Syed Iqbal Hasnain talks to India Currents about his book ‘Fault Lines in the Faith’ and how the pivotal events of 1979 became catalysts for global jihadi extremism
By Nandita Bose
Pivotal events of 1979
On the cold morning of February 1, 1979, a triumphant Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the exiled religious leader of Iran and mastermind of the Iranian Revolution, returned to Tehran on a chartered Air France flight accompanied by about 120 journalists and photographers, after a banishment of 14 years. It was a moment zealously celebrated by the Iranians, hundreds of thousands of whom poured out onto the streets to welcome him. It was also a moment that altered the future course of Iran and the geopolitics of the region for decades to come.
1979 saw two other historically significant events in the Middle East. There was the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979 by the Saudi militant, Juhayman al-Otaybi, and in December, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the consequent decision of the Reagan-led U.S. administration to overthrow the Soviets by arming militant Islamist forces in Afghanistan.
These events converged to propel to the forefront Wahhabism, an extremist form of Islam that forever changed contemporary Muslim societies.
In his book, Faultlines in the Faith: How Events of 1979 Shaped the Islamic World, author Syed Iqbal Hasnain delineates how the “apocalyptic events” of 1979 resulted in the deep entrenchment of the Wahhabi-Salafi school of Islam across the globe, and continue to shape the geopolitics of the region in significant ways. These events, he writes, “were important historical pivots to which most of the modern Islamic extremism and acts of terrorism could be linked.”
Wahhabism becomes the ideological source of global jihad
Wahhabism as a philosophy took shape from the teachings of the 14th-century Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah and the 18th-century theologian Muhammad Ibn Abd Al Wahhab, both of whom inspired al-Otaybi. Of course, the regime primarily responsible for the spread of Wahhabism, Hasnain explains, has been the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which since its formation in 1932, has methodically invested in its propagation worldwide.
The discovery of oil in 1938, and the petrodollars subsequently pouring in, made the Saudis the chief financiers of Wahhabi-salafi schools and clerics worldwide. The establishment of the Muslim World League in 1962 in the holy city of Mecca gave the Wahhabi-Salafi school of thought a formal platform and, subsequently, recognition on a global scale.
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Hasnain writes, “The 1980s and ’90s were crucial decades when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took to an aggressive promotion of the Wahhabi-Salafi version of Islam. They did this by globally financing Islamic centers (Sunday schools), mosques, and private schools in the US and most of the major European countries, including the United Kingdom (UK), Belgium, Spain, France, and Germany. This global drive publicly radicalized young Muslims attending high schools and professional colleges, by using the Wahhabi English translation of the Quran and the Hadiths.”
In Iran, the ouster of the Shah of Iran and Khomeini’s return to power in 1979 wiped out the last vestiges of modernism from the country. “For the first time in the Middle East a monarchy was removed not by a military coup but by the masses inspired by the Islamic religious fervor of Shiism,” Hasnain said to India Currents (IC).
The Arc of Islam from 7th century AD to the present
The book follows the arc of the rise of Islam in the modern world from its heartland in Arabia to its spread within the present-day European nations and the U.S. It traces the complexities in the relationships between the various Arab nations and tribes in the region, and conflicts between the two primary sects – the Sunnis and the Shias – that can be traced back to the 7th century AD.
Chapters are dedicated to the exploration of topics like the rise of the Shia Crescent in the Middle East, the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the radicalization of Muslim youth in Europe and the U.S., and the mobilization of modern technology by the Islamic State (IS) for the spread of Jihad.
Role of the U.S.
In Fault Lines in the Faith, Hasnain analyzes the role the U.S. played in unwittingly promoting Wahhabism, the pinnacle of crisis it reached as a nation with 9/11, and the subsequent “cover-up” by the Bush administration. He holds the U.S. culpable for support to jihadists in Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, and flawed Middle Eastern policies by several U.S. administrations.
“The policymakers in America and Europe know well the connection between Wahhabi teachings and extremism that leads to terrorist acts like the 9/ 11 attack and the lone-wolf acts of terrorism in many parts of the world,” he writes.
Reducing the influence of Wahhabism
Is it possible to bring Islamic societies across the globe out of the clutches of Wahhabism, considering how deeply entrenched it is? With Islamophobia at its height due to Wahhabi extremism, is it possible to extricate a generation of young Muslims who have grown up experiencing sectarian conflicts and being indoctrinated with this philosophy?
Hasnain believes it is. The book addresses how the influence of Wahhabism might be reduced, and the steps countries like France – a key partner of the United States in the global fight against terrorism – and Morocco have taken in that direction, steps that might be emulated by other nations.
“France,” he said to IC, “was one of the worst affected European nations by this extremism because of the large population of Muslims – the largest among any European nation. President Macron ordered the removal of all Wahhabi literature from all the mosques in Morocco and France, banned the wearing of hijab in schools, and directed that Islamic priests in France be retrained in the preaching of Sufi style of tolerant Islam. It takes a while for extreme idealism to go out of the system but the process has started in France and incidents of hate extremism seem to have reduced there.”
“The good news is that since 2004, Morocco has been developing a training strategy for imams to establish its moderate ideology in French mosques via the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs.”
Sufism as an acceptable alternative
Sufism, which promotes religious tolerance, is the definitive path forward says Hasnain. He strongly advocates for this harmonious form of Islam which dominated ancient Muslim societies from the 8th to the 13th centuries.
He writes, “The (U.S.) authorities should also urge the various Muslim communities to disconnect their ties with the Saudi charities that fund the promotion of Wahhabism, and instead start collaborating with countries like Morocco that promote a more tolerant and peaceful version of Islam, such as the Sufi Sunni Islam.”
Fault Lines in the Faith gives both scholarly and general readers a detailed analysis of the sectarian conflicts in the Middle East and contemporary Muslim societies worldwide, and the reasons behind the rise of Jihadi Islam in a well-researched, forthright, yet lucid manner.
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Nandita Chowdhury Bose is Contributing Editor at India Currents. In Mumbai, she worked at India Today and Society magazines, besides other digital publications. In the United States, she has been a communications consultant.
Courtesy: India Currents (Posted on July 29, 2024)
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