Chapter 7
Muslim Differences
Many assume that all Muslims believe the same things. This is no truer than it would be to say that all professing Christians or all Jews believe the same things.
Most Muslims fall into one of the two largest groups that we are concerned with here; Shi’a or Sunni. Sunnis’ are probably the most numerous, since the majority of Muslims in Indonesia are Sunni as are most Arab countries. Only Iran and Iraq have Shi’ite majorities.
However, even within these two groups there are divisions. These variations in beliefs stem primarily from disagreements concerning who can legitimately be Imam (a religious teacher/leader) and how to determine what constitutes legitimate teaching/rules. For example, from my study notes:
Four systems of jurisprudence (figh) have arisen in Islam differing in methods, in the degree of liberality or rigor in interpretation of Qur'an for changing circumstances, and in their respective understanding and combination of four aspects of interpretation.
These are:
Dependence on Qur'an, (correspond to our scriptures)
Dependence on hadiths, (words of Mohammad and/or his close associates)
Reasoning by analogy (giyas), and
Consensus (jima) of the Muslim community.
The word shi'a means "follower," i.e., of Ali.
Shi’ites are also divided in their beliefs by how many Imams they recognize as being legitimate. Most Shi’ites recognize twelve imams and are commonly referred to as the “twelvers”, another group only recognizes seven and are called the “seveners” and a third group recognizes only five and are the “fivers”.
The Sunni also have different groups with different beliefs. Sunni Muslims "people of the tradition of Muhammad and the consensus of the Ummah" (source: Wikipedia) sometimes are called the orthodox Muslims. They use the four primary sources for their instruction mentioned above:
1. Dependence on Qur'an, (correspond to our scriptures)
2. Dependence on hadiths, (words of Mohammad and/or his close associates)
3. Reasoning by analogy (giyas), (opinions of scholars) and
4. Consensus (jima) (of the Muslim community).
Salafism is a form of Sunni Islam that emphasizes the “ancestors”, the early Islamists, as the ideal models.
Wahhabis, by contrast, seek a primordial fundamental Islam but exercise a more radical form of Sunni Islam. Wahhabism is a branch of Islam; it is a form of Salafism, and a religious movement within Sunni Islam. Wahhabism was developed by an eighteenth century Muslim theologian, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) from Najd, Saudi Arabia.
Muhammad (ibn Abd al-Wahhab) despised what he believed to be moral decline within Islam and he advocated purging Islam of everything he considered to be impure. Osama bin Laden was a Wahhabi.
Islam and Nazi Ideals (The Nazi Connection)
There is one more historical factor that must not be overlooked if we are to understand the intense hatred of the radical Islamists for Jews, Europeans and Americans. That is the Nazi influence within the radical Muslim groups.
Many of us have memories of Saddam Hussein and the two wars in Iraq. What many of us do not know about is the strong connection between Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler.
Saddam Hussein rose to power within the framework of the Baath Party and was intensely loyal to it. The fascist Baath Party was inspired by and has its roots in the Nazi Party. In the 1930’s a young Syrian nationalist with intense feelings of persecution, Michel Aflaq, was attending Sorbonne University in Paris. At this time Adolph Hitler was a rising star in Germany and viewed by many, around the world including in the U.S., as Germany’s savior. While at the university Aflaq encountered and embraced Nazi propaganda and ideals.
Like many of his countrymen, Aflaq felt the Arabs had been treated shamefully by the French and British at the end of WWI. At that time the allies broke up the Ottoman Empire with France taking control of Syria and Britain taking Palestine, Jordan and Iraq. The Arabs had sided with the allies, fighting against the Ottomans and Germany, in the belief that these lands would be freed to become self-governing Arab states. Then, later, when the British promised that Palestine would become a Jewish national homeland they felt utterly betrayed.
Inspired by Hitler, Aflaq returned to Syria. There in the 1940’s he began organizing an underground movement, called the Baath Party, with the idea of uniting the Arab world into one great Arab state. In Arabic, Baath means “resurrection”. They are looking to revive the glory days of Medo-Persia and Babylon. Saddam Heussein openly expressed his belief that he was the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar:
"It is well known that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has connected himself with Nebuchadnezzar, spending over $500 million during the 1980s on the reconstruction and the re-establishment of ancient Babylon, the capitol of Nebuchadnezzar. Over sixty million bricks have been made to place in the walls of Babylon, each engraved with the inscription 'To King Nebuchadnezzar in the reign of Saddam Hussein.'" Source: About.com (and several other sources).
Aflaq traveled widely holding meetings with like-minded groups in Syria then Lebanon. These groups spread across the Middle East. Many of these groups imitated Nazi activities. “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s autobiography, was printed in Arabic and sold and read by many in the Middle East. It may surprise you to learn that “Mein Kampf” is still available in Arabic throughout the Middle East!
At the end of August 2012, a news article caught my attention. In Ahmedabad, India, a man named Rajesh Shah opened a store which he named “Hitler”. His logo was a swastika and the men’s clothing store was decorated with Nazi pictures and symbols. Under the duress of protests, he weakly denied understanding who Hitler was. However, the article pointed out that “Mein Kampf” is still popular in India and “Gujarat schoolbooks, issued by the Hindu Nationalist state government, were criticized just a few years ago for praising Hitler as someone who gave ‘dignity and prestige’ to the German government.”
The Baath movement embraced a hatred of Jews as did the Nazi’s. The Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany forced many to flee to the relative safety of Palestine. The Arabs, feeling threatened, began to revolt against the British rule and the Baath Party became the beneficiaries as more and more joined.
At the heart of this uprising was Amin al-Hussein, the senior Muslim leader in Jerusalem known as Grand Mufti. He claimed to be directly descended from Mohammed and ruled Muslims with great authority. The Mufti met secretly with German and Italian intelligence agents and eventually succeeded in getting some arms and finances for Arab resistance against the British. Had he received all he wanted WWII might have ended differently -- at least for the British.
The fall of France to Germany allowed Aflaq and the Baath Party to come out into the open. This enhanced its growth. Meanwhile the Mufti moved his British resistance to Iraq. Iraq’s populace, who resented the British presence, knew of his role in Palestine and welcomed him as a hero.
The Mufti, though he never received all the support he wanted, continued his overtures to Mussolini, Hitler and the Nazi party. In the Middle East, Hitler was viewed as a liberator, a hero. Signs posted publicly said, “In heaven your master is Allah – on earth it is Adolph Hitler!”
Bolstered by German General Rommel’s successes in West Africa, the Mufti and Iraqi nationalists began a revolt to throw the British out of Iraq. They were hoping to allow Nazi Axis forces to move into Iraq and deprive the British of Iraq’s oil. It nearly worked!
In 1941 the Mufti went public announcing a FATWA, a religious command, for all Muslims to rise up against the British, declaring a JIHAD (holy war). The British succeeded in putting down the uprising. The Mufti then fled to Germany where he continued recruiting 30,000 Muslims to fight the allies. In 1943 he used his influence to prevent Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria from allowing thousands of Jews to flee from those countries to the relative safety of Palestine. The troops recruited by the Mufti committed many atrocities.
One of the officers in the Iraqi army was Khairallah Tulfah, uncle and foster father of Saddam Hussein. Tulfah, Sadaam’s uncle, was captured and later told Saddam stories of his mistreatment by the British and the glorious near victory of the “great uprising.” Tulfa was eventually released and became a teacher and a hero to young Iraqis.
At the end of WWII German officers were tried for their war crimes. The Mufti was never brought to trial because the allies felt the need for Arab oil. They feared the wrath of Muslims if the Mufti were brought to trial and punished. He therefore took refuge in Egypt and there, using his influence as a senior religious leader among Muslims, continued his campaign of hatred. Later, working from Lebanon, he led Arab resistance to Israeli statehood effort and helped instigate the 1948 War.
Saddam Hussein became an enforcer/assassin for the Baath Party, eventually catching the attention of Baath Party creator, Aflaq, who became his mentor. Aflaq guided Saddam into his position as President of Iraq with the ultimate, though never realized, goal of uniting Arab nations from Libya in the west to Iraq in the east. Saddam died but the dream has not!
Now, the goal of uniting the Arab world may not seem to be a bad thing. And it may occur to some that the allied countries did not treat the Arab nations fairly in WWI and WWII. Perhaps the Arabs have some legitimate grievances. What we must not forget, however, is their underlying objectives and how they choose to redress their grievances.
Many other peoples of the world have been mistreated at one time or another. In our own country, the Chinese were forbidden to own land and were practically slave labor on the railroads. The Japanese had their property confiscated and were interred like prisoners during WWII. The Irish, the Poles and other groups were mistreated when they immigrated here. Blacks were undeniably mistreated both in Africa and in the United States. The Jews had their property confiscated and were ejected from France, Spain, and England. We all know what happened to them in Germany. They weren’t even treated well in the U.S.
This is not an attempt to belittle the unfairness of the treatment the Arab nations received. Nevertheless, that unfair treatment does not justify acts of war and terrorist attacks, especially against innocent civilians, women and children, who had no involvement in that injustice. None of these other groups mentioned sent terrorists or suicide bombers into our midst. None of these groups declared Jihad against nations or peoples they did not like. None of these groups fostered an intense hatred, for more than a thousand years, with an intense desire to annihilate an entire nation of people because of ideological/political/social or religious differences.
Copyright © 2012 Vernon E. Gillispie
All Rights Reserved