About

ladefense

This site started out in May 2004 with the aim of combating the endless propaganda circulating the internet on the Islamic Civilization and political Islam in particular.

Islamic political thought is manifested primarily in the concept of an Islamic State or Caliphate (khilafah) as it’s known in the sharia.

The Caliphate has become an easy target for those who wish to plant misconceptions and blatant distortions in people’s minds about its institutions and rule. Since the emergence of ISIS which named itself a ‘Caliphate’ the West started to openly equate the traditional core Islamic concepts of the Islamic ruling system with terrorism.

Despite this propaganda campaign, the Muslim ummah still yearns for some form of Islamic polity in the Muslim world to end the decades of tyranny and colonial interference. John Casey summed up this mainstream view, “For the Caliphate had existed as long as Islam itself. That Muslims throughout the world form a single community – an Umma – is not the conviction of a few cranks. It is inherent in all Muslim traditions. Even if the divisions within the Arab world make a Caliphate seem impossible to achieve, very many Muslims – perhaps the majority throughout the world – respond to it instinctively as an ideal. A leader who with God’s blessing dispenses law and justice throughout the countries of Islam appeals as profoundly to the Muslim imagination as the kingdom of Christ upon earth or St Augustine’s City of God did to Christians in Europe for at least 1,500 years.”

Muslims believe in Allah the Creator of everything, and His messenger Muhammad ﷺ who brought the final message for all peoples. This Islamic message clarified the correct and best way to run the affairs of a society and through what type of governing structure. It established the foundations and principles of a unique model of governance which is the Islamic Caliphate system.

The Islamic ruling system will inevitably share characteristics with other forms of government, due to the skeleton structure and top-level institutions of a ruler, judiciary, military, police, executive departments and so forth being the same for all ruling systems. What makes the Islamic State unique however, is the underlying ideology and foundations upon which the state is built. Ann Lambton says, “The basis of the Islamic state was ideological, not political, territorial or ethnical and the primary purpose of government was to defend and protect the faith, not the state.”[1]

The material on this site has been taken from many sources and elaborated to give a simple, graphical view of the Islamic Civilization and Islamic political thought.

Unless stated otherwise, everything on this site is written and produced by the editor A. K. Newell, who is conducting research in to “Governing Structures in Islamic Political Thought”.

Islamic Civilization is an independent site which is not part of any organisation or party and has no link whatsoever to any proscribed groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Al-Muhajirun or Hizb ut-Tahir. Having said this, there are a number of organisations, YouTube channels and Islamic institutes that contain some invaluable material on the Islamic Civilisation in the 21st century, and which are in-line with the overall theme and objective of this site. These are:

5 Pillars
Blogging Theology
Dar al ‘Ilm – The House of Knowledge
Islam21c
Learn Quranic Arabic
Roots of Knowledge
Sapience Institute
The Thinking Muslim
Ummatics
Yasir Qadhi