Caliphate in the 21st Century

From Elmasry Elyoum>> Brotherhood MP Confesses: The Brotherhood was established to bring back Islamic Caliphate [read article]

It's such a disgrace when you hear somebody talking about "Caliphate" (Khilafa) in the 21st century. YA NAS YA HOOH, how come this bunch of mentally retarded people live among us and control our lives in many fields. How come this person doesn't realize we're in the year 2007, or let's say 1428 hijri (kol sana wento tayebeen)? Ya3ni all the values that humanity has struggled for through the ages will go with the wind kedda, just because the Brotherhood wants to bring back Calihpate! To hell with democracy, development, free thinking, freedom of speech, women liberation, human rights, and everything that leads to the advancement of nations. Let's go back in history, whilst we already suffer from the huge gap between us and the "First World". The real tragedy is that hallucination has its audience nowadays. Unfortunately, there are some people who listen to this talk and wonder "why not?"! These are people who live in a coma without making the slightest effort to wake up.

Why?! Because Caliphate was never part of our religion. Prophet Mohamed was a messenger of God, not a president of the Islamic World, and he never mentioned anything about Caliphate in his life. Because Caliphate involves no democracy (he is chosen by a few members of Shura) and is not elected by the people. Because no one can dare object to his rule or question his methods. Because there are no clear qualifications for earning the position of Caliph (Khalifa). Because, as the Brotherhood Murshed said, anyone can be a Caliph as long as he is Muslim (Rosalyousef 12/4/2006); which means that an Indian Muslim can rule Egypt; and which means that he doesn't even have to speak Arabic (that was the actual case with the Ottoman Caliph), which means, again, diminishing local identity and cultural variety. Because Caliphate did not protect Islamic countries against foreign attacks or occupation. Because of other numerous reasons.

Before we jump up in rage and overreact whenever there is an air of ridicule about Islam; please, take a minute to look around and see what Muslims do. Take a minute and think about those like Mr. Mohamed Shaker, who is an MP, and who is supposed to represent us as Egyptians. He represents you and me, like it or not. Yes. He got his seat in parliament via our votes, or cause we didn't care enough to vote, either ways led to the same outcome. Take a minute to think about what Mohamed Omara wrote in his last book concerning Christians. This man has earned several important positions in our religious institutions, and he is currently a member in the Islamic High Council, so he shouldn't be easily considered as someone babbling nonsense. This is a serious issue.

Take a minute to think about Muslims who kill one another in Iraq and Somalia. Take a minute to think about those who were unsuspectedly allowed inside a country and then killed thousands of its civilians in the name of Islamic Jihad. Take a minute to think about women in Arab countries and how they are made to look like black ghosts, and treated like second class citizens, facing laws that ban them from voting or driving. Take a minute to think about how some slaughter young girls (through circumcision) in the name of ethics. Take a minute to look at how our culture doesn't show any tolerance for the Other. Take another minute to think about why we neglected reading, modern sciences, arts, and social development; while men are growing their beards and women are covering their heads. Why haven't our countries yet known democracy, on the macro and micro levels alike? Why do we detest dialogue and fear freedom? Why do many of us still believe in superstitions? Why haven't we invented anything useful to the world while we thrive on consuming their products and making use of their technology? Why and why and why?

The problem was never in Islam. But Muslims give their religion a bad reputation, through their practices. And yet we want the civilized world to respect us. Hya eih? 3afya?.. Let's look at ourselves from the inside. Let's try to criticize ourselves and CHANGE before the coming generations condemn us. Tayeb bzemetak, dear reader, do you respect Hindus and Buddhists, who together make up half the world population? Although they have never threatened us in any way or shown any disrespect towards us. Our culture, which is totally manmade and, hence, transformable, simply didn't teach us to respect them. We didn't learn that anywhere. Not at home, nor our school, nor our mosques, nor our media, nor our literature; it isn't there. I wish we would start now to learn this lesson. It's already too late, but better late than never. And instead of denouncing those who criticize us, let's take it as an opportunity for analyzing our weaknesses and facing them. We can't hide anywhere. We can't stop the clock and just decide to escape to Caliphate. We can't avoid history from writing us in its worst pages, unless we write a new and better final chapter.