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By Mehmet Ozalp
Affinity Intercultural Foundation
Sydney, Australia
Short History of the Muslim World
Seventh-century Middle East was dominated by two great empires; the Christian Byzantine Empire and Zoroastrian Persian Empire. Between the two powers lay the Arabian Peninsula composed of weak and deeply divided tribal societies. Within a few decades, Byzantine Empire would be reduced to Western Anatolia and Persian Empire would totally collapse under the armies of Muslims as Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his successors united Arabia under the umbrella of Islam which provided the world a new vision and the spiritual gravitation to effect lasting change in human history. In time, a vast empire and a commonwealth of Muslim states would come to dominate much of the known world. As Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) governed a trans-tribal state with the egalitarian principles of Islam so too the Muslim community established a universal and just government transcending race, culture and national boundaries. Early Muslims spread a way of life that not only effected individual spirituality, belief and worship but also the political and social order of the masses.
What is most striking and unique about the early expansion of Islam was its rapid pace and unparalleled success. In a few decades, Muslim forces overran attacking Byzantine and Persian armies and expanded a large empire from Morocco and Spain in the west to the Central Asia and India in the east. United and inspired by their faith, Muslim armies proved to be remarkable conquerors and effective rulers, who developed rather than destroyed the new lands. They displaced the native rulers of the conquered countries but preserved much of their government, bureaucracy, culture and religion.
For the people, Muslims rule meant peace and tolerance and gave people a breathing space from the pillage and heavy taxation of the previous regimes. Local population found Muslim rule more flexible and tolerant than that of Byzantine and Persian rule to the point that some Jewish and Christian communities aided Muslims in their conquests regarding them as less domineering than their previous imperial masters. Contrary to common belief, the masses that converted to Islam did so in their free will rather than being forced by ‘the sword’. In later years, Islam grew into the depths of Africa, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia through Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries, who won converts by their example and preaching.
The history of Islam and Muslims could be characterised into four periods starting with the advent of Islam to the present era.
1. The period of prophethood in the lifetime of the Prophet
Muhammad – 610 to 632.
2. The Caliphate period – 632 to 1258. The caliphate period could
be divided into three major phases.
• Rightly Guided Caliphs (632-661)
• The Umayyad empire (661-750)
• The Abbasid empire (750-1258).
3. Sultanate period – 1258 to 1924.
4. Modern period – 1924 to the present.
Birth of Islam
Muhammad (pbuh) was born in 570 CE. His father died before he was born and his mother died when he was six years old. He was raised by his grandfather and then taken under the custody of his Uncle Abu Talib. In his youth and adult life, he was famous for his fidelity, integrity and trustworthiness. It wasn’t long before he earned the nick name al-amin, the trustworthy. In his teenage years he worked as a shepherd and spent a lot of time in the open desert away from the vices of the society. In his twenties, he worked in trade. He met Khatijah and married her when he was twenty-five upon her proposal. She was a forty-year-old widow.
He led an ethical but ordinary life through his adult life. He never worshiped idols and always believed in one God. He practiced the religion of Abraham, as he knew it. Every year, in his thirties, he started to retreat to a cave at Mt Hira for worship and reflection. At the age of forty (in the year 610 CE) he was appointed as a prophet of God through Archangel Gabriel at Mt Hira. Prophet Muhammad’s mission thereafter is characterised in three distinctive phases.
1. Meccan period: Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)started to convey the message of God’s unity to a polytheistic society. The first people to accept Islam were, in general, slaves, poor people & youth. People were struck by Muhammad’s perfect character and the eloquence of the Qur’an and the profound realities it articulated. When Islam started to gather noticeable following, Meccan leaders started to persecute and torture Muslims & the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh). Some Muslims migrated to a neighbouring Christian country - Abyssinia. In the last three years of his struggle in Mecca, all Muslims and the tribe of the Prophet were subjected to an economic embargo. The Meccan period lasted thirteen years and only about 200 people converted.
2. Migration to Medina - Treaty of Hudaybiyah with Meccans: A breakthrough came when six people from Medina, a city of about 450 km to the north of Mecca, accepted Islam. A year later, seventy-three people became Muslim. Muslims from Medina saw prophet Muhammad(pbuh) as an arbitrator for a city which had been plagued by tribal infighting. All Muslims from Mecca migrated to Medina in 622. Prophet Muhammah(pbuh) put together the first 52-article constitution in human history. A new Muslim society and polity was established in Medina. Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) signed peace treaties with all major tribes to show that he was a messenger of peace and to protect the fledging Muslim community. Three major battles were fought between Mecca and Medina upon the aggression of Meccans. Muslims won decisively in the first, while they just lost the second. The third was a successful defence of Medina, which was sieged by a major coalition of Meccans and Arabian tribes. Eventually, a ten-year treaty was signed between Mecca and Medina in 628. At that time, Muslims numbered about three thousand.
3. Treaty of Hudaybiyah - Death of the Prophet: This treaty was a turning point for Muslims. In the peaceful atmosphere many willingly converted to Islam. When Mecca broke the treaty, the Muslim army conquered Mecca at 630 without any resistance. Mass conversions followed the conquest. After 23 years of struggle, all of the Arabian Peninsula was Muslim. At no point in the process were people forced into the religion. At the Farewell Pilgrimage he gave a speech that could be considered the first Human Rights declaration in history to about 130,000 people. Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) passed away on 632 CE at the age of 63.
The Caliphate Period
Immediately after the Prophet Muhammad, the successors were termed the ‘caliph’. The first four caliphs were all companions of the Prophet, who saw the prophet and were mentored by him directly. They were Abu Bakr (632-634), Omar ibn al-Khattab (634-644), Uthman ibn Affan (644-656) and Ali ibn Abu Talib (656-661). Their rule is especially significant not only for what they actually did, but they are accepted by the majority of Muslims as the ideal rulers and the society they led was the idealised as an excellent example of a Muslim society can look like. Many Muslims today look back into that era as an inspiration to emulate.
In 661, Muawiya claimed the caliphate and brought in the Umayyad era which came to be known as a dynastic empire dominated by Arabic military aristocracy of Syria. Contrary to the previous practice of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, hereditary succession instead of election or selection restricted the caliphate to the Umayyad clan. Under Umayyad’s the Muslim Empire grew into Europe through Spain until it was stopped in the heart of France by Charles Martel in the battle of Tours in 732 while in the east the borders were extended into the Indian subcontinent. Omar ibn Abdul-Aziz shines as the outstanding Umayyad caliph. He is considered by many to be the fifth Rightly-Guided-Caliph by virtue of his just rule and simple personal life. In his two and a half years of tenure, the sayings of Prophet Muhammad was officially gathered in one collection and centre through a project that involved the renown scholars of the time. Social justice and share of wealth through zakat reached to such a level that a large portion of the zakat funds could not be distributed in the vast Muslim world due to lack of poverty and excess funds were handed out to neighbouring Christian countries.
In750, the Umayyad dynasty fell to the descendants of
Prophet Muhammad’s uncle al-Abbas. Abbasid rule of the Muslim community
brought in an era of centralised government, great economic prosperity
and remarkable civilisation with magnificence that came to be immortalised
in the West as the Arabian Nights legends. Abbasids took great care to
align their activities and rule with Islam. The basis for success no longer
relied on military success, but on trade, commerce, industry and agriculture.
The wealth generated sponsored art, culture and science. Although Islam
has no clergy, the ulema (learned intellectuals or scholars) had became
a major source of influence and control within the society. Their reputation
rested on their knowledge and expertise on religious and material sciences,
which led them to be the leading scientists, jurists, theologians, educators
and opposition to voice public interest.
The best works of literature, art, science and philosophy all around the
world were collected and translated into Arabic in massive translation
centres and libraries, which numbered hundreds in just Baghdad. Thus,
the knowledge legacy of humanity was preserved and then developed further
ushering in the progress of science by towering intellectual giants such
as al-Razi (d. 925), al-Farabi (d. 950), Ibn-Sina (also known as Avicenna
d. 1037), ibn-Rushd (aka Averroes d.1198), al-Biruni (d. 1048) and al_Ghazali
(d. 1111).
During the Abbasid period, Muslims and Islam were not only changing the world politically, but also in art, science and culture. Muslim scientists added great new developments to the knowledge base in the fields of art, literature, algebra, chemistry, astronomy, geography and medicine. All importantly, inspired by the Qur’an, they developed the modern scientific methodology and deductive reasoning more than a thousand years ago. European students studied in vast universities of Spain, Egypt and other Muslim lands and carried this heritage into Europe later to fuel European Renaissance. As a result, Islam in its grandeur and comprehensiveness manifested in all aspects of human life and endeavour in a civilisation that shined for centuries.
Encounters of Europe with Islam – The Crusades
Even though Islam and Christianity represented by Europe has many areas of commonality and a shared monotheistic root, their respective relationship has been confrontation rather than understanding and dialogue. “From the earliest decades of Islamic history, Christianity and Islam have been locked in a political and theological struggle, because Islam, unlike other world religions, has threatened the political and religious ascendancy of Christianity” .
Islam’s fast growth including substantial conversions of Christians in 11th century, the grandeur of its power and civilisation in comparison to a stagnated Christian Europe struggling through its Dark Ages triggered a hostile response towards Islam. While Dante’s Divine Comedy sent off the holy prophet to the lowest level of hell, Islam was depicted as a religion spread by the sword and Muhammad (pbuh) was vilified as an ‘infidel imposter’, who was the ‘anti-Christ’.
The turning point was the victory of the Seljuq Turkish army over the Byzantine army in 1071 that resulted in the loss of Asia Minor (where present Turkey is situated). This has led a call to Christian Europe to unite under the flag of Christianity and liberate the holy city, Jerusalem triggering a series of Crusades that lasted till 1453.
“The contrast between the behaviour of the Christian and Muslim armies in the first crusade has been etched deeply in the collective memory of Muslims. In 1099, the Crusaders stormed Jerusalem and established Christian sovereignty over the Holy Land. They left no Muslim survivors; women and children were massacred. The Noble Sanctuary, the Haram al-Sharif, was desecrated as the Dome of the Rock was converted into a church and the al-Aqsa mosque, renamed the Temple of Solomon, became a residence for the king… In 1187, Salah al-Din (Saladin)… led his army in a fierce battle and recaptured Jerusalem. The Muslim army was magnanimous in victory, as it had been tenacious in battle. Civilians were spared while churches and shrines were generally left untouched. The striking difference in military conduct were epitomised by the two dominant figures of the Crusades: Saladin and Richard the Lion-Hearted. The chivalrous Saladin was faithful to his word and compassionate towards non-combatants. Richard accepted the surrender of Acre and then proceeded to massacre all its inhabitants including women and children despite promises to the contrary.”
Contrary to myths in Western perceptions, the Crusades did not achieve its goals of uniting the Christian Europe and liberating Jerusalem. It certainly did not halt Islam’s growth. On the contrary, Middle Eastern minority populations converted to Islam under the poor governance of Christian rulers. Jerusalem was under Muslim rule majority of the time, while the Ottomans carried Islam to the mainland Europe. The fall of Constantionple (Istanbul) to Ottomans in 1453 brought an end to Crusades leaving amid a deeply divided Europe.
The Sultanate Period
About six centuries after the Prophet Muhammad first started to preach Islam, of umbrella Abbasid caliphate started to weaken with underlying states becoming almost independent. In 1258, the first great catastrophe, the Mongol invasion, struck the Muslim world. Wreaking havoc in Asia, Mongols turned to the Muslim world when Hulagu Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, completely destroyed the capital Baghdad. More than eight hundred thousand people were slaughtered including the caliph and his family. It is said that the Europhradis River flew ink for days when millions of books were thrown into it. Islam has a habit of conquering its conquerors. Although most of Mongols became Muslim, the damage was done. The Arabic world has never fully recovered from the disaster.
Dynamic independent states replaced the commonwealth of Abbasid Caliphate. Rulers carried the title of ‘sultan’ meaning the one who possesses power and authority. In time, three great empires emerged from the ashes regaining the magnificence of the past. The West of the vast Muslim world was dominated by the Ottoman Empire, which covered North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Arab World. In the centre, Safavid Empire covered present day Iran and Caspian regions while Mughal Empire ruled over the Indian subcontinent.
Starting as a small Turkish state at the fringe of Asia Minor in 1299, Ottoman Empire reached its zenith with Suleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566). The Ottoman expansion in Europe was only stopped by the failed siege of Vienna in 1683. Ottoman sultans revived the institution of caliphate from 1517 and used it very effectively to give the Muslims a sense of unity. One of the distinctive features of the Ottoman social administration was the ‘millet’ system, where different religious communities within the Empire were recognised and given independent rule over the social and legal affairs of their communities.
Originally starting as a Sufi brotherhood, Safavids in Persia gained power in 1501 after turning into a political movement with heavy Shiite emphasis. Shii interpretation of Islam was imposed on the population of Iran through a process of persecution and assimilation. Safavid Empire was at its peak during the rule of celebrated Shah Abbas (1588-1629), who has achieved great reforms in administration, military and economy.
Founded in the sixteenth century, Mughal dynasty matched the success of its Ottoman and Safavid counterparts in India. Emperor Akbar (1566-1605) took the empire to its zenith through political centralisation and social integration of Muslim and majority Hindu population. Akbar promoted religious understanding and tolerance. However, he went further and attempted to combine all religions into one. Religious revivalists such as Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624) strongly resisted the last move.
Behind what appeared to be political fragmentation, Muslims enjoyed an international Islamic order, which transcended the state boundaries. A Muslim traveller could expanse the vast area in safety and could find consistency of culture and religious emphasis that placed a Muslim as part of a transnational community of believers. Despite difference in nuances, all Muslims believed in one God, His Prophet and the same unadulterated Qur’an while they practiced the same five Pillars of Islam and were bound by the same law, Sharia. The society was cultured and developed to such an extent that civil foundations and endowments, called wakf, completely funded and managed educational and social services. Every service imaginable was covered not only for humans but also for animals and the environment. For example, vakfs were established to look after animals such as stalks injured on their migration journey.
The Modern Period and the Current Dilemma
The 19th and the early twentieth centuries saw the striking of the second major catastrophe to the Muslim world since the Mongol invasion of 1258. This time around the catastrophe was not only a military one but also it affected the political, cultural, economic and religious domains resulting in the complete collapse of the Islamic Civilisation.
Coinciding with the European revival and the Industrial Revolution, the power and prosperity of the Muslim world took a sharp downturn. Following the fall of Safavis Empire in 1736, Mughal Empire was abolished in 1857, when Britain declared India as a colony. Ottoman Empire came to an abrupt end in 1923 after heavy losses in World War I. The Islamic civilisation was finally conquered.
Reasons for the decline of the Muslim world can be categorised
into three main spheres.
1. Social and Political Fragmentation: After loosing their vision of representing
and peacefully spreading Islam, no new vision was developed that can hold
the Muslim world intact. Political ambitions of individuals and clans
came to the foreground and caused political disintegration and loss of
unity and political stability preventing ruling administration to deal
with real problems. Political fragmentation brought with it nepotism in
administrative appointments.
2. Economy: With the discovery of the American continent, millennium old trade routes took a dramatic shift. Muslim world was no longer on the direct trade route. Muslims could not change fast enough to be able to compete with the rising European competition and the advent of new manufacturing technology and the associated consumerism.
3. Education: Perhaps as the most serious mistake, knowledge was split between religious knowledge and material knowledge. Scientific education was neglected while religious sciences were the only subject matters taught in madrasas, (schools). Once the champions of knowledge and science, Muslims lost their original scientific advantage to European developments in science and associated applied technology.
In summary, Muslims were strong when they had a strong vision beyond the self, an emphasis on trade and economy and took knowledge as a whole. The decline started when these were reversed.
There was a greater calamity that attacked to the very core of religion itself. The materialistic philosophy and its challenging assertions about faith was now threatening Islam after delivering a devastating blow to Christianity. In the West, all of a sudden, everything was thought to be explained by science. Charles Darwin with his Evolution Theory explained the biological life on earth. Durkheim extended the evolutionary concepts of natural selection to social life and society while Fraud tied complete human behaviour to sexual impulses. Finally, the ironic proclamation of Nietzsche, “God is dead”, was taken literally and accepted by intellectuals.
Although the damage of materialistic philosophy to Islam was much less than that done to Christianity, nevertheless, a minority population, who either became atheists or distant to religion, spawned in the Muslim world. It is important to note this fact because the Muslim societies in the twentieth century are characterised by an intellectual, religious and political struggle between the religious majority population and a minority elite, who were either dazed by the glamour of the Western Civilisation or influenced by the materialistic philosophy drifting them rather distant to religion. This polarisation of life perspective in Muslim community deepened the problem of fragmentation.
The forces of colonialism and Western domination in the 19th century resulted in the destruction of the last Muslim enclave, the Ottoman Empire in1923. Turkey was the only free Muslim nation. After World War II, Muslims started to gain their freedom and small states with borders drawn by Western powers emerged in the scene. No development or preparation took place during almost fifty years of Western rule over the almost complete Muslim world. The new leadership in these countries turned out to be either oppressive secular regimes, dictatorships, kingdoms or accidental theocratic states. The power lied in the hands of elites, military generals or religious or secular extremists who did not represent the majority. In order to perpetuate their power, their rule was characterised by suppression of dissent, elimination of critics and annihilation of independent social and administrative institutions. More often then not, these elites were sustained and reinforced by Western imperialistic forces. The predicament of this political cycle continues to date.
What circumstances gave rise to these regimes and how do they seem to persevere regardless of their obvious failure. The reasons are many. “Suffice to say that the euphoria of Independence; the aura surrounding the ‘founding fathers’ of the nation; the intoxicating appeal of nationalism; the relative weakness of countervailing social and political forces at the time of Independence; certain deeply ingrained cultural attitudes about authority; and the centralising tendencies of the ideology of development and the development itself have all conspired to reinforce the power of the ruling class. To this we should add the role of imperialism in perpetuating authoritarianism within the nation state.” Under this hot political climate, the majority Muslim population was not given a chance to govern themselves resulting in dissension not only towards the ruling elite but also towards the West giving rise to ‘Islamic Resurgence’.
In the religious sphere, the struggle has been no different. After a short period of shock and being caught unprepared for the new challenges, Muslims very quickly realised that Islam was in danger as it has never been before in history. Many Muslims felt a sense of responsibility to do something about it. Almost simultaneously and spontaneously, religiously sensitive Muslims all around the Muslim world embarked on the task of reviving Islam within the Muslim society. Spiritual leaders such as Hassan al-Banna in Egypt, Muhammad Iqbal in Pakistan, Said Nursi in Turkey and many others in almost every Muslim country naturally emerged to lead this revival.
The revival movements aimed to strengthen faith, emphasise Muslim identity through the reflection of Islamic practice in personal and social life. Mosque attendance and the number of fasting people grew manyfold. With the aid of mass transportation, people performing the Pilgrimage numbered millions every year a development, which was unprecedented in Muslim history. Islamic resources, schools and associations grew exponentially. As a result, Islam proliferated into masses one more time.
Corrupt and despotic regimes and the failure of existing governments to solve deep social, economic and political problems despite decades of opportunity coupled with a revival in Muslim identity led Muslim activists and masses to take their chance at gaining power trusting the popular support of the people. People started to call for the creation of an ‘Islamic state’. The tendency gained momentum with the apparent successful overthrow of the monarchy in Iran by the Iranian revolution (1978-79).
The response of the ruling class was hard and oppressive. Although the great majority of the Muslim population responded to this patiently and with peace, caused certain minority Muslim groups out of desperation and deep disappointment resorted to violence. There is also a lot of evidence that Muslims were set up and dragged into violence by the same forces that opposed them in the first place with the hope that Muslims would be somewhat discredited. The events of Algeria in 1900’s could be given as examples. Some Muslims and individuals such as Osama bin Laden took the response to the level of terrorism.
Turkey - A Case Study
We can clarify the issues discussed so far by having a closer look at a Muslim country such as Turkey. Why should one choose Turkey as a case study? In addition to being one of the few Muslim states that has endured a complete spectrum of modern trials and tribulations, Turkey was the only free Muslim state in 1923. On top of a long history of modernisation and Westernisation, it has more than fifty years of democratic experience for us to be able to judge their success in a Muslim country. Turkey also has a unique geopolitic position at the junction of three continents making it an important Muslim state to watch for the present and the future.
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was reduced to a small piece of land in Anatolia with Istanbul invaded by the British forces. The independence movement in Ankara led by Mustafa Kemal was successful in repelling the invading forces giving rise to the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Mustafa Kemal, now the president of the new Republic, abolished the Ottoman monarchy. A more religiously significant move was the termination of the centuries old institution of Caliphate in 1924 rendering the Muslim world without a head.
A suite of sweeping reforms covering all aspects of life followed the political regime change. The alphabet was changed from Arabic to Western characters. Western law was brought in wholesale totally replacing the Islamic law. An economic congress announced the policy of capitalistic system in which certain individuals, many of them party members, were sponsored by the state in order “to create rich enterprises so that they can create jobs and lead the economic development”. Covering the hair for women and traditional dressing for men was outlawed in offices and schools. Religious education was banned while Sufi orders were closed. Although bureaucracy still carried the Ottoman flavour, the structure of the administration was changed completely. The level of change and transformation was so radical that even wearing of European hat was made compulsory by law (1927) and the call to prayer in mosques was replaced by a Turkish version in 1933. Cinema, theatre and Western style music and dance parties was organised and encouraged by the state with the aim of changing the lifestyle of people. Mustafa Kemal wanted to make Turkey a modern, Western and secular country so that Turkey can be “raised to the level of cotemporary civilisation”.
Although the goal was sound, the process in which it was done and in particular the treatment of religion and its values for the intensely religious society caused deep resentment. First opposition appeared in the parliament of Independence. A rival opposition party to Mustafa Kemal’s People’s Republic Party was closed and representatives with religious orientations were cleansed from the parliament. In 1925, various religious and tribal leaders rebelled in Eastern Turkey. Not only the rebellion was put down fiercely but also anyone, who appeared influential, whether involved in the rebellion or not, were exiled to remote parts of the country. Among the exiled people was Said Nursi a lone but renowned scholar, who was very active in society during late Ottoman times but has been living a life of austerity and withdrawal from the public life for more than five years. Nursi had previously declined Mustafa Kemal’s offer of the job of General Preacher for the eastern provinces. Although Mustafa Kemal followed an extreme secular line, Department of Religious Affairs was established in order to control mosques. This department still exists today.
In 1931, in response to the murder of an army officer in a small town by a few questionable people shouting religious slogans, the government closed opposing newspapers and a second political party. Religious leaders and scholars from all over the country were rounded up and executed in large numbers. These extreme measures served to subdue general public and the opposition into obedience. However, the resentment of people merely went into hibernation. In response to these repressive measures, people did not rebel. Sufi orders went underground. Fearing that the change of alphabet would cause the original Qur’an to be lost forever, Suleyman Hilmi Tunali led an underground campaign to teach the reading and memorisation of the Qur’an in barns, caves and remote areas in the country. Simultaneously, Said Nursi started to write his famous Treatise of Light (Risale-I Nur) in the remote exile village of Barla, which had no road access and no means of communication.
Among religious movements of the time, the impact of Said Nursi on Muslim thought has been significant. For Nursi, the problem facing Turkey and the Muslim world lied deep beyond the current events. The root cause was the collective attack of the materialistic philosophy and its atheistic assertions, which were causing people to have doubts and leave religion altogether. Lack of faith, in turn, was causing people to vices that were threatening the very fabric of the society. An extension of this cause was the age-old struggle between science and religion in the West and now in Muslim countries.
According to Nursi, the remedy then had to be reconciling science and religion and therefore protecting and strengthening the faith of people. Hence, all people of religion including Christians should combine their efforts to repel atheistic tides sweeping across the world. Nursi said that it was futile to have a political struggle as it was not the root cause nor was it effective. All efforts had to be exerted to an intellectual struggle. Having no other source in exile other than the Qur’an in his memory, he has focused his writings on proving the essentials of faith and answering people’s doubts in faith and religion. Nursi showed that science and religion; reason and faith can coexist in the same lane complementing one another. He powerfully showed that not only reason and faith was compatible with Islam’s tenets, the Qur’an encouraged the use of human reason to attain a certain faith based on strong convictions. He proposed that solving the problems of the Muslim world would have to start with education that combined religious sciences and material sciences so that wisdom can prevail rather than religious bigotry or atheism.
Said Nursi’s writings were manually copied and distributed by voluntary followers in villages and towns across the country. It is reported that over the twenty-five-year period, 600,000 copies of his books were reproduced and distributed. This was done secretly because to have his books in one’s possession equated with arrest and imprisonment. Said Nursi was arrested and trialed three times with the allegation of establishing a secret organisation to overthrow the republican regime. An allegation which could not be proved and hence Nursi was released on all three occasions. His movement was an intellectual movement that had no structure or organisation but there was a strong spiritual tie in the form of a brotherhood. Nursi has always advocated moderation and positive attitude irrespective what the circumstances might be. For example, he called the hard prison life as the ‘school of Joseph’ and an opportunity for him to get together with his followers to share knowledge since in exile he was not allowed to see anyone.
Mustafa Kemal died in 1938 and was replaced by his long-time deputy Ismet Inonu, who had strong socialist tendencies. Reforms since 1923 could not produce a strong country whereas Germany, for example, developed considerably to become a major world power on top of its ruins after WWI. As a result of pressures from the new ally US, Inonu agreed to introduce democracy in 1950. The Democratic Party of Adnan Menderes won a landslide victory with the slogan “enough, it’s people’s voice”. Half a decade later, Recep Tayyip Erdogan would win the 2002 elections with the slogan “enough, it’s people’s choice”. The similarities in these slogans show that the Democratic process in Turkey has been slow and people still feel the resentment.
The first initiative of Menderes was to change the call to prayer back into its Arabic original. People flocked to the mosques in tears when the call to prayer was recited in Arabic. He also started a development program covering all aspects of life. By now Said Nursi, still in semi-exile in house arrest, achieved mass following and his works started to be printed openly. The faith of a whole new generation of Turkish Muslims was saved under immense pressure. In 1960, Nursi died at the age of 87. The same year saw a pro Inonu military coup that toppled the Menderes’s government. Menderes and two of his ministers were executed for trivial reasons.
In spite of the setback, at the first opportunity in 1963, people again stuck back to elect Suleyman Demirel’s Justice Party into power. As in 1950’s, the period between 1963 and 1969 was a time of political stability and economic development for Turkey. Towards the end of 1960’s saw the emergence of significant developments that would shape to create the present Turkey. The first was the further revival of Islam through Sufi orders led by Mehmet Zahid Kotku and other Sufi sheikhs. The second was the entry of Muslims into politics in the leadership of Necmettin Erbakan who openly used anti-secular and anti-Western religious slogans to attract votes. The third development was the rise of communism and, in response to communism, Turkish nationalism. The fourth important development was the spontaneous religious movement of M. Fethullah Gulen, who was a scholar and a mosque preacher following the line of Said Nursi. In contrast to Erbakan, Fethullah Gulen took the Islamic development into the social sphere away from the political domain with positive action and attitude, which was the trademark of Said Nursi’s line of activism. He encouraged people to put into practice the educational ideas proposed by Said Nursi. As a result, hundreds of schools and boarding facilities focusing on academic excellence were established all over Turkey raising a new generation of young, educated and intellectual Muslims.
Another military intervention in 1972 forced Demirel’s government to resign. In the subsequent elections Erbakan’s religiously oriented party gained minor role in the coalition government. 1970s saw the turbulent political struggle between the ‘right’ and ‘left’. Erbakan and nationalistic movements represented the ‘right’ while communist and socialist movements and Mustafa Kemal’s People’s Republic Party now led by Bulent Ecevit represented the ‘left’. The resultant violent anarchy and the political instability hit a big blow to the economy. The vicious circle continued until 1980 with yet another military coup whose commander Kenan Evren closed all political parties. After three years of military rule, the ruling military party surprisingly lost the election to Turgut Ozal’s Motherland Party. Turgut Ozal, a practicing Muslim in private, was an exceptional statesman. He introduced liberal economy and stimulated exports while at the same time gave freedoms and rights that were only dreamed of. Wearing the head-cover by female university students was allowed. 1980s for Turkey were a time of political stability, rapid economic development and religious freedoms and resurgence under the tutelage of Ozal.
After the collapse of Soviet Union, Turkey opened up to the new Turkic republics of Central Asia. Schools encouraged by Fethullah Gulen spread in these countries while Turgut Ozal, now the President of Turkey, paid regular visits with the vision of uniting the Turkish republics under one umbrella. Seeing that the struggle between various layers of society was the biggest barrier to development and social harmony, Fethullah Gulen called for tolerance and dialogue. Under the slogan of “understanding and accepting the other as they are”, social gathering and projects were implemented with much media coverage and support. Many people felt and talked about the futility and damage of a struggle within a society that has plagued the Muslim world for the last few centuries. This call for dialogue was extended to people of other faiths to the point that Gulen became one of the few Muslim spiritual leaders to visit the Pope in Vatican. Economic momentum gained speed with new companies focused on exports spawning all over the country.
Turgut Ozal’s sudden and questionable death in 1992 once again ushered in political instability. In the face of widespread Islamic revival, the patience of the military with instincts to preserve the republican regime ran out when Erbakan became the Prime Minister in 1995. Erbakan could only last one year under great pressure from the media and resistance by the bureaucracy. Fearing that Erbakan would change the regime to an Islamic one, the military forced him to resign in the postmodern coup of 1996. Erbakan’s Welfare Party was closed and he was banned from politics. Another party established in the same line as Erbakan by the same team was also closed. Meanwhile the economy was degrading with the military supported and controlled government so focussed in crushing Islamic movements, banning women to cover their hair in universities and schools and in a grave mistake putting pressure on successful business ventures in order to cut the financing of Islamic movements.
After two successive closures, politically oriented Muslims had to do some soul searching. After much debate, relatively young Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the popular but banned former mayor of Istanbul, led a split in the Erbakan line of politics. Erdogan and his young friends established the Justice and Development Party. Amid media propaganda that Erdogan’s intentions has not changed to establish an Islamic state just like Erbakan, Erdogan won the 2002 elections gaining two thirds of the parliament seats. As fate would have it, the elections only left two political parties in the parliament. After the elections Erdogan showed a surprising level of maturity and tolerance influenced by Fethullah Gulen’s teachings. All of a sudden, fears of military, media and the secular elite were proved to be wrong. People at both ends of the political and social spectrum talked about wasting decades in fruitless struggle. At last, a Muslim country seemed to find a true political and democratic maturity.
Although this development is only recent, it is very significant not only for Turkey but also for the Muslims and the world in general. If Erdogan’s Muslim democrat political line succeeds it can be a model for other Muslim countries. A lot of uncertainties still remain. Will the military or the secular elite be tolerant to the government? Will Muslims be the vanguards of real development and freedoms in Turkey? Will the Western powers support the current developments or try to influence it in another direction? The signs are that the answers to these questions are affirmative.
Muslims of Turkey seems to have found a contemporary synthesis of religious understanding and attitude with Said Nursi and Gulen, political maturity with Erdogan and liberal economic impetus through business enterprises of the conservative people of Anatolia. It appears that the modernisation and development of Turkey, which somewhat failed in 80 years of anti-religious governments, will be finally achieved by religiously sensitive and democrat Muslims.
The Future of Muslims and Islam
Today, at the beginning of a new millennium, the demarcation line between Islam and the West no longer exists. Islam has become truly a world religion. Yet, there seems to be great inflicting problems facing the Muslim world and therefore rest of the world in this age of globalisation where problems and behaviours are also becoming global. Just consider how Iraq issue in 2002 is escalated to the global level and how masses have protested for peace in a scale never before seen in human history. Therefore, it is in the interest of the whole planet that the Muslim world solves its problems and they should be helped not coerced in the process.
How do you stop the cycle of oppression and terror that seem be perpetuated today. The answer is simple but perhaps not so easy to achieve.
• Muslims should change their call for the implementation of an ‘Islamic State’ in the manner that scares minority elites that hold power in all Muslim countries. Instead Muslims should develop a workable model that focuses on building a strong civil society that is acceptable in the contemporary world and based on the timeless and universal principles and values of Islam. In this way, their requirements to have a just society would be achieved without limiting the freedoms of the minorities just like in the example of Prophet Muhammad and the first Muslim polity in Medina.
• Secular or ruling elites in Muslims countries should stop unjustly oppressing and preventing people from voicing their will and preference in a democratic manner. The Western powers should stop helping and supporting these oppressive regimes.
I believe that the current events are the pains of an adolescent world going through a transition. In the aftermath of September the 11th 2001 and failures of self-identified ‘Muslim states’ in Afghanistan and Iran, Muslims are realising that they have to change the means to their rightful goals of changing their societies for the better. Islam is a resilient religion and Muslims are resilient people. At the end of the journey, I believe that a modern Muslim society will emerge as a mature, developed and civil community with stable political, economic and educational systems. From that point on, the global Muslim community will be able to help propel peace, democracy and human rights onto greater heights, taking advantage of the inherent principles and values already existing in Islam.
When Muslim nations were strong they were the source of peace and stability in much of the world. Before the appearance of Islam, people never experienced security, peace and harmony over an extremely large portion of the then known world. Since the last Muslim State, the Ottoman Empire, has lost its influence, the world has seen two world wars, while the Balkans, the Middle East and other places which were governed in peace for centuries on the basis of the tolerant principles of Islam, have never been the same since. Much of the world’s unrest still originates from the lack of a positive Muslim presence and influence as a balancing power.
Islam has immensely contributed to human progress and
world peace for centuries and certainly it has the potential to do the
same in the future. This is provided that three root problems are resolved
first. They are the lack of education, poverty and social fragmentation
within a given Muslim society. All other problems are relatively minor
and will be resolved rather more easily.