All posts filed under: Countries

Role of Sufism in Islamicising Türkiye

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The transformation of Türkiye under Erdogan and the AKP away from extreme secular values has been dramatic and something I have personally witnessed. During the 90s Muslims were leaving Türkiye as it was too un-Islamic. People with beards and hijabs were singled out for harassment. Contrast this to nowadays where many from the west are moving to Istanbul which has a sizeable ex-pat community from western nations. In May 1999, Merve Kavakci, a newly elected woman MP for the pro-Islamic Virtue Party appeared in parliament wearing a headscarf. She faced a strong reaction from secular MPs and the Prime Minister at the time. She was booed, shouted at and prevented from taking her oath of office. Fast forward 20 years and she became the Turkish ambassador to Malaysia![157.5] This change in Türkiye didn’t happen overnight but was the result of decades of tarbiya. Soner Cagaptay describes one of the influencers of this change – the Sufi sheikh Mehmet Zahid Kotku. “The Islamists who followed Erbakan into politics—including Erdogan, who would later name his first-born son, …

Heroes of the Ummah pour out of Syria’s dungeons

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BY UTHMAN BADAR This has been reproduced from Dr Badar’s Facebook page. Many are the heroes who’ve recently been released from the dungeons of Assad in Syria. Allah knows them all; we are honoured to know about some. This week, the people of Hama honored one of them by gifting him a golden sword—a symbol of his unmatched bravery and enduring sacrifice. Know the name: Ragheed Ahmad al-Tatari The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, وَدِدْتُ أَنِّي لَقِيتُ إِخْوَانِي قَالَ فَقَالَ أَصْحَابُ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَوَلَيْسَ نَحْنُ إِخْوَانَكَ قَالَ أَنْتُمْ أَصْحَابِي وَلَكِنْ إِخْوَانِي الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِي وَلَمْ يَرَوْنِي “I wish I could meet my brothers.” The companions of the Prophet said, “Are we not your brothers?” The Prophet said, “You are my companions, but my brothers are those who have faith in me yet they never saw me.” [Musnad Aḥmad 12579] Born in Damascus in 1954, Ragheed served as a pilot in the Syrian Air Force. In 1980, at the age of 26, he faced a decision that would change his life forever. During …

Should we fear an Islamic Government in Syria?

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Zaid bin Thabit narrated that, we were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ collecting the Qur’an on pieces of cloth, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: طُوبَى لِلشَّأْمِ “Blessed is Ash-Sham!”[1] So we said: فَقُلْنَا لأَىٍّ ذَلِكَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ  “Why is that O Messenger of Allah?” He said: لأَنَّ مَلاَئِكَةَ الرَّحْمَنِ بَاسِطَةٌ أَجْنِحَتَهَا عَلَيْهَا “Because the angels of Ar-Rahman spread their wings over it.”[2] There is no doubt that the victory of the Syrian revolution took everyone by surprise, even the rebels themselves. As one shocked commentator wrote, “The war in Syria was supposed to be over.”[3] What started off as a limited campaign turned in to a lightening offensive which encompassed the entire country, and ended decades of torture, oppression and tyranny by the Assad regime. Despite all their overt and covert military and political support to Assad, the powers Russia, America, Israel and Iran couldn’t prevent the plan of Allah. وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ خَيْرُ ٱلْمَـٰكِرِينَ “They planned, but Allah also planned. And Allah is the best of planners.”[4] The …

Christians in 1970s Syria

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This is an excerpt from John McHugo’s ‘Syria: A Recent History’ where he describes his experiences with the Christian community of Syria in 1974. The fact that Christians made up 10% of the Syrian population prior to the civil war, is a testament to their protection and fair treatment under 1300 years of Islamic rule. The social norms John McHugo observed among the Christian communities in the 1970s show the remnants of this rule. John McHugo is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies at St Andrews University. A board member of the Council for Arab British Understanding and the British Egyptian Society, he is also chair of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine. He writes: I first went to Syria in November 1974 when I was twenty-three years old and studying Islamic history at postgraduate level at the American University in Cairo. I had planned a week walking in the mountains which run parallel to the coast. Armed with a sleeping bag and ground sheet, I got off the bus at the …

400 years of peace: Palestine under Ottoman rule

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This has been reproduced from the Daily Sabah. Ruling the Palestine region for more than 400 years, the Ottomans fought fiercely to keep the ancient lands during World War I but eventually lost them to the British Palestine, which has witnessed many conflicts throughout history, came under Ottoman rule in the 16th century. When Yavuz Sultan Selim defeated the Mamluk ruler Kansu Gavri in the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, Syria and Palestine joined the Ottoman lands. Yavuz Sultan Selim entered Jerusalem on Dec. 29, 1516. Under Ottoman rule, the Palestinian territory was organized into three states, Jerusalem, Gaza and Nablus, all linked to the Damascus Province. Palestine, in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, was first linked to the state of Sidon, later to Syria and then to Beirut, which was founded in the last period. The Ottomans ruled in Palestine for 401 years. Palestine was and still is a region of great importance for Muslims, Christians and Jews. In particular, the sacred places in Jerusalem could not be shared. Even the …

Liberation of Jerusalem: Salahudeen’s mercy towards the Crusaders

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Salahudin Ayubi liberated Jerusalem (Al-Quds) on Friday 27 Rajab 583 AH/12 October 1187 CE after Lord Balian of Ibelin, the crusader commander in charge of Jerusalem, surrendered the city. This marked an end to nearly 100 years of crusader occupation and the liberation of Masjid Al-Aqsa. When the crusaders first entered Jerusalem in 1099, they massacred the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, yet Salahudin on retaking the city never enacted revenge on them for this, nor the subsequent atrocities they had committed over the past century. He followed in the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who on entering Makkah did not enact revenge on Quraish who had persecuted him and the Muslims for over 20 years. This was the because the character of the Prophet ﷺ was the Qur’an.[1] Allah ta’ala says, يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُونُوا۟ قَوَّٰمِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَآءَ بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۖ وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَـَٔانُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰٓ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا۟ ۚ ٱعْدِلُوا۟ هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ ۖ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ خَبِيرٌۢ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ O believers! Stand firm for Allah and bear true testimony. Do not let …

Islamic Conquest of Damascus: Rule of law at the height of war

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ذِمَّةُ اَلْمُسْلِمِينَ وَاحِدَةٌ يَسْعَى ِبهَا أَدْنَاهُمْ “The protection granted by one Muslim is like one given by them all, and this right is extended to the humblest of them.”[1] The Qur’anic character of the companions (sahaba) and early Muslims lead to their extraordinary restraint in the height of war, something virtually unheard of in modern warfare. The ‘civilised’ west, with all their talk of the rule of law, human rights and the Geneva convention have perpetrated according to Dr Gideon Polya a “Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” where 30 million Muslims have been killed in avoidable deaths due to western, or western backed military intervention. There is no clearer example of this than the horrific ongoing genocide in Gaza, which America and its allies are actively financing, arming and providing cover for at the United Nations with their right of veto. As Samuel Huntington said, “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations converted) but rather by its superiority …

Gaza: Cruel Zionism, Past and Present with Professor Avi Shlaim

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This has been reproduced from The Thinking Muslim. Today, we are confronting nothing short of a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians of Gaza, not seen since the Nakba or Catastrophe of 1948. Yet many in the Western world are silent about the suffering. Much of what justifies Israel and its actions in the West is premised on history, and many European and American historians have been ready to present a compelling argument for Zionism and the case for Israel in the heart of the Middle East. This historical justification, based on persecution and antisemitism, gives the story of Israel a potency that has for many years served to find acceptance in the West – of impunity to act without restraint – that is not offered to any other state. At the same time, the Palestinian story has been undermined by these same historians. They were a Bedouin community, readily able to vacate their land – it is said. Palestinians, according to leading Israeli politicians, are a mythical people. Today, we are honoured to have …

‘Comfort after Calamity’, a poem by Imam Ali

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الْفَرَجُ بَعْدَ الشدَّة ‘Comfort after Calamity’ Many a times, especially in the current Muslim world, we find ourselves in situations which render the soul helpless, and leave no hope in sight. It is in such moments that the faith of a Muslim is tested. One should always remember that the night is always darkest before the dawn, and after hardship there always comes ease. If the believers choose to pass these moments complaining and without faith, then they shall be questionable before Allāh. However, if these moments are passed with patience and prayer, then these very moments will pave the path for spiritual elevation and success for the believers.[1] 1- When calamities reach their final extent That their intensity causes the soul to melt 2- When adversities take root, and solace bids farewell then in dire and hard times, comes comfort and rest[2] Notes [1] Abdullah Ayaz Mullanee, ‘The Poetic works of Sayyiduna Ali,’ a translation of Diwan Ali, p.73 [2] Ibid

Do not think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do

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Allah ta’ala says,  وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَـٰفِلًا عَمَّا يَعْمَلُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ ۚ إِنَّمَا يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ لِيَوْمٍۢ تَشْخَصُ فِيهِ ٱلْأَبْصَـٰرُ مُهْطِعِينَ مُقْنِعِى رُءُوسِهِمْ لَا يَرْتَدُّ إِلَيْهِمْ طَرْفُهُمْ ۖ وَأَفْـِٔدَتُهُمْ هَوَآءٌۭ Do not think ˹O Prophet˺ that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them until a Day when ˹their˺ eyes will stare in horror—rushing forth, heads raised, never blinking, hearts void.[1]