The Quran and Sunnah have been the leaders of Muslims for centuries, politically and morally. The model of how the Prophet Muhammad and his companions led their lives and formed the first Muslim community serves as a blueprint for an Islamic-led and socially just state and society.
The founder of a state was more than just a prophet, the Prophet Muhammad, God’s blessings and peace be upon him. At the time of the Prophet Muhammad and his successors, all Muslims belonged to one community, the unity of which was based on the connection between religion and the state, in which faith and politics were inseparable. Islam spread from what is now Saudi Arabia to North Africa through the Middle East and to Asia and Europe. Historically, Islam has been the religious ideology for the founding of numerous Muslim states, including the great Islamic empires: Umayyad (661–750), Abbasid (750–1258), Ottoman (1281–1924), Safavid (1501–1722) and Mughal (1526-1857). In each of these empires and other sultanates, Islam formed the basis for legal, political, educational,
In the eleventh century, the Islamic world was under attack by the Turks and Mongols. They had not been conquered by Islam; they entered the Islamic world much more than conquerors and converted to Islam over the coming centuries.
In the past two centuries, the Islamic world has undergone a different kind of transformation through the West. The Europeans who came to colonize the Muslim world militarily in the 19th and 20th centuries did not convert like the Turks and the Mongols. For the first time, Muslims were subjugated by the great European powers of Russia, Holland, Britain and France.
The 20th century was characterized by two dominant movements: European colonialism and the Muslims‘ striving for independence. The legacy of colonialism remains alive today. Colonialism changed the geographical map of the Muslim world.
He drew borders and set rulers over the Muslim countries. After the Second World War the French were in West and North Africa, Lebanon and Syria; the British in Palestine, Iraq, the Arabian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Malaisia and Brunei; and the Dutch in Indonesia. It replaced the educational, legal and economic institutions and challenged the Muslim faith. Colonial officers and Christian missionaries became mercenaries of European expansion and imperialism. Christianity was viewed by the colonialists as inherently superior to Islam and its culture. This behavior can be seen in the statement by Lord Cromer, British Councilor in Cairo from 1883-1907: “… Islam as a social system was a complete failure. Islam keeps women in an inferior position … it allows slavery … it tends to be intolerant of other religions … „
European colonialism replaced Muslim self-rule under Islamic law, which had existed since the time of the Prophet, with its European masters. The colonialists were modern crusaders – Christian fighters who set out to uproot Islam. The French spoke of their struggle of the cross against the crescent moon. The only difference was that this time the Europeans did not come with cavalry and swords, but with an army of Christian missionaries and missionary institutions such as schools, hospitals and churches, many of which have remained in Muslim countries to this day. The French confiscated the Jami ‚Masjid of Algiers and turned it into the Saint-Philippe cathedral with the French flag and the cross on the minaret,
The centuries-long struggle between the Muslim world and Western colonial rule was followed by authoritarian regimes that had been set up by the European powers. The lack of a stable state led many to question whether there is anything about Islam that contradicts civil society and law. The answer to this question lies in history and politics rather than religion. Modern Muslim states are only a few decades old and were chiseled by European powers to serve Western interests.
In South Asia, the British divided the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, giving each of them shares in the mostly Muslim state of Kashmir. The conflicts resulting from this action have resulted in the deaths of millions in municipal warfare between Hindus and Muslims, the civil war between East and West Pakistan led to the formation of Bangladesh, and conflicts in Kashmir over Indian rule have continued to this day on. In the Middle East, the French created modern Lebanon from parts of Syria, and the British established the borders of Iraq and Kuwait and created a new entity called Jordan. They also created a new country called Israel. They also created a new country called Israel, ousted non-Jewish locals and took land, that had once belonged to Christians and Muslims and handed it over to a foreign Jewish authority. Such arbitrary boundaries fueled ethnic, regional and religious conflicts, including the Lebanese civil war between Christians and Muslims, the occupation of Lebanon by Syria, the Gulf War that resulted from Saddam Hussain’s claim to Kuwaiti territory, and the Israel-Palestine conflict, which no further explanation is required.
Political and economic models were borrowed from the West to replace Islamic political and economic systems after independence from colonial rulers was achieved in the mid-twentieth century, creating overpopulated cities with lack of social support, high unemployment, corrupt governments and a widening gap between rich and poor. Instead of leading to a better quality of life, westernization has led to the breakdown of the traditional family, religious and social values. Many Muslims blame Western models of political and economic development as sources of moral decay and mental malaise.
Unelected governments, led by kings, military or former military officers, lead the majority of countries in the Muslim world. The strength of the state is dependent on security forces, the police and the military, and freedom of assembly, expression and the press are severely restricted. Many Muslim countries work with a culture of authoritarianism that contradicts civil society and a free press.
In addition to influencing those who came to power in the emerging modern Muslim nation-states, Europe and later America have forged close alliances with authoritarian regimes and their non-democratic avenues in exchange for or to secure western access to oil and other resources are tolerated or supported.
If people wonder why the Muslim world is disturbed by violence and unrest, the answer can certainly be found in the region’s colonial interference both in the past and in the present. Therefore, any future success depends on returning to a society that is governed by Islam through the principles of the people who live in it, one of their affairs.
Footnotes:
[1] Some of the early imperialist measures of the colonial powers did not carry economic but religious and political programs. For example, the French tried to replace Islamic culture with their own by, among other things, controlling the Islamic courts and suppressing many Muslim institutions. After transforming the Great Mosque of Algiers into the Cathedral of Saint-Philippe, the Archbishop of Algiers announced a missionary plan to protect Muslims from the “vices of their original religion, especially laziness, divorce, multiple marriages, theft, fanaticism and even cannibalism to protect“. Azim A. Nanji, ed., The Muslim Almanac (Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1996), p. 123; Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., A Concise History of the Middle East, 3rd ed. (Boulder, Colo .:
Source: https://www.islamland.com/deu/articles/die-rolle-der-kolonialisierung-auf-das-politische-system-in-der-muslimischen-welt-