If Nationalism was only about love, waving one's flag and signing a bunch of patriotic songs (without music of course) all day then I would have been okay with it. But truth about nationalism is that it is a vigorous craze for one's country marked with extreme feeling of superiority, racism and prejudice against other countries. Nationalism is used to advocate and justify persecution of the linguistic, ethnic and religious "other" groups. Nationalism is the modern name for bigotry, violence, terrorism and genocide. Some of the bloodiest battles and governments in human history were propelled by the fiendish monster of nationalism. The French Revolution in 1792 killed 40,000 French; the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 murdered an additional 380,000 French. The unification of Germany and Italy in the late 1800s was not any less brutal. Finally WW1 was a homicidal mayhem. It slaughtered 20 million people.
The British imperial government, set out to colonize the world with the most heinous jingoism is another example of ugly nationalism. To this day, history text books teach children that the British went to trade with Africa and India when in reality, the British only used force, suppression and intimidation to steal natural resources and labour from nonwhites. The British were an enterprise of evil! They saw black and brown men as machinery and women as statuary. The British insisted that it was the white man's burden to subdue the barbarism and savagery of the East when in fact they massacred in the name of welfare, commerce, education and Christianity, nearly a billion coloured people over three centuries, in their cruel and rotten greed for slavery, gold, ivory, spices and textiles. There was even more carnage in 1947, Indian independence from Britain and 1985, the African apartheid.
Nationalism is a poison; it metamorphoses one into a dark monster without moral conscious. Allah adorned our world with a mosaic of cultures, talents and languages. There is so much to appreciate and enjoy about different people - there shouldn't be any reason to hate. Look around your house. You may have a Jamaican beach or Kenyan safari as your desktop wallpaper. You may be sitting on a Swedish desk and chair over Iranian carpet. Your jeans may be Chinese and the apps on your nokia, Pakistani. You may have had Russian Shchi (cabbage soup) and dumplings for dinner. You may have a Somali best friend and getting married to an Indian. You may drive a a German or Japanese car and work in an American company. Tell me this is not cool? Its a tremendous blessing of Allah that our lives are sustained and successful because of the international contributions of some really great people. This leaves us with no excuse for racist jokes or ethnical intolerance [47:13]. We should never speak to any person in an offensive or insulting manner [47:11]. In the eyes of Allah, every human being is the same, regardless of their gender, colour, language or nationality. The Prophet (s.a.w) said that a white person does not have any merit over a nonwhite. An Arab is not better than a nonArab. True respect and honour is only in remembering Allah and obeying Him.
Why did I bring this up? Because you see last month a few of my friends and relatives were celebrating UAE's 40th - anniversary? of sorts. Its been 40 years (apparently) since the independence of UAE. I understand their love for their place of birth. Everyone has an attachment to their childhood home and their elementary school. Even I cannot forget the Al Zikri streets where I used to play cricket or the Camp 7 parks where I used to swing. Its just memories now but it means a lot to me. At the same time, it cuts my heart to know that UAE is independent. It maimed and desecrated the Muslim Unity that once was. Not just UAE, but Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudia and Egypt are all guilty of dismembering the Ummah. Think about it, where was UAE 40 years ago? Or what were Lebanon and Saudia like before they became sovereign states? Not long ago, we (35,350,000 Muslims) used to be part of a single empire. We were the largest, most powerful and longest lasting empire in human history. For six centuries we lived as a single nation under Islam with Islamic institutions in one ginormous country that encompassed all of Middle East, Africa, and many parts of Asia and Europe (including Eastern India, Russia and China; Eastern Rome, France and Romania; Northeastern Bulgaria, Northwestern Greece, Northern Italy; Serbia and Herzegovina) until the poison of nationalism spread amongst us.
Nationalism caused the Arabs to revolt against the Turks in battle for land and power. Eventually Abdullah Ibn Husayn al Hashimi and Ibn Saud met British delegates in Cairo. Lord Kitchener (secretary of War, London) agreed to make Ibn Husayn the new leader of Hejaz on condition that he and Ibn Saud help the British clobber and dissolve the Ottomon Empire. Under Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence, the Arabs killed at least 700,000 Turkish soldiers (the civilian casualties were too many to be numerated). In the end (Treaty of Sevres, 1920), the Arabs were betrayed by the British; the Ottomon Empire was wiped out, Islam was persecuted and the Muslims enslaved. You know the rest right? Syria and Lebanon became French colonies. Islam was banned in Turkey after an atheist leader was installed. Palestine and Iraq came under British rule. Palestine later became a Jewish Zionist state thanks to the Balfour Declaration. And the Saudi Kingdom became proxy to the Americans. Today, if you walk down any Muslim neighbourhood in the Middle East - the Arabs are either blood thirty, slashing each other's throats or obnoxiously Westernized.
Do I have problem with that? O you bet I do! We (Muslims) lost our Deen and our lives at the hands of nationalism. As a single nation united under the Ottomon Empire, the Muslims believed in لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله Because of this, we worshipped the same Deity and followed the example of the same Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w); shared equal status, character and sentiments. Nationalism disjointed the Muslims on the basis of race and ancestral lineage. As a consequence, we changed from revering the Qur'an and Sunnah to putting Sufi and Shi'a ideologies, Arab and Persian traditions to the pedestal. This escalated to violence so much so that every day Arabs and Pakistanis greet each other with bombs and drones. We have stained our homes with blood, bullet holes and rocket ruptures. Explosions and pop of small-arm fires echo in every direction. There is not a single infrastructure that is not vandalized and ruined by our own people in our countries. There is no electricity, water, medical supplies or school. Our orphaned kids, born with many abnormalities and disorders from uranium shelling and phosphorus grenades, scavenge for food in the piles of garbage and decomposing bodies. Tell me, how can I not have a problem with this? These kids will never learn who Allah is. There is no one to teach them how to pray 5 time a day. They have probably never seen or heard of the Qur'an. They would probably never believe me if I told them that they are the descendants of great Imaams, Sultans, Khulafah and Prophets (peace be upon them all). How can I not cry over this? At least if Muslims were dying with Imaan in defense of the Islam, they would be shaheed but we are killing other Muslims for land and power. In this world we are losers for killing our own people and in the Hereafter when Allah throws us to Hellfire, we'll be losers indefinitely. This is nationalism for you! May Allah save us from hellfire and give us the understanding of the Deen aameen.
I will end with the example of Afghanistan as my final case against nationalism. I swear if nationalism was a person, I would break its face.
We all know what happened in Afghanistan after 9/11. If you don't or want scholarly evidence, I encourage you to read Andy Worthington's book, "The Guantanamo Files." Not a single Muslim produced any notable work in defense of 774 Muslim detainees except for this man. Why? Again nationalism. We are so full of our own national pride that we don't give two cents for Muslim brothers and sisters of other nationalities. The Prophet (s.a.w) said, that the Muslim nation is like a single body, if one part of the body is hurting, the entire body suffers. The brain never says, its the teeth which aches, why should I care? So there is no wisdom in ignoring the misery of destitute Muslims because we are, at the moment, well-off and far away from their problems. Wallah this callous disregard is disgusting! I am ashamed of myself.
On January 11, 2002, exactly 4 months after 9/11, 774 Afghanis arrived in Guantanamo Bay. For nine years and counting, the Americans having been beating them with metal rods, dragging them by their shackles until their ankles bleed, putting their heads in the toilets and flushing their faces. Chaining their wrists to the ceilings under their arms lose blood circulations and shoulders dislocate. The Americans are interrogating the Afghanis by turning off the lights to their cell, spraying their eyes with mace, plucking their nails, shattering their knees, breaking their legs, stomping on their backs and dislocating their vertebrae. The Afghanis are kept in freezing cells (minus temperatures) without clothes, carpet or food for weeks at a stretch. When anyone of them requests to go to the washroom, the Americans just laugh and joke or send in their dogs. If they urinate on themselves, the American pour a chemical fluids over them and use their body as human mops to clean the mess. The Afghanis are sleep deprived in Guantanamo. They are awakened every hour for 45 days at a time. They are moved from cell to cell, kept under multiple flashing strobe lights with extremely loud and profane music with. I do not have the words to describe the abhorent and horrendous sexual trauma and religious humiliation they receive in Guantanamo. It is too graphic and grotesque for me to even comprehend.
The most heartbreaking and hair splitting part of this wretched reality is that hese 774 innocent Afghanis in Guanatanamo were actually captured by enemy tribal alliances within Afghanistan and sold to the Americans. Each Afghani was bartered to the Americans for $500. This is the state of our Ummah. The value of Deen and the life of our brothers is $500! See: "Guantanamo Files" by Andy Worthington: the Tajisk and Hazaras gave up Mazar to the Americans along with 450 Afghanis detainees. Some idiot, Ismael Khan guy helped the Americans storm into Herat and Bamiyan (central heartland of Afghanistan). Another imbecile, Bismullah Khan opened Kabul for the Americans. Kunduz was the last city betrayed by Dostum. He shot (execution style) 150 Afghanis and burned 334 alive. Those he spared, ended up in Guantanamo. So you see, Guantanamo is the child of irrationally animus, bitter and vindictive nationalism. Guantanamo would have never opened if the Afghanis did not betray each other over petty linguistic and ethnic differences.
I think the time has come that we drop nationalism for the contemptible curse that it is. Allah says, "The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy" [47:10] If two Muslim brothers or nations in conflict should, "return to [following] the command of Allāh. And if [they] return, then [then they should] reconcile in justice and act justly. Indeed, Allāh loves those who act justly" [47:9] So you see, Allah's love is in our collective reconciliation, unity with all Muslims and obedience to Him . Allah's mercy is only possible if we treat all Muslims like brothers.
The British imperial government, set out to colonize the world with the most heinous jingoism is another example of ugly nationalism. To this day, history text books teach children that the British went to trade with Africa and India when in reality, the British only used force, suppression and intimidation to steal natural resources and labour from nonwhites. The British were an enterprise of evil! They saw black and brown men as machinery and women as statuary. The British insisted that it was the white man's burden to subdue the barbarism and savagery of the East when in fact they massacred in the name of welfare, commerce, education and Christianity, nearly a billion coloured people over three centuries, in their cruel and rotten greed for slavery, gold, ivory, spices and textiles. There was even more carnage in 1947, Indian independence from Britain and 1985, the African apartheid.
Nationalism is a poison; it metamorphoses one into a dark monster without moral conscious. Allah adorned our world with a mosaic of cultures, talents and languages. There is so much to appreciate and enjoy about different people - there shouldn't be any reason to hate. Look around your house. You may have a Jamaican beach or Kenyan safari as your desktop wallpaper. You may be sitting on a Swedish desk and chair over Iranian carpet. Your jeans may be Chinese and the apps on your nokia, Pakistani. You may have had Russian Shchi (cabbage soup) and dumplings for dinner. You may have a Somali best friend and getting married to an Indian. You may drive a a German or Japanese car and work in an American company. Tell me this is not cool? Its a tremendous blessing of Allah that our lives are sustained and successful because of the international contributions of some really great people. This leaves us with no excuse for racist jokes or ethnical intolerance [47:13]. We should never speak to any person in an offensive or insulting manner [47:11]. In the eyes of Allah, every human being is the same, regardless of their gender, colour, language or nationality. The Prophet (s.a.w) said that a white person does not have any merit over a nonwhite. An Arab is not better than a nonArab. True respect and honour is only in remembering Allah and obeying Him.
Why did I bring this up? Because you see last month a few of my friends and relatives were celebrating UAE's 40th - anniversary? of sorts. Its been 40 years (apparently) since the independence of UAE. I understand their love for their place of birth. Everyone has an attachment to their childhood home and their elementary school. Even I cannot forget the Al Zikri streets where I used to play cricket or the Camp 7 parks where I used to swing. Its just memories now but it means a lot to me. At the same time, it cuts my heart to know that UAE is independent. It maimed and desecrated the Muslim Unity that once was. Not just UAE, but Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudia and Egypt are all guilty of dismembering the Ummah. Think about it, where was UAE 40 years ago? Or what were Lebanon and Saudia like before they became sovereign states? Not long ago, we (35,350,000 Muslims) used to be part of a single empire. We were the largest, most powerful and longest lasting empire in human history. For six centuries we lived as a single nation under Islam with Islamic institutions in one ginormous country that encompassed all of Middle East, Africa, and many parts of Asia and Europe (including Eastern India, Russia and China; Eastern Rome, France and Romania; Northeastern Bulgaria, Northwestern Greece, Northern Italy; Serbia and Herzegovina) until the poison of nationalism spread amongst us.
Nationalism caused the Arabs to revolt against the Turks in battle for land and power. Eventually Abdullah Ibn Husayn al Hashimi and Ibn Saud met British delegates in Cairo. Lord Kitchener (secretary of War, London) agreed to make Ibn Husayn the new leader of Hejaz on condition that he and Ibn Saud help the British clobber and dissolve the Ottomon Empire. Under Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence, the Arabs killed at least 700,000 Turkish soldiers (the civilian casualties were too many to be numerated). In the end (Treaty of Sevres, 1920), the Arabs were betrayed by the British; the Ottomon Empire was wiped out, Islam was persecuted and the Muslims enslaved. You know the rest right? Syria and Lebanon became French colonies. Islam was banned in Turkey after an atheist leader was installed. Palestine and Iraq came under British rule. Palestine later became a Jewish Zionist state thanks to the Balfour Declaration. And the Saudi Kingdom became proxy to the Americans. Today, if you walk down any Muslim neighbourhood in the Middle East - the Arabs are either blood thirty, slashing each other's throats or obnoxiously Westernized.
Do I have problem with that? O you bet I do! We (Muslims) lost our Deen and our lives at the hands of nationalism. As a single nation united under the Ottomon Empire, the Muslims believed in لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله Because of this, we worshipped the same Deity and followed the example of the same Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w); shared equal status, character and sentiments. Nationalism disjointed the Muslims on the basis of race and ancestral lineage. As a consequence, we changed from revering the Qur'an and Sunnah to putting Sufi and Shi'a ideologies, Arab and Persian traditions to the pedestal. This escalated to violence so much so that every day Arabs and Pakistanis greet each other with bombs and drones. We have stained our homes with blood, bullet holes and rocket ruptures. Explosions and pop of small-arm fires echo in every direction. There is not a single infrastructure that is not vandalized and ruined by our own people in our countries. There is no electricity, water, medical supplies or school. Our orphaned kids, born with many abnormalities and disorders from uranium shelling and phosphorus grenades, scavenge for food in the piles of garbage and decomposing bodies. Tell me, how can I not have a problem with this? These kids will never learn who Allah is. There is no one to teach them how to pray 5 time a day. They have probably never seen or heard of the Qur'an. They would probably never believe me if I told them that they are the descendants of great Imaams, Sultans, Khulafah and Prophets (peace be upon them all). How can I not cry over this? At least if Muslims were dying with Imaan in defense of the Islam, they would be shaheed but we are killing other Muslims for land and power. In this world we are losers for killing our own people and in the Hereafter when Allah throws us to Hellfire, we'll be losers indefinitely. This is nationalism for you! May Allah save us from hellfire and give us the understanding of the Deen aameen.
We all know what happened in Afghanistan after 9/11. If you don't or want scholarly evidence, I encourage you to read Andy Worthington's book, "The Guantanamo Files." Not a single Muslim produced any notable work in defense of 774 Muslim detainees except for this man. Why? Again nationalism. We are so full of our own national pride that we don't give two cents for Muslim brothers and sisters of other nationalities. The Prophet (s.a.w) said, that the Muslim nation is like a single body, if one part of the body is hurting, the entire body suffers. The brain never says, its the teeth which aches, why should I care? So there is no wisdom in ignoring the misery of destitute Muslims because we are, at the moment, well-off and far away from their problems. Wallah this callous disregard is disgusting! I am ashamed of myself.
On January 11, 2002, exactly 4 months after 9/11, 774 Afghanis arrived in Guantanamo Bay. For nine years and counting, the Americans having been beating them with metal rods, dragging them by their shackles until their ankles bleed, putting their heads in the toilets and flushing their faces. Chaining their wrists to the ceilings under their arms lose blood circulations and shoulders dislocate. The Americans are interrogating the Afghanis by turning off the lights to their cell, spraying their eyes with mace, plucking their nails, shattering their knees, breaking their legs, stomping on their backs and dislocating their vertebrae. The Afghanis are kept in freezing cells (minus temperatures) without clothes, carpet or food for weeks at a stretch. When anyone of them requests to go to the washroom, the Americans just laugh and joke or send in their dogs. If they urinate on themselves, the American pour a chemical fluids over them and use their body as human mops to clean the mess. The Afghanis are sleep deprived in Guantanamo. They are awakened every hour for 45 days at a time. They are moved from cell to cell, kept under multiple flashing strobe lights with extremely loud and profane music with. I do not have the words to describe the abhorent and horrendous sexual trauma and religious humiliation they receive in Guantanamo. It is too graphic and grotesque for me to even comprehend.
The most heartbreaking and hair splitting part of this wretched reality is that hese 774 innocent Afghanis in Guanatanamo were actually captured by enemy tribal alliances within Afghanistan and sold to the Americans. Each Afghani was bartered to the Americans for $500. This is the state of our Ummah. The value of Deen and the life of our brothers is $500! See: "Guantanamo Files" by Andy Worthington: the Tajisk and Hazaras gave up Mazar to the Americans along with 450 Afghanis detainees. Some idiot, Ismael Khan guy helped the Americans storm into Herat and Bamiyan (central heartland of Afghanistan). Another imbecile, Bismullah Khan opened Kabul for the Americans. Kunduz was the last city betrayed by Dostum. He shot (execution style) 150 Afghanis and burned 334 alive. Those he spared, ended up in Guantanamo. So you see, Guantanamo is the child of irrationally animus, bitter and vindictive nationalism. Guantanamo would have never opened if the Afghanis did not betray each other over petty linguistic and ethnic differences.
I think the time has come that we drop nationalism for the contemptible curse that it is. Allah says, "The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy" [47:10] If two Muslim brothers or nations in conflict should, "return to [following] the command of Allāh. And if [they] return, then [then they should] reconcile in justice and act justly. Indeed, Allāh loves those who act justly" [47:9] So you see, Allah's love is in our collective reconciliation, unity with all Muslims and obedience to Him . Allah's mercy is only possible if we treat all Muslims like brothers.
O Muslims,
I have no country, for me, the skies and the earth belong to Allah.
Allah Created, Sustains and Owns everything that Exists.
I have no leader, president or guide except,
the best man to walk this earth, the chosen and sincere Prophet of Allah - Muhammad (s.a.w).
My constitution is the Qur'an and Sunnah.
I am the citizen of Islam. My identity is Muslim.
Come join me.
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