Mesquita politics

A Muslim friend once told me that the word mosque was derived from the word mosquito. "It's a Crusader plot to defame Muslims," he confided. Like most conspiracy theories, however, it's plain baloney. First of all, the Crusaders are dead. Second of all, Crusaders were too stupid to have concocted any sort of etymological device to describe their enemies. The height of Crusader ingenuity was probably describing their feet being colored to the ankles with the blood of the slain Jews and Muslims of Jerusalem.

But mosques are interesting in other ways. When extremists want to show the Shias in Iraq who is boss, they bomb the domes off Shia mosques. Now, if you think bombing domes are an odd way of sending a message, think again. History attests that some Muslims- well, actually those belonging to a certain strain- have been at domes for a long time, including the green one that is currently above Prophet Muhammad's grave.

Why the dome-fetish, though? Some Muslims apparently believe that building domes above the graves of holy men promotes shirik (idolatry). In the world of the dome-destroyers, the logic even extends to Prophet Muhammad's tomb.

In some countries, mosques are seen as a barometer for radical teachings. India for example, has this exquisite national monument, the Grand Mosque, that is in urgent need of repair. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia offered to pump in money to fund the reconstruction. The Indian media, ever the rabid watchdog over its troublesome minorities, was quick to point out that the offer had a caveat. The kingdom apparently wants to fund education too. Naturally, Indian security agencies are wary that the money could go into preaching radical Islam.

But that's all fluff. If I were an Indian Muslim, I would be more worried about the Grand Mosque not keeping its distinctive style. Not only is it an eclectic mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture, there are three graves within the mosque's compound. And its obscene complement of fifteen domes (yes, 15!) can only belong in a dome-destroyer's fantasy.

The re-construction might degenerate into a de-construction project, as happened in the Saudi-aided reconstruction of Sarajevo's mosques in the aftermath of the Bosnian genocide. A mosque that is deliberately torn from its native context- as expressed through its unique architecture- is well on its way to nurturing an exclusivist mindset amongst Muslims that India can frankly do less with.

Then, there's good old England. According to Guardian Unlimited:

A plan to build a 'mega mosque' in east London has become mired in controversy with allegations that it is being bankrolled by Islamist groups in Saudi Arabia. Opponents say it would promote a radical form of Islam. They accuse its backers of not consulting local people.

Tablighi Jamaat, the controversial Islamist sect that has applied for planning permission for the multi-million-pound mosque, has been described by French intelligence as 'an antechamber of fundamentalism'. This evangelical movement, which has gained a strong following among young male Muslims, is a Deobandi Muslim organisation that has close links with the Wahhabi fundamentalist form of the religion promoted in Saudi Arabia and practised by the Saudi royal family.

The sect, which bought the brownfield site in the early Nineties, has sent hundreds of British Muslims to madrassas - religious schools - in Pakistan each year. There are concerns within British intelligence that these trips may have radicalised some of them. Followers have also attended the sect's Saudi-financed UK headquarters in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. They include Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the bombers who struck London on 7 July last year.

Oddly enough, the mosque has created a unique coalition of protesters comprising local Muslims and Christians. Way to go, silent majority!

Not all mosques create controvosy, of course. My own experience at a mosque I visited several years ago brought me near tears. But that was in a country that's been called a city of Tassawwuf (Sufism) and grave-worship in some social circles.

Don't forget the tail end of the world

The mainstream media has paid so much attention on extremist groups in the western hemisphere and Middle East that another part of the world has virtually dropped out of the radar screen. That part is the Asian theater of what I call the global jihadist agenda.

Now, some would disagree with the notion that extremists have any sort of coherent agenda at all. The so-called Sunni-terrorists of Iraq, for example, are fighting for very different reasons from extremists in Southern Thailand. But there is a common thread that binds almost all extremist groups. It is simple opportunism. Bluntly put, extremists are always on the lookout for some grievance or other to buttress their belief that Islam is under an unprecedented siege conducted by the "kafir" forces of America and the ever-useful public enemy, Israel.

The Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) of Indonesia is no different. In fact, because the group was so thoroughly deconstructed by intelligence agencies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore [1], their writings, teachings and ideology remain one of the best windows into the inner workings of the worldwide phenomenon that has come to be known as Al-Salafiyya al-Jihadiyya, or Salafi-Jihadists.

One of the documents that has recently been translated (by Greg Fealy, writing for Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia) is titled: "General Struggle Guidelines of Jemaah Islamiyah".

Al-Jama'ah Al-Islamiyah, a community of Muslims that was born and stands with other true Muslim communities in the arena of preaching and jihad int he path of God, with an eye to ensuring it abides by the straight path of Islamic principles, has compiled these General Struggle Guidelines.

The General Struggle Guidelines are an outline that can give a general picture of the community's actions, which fuse fundamental values with precise, oriented and focused operational steps.

PRINCIPLE ONE
Our sole objective is to seek God's blessings according to the means God and His Prophet have laid down.

PRINCIPLE TWO
Our creed is that of those who follow the traditions of the Prophet (hadith) and community using the approach of the Pious Ancestors (salaf-al-salih).

PRINCIPLE THREE
Our understanding of Islam is a comprehensive one in line with the understanding of the Pious Ancestors.

PRINCIPLE FOUR
The objective of our struggle is to have mankind submit to God alone by restoring the caliphate on earth.

PRINCIPLE FIVE
Our path is the path of faith, withdrawal (hijra) and jihad in the path of God.

PRINCIPLE SIX
Our means are:
1. Knowledge and piety
2. Conviction and resignation to God's will
3. Gratitude to God and patience
4. An ascetic life and the giving of priority to the hereafter
5. Love of jihad in the path of God and love of a martyr's death

PRINCIPLE SEVEN
Our loyalty is to God, His Prophet and people of faith.

PRINCIPLE EIGHT
Our enemy is Satan in the form of spirits and in the form of human beings.

PRINCIPLE NINE
The bonds linking our community are based on our common purpose, doctrine and understanding of religion.

PRINCIPLE TEN
We practise Islam in a pure and total way advancing from a community to a state based on Islam to a caliphate.

It is interesting that in addition to the Islamic religion's Five Pillars and Six Articles, the leaders of JI found it imperative to formulate a document that would delineate for their followers another set of rules to live by. What is even more striking is how evident the modern preoccupation with completeness is in this particular creed. To summarize what are really quite obvious values in the Islamic faith into the neat number of ten principles could not have been done without some thought and more importantly, editorial acumen.

Obviously, the JI's guidelines are based on an extremely selective choice of Quranic and hadith lessons that seems to find its climax in the creation of a caliphate. Sacred verses and aspects of tradition are mustered to establish a political retort against what they consider to be heathen concepts. In this, not even the Muslim governments of Indonesia and Malaysia are spared.

It must be mentioned that the idea of an Islamic caliphate has always been an emotional one for Muslims. In a purely historical sense, there are at least three frameworks for leadership of the Muslim ummah (community), with each framework being tied to a particular sect.

The early Sunnis, for example, believed that the post of caliph could only be held by a man from the Prophet Muhammad's tribe of Quarish. The Shia were even harsher, only reserving the ummah's leadership to members of the Prophet's family (ahle-bayt). And then, there were the Kharajites, who espoused a totally egalitarian process. They proclaimed that any person, so long as he or she was a "true" believer, could be caliph.

Not surprisingly, modern Muslim groups dismiss the classical Sunni position and subscribe instead to the Kharajite position. It is the irony of this age that from a secular standpoint, the Kharajite approach is closest to what we call democracy. The nation-state setup of every modern republic has given the Kharajite approach new strength. On the other hand, just as what the Kharajites quickly progressed into, these Muslim groups eventually see themselves as little, isolated pools of true belief in a wider of body of corruption. The cancer is outside. All that is clean and pure is within. To correct the imbalance, the cancer must be excised.

More and more, Salafi-Jihadist groups like Jemaah Islamiyah are turning into the Islamic world's very own Republican Party.

Notes:
[1] Singapore's White Paper on Jemaah Islamiyah is highly-readable and free for download.