Praise is to Allah, who made us a single community (ummah), showed us the path to strength through the Book He sent down, and—when we err and collapse—awakens us once again. Blessings and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad, who struggled night and day for our guidance and, in a short time, laid the foundations of a world‑spanning state. Salām to all my brothers and sisters who grieve over the condition of the ummah and strive to revive it.
Dear brothers and sisters, for about a year I have been sharing with you my thoughts on the collapse of our ummah and the causes of that collapse. Yet the coup against the Muslim Brotherhood, who had come to power in Egypt through the people’s votes, the subsequent vile martyrdom of roughly 5,000 Muslims, the two‑and‑a‑half‑year‑long oppression of Bashar al‑Assad in Syria with the martyrdom of 100,000–150,000 Muslims, and most recently the horrific chemical‑weapons massacre in which around 1,300 innocent people were savagely martyred have obliged me, in this issue, to focus on the reality of the Middle East. If Allah wills, I will later resume discussing the causes of our collapse.
Before and after the First World War, Western powers unjustly and illegitimately occupied Islamic lands and, after the war, redrew the map of the Middle East. While doing so they divided peoples of the same ethnicity among three or four new states so that internal disorder, separatist, and racist movements would arise in each country—just as the Kurdish people were scattered across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They further subdivided the region by creating artificial states that, in truth, had no historical basis, and they drew borders so that territorial disputes would constantly exist among Middle Eastern states.
As if all that were not enough, they did something even more important and harmful: they established dictatorial systems and regimes throughout the Middle East. Everywhere they found a dictatorial king or soldier and supported him, ensuring he formed a Western‑minded, oppressive cadre to whom the country was handed over. Do not be fooled by their current talk as if they oppose dictatorship and want democracy in the Middle East. Their lies are exposed by ninety years of supporting those very dictators. Their relations with almost all the kings and dictators of the Middle East—foremost the monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar—are at the highest level. Their later falling‑out with some dictators such as Saddam and Qaddafi stemmed from certain political reasons—those dictators defying America on some issues and later drawing closer to Russia—not from their being dictators. If dictatorship were the problem, would they not also have poor relations with the other dictators? And was it not America itself that once supported Saddam and forcibly placed him at Iraq’s helm? Are those who replaced the overthrown Saddam and Qaddafi real democrats, and has democracy truly come to those places?
I mention this not because we are champions of democracy but to lay bare the West’s real face. As Muslims we cannot be supporters of democracy, because:
In democracy what matters is not what Allah says but what people say. Yet in Allah’s world, what He says must prevail, and that is His right. He is the owner of everything, the Creator of mankind, the Provider, the One who governs the universe, and the One who knows best. Is there anyone with more right than He? Anyone who knows better than He? Could anyone desire His servants’ well‑being more than He does? A Muslim cannot say, “Let the people’s will prevail rather than Allah’s,” and therefore cannot defend democracy.
In democracy Allah’s rulings, prohibitions, and obligations are disregarded. What the Qur’an forbids is legalized, and at times what the Qur’an makes obligatory is banned. In democratic countries are not alcohol, gambling, interest, fornication, nudity, homosexuality, and abortion all legal and widespread? Are not headscarves in schools and government offices and performing prayer during working hours prohibited? A Muslim cannot defend the legalization of the forbidden and therefore cannot defend democracy.
As for democracy’s cries of freedom, they are nothing but lies. As mentioned above, countries labeled “democratic” produced dictatorships and monarchies in the Middle East, supported them for nearly a century, and orchestrated frequent coups. They openly backed all the coups in Turkey and, most recently, the illegitimate coup in Egypt, not even calling it a “coup.” Suppose we lack democracy in our countries—but is democracy lacking in the West as well? Evidently democracy can stomach coups. Thus talk of popular sovereignty and respect for the people’s will is pure fiction.
In democracies great powers direct the media, the media in turn directs the people, and then the people are invited to the ballot box. Although the masses think they vote by free will, reality is different: they have been guided. Apart from a very small, highly aware minority able to resist the media’s winds and manipulations in all their forms, large segments of society are like this. The deep, real powers that steer the media and all centers of influence devise their plans, set their strategies, and install whomever they wish.
In democracies governments are mere laborers—or, at best, managers—of the country; they are never the leaders. The leaders are always those deep, real powers. If governments obey them and accept their servitude, all is well. But should they mistakenly think, “The people voted for us; we are strong; we can change some things in the system,” and begin to view themselves as those in power, the real powers will demonstrate their strength, prove that the country’s leader is not the people or the elected government but themselves, and will somehow stage a coup. Government officials will then bitterly realize that true power was never given to them; they were assigned only the toil.
Thus Muslims who think they will gain an environment of freedom by defending democracy are attempting something already tried and proven false many times over. A Japanese proverb says, “Trying again what has already been tried is foolish.” Since the Ottomans were toppled with gilded words like “equality,” “constitutionalism,” and “liberty,” some now say, “Let us serve our cause by calling for democracy and freedom, end their reign.” Such people should know: they once deceived us with those lies, which is why they succeeded; but you will not be able to deceive them into democracy so you can get anywhere with that shiny word. That is what we fail to understand. No matter how many of us believe in democracy, the real powers behind the curtain never believed and never will. Their attitude is: “If the people do not want us, they can go wherever they like.”
For these and similar reasons Muslims cannot be democrats, but by speaking courageously they must establish an atmosphere of freedom in their countries. If, in the meantime, Western powers—out of embarrassment—grant some freedoms, Muslims should benefit from them. Benefiting does not require defending democracy.
Given the reasons listed above, it should be clear that defending democracy is not permissible for a Muslim. When a Muslim who defends democracy is asked, “In an Islamic Civilization will you allow everything? Will you not interfere if we commit the forbidden?”. What answer will they give? Since they cannot say, “In an Islamic Civilization you may live as you wish and commit whatever sins you want”, they must not fall into contradictions by defending democracy and entering dead‑ends. The struggle should be waged not by saying “democracy” but by saying “La İlahe İllallah”, inviting people to the Islamic Civilization.
Western states created dictatorships and monarchies in the Middle East for the following reasons:
Governments backed by popular support and truly strong can sometimes challenge and defy the world‑leading powers. In contrast, dictators—lacking real popular support and unloved by their peoples—must always lean on the powers that installed them and obey them. Though dictators become lions toward their own peoples and dare every oppression, before Western powers they are miserable creatures who bend double. That is why Western powers prefer them.
One reason for founding monarchies in the Middle East was to keep these countries backward. Where dictatorship reigns, inertia prevails. People who do not feel free, who find their state against rather than beside them whenever they undertake something, and who live in constant fear cannot be enterprising. Where freedom is absent there is no progress—or little, and brief.
For today’s backwardness of the Middle East, those dictators who constantly oppress, intimidate, and suppress their peoples, turning broad masses into slaves in spirit, destroying their character and entrepreneurial drive, showing them no targets and even feeling disturbed by those who do, together with the Westerners who brought them to power, are responsible. If the rulers of these countries are not held responsible for their backwardness, then who will be? Muslim peoples are of course responsible for remaining silent toward these tyrants, voting for them, and failing to strive to establish Islam in their lands. But neither Islam nor Islamists can be directly responsible for the Middle East’s backwardness, for these countries have been governed for a century neither according to Islam nor by Islamists.
May Allah keep you safe until we continue this topic.
