Waa Islaamaah!

That is what I say: Waa Islaamaah!

It is a distress cry – about the condition of Islam today. Poor, poor Islam! That is what it means: Waa Islaamaah!

And I will tell you why I am crying Waa Islaamaah!

It is a cry of deep distress and anguish, of the soul and mind, at the sad condition in which the most glorious system sent down by God to save humanity finds itself at the hands of its followers, and others, today – so many of whom deign, and dare, to speak in its behalf, no matter how little they may know or understand it.

Or how little they may understand the world in which Islam operates. And no matter how inadequately prepared and equipped they may be to do so.

Not so long ago, I was shown a Fatwa declaring elections to be Haram. It was in UK, I think. I call it a rejectionist, isolationist Fatwa.

But at bottom it may also be an un-Islamic one. For, elections and the fundamental right of choice they represent, is the way of life in Islam – the system God Almighty designed to run his world and which he then sent down at the hands of his messengers and prophets to guide, direct and organize human life on earth.

By seeking to keep Muslims from voting and from elections, this Fatwa rejects participation of Muslims in the political process in the West. And it seeks to isolate them from life around them – reducing Muslims and their communities to small, ineffective, marginalized, disfranchised ghettoes.

Anyone can see that it is a rejectionist, isolationist Fatwa. If some of you are shocked by this Fatwa, so was I. The logic behind the Fatwa was, I take it, if there was any logic to it at all, that elections were a Kafir concoction, opposed to the pure divine way of doing things in Islam – whatever that meant.

I am trying to reconstruct the argument here as best as I can. And then see if it holds any water. […]