Guest Post from Usama Hazari.
On 16th September 2022, in the city of Tehran, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, unfortunately passed away in police custody under suspicious circumstances. She was arrested on 13th September by the Iranian morality police (aka Guidance Patrol) for a dress code violation, where she had received a fatal injury in the process, as per eyewitnesses. Consequently, a series of protests erupted and spread across Iran.
However, the protests were surprisingly not directed against police brutality or medical negligence. Rather the liberal segment of Iranian society seized the tragedy as an opportunity to publicly exhibit their disdain for Islam and commit blasphemy en masse.
For one thing, police brutality is not uncommon across the world. In the United States of America, during the course of the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued after the death of George Floyd, we rarely observed demonstrators publicly desecrating the symbols of Christianity. Nonetheless, when it comes to incidents of oppression and tyranny in the Muslim world, Islam often becomes the primary target of censure and hostility from people.
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In a similar vein, during the famed Aurat March (an annual feminist rally held in Pakistan), videos emerged of some women chanting slogans “Allah bhi sunle! AZADI!; Rasool bhi sunle! AZADI” (Allah too hear us, freedom!; Prophet too hear us, freedom!). It is as if they are implying that it is Allah and His Prophet ﷺ that are the source of their oppression—from whom they are seeking freedom.
The rallies that were supposed to highlight the serious matter of “domestic violence” and other similar issues in Pakistan have been hijacked by the liberal Muslim stratum and has subsequently devolved into a series of vitriolic and blasphemous diatribes against Islam.
A friend of mine recently expressed his shocked upon seeing Iranian Muslims burn the hijab as a protest and remarked that even the non-Muslims wouldn’t commit such an act of insulting someone’s faith. I responded to him that no one is more Islamophobic than a liberal Muslim. He loves his Muslim community in a tribalistic fashion, while blaming Islam for its backwardness and misery. For the liberal Muslim, the reason for “our backwardness” lies in the fact that we have not yet “assimilated ourselves” into the modern world.
The liberal Muslim lacks knowledge of history. He is unaware of the centuries of colonialism that has drained the Muslim societies of all its resources. His understanding of Islam is also flawed. The liberal Muslim perceives Islam the same way a polytheist perceives his religion or culture, namely, it can change according to the trends and status quo of different times. The liberal Muslim forgets that Islam is universal and has been sent for all times and all people.
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Any misery and humiliation we suffer today is due to our own failure in following our duties as an Ummah. The liberal Muslim fails to understand that his colonised worldview is the biggest hurdle to the Ummah’s progress and attainment of the leadership of the world — as promised by Allah (swt) if we implement Islam in our individual and collective lives.
The primary prerequisite to experiencing a revival of Islam in our lives is that we give Dawah to the liberals in our midst. Perhaps it is easier to convert a non-Muslim to Islam than to convince an arrogant liberal to agree to Islam as a complete way of life.
Arrogance is indeed the greatest obstacle in the way of guidance. The liberal Muslim’s arrogance stems from their self-righteousness and saviour complex, which consequently deter him from following the way of God.
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Jaalhaque 