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Tag: islam

  • “Islamic Conquest of Persia” Video Response

    “Islamic Conquest of Persia” Video Response

    This video by Caspian Report discusses the Islamic conquest of Persia (Present-day Iran) during the 7th Century AD. The rise of Islam as a religion coincided with significant political, social, economic and military weakness in Iran, which was then under the rule of the Sassanid Empire. The Arab armies initially attacked Iran in 633 through the province of Asōristān (present-day Iraq). After a 21-year-long campaign, the Sassanid Empire collapsed in 654 to the Arab forces under the leadership of Uthman ibn Affan.

    The conversion of the Iranian people to Islam was gradual and incentivized in various ways over 400 years with some Iranians never converting and widespread cases of the destruction of cultural artifacts and opponents to Muslim rule being harshly persecuted. Even though the Arab forces attempted to force an entirely different culture and traditions on the Iranian people, Iranian culture and the Persian language remained largely intact.

    Additionally, the Arab conquest of Iran is mentioned to have ultimately strengthened Islam and allowed it to become a major world religion that has endured. On the other hand, the Arab conquest is one of many examples of a foreign imperialist invasion force attempting to invade Iran and weaken its culture. Additionally, the Arab conquest of Iran is mentioned to have prevented the emergence of a strong and independent Iran until the rise of the Safavid Empire in the early 16th Century.

  • Eleven Things You Need To Know About Islam

    Eleven Things You Need To Know About Islam

    Islam is the second-largest religion in the world and is becoming increasingly prominent in the United States and parts of Europe. Even though Islam is similar in many ways to Judaism and Christianity and is one of the major world religions, many Europeans and Americans know little about Islam and view it as linked to extremism due to the rise of groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

    Islam is a monotheistic religion and accepts the same prophets as Christians and Jews, in addition to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad received his revelations from God through the angel Gabriel to address any errors that had made their way into the beliefs and scriptures of Judaism and Christianity.

    1. The Text – Qur’an

    The main text in Islam is the Qur’an. The Qur’an is considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God because it was recited by Muhammad as it was communicated to him by the angels, and later written in Arabic. As such, all Muslims memorize and recite the Qur’an in Arabic, despite the fact that translations of the Qur’an exist in many different languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Farsi, etc.

    2. The Rules – Five Pillars

    The Five Pillars of Islam are the core beliefs of all Muslims. The first two pillars are the bearing of witness to God and daily prayer. The next two are the giving of alms (2.5% of one’s income) to help the poor and fasting during the month of Ramadan. The final pillar is the Hajj, which is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim who is well enough must make at least once in their lifetime. In addition, Muslims are forbidden to use intoxicating beverages or to consume pork, blood, or harmful things. To be eaten, animals must be ritually slaughtered and drained of blood. In Islam, Halal means “permissible,” whereas Haraam means forbidden.”

    3. The Split – Sunni vs. Shi’a

    Islam is split into two sects, Sunni (~85% of all Muslims worldwide), and Shi’a (~15% of Muslims worldwide). Sunni Muslims make up the overwhelming majority of Muslims in many countries in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine, and the Gulf States. On the other hand, Shi’a Muslims make up the majority of the Muslim populations in Iran (~90%), Iraq (~51-55%), Bahrain (~70%), Yemen (~50%), Azerbaijan (~85%), and Lebanon (~75%) and have a sizable presence in Afghanistan (~7-15%), Pakistan (~20-30%), Kuwait (~20-25%) and parts of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the Gulf States.

    Even though both Sunnis and Shi’as follow the same fundamental religious beliefs and follow the message of Islam in the same ways, there are some notable differences between both sects. Sunnis believe that Muhammad did not select a successor to lead the Muslim community and that his successor must be selected by the Muslim community instead, whereas Shi’as believe that the leadership of the Muslim community should be heredity and that Muhammad’s successors were Ali and a series of Twelve Imams. Additionally, Shi’a Muslims are generally more progressive in their outlook regarding theological matters

    Historically, the Shi’a community has been the target of much persecution by Sunni Muslims and extremist groups due to their status as the minority group in Islam. Additionally, extremist groups such as ISIS have committed ethnic cleansing against Shi’a Muslim communities in Iraq and Syria over the past 3 years.

    4. Liberal Islam – Sufism

    Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam, in which its followers, or Sufi, are striving to obtain a better relationship with God by leading a more disciplined and less materialistic life. Early founders of Sufism believed there were many mystical overtones in the things the Prophet Muhammad was preaching. Many Sufis reside in Iran, as Iran was home to one of the most influential figures in spreading the ideas of Sufism, the poet Jalal al-Din Rumi. It is often said that the literature and culture that have been influenced by Sufism is second to none, and the followers of Sufism are truly blessed with hundreds of years of traditions and literature. One of Sufism’s most generic and important teachings is the development of love and presence. According to many Sufis, only presence can awaken us from the enslavement to the materialistic world in which many of us live. It is the goal of every Sufi to reject the materialistic love of self, and to find a true balance where the soul and body are one with God.

    5. Conservative Islam – Wahhabism

    Wahhabism is a conservative form of Islam originally developed by Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad Ibn Saud during the 18th Century. Wahhabism stresses a puritanical form of Islam that views the world as composed of either Muslims or non-Muslims and regards Muslims who disagree with their beliefs as heretics. Wahhabism is the state religion in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi government and wealthy individuals in both Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States exported Wahhabi theology to Muslim communities worldwide through development projects and other forms of aid.

    6. Religious Tolerance – “People of the Book”

    Even though the issue of religious intolerance has emerged in several Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan under the Taliban, Islam has historically been tolerant towards other religious faiths. The Qur’an states that “there is to be no compulsion in religion” and considers Christians and Jews to be “People of the Book” who have received a revelation and a scripture from God. Muslims also emphasize that tolerance towards others and cultural diversity is an essential component of Islam. The strong belief in religious tolerance found within Islam was contrary to the values of Christians, who tended to push out foreigners (including Jews and Muslims) from majority-Christian countries and slaughter them throughout the history of Christianity in events such as the Crusades.

    7. Gender Equality – The Role of Women

    In Islam, men and women are both equal before the eyes of God. Islam improved the status of women in the Arab world and gave them legal and social rights. In only a few instances are the rights of men and women noticeably different in the Qur’an, though these verses are being studied and reinterpreted by both legal and religious scholars.

    8. Conflict and Context – Religion of Peace

    Islam does not advocate violence and condemns all forms of violence wholeheartedly. Some passages of the Qur’an authorize Muslims to defend themselves from aggression, though they must be interpreted in the context in which they were initially revealed. The Qur’an also underscores that permission to fight an enemy is to be balanced by a mandate for making peace and condemns the killing of innocent civilians.

    9. Moral Guidelines – Shari’a Law

    The Qur’an provides moral directives describing what Muslims should aspire to do and achieve in life, which are known as Islamic (Shari’a) law. A wide array of differences exists between the Islamic schools of thought that reflects the diverse contexts in which the jurists were writing. Contemporary scholars also face the challenge of addressing the changing demands of modern society in relation to the scriptures of the Qur’an and Islamic law.

    10. Legal Directives – Fatwas

    A Fatwa is a formal Islamic legal opinion on the nature of things such as the wearing of the Hijab or not. Fatwas can be added over time through scholarship and changes within society. Legal reforms in Islam can be applied on the country basis rather than on the entire Islamic community as a whole.

    11. The Struggle – Jihad

    Jihad is a term that is misinterpreted in the West. Jihad is derived from the Arabic root, jhd, meaning to “strive,” “exert oneself to the utmost,” “endeavor,” “struggle in the way of God.” It is a way to have Muslims remain faithful to their religion in spite of the challenges they face, internally and externally and the term does not mean “holy war,” which is condemned in Islam.

  • Ali Shariati & Liberal Islamic Political Thought

    Ali Shariati & Liberal Islamic Political Thought

    One of the most important political theorists in Iran over the past century was Ali Shariati. Shariati was a well-known Iranian intellectual active during the 1960s and 1970s. Shariati developed an entirely new perspective on the history, philosophy, and sociology of Islam based in part on Marxist political thought, and gave highly charged lectures that laid the foundation for the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, which ignited only 7 months after his death at the age of 43.

    Ali Shariati was born in the Iranian city of Mashad on November 23, 1933, to a religious family. His father was a teacher and Islamic scholar. From an early age, Shariati came into contact with individuals from the less privileged economic classes and was exposed to the massive levels of poverty and hardship evident within much of Iran during the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time, he was exposed to Western philosophy and political thought. He attempted to provide solutions for the problems faced by Middle Eastern societies through traditional Islamic principles interwoven with the point of view of modern sociology and philosophies such as Marxism and Socialism.

    Ali Shariati became a high-school teacher in 1952 and was an active member of the Islamic Association of Students. In 1953, Shariati became a member of the National Front and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Mashhad in 1955. In 1957, he was arrested by the Iranian police, along with 16 other members of the National Resistance Movement due to his leading a protest critical of the Pahlavi Regime. Shariati managed to obtain a scholarship for France, where he continued his graduate studies at Sorbonne University and worked towards earning his doctorate in sociology. During this period, Shariati started collaborating with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1959.

    In 1961, Ali Shariati founded the Freedom Movement of Iran along with Ebrahim Yazdi, Mostafa Chamran and Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, three individuals who would become the leaders in the first post-revolutionary government of Iran in 1979. Shariat returned to Iran in 1962 and was arrested for taking part in the June 5, 1963, protests against the Iranian government and the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. He was released after a few weeks, at which point he began teaching at the University of Mashhad. Shariati subsequently moved to Tehran, where he began lecturing at the Hosseiniye Ershad Institute. These lectures proved to be hugely popular among his students and were spread by word of mouth throughout all sectors of Iranian society

    Shariati’s continued success again aroused the interest of the government, which arrested him in late 1975. Widespread pressure from the populace and an international outcry eventually led to his release after eighteen months in solitary confinement in June of 1977. Shariati was allowed to leave the country for England and d died three weeks later in a Southampton hospital under mysterious circumstances. It is argued by many that his time in captivity within Iran and torture at the hands of SAVAK contributed to his death.

    Ali Shariati developed an entirely novel approach to religious study and interpreted Shi’a Islam under the lens of revolutionary ideologies such as Socialism and Marxism. In particular, Shariati discussed the dual aspects of the Shi’a Islam throughout its history. The pure form of Shi’ism was known as Red Shi’ism, which is the pure form of the religion and focuses on social justice and salvation for the common person. Additionally, Red Shi’ism lacks the rituals and an established clerical hierarchy. In contrast, Black Shi’ism is the less pure form of the religion and is under the domination of several distinct groups such as the monarchy, the clerical establishment, and the Bazzari (the traditional merchant class of Iran), thus being out of touch with the needs of the common person. According to Shariati, Black Shi’ism was established in Iran under the Safavid monarchy during the 16th Century and was embodied by the Pahlavi monarchy.

    The idea of Red Shi’ism as promoted by Ali Shariati shares some similarities with Liberation Theology, which was established by the Catholic Church in Latin America during the 1960s in response to massive human rights abuses and continued economic inequalities within the region. Liberation Theology stresses the active involvement of religious organizations in addressing social inequalities and promoting the belief that religion can play an active role in improving societal conditions.

    Ali Shariati argued that a moral and proper society would conform to Islamic values. Shariati suggested that the role of government was to guide society in the most moral manner rather than to manage society in the best possible manner. Shariati also believed that the most experienced and knowledgeable members of the clergy were the best suited for guiding society due to their in-depth understanding of the Islamic values system. Due to their knowledge of such traditions and beliefs, Shariati felt that the clergy was uniquely suited to advance the individual towards their greatest potential and to not give into to the hedonistic desires of individuals as evident in much of the Western world.

    In contrast to Western philosophers such as John Locke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and John Stuart Mill, Ali Shariati was critical of the idea of liberal democracy, pointing out that the induction of liberal democracy correlates with the plundering of nations for economic reasons. Shariati believed that the idea of liberal democracy is the main enemy of humankind and progress and that the economic structure characteristic of it promotes inequalities and harms the rights of individuals. Shariati does not accept the definition of Democracy based on western explanation and viewed religious government as the best form of democracy. According to Shariati, the religious government is the main right of Muslim citizens in terms of democracy and governmental type because it promotes the highest level of social equality and respects the rights of all citizens regardless of their differences in appearance, status, and social class.

    Ali Shariati sought to translate his ideas into the cultural symbols of Shi’a Islam that many Iranian citizens could relate to such as Ashura. Shariati believed that Shi’a’s should not only actively await the return of the Twelfth Imam but should work to hasten his return by fighting for social justice at any cost. Additionally, Shariati believed that people do not have to put away and hide their religious and cultural practices in the fight against imperialism and inequality and that the people could fight such problems the most effectively through the recovering of their cultural and religious identity.

    In conclusion, Ali Shariati was one of the most influential Iranian philosophers of the 20th Century. Shariati believed that the application of both Marxism and Islamic principles is the most effective way to address social inequalities and further social justice, and sought to spread his ideas through symbols associated with Shi’a Islam and Iranian culture. Additionally, many of Ali Shariati’s ideas are still influential today and have been used by numerous groups worldwide seeking to create an equal society and move away from the legacies of imperialism and colonialism.