Aug 2014

On The Real War Front Against Islamist Extremism

What do you imagine the front line against Islamist extremism looks like?

Will this war fix anything? Image courtesy Stars and Stripes.

Does it comprise of  NATO led troops, security agencies and hired guns fighting against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan?

Or is it the Iraqi and Kurdish military forces retreating against the
rising tide of the Salafist terrorists in the Middle-East?

Is it the unmanned drones raining fire upon the militant hideouts in tribal Pakistan or in far-flung areas of the Yemen? Or is it yet another battlefield getting ready in Sub-Saharan Africa?

What if I told you that none of the above have anything to do with fighting extremism. These wars have everything to do with the world economy and its dependence on oil and arms trade.

But the righteous soldiers who fight the real war are not armed with any weapons. Most of them haven't committed a single violent act in their lives. And another thing, bad guys don't die in this war. Good guys do.

Three of its latest casualties were a 60 years old lady, a 7 years old girl and an 8 months old baby. They all died fighting the good fight against a blood thirsty mob in a city called Gujranwala, in Pakistan. The mob, charged in religious frenzy, angered by the false accusation of blasphemy torched the houses of Ahmadi Muslims and in the process, killed three of them.

The War has been on for over a hundred years. Since then, the world has seen cycles of pointless destruction the latest of which is being conducted in the guise of 'war on terror'. This senseless violence is bringing us closer to a nuclear apocalypse.

The only way to save the world is to join the real struggle. The quest for Absolute Justice. The real Jihad to reform ourselves to change the world around us, one person at a time. I know it is cliched and perhaps too boring for those who wish to see the good triumph against evil in a fairytale fashion.

But for those who join the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community find themselves pitched against all forms of adversity on a daily basis.


From Abdul Lateef, who stood buried waist deep in a Kabul square in 1902, telling his executors that he will never renounce his belief in the Living God; to 7 year old Hira Tabassum, who recited the Kalima while she choked to death in the toxic smoke of her burning home in Gujranwala, hundreds have laid down their lives for this cause.

The Gujranwala mob: Dancing and celebrating after murdering two little girls and their grandmother. Courtesy: Dawn.com

Ahmadiyya Muslims believe in true Islamic teachings of freedom of concience, thought and speech. They understand Quran and the Islamic tradition through the prophetic guidance of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the Divinely Guided Imam Mahdi who will reform the world.



Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.



Through his claims and extensive writings, Hazrat Ahmad declared Jihad on the false beliefs and doctrines which had caused mankind to forget God and to follow their own vain desires.



He also announced that the false notion of violent Jihad has no place in Islam. Surely enough, religious leaders from various faith groups started opposing him. Soon, this opposition turned into hatred and widespread persecution followed.

The first and foremost indicator of militant, extremist Islamist activity is 'Takfir', the declaration of a person, group or community to be lesser humans, worthy of persecution and even death.



Ahmadis were perhaps the first victims of a global Takfiri movement facilitated and funded by those who think that they have monopoly over Islam.

After 125 years of valiant and constant struggle, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is now established in almost all countries of the world. It is the fastest spreading Islamic sect in the world and is gaining adherents from all nations of the world, including the Arabic speaking communities.

It may not be so apparent, but the war against bigotry and injustice is being won, one person at a time. Those who are too eager to partake in the violent wars are destined to be forgotten by history.

Each year an English country town, Alton, Hampshire receives over 30,000 delegates who attend the three day Jalsa Salana.. It is the annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which becomes the spiritual focal point for the millions around the world.

Over 30,000 delegates, men, women and children attend the 3 day event every year.

When some misguided Muslim youths raise black banners in London while demonstrating for Gaza, news media is quick to point out the creeping Islamist agenda among the mainstream British Muslims. The black banner of Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam has been flying over  the UK Jalsa Salana for almost half a century. This banner represents the peaceful, spiritual and unifying message of Islam.

Liwa-e-Ahmadiyyat, the black flag of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community flies over the Jalsa Salana.

The Khalifatul Masih, fifth successor of the Promised Messiah takes the pledge of allegiance from the thousands who join the community. Existing members also renew their ba'iyah (pledge). The pledge binds each of them to promise their lives for the cause of God and the Jihad for the soul of Islam until the final victory.

Ahmadi Muslim delegates at Jalsa Salana waiting for the Khalifatul Masih to pledge their allegiance

If you want to see the real front line of the real 'War' against terrorism, extremism and injustice.. Come visit Jalsa Salana UK.



Our weapon of choice: Books.



Follow the event on twitter @JalsaUK

On TV on www.mta.tv or sky channel 787

I was on BBC 3 Counties Radio's JVS show on Friday, discussing ISIS, Timothy Furnish and the causes of extremism https://t.co/wydqhyOrag

— Lutf (@Lutfislam) August 25, 2014

Caliphate of the Damned

As Muslims around the world start the month of Ramadan, ISIS, a group of Salafist militants have announced the re-establishment of Khilafah, the Islamic form of government as idealized by the orthodox Muslims.

One Abu Bakr Baghdadi has been chosen as the Khalifa (Caliph) who is in the process of accepting the Bay'ah, the pledge of allegiance from his followers. He is now the head of state and the undisputed religious leader of this new country being carved out of Iraq and Syria.

Baghdadi uses the same name as the first Khalifa of Muslims, Abu Bakr, who was elected as the leader of the faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). He was followed by three more caliphs, Umar, Uthman and Ali. After Ali's assasination, Muslims could never agree on a single leader. Khalifa became a title used by various dynasties who ruled the Islamic world until the fall of the Ottomans in the last century.

It is no surprise that a Khalifa has emerged from amongst the militants. If anything, it has taken them two decades longer than it should have. Usama bin Laden was rumoured to be accepting the bay'ah from Al-Qaeda recruits in the build-up to his call to arms against the West. He was never proclaimed as the Khalifa. There must have been some theological expediencies as Al-Qaeda was trying to appeal to a broad spectrum of Sunni sects. ISIS have discarded all such shackles.

Political Islamism has always been fantasizing about Khilafah for a long time. Even Gandhi had joined the Indian Khilafat Movement in early 1920s. Qutb and Maudoodi, the two major 20th century ideologues for political Islamists saw Khilafah as the only viable solution for returning the Ummah to its glory days.

Hizb-e-Tehrir, the torchbearers for the return of Khilafah have also issued a statement defending their beliefs and mildly disagreeing with the violent group's methods of achieving what they have been dreaming for decades.

Regardless of the means of attaining it, or how they define the objectives of this institution, this caliphate will fail. As will any other which harbours the ambition of political leadership of the Muslim world.

The Holy Quran contains a verse called the Ayah of Istikhlaf. (the Verse of Khilafah) which describes the institution of Khilafah in these words

Allah had promised to those among you who believe and do good works that He will surely make them Successors (Khalifah) in the earth, as He made Successors from among those who were before them; and that He will surely establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them; and that He will surely give them in exchange security and peace after their fear: They will worship Me, and they will not associate anything with Me. Then who so is ungrateful after that, they will be the rebellious. (Surah Al-Nur, Verse 56)

According to this verse

a. Khilafah is a promise made by God for the Muslims.

b. It will be established amongst those who do good works.

c. It will be established for spiritual guidance

d. Khilafah will bring peace and remove fear.

e. Those who forsake this Khilafah will be the rebellious ones.

There are many more finer points which can be inferred, but I will keep my discourse to the most obvious ones stated in the verse. Islamic Khilafah is not a political institution. The first four Caliphs were also the political leaders for the nascent Muslim community as they had inherited it from the Prophet (Peace be upon him).

Those who are flocking to pledge their lives to Al-Baghdadi should reflect on this verse and seriously ask themselves these questions:

Is Al-Baghdadi claiming to be a Khalifah made by God Himself?

Are they doing the 'good works' as defined by the Holy Quran. i.e., charity, saving lives, serving mankind and above all, keeping away from all forms of rebellion?

Is their Khalifa guiding them on how to achieve spiritual excellence through prayer and contemplation on the deeper meanings of the Quran?

Is this Khilafah removing fear and establishing peace?

Obviously, the answer to all these questions is NO. This so-called Khalifah is nothing but a murderer who is gathering around him a bunch of killers to spread fear and terror in the name of Islam. Quran informs us of the fate of such rebels in these words

So when they deviated from the right course, Allah caused their hearts to deviate, for Allah guides not the rebellious people.