With God on their side? Zionism and Islamism have more in common than their
adherents think: both are dangerous political ideologies posing as religious
movements.
"The only meeting place for a Muslim and a Jew is on the battlefield." So
began the leaflet we in Hizb ut-Tahrir distributed across Muslim communities in
Britain in the 1990s. We supported this war cry by backpatting our comrades in
Hamas and refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist. Behind every single
world event, from the Holocaust to 9/11, Arab Islamists blamed a global Zionist
conspiracy. Similarly, in Jewish circles, Zionists from Binyamin Netanyahu to
Daniel Pipes have made careers out of lambasting Islamists. But are Islamists
and Zionists really all that different, despite their blatant enmity? I think
not.
Zionism and Islamism are both political perversions of ancient Abrahamic
faiths of Judaism and Islam. They were both born out of protest and anger:
Zionism in response to tsarist pogroms and Islamism as a retort to colonialism.
The heavy political content of both ideologies came from men who had no
theological training in the centuries-old traditional understanding of the
Torah or the Koran. Theodore Herzl, an Austrian journalist, mapped out Zionism
in an age of ubiquitous nationalism. Syed Qutb, an Egyptian literary critic,
was the chief ideologue for Islamism. And yet they appealed to people of
religious faith. Or did they?
Some of the most ardent Zionists have been non-Jews, not least George W Bush
and droves of evangelical, literalist Christians. Increasingly, here in
Britain, we are witnessing a new phenomenon of left-leaning non-Muslims who
identify with Islamism: George Galloway's Respect party members are a fine
example of this. When non-Jews and non-Muslims can share political ideologies
set up in the name of faith, it illustrates that these movements, in essence,
are not faith-driven, but political developments that have a potential to
appeal to various sections of the political spectrum, irrespective of religious
affiliation. Islamism pits itself against socialism and capitalism, not other
religions.
Prior to the Holocaust, Zionism was a pariah movement among Europe's Jewish
communities. Rabbis chastised Zionists for abusing religion and religious
identity. And yet, with the inhumane onslaught against European Jews in the
1940s, Zionism gained acceptance and respectability. Today, across the Arab
world, Islamism is on the cusp of gaining acceptance in the Arab street as
political strangulation, economic suffering and social frustration reach
unprecedented levels. For five decades, Muslim scholars, the ulama, have warned
against Islamism - but for how much longer?
The recent violent outburst of Hamas in Gaza, killing Fatah members and
overtaking government buildings, brought smiles to the faces of many an
Islamist in Britain and beyond. Today, Islamist terrorism in pursuit of a
utopian Islamist state is a global reality. But we would be ill-served if we
forgot the Zionist terrorism of the notorious Stern Gang, assassination of
British personnel, raids on Palestinian villages, and the blowing-up of the
King David Hotel in 1946. Disregard for the sanctity of human life is a
hallmark of both Zionism and Islamism.
Just as Israel is an expansionist state which remains in occupation of the
Golan Heights, Islamists plan for a state that would have an occupying army to
support ever-expanding borders (see Hizb ut-Tahrir's draft constitution). Just
as Zionists claim territory based on notions of "Jewish land" and God-given
rights, Islamists wish to reconquer India and Spain as "Muslim land", once
ruled by Muslim monarchs.
Zionists have achieved their state; Islamists are busy trying out every
conceivable option to bring their dream Zion to fruition. For centuries, Jewish
people said "Next year in Jerusalem", and for decades for now, Islamists have
been repeating "Caliphate by next Ramadan". I did this for three Ramadans
before realising I had been sold a pup and so abandoned Islamism, and slowly
rediscovered Islam. There is a world of difference between Islam and Islamism,
as there is between Judaism and Zionism.
While millions across the world make the distinction between Zionism and
Judaism, to date that distinction is not yet clear for most of us when it comes
to Islam. Islamism is not Islam, regardless of the claims of "Muslim
spokesmen". To condemn Israeli excesses is not anti-semitic; and to criticise
Islamism is not to be Islamophobic.
Among my closest friends, I count American Jews. As a Muslim, I see Jews as
cousins-in-faith, the descendants of Jacob. In The Islamist, I denounce suicide
bombings and support a two-state solution to the question of Palestinian
nationhood, as endorsed by Muslim scholars at al-Azhar in Egypt. So I don't
come to this as an enemy of Israel.
My problem lies with marketing political ideologies as religion. Whether it
is evangelical Christianity in the United States and their religious support
for rightwing Republicans, or Zionism posing as Judaism, or Islamism
masquerading as Islam - all three are equally guilty of misleading people,
creating conflicts and corrupting three of the world's greatest religions.
saiyed shahbazi
www.shahbazcenter.org
