Achtung!
This post has been tampered with???
DR KALIM SIDDIQUI'S AND SHEIKH IMRAN HOSSEIN'S VISION FOR ORTHODOX MUSLIMS AND ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS
Muslim Parliament Manifesto
From Daryl's Encyclopaedia
THE MUSLIM MANIFESTO - a strategy for survival
Dr Kalim Siddiqui (RA) Former Director of The Muslim Institute
https://muhammad-ali-ben-marcus.blogspot.com/2012/01/muslim-manifesto-strategy-for-survival.htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if5SzZ-AA8M
Published on 10 Jul 2013
Round-table
discussion with Prof Alexander Dugin and Russian intellectuals, including the
foremost Russian expert on Eastern Orthodox Christian eschatology // ENGLISH
ONLY VERSION-
Avec Alexandre Douguine, Russie, Moscou,
En Juin 2013, à l'université d'Etat de Moscou, eu lieu un colloque composé d'intellectuels russes dont notamment le théoricien, sociologue, polyglotte et chrétien orthodoxe, Alexandre Douguine (Alexandr Dugin) et le Sheikh Imran Hosein, érudit musulman spécialisé en Economie et en Eschatologie Islamique.
Autour d'un échange intellectuel convivial sur la politique internationale à la lumière des eschatologies islamique et chrétienne orthodoxe, les penseurs présents mettront en évidence les corrélations et points de convergences entre les prophéties tant attendues par les musulmans et les chrétiens orthodoxes, notamment la Conquête de Constantinople pour les musulmans, le retour du Siège pour les chrétiens orthodoxes, la Cathédrale Aya Sophia de Constantinople, qui fut transformée en Mosquée lors de la chute de l'empire byzantin par les khalifs Ottomans et transformée ensuite en Musée.
Une rencontre qui rappelle l'alliance entre le monde musulman et chrétien orthodoxe que le Prophète (pbsl) prophétisa, et pour laquelle, notre honorable Sheikh Imran Hosein, combat !
Fraternellement,
INHFR
Facebook INHFR: http://www.facebook.com/inhfr
Site INHFR: http://imranhosein.fr
Muslim Parliament Manifesto
From Daryl's Encyclopaedia
THE MUSLIM MANIFESTO - a strategy for survival
Dr Kalim
Siddiqui (RA) Former Director of The Muslim Institute
Former Muslim Parliament of Great Britain (Dr Kalim Siddiqui's NOT the traitor Dr Ghayasuddin's one )
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (March 2009) |
Contents |
Muslim Manifesto
The ideas in the The Muslim Manifesto: A Strategy for Survival[2] launched the Muslim Parliament. Authored primarily by Kalim Siddiqui, the Manifesto declared:"It is a matter of deep regret that the Government, all political parties and the mass media in Britain are now engaged in a relentless campaign to reduce Muslim citizens of this country to the status of a disparaged and oppressed minority. We have no alternative but to resist this insidious campaign."
The Muslim Manifesto made it clear that "Political and cultural subservience goes against their grain" because "at its inception Islam created a political platform from which Muslims were to launch themselves on a global role as founders of great states, empires and a world civilization and culture."
The Muslim Manifesto proposes setting up a "Council of Muslim Women in Britain", stating that "It is for Muslim women themselves to develop an Islamic lifestyle in the context of the needs of the Muslim community in Britain. It is also for Muslim women to play a major part in the public life of the Muslim community in Britain... The fact is that a Muslim woman cannot be a western woman... Muslim women have a higher and nobler place in society than the so-called "emancipated" women in the west".
The Manifesto establishes a six-point "Relationship with the British authorities":
- Islam allows Muslims to accept protection of life, property, and liberty from non-Muslim rulers and their political systems. Muslims placed in this situation may also pay taxes and other dues to a non-Muslim State.
- Muslims living under the protection of a non-Muslim State must obey the laws of that State, so long as such obedience does not conflict with their commitment to Islam and the Ummah. Other minorities in Britain, notably Jews and Roman Catholics, do the same.
- There are laws on the British Statute Book that are in direct conflict with the laws of Allah; these relate to such matters as usury, abortion, homosexuality, gambling, sale and consumption of alcohol, and the abolition of capital punishment.
- Muslims will co-operate with the appropriate authorities for the maintenance of law and order and the promotion of peaceful and wholesome conditions for all our fellow citizens.
- Muslims will insist, and continue to insist for as long as it may be necessary, that the British State provide them, their religion and culture protection from gratuitous insult, obscenity and abuse.
- Muslims make it clear to the State, and to all sections of British society, that they do not expect to be and will not tolerate being insulted and abused on grounds of their religion, culture and traditions.
The Muslim Parliament today
The Muslim Parliament today is radically different both in size and aims. It is led by Ghayasuddin Siddiqui and Deputy Leader, Jaffer Clarke. Dr Siddiqui is also a founding trustee of British Muslims for Secular Democracy [3] and an advisor to the Quilliam Foundation. It is unclear whether the Parliament actually holds regular elections, or has any form of democratic accountability. Dr Siddiqui, as the only voice of the Parliament, regularly uses the platform to espouse seemingly moderate views, most recently through the launch of a marriage contract with the stated aim of protecting Muslim women. This is in marked contrast to a previously fundamentalist position. In 2000, the Independent reported Dr Siddiqui's continued support for the instruction for murder placed by the Iranian government on the British Indian author Salman Rushdie.External links
Notes
- ^ Kalim Siddiqui, In Pursuit of the Power of Islam, p.25 The Muslim Institute, London 1996: ISBN 0-905081-59-5
- ^ The Muslim Manifesto
- ^ www.bmsd.org.uk
Dr. Kalim Siddiqui’s vision for Muslims living in the West
CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL, TORONTO, CANADA.
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In last month’s issue of Crescent International, in his column, “From the Editor’s Desk”, Zafar Bangash highlighted the fact that the paper recently completed 40 years of publication, masha’Allah. This month marks another significant anniversary: 15 years since the death of Dr. Kalim Siddiqui in South Africa on April 18, 1996. The two are not unconnected, for it was Kalim Siddiqui who, after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, was instrumental in converting Crescent International, previously a Pakistani community paper in Toronto, into an international newsmagazine of the new (or at least revitalised) global Islamic movement.Dr. Siddiqui’s early recognition of the significance of the Islamic Revolution, and the need for a newsmagazine such as the Crescent, was just one example of his remarkable insight into the contemporary historical situation facing Muslims. This insight was reflected in so many of his initiatives, including the establishment of the Muslim Institute in the early 1970s, with the aim of preparing the ground for a resurgence of the Islamic movement at some time in the future; the transformation of Crescent International; the international conferences of the Islamic movement in London and other cities in the 1980s and early 1990s, which helped establish contacts between Islamic activists and leaders around the world; and the establishment of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain after the Rushdie controversy. The fact that the Muslim Institute and Muslim Parliament, the major institutions with which Dr. Siddiqui was associated, no longer exist in any meaningful form should not be allowed to diminish appreciation of their significance at the times they were established and active, or of the visions on which they were based.
I was reminded of the foundation of the Muslim Parliament recently, when the first congressional hearings into extremism among Muslims in the US took place in Washington on March 10. The calling of the hearings by Republican Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, late last year caused controversy, with Muslims and other critics comparing them with the McCarthyite Senate hearings into communism in America in the 1950s, which became a witch-hunt against political opponents. Although media coverage focused on criticism of the hearings, suspicions that the new hearings would be little more than a platform for right-wing Islamophobes were confirmed by contributions such as the anti-Shariah diatribe from South Caronlina congressman Jeff Duncan, who described Islam as an ideology which threatens the primacy of the US constitution. It seems inevitable that future sessions will serve to promote and legitimise the bigotry of the numerous anti-terrorist “experts”, Christian Zionists, extreme Republicans and other right-wing think-tanks and advocates that have a long-record of portraying Islam as alien, hostile and intolerable in the US, and American Muslims as enemies within who pose an existential threat to the land of freedom.
This is another example of the problems that Muslims in western countries face because of their dual identities: as part of a global Ummah of Islam, large parts of which are engaged in struggles for freedom and self-determination against the power of a global hegemon, while also being citizens or residents of that global hegemon or countries culturally and politically aligned with it. Kalim Siddiqui recognised, as an Islamic intellectual and activist living and working in Great Britain, that this dual identity would put Muslims in western countries in an increasingly difficult situation as resistance to western hegemony increased in Muslim countries, and therefore Islam was increasingly openly identified as a problem and a threat in the West.
The inauguration of the Muslim Parliament in 1992, after three years of groundwork beginning during the Rushdie controversy, was based on Dr. Siddiqui’s realization that this was a situation that Muslims in western countries could not avoid, but would just have to cope with. He argued, long before the attacks of 9/11, that Muslims in the West could expect nothing but hostility from western governments, and would need strong, independent and credible organizations and leaders, with genuine roots in the community, rather than the weak lobby groups whose instinct was to approach the government cap in hand rather than to deal with them firmly from positions of strength. The Muslim Parliament has long been attacked as a separatist and isolationist group by its enemies, and otherwise slandered and misrepresented, particularly by non-Muslims offended at the idea of a minority community having strong and assertive organization; but the reality was that it aimed to make the Muslims of Britain more self-reliant and less dependent on the favours of political parties and governments to achieve their needs and protect their interests.
As Dr. Siddiqui predicted, even before 9/11, the problems facing Muslims in western countries have intensified in recent years, as “the war on terrorism” has provided opportunities for both right-wing Islamophobes and secular liberal fundamentalists to mount increasingly blatant attacks on Islam and Muslims. The challenge for Muslims, meanwhile, remains exactly as Dr. Siddiqui stated it: to survive as Muslims individually, and as communities, despite the pressures on us; and to be able to use our unique position as Muslims in the heart of the western world to represent, articulate and support the legitimate aspirations of Muslims elsewhere and the Ummah as a whole as best we can.
The latter is what Crescent has been doing for the last 32 years, even though other institutions and projects which Dr. Kalim Siddiqui established have fallen by the wayside in the years since his death. As for Dr. Siddiqui’s broader vision, Muslims living in western countries must continue to face the enmity of western states and establishments as best they can, without the sorts of leadership and organization that Dr. Siddiqui attempted to establish in Britain. The one certainty is that Muslims in both America and Europe, as well as other non-Muslim countries, are inevitably going to suffer the consequences of their dual identity, and so continue facing precisely the sort of issues that Kalim Siddiqui anticipated and tried to prepare British Muslims for over 20 years ago.
Iqbal Siddiqui is a former editor of Crescent International (1998–2008). He now publishes a personal blog, ‘A Sceptical Islamist’: http://scepticalislamist.typepad.com.
Cover Story
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Dr Kalim Siddiqui |
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Biography- 02.10.2008, 04:30:29 |
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DR KALIM SIDDIQUI was one of
the leading intellectuals and Islamic movement activists of the modern
era. As Founder and Director of the Muslim Institute, London, he played a
leading role in developing the political understanding and thought of
the contemporary Islamic movement, and in globalizing the movement after
the Islamic Revolution in Iran. He also founded and led the Muslim
Parliament of Great Britain, which was a radical new sort of Muslim
community institution when it was inaugurated in 1992.
Dr Kalim Siddiqui combined intellectual insight and understanding with movement activism and political leadership. Intellectually, his major contribution was to the political thought of the Islamic movement, in a series of papers published in the 1970s and 1980s, which presented radical and revolutionary in a way which ordinary Muslims found accessible and easy to understand. His intellectual work culminated in his paper Processes of Error, Deviation, Correction and Convergence in Muslim Political Thought (1989) and his last book, Stages of Islamic Revolution (1996). When he passed away in South Africa in 1996, he was working on a new project on political dimensions of the Seerah. His final paper on this subject was published after his death by the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT). The two major institutions he founded and worked through, the Muslim Institute, London, and the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, both declined after his death. However, the ICIT was established in 1998 by some of his closest colleagues and associates, including Zafar Bangash (now Director of the ICIT), Imam Mohammed Al-Asi, and his son, Iqbal Siddiqui, to continue his intellectual work for the Islamic movement. Kalim Siddiqui was born in British India on September 15, 1931. His family were small land-owners in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), but his father worked as a sub-inspector of police. He first became politically aware and active as a teenager at boarding school in Faizabad in 1944-45. At this time, he became a student activist of the Muslim League during the Pakistan movement. The Islamic symbolism the Muslim League used to mobilise the Muslim masses of India was one of the major attractions to him. He had received a six-volume set of Seerat-un Nabi by Shibly Nomani and Sayyid Sulaiman Nadwi as a gift from a teacher when he was 12, and considered the life and example of the Prophet as his inspiration from that time onwards. He moved to Karachi in 1948, a few months after the partition of British India and the establishment of Pakistan. There his political maturity grew and he realized that the new State was little more Islamic than British India had been. As a student, he was active in a Khilafat Group dedicated to establishing khilafah in Pakistan, and founded and edited a popular political newspaper The Independent Leader. He came to Britain in 1954 to study journalism. Other members of the Khilafat Group also came to London at about the same time. The was to learn skills which they could put to use for the movement back in Pakistan. But in London the group broke up as differences emerged between them and some members became more interested in developing their careers. The young Kalim meanwhile was proving a natural at journalism. Starting at the Kensington News in west London, he gradually worked his way up the journalistic ladder through a series of local and provincial newspapers. In 1964, shortly after moving to Slough, where he lived for the rest of his life, he joined the Guardian as a sub-editor. At the same time, he decided to build upon the limited education he had received in India and Karachi. He did O-levels and A-levels at evening school before going on to study International Relations at University College, London, and then completing a PhD in 1972. Throughout his student career, he also continued to work full-time to support himself and his family. Throughout this period, however, he also remained involved in both Islamic affairs generally and Pakistani affairs in particular, and the thinking which was to form the basis of his future work was developed. During the late sixties, he returned to Pakistan, where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian and did fieldwork for his doctorate, which was later published as Functions of International Conflict -- a socio-economic study of Pakistan. Shortly afterwards, the East Pakistan war began and Bangladesh was created. It was during this period that he wrote his book Conflict, Crisis and War in Pakistan (1972), and that the first steps towards the establishment of the Muslim Institute were taken. In hindsight, the establishment of the Muslim Institute in 1973 can be seen as the beginning of his main work; everything that led to this phase in his life was merely a prologue. The establishment and early years of the Institute The Muslim Institute was established in 1973-74, by a group of young Muslims that came to be known as the Preparatory Committee of the Muslim Institute. This group emerged from meetings of Muslim students and others in London University in 1972 onwards. The meetings began with an invitation to Dr Siddiqui to address a meeting of Pakistani students at University College, London, shortly after the publication of Conflict, Crisis and War in Pakistan. The invitation was from Zafar Bangash, then an engineering undergraduate, later one of Dr Kalim's closest colleagues, and now Director of the ICIT. Shortly after these meetings began, Dr Siddiqui was awarded his PhD and started teaching International Relations at the University of Southern California's European teaching programme in West Germany. At the same time, he also remained on the staff of the Guardian. Nonetheless, the meetings continued, moving from London University to Dr Siddiqui's home in Slough when Zafar Bangash graduated and left UCL. The subject of these talks was initially the state of Pakistan, recently torn apart by the 1971 war and the creation of Bangladesh. The group's initial was to establish a 'Pakistan Research and Planning Institute' (PRPI). But Kalim Siddiqui had always thought in broader terms than just Pakistan. The Muslim Institute for Research and Planning In July 1973, Dr Kalim was invited to attend an International Islamic Youth Conference convened by Colonel Mu'ammar Qaddafi in Tripoli. There Dr Kalim met Muslims from all parts of the world and discussed his with them. Among them were two South African Muslims who were to remain life-long friends of Dr Kalim and supporters of the Muslim Institute. These were Abu Bakr Mohamad of Durban and Ismail Kalla of Pretoria, at whose home he was to pass away over 20 years later. He was so inspired the experience that within weeks of returning, he had written a book about it. This book, Towards a New Destiny, was a critique of Qaddafi's thinking and a plea for a new intellectual movement among Muslims. It provides a remarkable insight to Dr Kalim's thinking at time of the establishment of the Muslim Institute. He also took the same to the Preparatory Committee. The Pakistan Research and Planning Institute became instead the Muslim Institute for Research and Planning (MIRAP); the precise was suggested by Amir Ahmad, a long- standing friend of Dr Kalim. From then on, the focus of discussion became the writing of the Draft Prospectus of the Muslim Institute. This was written by Dr Kalim but discussed in detail at meetings of the Preparatory Committee. Zafar Bangash has described it as "perhaps the most thoroughly debated and discussed document I have ever known". The writing of the Draft Prospectus took over six months; the text was finally approved and sent to press early in February 1974. Where Towards a New Destiny was an intensely personal work, the Draft Prospectus is a cold, crystal clear presentation of Dr Kalim's understanding and> This can be summarised as laying the intellectual and practical ground-work for a future generation to re-establish the civilizational power of Islam through a series of Islamic revolutions. Among the insights in these works which were radical at the time was that the west was totally and irredeemably an enemy of Islam; that no solutions to the problems of Islamic civilization could be based on western that western-educated Muslims were not equipped to lead the Ummah and could only contribute by acting in partnership with traditional scholars of Islam, the ulama; and that no quick fixes could be found for problems which had been almost 1400 years in the making. One of the remarkable features of the laid out in the Draft Prospectus of the Muslim Institute is that not one of them has been proven wrong by over 20 years of some of the most radical possible changes in the Muslim situation. A few days after the Draft Prospectus of the Muslim Institute was finalized, Kalim Siddiqui suffered his first heart attack. He was seriously ill for many months and was to suffer from heart trouble for the rest of his life. Even then, in 1974, doctors advised him to retire from all forms of work and accept a full disability pension. Instead, he resigned from the Guardian and the University of Southern California and committed himself fully to the Muslim Institute. He was determined not to waste whatever time he had left, but to fit in as much work for the Islamic movement in as possible. This was the attitude to his health he was to maintain over the next 22 years -- through two more heart attacks and two by-pass operations, in 1981 and 1995 -- as can be seen in his foreword to his final book, Stages of Islamic Revolution (1995). Dr Kalim's work in the early years of the Institute Over the next few years, he travelled the world, explaining and discussing his with Muslims everywhere and promoting the and work of the Muslim Institute. The Institute organised seminars and teaching courses, and published books and academic papers. By 1978, it was well-enough established to move out of Dr Siddiqui's home into offices at 6 Endsleigh Street, in Bloomsbury, the intellectual heart of London. The same year, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui gave up his teaching career to join the Institute full-time as Assistant Director, and Dr Kalim became Director of the Muslim Institute. Dr Ghayasuddin was Dr Kalim's right-hand man for the rest of his life and succeeded him as both Director of the Muslim Institute and Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. (Unfortunately, for a number of reasons that are not relevant here, both the Institute and the Parliament were to decline rapidly following Dr Kalim's passing. Neither now exists in any substantial or meaningful form.) But Kalim Siddiqui's main interest was still in political thought, and the Institute's work remained predominantly in this direction. Two major papers prepared by Dr Kalim for conferences during the seventies remain important today. These are The Islamic Movement: A Systems Approach (1976) and Beyond the Muslim Nation-States (1977). In these papers he developed major aspects of his political thinking. In The Islamic movement: a systems approach he hypothesised the existence of a global Islamic movement dedicated to re-establishing the civilizational power of Islam, and explored aspects of its work. In Beyond the Muslim nation-States (1977), he critiqued both the existing political order in the Muslim world and Muslim attempts to emulate western social science, particularly political science. Both studies led him to similar conclusions: that, in the words of The Islamic movement: A Systems Approach, "the first priority... must be the development of integrated academic disciplines of economics, politics, and sociology, and alternative operational models for a future civilization of Islam." Both these papers were presented at Islamic conferences convened by Saudi institutions in Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, Dr Kalim did not hesitate to describe the existing Muslim states as illegitimate and un-Islamic. This is indicative of both Dr Kalim's own personality (he once commented that it was a wonder that he ever got invited to conferences after what he did to Qaddafi in Towards a New Destiny!) and of the state of the Muslim world at the time, when Muslim governments felt totally unthreatened by such as those of Kalim Siddiqui and the Muslim Institute. Less than two years after Dr Kalim wrote that the challenge facing Muslims was to build a platform from which a future generation can make its escape, (Beyond the Muslim Nation-States), came the event which was to change both Dr Kalim's own life and the course of modern Muslim history: the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Impact of the Islamic Revolution The Islamic Revolution in Iran surprised a lot of people. In September 1978, just four months before the Shah fled Iran, US president Jimmy Carter described his regime as an island of stability in a sea of turbulence . Dr Kalim had visited Iran in early 1978 and knew a number of active Iranian students in London. But he too saw little sign of a revolutionary movement with the potential to establish Islamic rule. He later said that he realised that something very special was happening in Iran when he first saw Imam Khomeini on television. He realised immediately that this was no sham revolutionary educated in London, Harvard or the Sorbonne; this was a leader of Islam whose roots lay in the political traditions of Islam itself. At the same time, he was shocked by the negative reaction to the revolution among many of the Muslims he knew on the Saudi 'conference circuit'. These were men who had talked a good fight during the 1970s but then tried to ignore the Islamic Revolution in Iran for fear of losing their Saudi patronage. Dr Kalim, by contrast, threw himself into both studying and serving the new Islamic state. He recognised that this was possibly the breakthrough in Islamic history that he had expected to come decades in the future. But he also realised, as he said later, that the breakthrough could prove transitory, and he was determined to capture as much of its light as possible in case it did not last. At the same time, he was aware that academic study of the new phenomenon was not sufficient; as a Muslim, it was his duty to help the embryonic Islamic state to survive the massive pressures being put on it by its enemies. As a result, Dr Kalim visited Iran several times to see and understand the Revolution. The Muslim Institute also arranged a lecture course in London by Hamid Algar, translator of Imam Khomeini's writings into English. Dr Kalim and other Institute members also toured Britain, the US and other countries, addressing meetings to explain the true significance of events in Iran to excited but often uninformed Muslim audiences. Dr Kalim's developing understanding of the Islamic Revolution can be traced through his writings of this period. These include The State of the Muslim World Today (1979) and The Islamic Revolution: Achievements, Obstacles and Goals (1980). At the same time, Dr Kalim's insight into the broader historical situation was helping Iranians to understand the true depth of their own revolution. His insight into the nature of the revolution and the problems it faced can be gauged by his reaction to Imam Khomeini's appointment of Abol Hasan Bani-Sadr as president. Dr Kalim's comment: "The Imam will have to dismiss this man!" Dr Kalim was to remain a close friend and supporter of the Islamic State of Iran for the rest of his life. He regarded this as the only possible relationship any Muslim could have with a genuine Islamic state. The relationship was often rocky; many Iranians did not like his regular criticisms of government policy, or his understanding of the Revolution as Islamic and relevant to all Muslims. Many Iranians would have preferred the revolution to have been purely Irani and Shi'a. But there were also many Iranians who held Dr Kalim in great esteem and affection, as was witnessed by the reaction to news of his death. Dr Kalim always maintained that the limitations of Iranian functionaries and bureaucrats could be overcome provided the leadership remained committed to the global Islamic movement. He never met Imam Khomeini, but developed a personal relationship with Imam Sayyid Ali Khamanei, based on the Imam's admiration for Dr Kalim's last major paper, Processes of error, deviation, correction and convergence in Muslim political thought (1989). Dr Kalim considered this relationship the greatest possible honour in the last years of his life. Crescent International and the global Islamic movement Immediately after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Dr Kalim realised that one of its effects would be to give a tremendous boost to the Islamic movement whose existence he had hypothesised in the 1970s. Under the leadership of Islamic Iran, he hoped that this boost would prove sufficient to create a genuine, functional global Islamic movement rather than the theoretical one he had previously written about. One of his immediate objectives, therefore, became to aid the emergence of this new, global Islamic movement. To do this, he teamed the Muslim Institute up with a Canadian Muslim newsmagazine, the Crescent International. This was a community magazine in Toronto, founded in 1972 by Lateef and Zahida Owaisi. Since 1975, it had been edited by Zafar Bangash, who had been a leading member of the Muslim Institute Preparatory Committee in London. He was also writing in support and defence of the Islamic Revolution in Iran during this period. In August 1980, Crescent was taken over by the Muslim Institute. The Crescent International has been the major newsmagazine of the revolutionary Islamic movement ever since. In the early years, the bulk of its copy was written by Dr Kalim. Later, editorial responsibilities passed to Zafar Bangash, who gave up his engineering career to run the paper. For a four-year period from 1987 to 1991, an Arabic edition was produced under the Al-Hilal al-Dawli. The impact of these magazines has been far out of proportion to their circulation and readership. Other Muslim Institute efforts to serve the Islamic movement included the Muslimedia news syndication service (1981-91) and a popular annual anthology series Issues in the Islamic Movement, seven volumes of which were published from 1982 to 1989. These brought together major writings on the Islamic movement and Muslim current affairs from Crescent, Muslimedia and other sources. Because of financial and other restrictions, many of these publications have had to be closed down. But the Crescent International survives and is keenly read by Muslim academics and activists all over the world, despite being banned in numerous Muslim countries. It is now edited by Iqbal Siddiqui, and works closely with the ICIT. Muslim Institute Conferences and Seminars The other main way in which the Muslim Institute worked to bring together and consolidate the new global Islamic movement was by a series of world conferences and seminars in London during the 1980s. These were on difference themes relating to the Islamic movement and the contemporary Muslim situation. The first of these, on the Political Dimensions of the Hajj, was in 1982. It was followed by seminars on State and Politics in Islam (1983), The Islamic Revolution in Iran (1984), What Future for Pakistan? (1984), The Impact of Nationalism on the Ummah (1985), Muslim Political Thought during the Colonial Period (1986), The Future of the Haramain (1988), The Implications of the Rushdie Affair (1989) and The Future of Muslims in Britain (1990). These combined serious intellectual discussions on matters central to the work of the global Islamic movement, with unique opportunities for intellectuals and activists from the Islamic movement to come together. Among the many senior people who attended these conferences were Shaikh Fadhlullah of Lebanon, Shaikh Omar Abdul Rahman of Egypt, Shaikh Assad al-Tamimi of Palestine, Muallim Ibrahim Zakzaki of Nigeria, Shaikh Muhammad al-Asi of the USA and numerous senior ulama from Islamic Iran. Following the establishment of the Muslim Parliament, such seminars on global issues continued to be held, but under the Muslim Parliament banner instead of that of the Muslim Institute. The two major conferences held in this period were on Bosnia and the Global Islamic Movement (1993) and Hiroshima to Sarajevo: Fifty Years of the United Nations (1995). It is, therefore, wholly appropriate that the two institutions should have come together to convene a Memorial Conference, In Pursuit of the Power of Islam, as a tribute to Dr Kalim in November 1996. Unfortunately, this proved to be virtually the last effectively project run by them before the new leadership, following Dr Kalim's death, proved unable to sustain the institutions. The Muslim Institute's overseas activities During the 1970s, Dr Kalim had established contacts, friends and supporters all over the world. After the Islamic Revolution, he found that many of these people shared his understanding of the vision of the significance of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and his commitment to serving the embryonic Islamic movement. Since the Revolution, therefore, the Muslim Institute has directly or indirectly established operations in a number of other countries, including Canada, South Africa, Pakistan, Malaysia and India. These have included publishing and distribution of Crescent International, Muslimedia, Al-Hilal al-Dawli and local newspapers; publication of books and videos; and the holding of seminars and lectures. The Muslim Institute has also been active in other countries where the political situation is such that details cannot be given. Dr Kalim Siddiqui, his books and the Crescent International were banned in some Muslim countries. The Institute's work also included more direct assistance to Islamic movements, some of which are suppressed and underground in their own countries "Salman Rushdie," Dr Kalim often said, "ruined my life." Until the Rushdie affair, Dr Kalim's work, even in support of the Islamic movement, was primarily academic and intellectual. He was largely insulated from the gaze of the wider British community, except when he was invited by the media, as an academic expert, to give an Islamic perspective on current news stories. His defence of Imam Khomeini's fatwa changed all that. Before the Imam gave his fatwa in February 1989, Dr Kalim was not unaware of the Rushdie controversy, but had taken no major role in it. While it was undeniably serious, Dr Kalim took the view that campaigning for a ban on The Satanic Verses would be a major and pointless distraction from the main work of the Muslim Institute, and would serve only to give the book more status and publicity than it deserved. That assessment changed with the Imam's fatwa. Dr Kalim was actually in Tehran when the fatwa was issued, leading to reports that he prompted it. This is an exaggeration of his role. In fact, he was at Tehran Airport when Dr Khatami, then the Minister of Islamic Guidance, later president of the Islamic Republic, came to meet him and asked what he knew about Rushdie and his book. Dr Kalim explained the situation to him and Dr Khatami left. Later the same day, back in his hotel as his flight had been cancelled, Dr Kalim heard that the Imam had issued his fatwa. When he finally landed in London, the establishment, the literati and the media were up in arms. The British Muslim community, whose previous protests had been largely ignored, was under siege. This was a radically different situation to that which had earlier existed and demanded a radically different response. Dr Kalim became the community's champion against hysterical media and establishment attacks. The controversy raged for months and continues, on a smaller scale, to this day. Dr Siddiqui's position remained precisely the same throughout. The fatwa had been pronounced by the Imam of the only Islamic state of the day and was therefore legally binding on all Muslims. However, Muslims in Britain had, under Islamic law, a prior and higher commitment to the law of the land in which they lived as a minority and therefore could not execute the fatwa in Britain. But such was Muslim anger at Rushdie's offence that there remained the possibility that some over-zealous Muslim might execute the fatwa nonetheless; therefore Rushdie would not be safe on Britain's streets. Even as he was travelling from newsroom to studio, giving interview after interview representing the Muslim position on Rushdie, however, Dr Kalim was planning ahead also. He had always taken a keen interest in community affairs. Now he put the considerable intellectual assets of the Muslim Institute to considering the situation of Muslims in Britain. The result was The Muslim Manifesto. This was published in 1990, at a Muslim Institute conference on 'The Future of Muslims in Britain' and laid out both the problems facing Muslims here and the duties and responsibilities the Muslim community had living in a non-Muslim country. The Muslim Manifesto was to become the foundation document of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. The Muslim Parliament -- a minority political system for Muslims in Britain The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain was inaugurated on January 4, 1992, after nearly 18 months of intensive groundwork following the publication of the Muslim Manifesto. Along with the Muslim Institute, the Muslim Parliament is one of the two major institutions which Dr Kalim established to pursue his vision and which he has left as his legacy for the Muslim Ummah. It is often said that the community work which is the main focus of the Muslim Parliament was a new direction for Dr Kalim. That this is not true can be seen by any perusal of his writings. The problems facing Muslims living as minorities in western countries is a theme from his earliest book on Muslim political thought, Towards a New Destiny (1973). In this book, he said that the challenge facing Muslim minorities was two-fold: to survive uncontaminated as Muslims in a hostile environment, and to contribute fully to the global Ummah's struggle to re-establish Islam as a civilizational force for good in the world. Precisely the same points emerged again in his writings on the Muslim Parliament, particularly Generating 'Power' without Politics ( 1990) and The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain -- political innovation and adaptation, his opening speech at the inauguration of the Muslim Parliament (1992). Dr Kalim argued that to survive as Muslims in this country, the community must develop its own institutions capable of meeting its needs in every area without dependence on the British state or government. He particularly opposed direct involvement in mainstream British politics, saying that Muslims could only exercise influence here by becoming strong outside the system and exerting pressure on the system from outside. Immediately after its inauguration, the Muslim Parliament set to work undertaking further research into the conditions and needs of Muslims in Britain, and established projects to improve their situation in important areas. These have included education, poverty, unemployment, anti-Muslim discrimination, the state of the community's mosques, and the halal meat trade. Much of this research was done by Jahangir Mohammed, Dr Kalim's Deputy as Leader of the Muslim Parliament from 1993 onwards. In 1993, the Muslim Parliament established a registered charity, the Bait al-Mal al-Islami, to finance and administer those parts of its work which are charitable under British law. The Bait al-Mal has established welfare provisions for deprived families and those suffering from hardship, and assistance schemes for students from poor backgrounds. Another major area of work has been education. Dr Kalim always maintained that education was the only way of breaking the cycle of poverty and social deprivation which has kept British Muslims poor and exploited at the bottom of Britain s socio-economic ladder. While the education debate among Muslims in this country concentrated on obtaining government funding for the handful of Muslim schools, the Muslim Parliament has always taken the view that the immediate need is for supplementary education to help Muslim children in state schools. The third major institution of the Muslim Parliament network has been the Halal Food Authority, which was established in 1994 to monitor and regulate the halal meat trade in Britain, which unfortunately is largely fraudulent. Muslim Parliament research indicates that less than 20 percent of meat sold as 'halal' really is halal. This was an area particularly close to Dr Kalim's heart. The HFA established a network of approved abbatoirs and shops to provide the community with the only independently certified halal meat in Britain. At the same time, the Muslim Parliament worked to help Muslims and the global Islamic movement overseas in their struggles. Some Muslims argued that the Parliament should concentrate on local issues and that taking a strong position on international issues would make it more difficult to work in Britain, but Dr Kalim never accepted this position, saying that Muslims in Britain had a responsibility to the global Islamic movement. Central to this work has been the Muslim Parliament's work in support of Bosnia.. The Muslim Parliament's World Conference on Bosnia and the global Islamic movement (November 1993) contributed to the understanding of events there, and led to the establishment of the Arms for Bosnia Fund at a time when most Muslims were concentrating only on humanitarian work. Dr Kalim took a particular interest in this fund, and its successor, the Jihad Fund, used to help Muslim mujahideen in many parts of the world. Dr Kalim's writings and> Dr Kalim was always a writer by nature. His first job in Karachi was as founder-editor of the student newspaper The Leader. In London, he moved rapidly up the journalistic ladder, until he was a sub-editor on the national paper The Guardian. Although he then went into academia, he was not averse to returning the journalism when the Muslim Institute took over the Crescent International. For some time after the transformation of the Crescent from a community paper in Toronto to a newsmagazine of the global Islamic movement, he was effectively its editor-in-chief and main writer. He continued to write regularly for it for the rest of his life. He also wrote a large number of books and papers. His first published book was Conflict, Crisis and War in Pakistan (1972). His PhD thesis was published as Functions of International Conflict -- a socio-economic study of Pakistan in 1975 . But by this time, his attention had shifted from Pakistan to the world of Islam as a whole; his first book on Muslim political thought was Towards a New Destiny (1973). From then on he produced books and papers on aspects of the global Islamic movement with remarkable regularity throughout his life. The most important of these have now been compiled by Zafar Bangash as In Pursuit of the Power of Islam (London: The Open Press, 1996). The Draft Prospectus of the Muslim Institute (1974) presented the understanding of the Muslim historical situation with which he launched his work and, together with Towards a New Destiny, is essential reading to understanding his life's work. After the Islamic Revolution, his understanding of it developed in a series of writings through the 1980s, including his papers to the Muslim Institute seminars and his introductions to the Issues in the Islamic Movement series (1982-89). The culmination of his writings and political thought was the paper Error, Deviation, Correction and Convergence in Muslim Political Thought, written in 1989-90. In this, he presented his understanding of the process of Muslim history, how things had gone wrong after the rightly-guided khulafa, why the initial breakthrough in Muslim political thought had come in Shi'a Iran, and what Muslims in other countries must do to establish Islamic rule in their own countries. The argument was warmly welcomed and endorsed by Imam Khamanei himself. The main which emerges from all his writings is that the civilizational power of Islam needs to be re-asserted at every level. However, he does not expect this to be an overnight development; the problems of 1400 years cannot be solved quickly. The basic requirement is for Muslim scholars and intellectuals to re-write Muslim political thought on the basis of Islamic traditions and scholarship rather than western ones, and use this new Muslim political thought as the basis for a new civilization of Islam. He also hypothesised the global Islamic movement long before its emergence after the Islamic Revolution, and commented on its nature and development throughout the eighties and nineties. He was particularly interested in the practical aspects of a functioning, global Islamic movement in a world totally dominated by western mechanisms of control. This was the subject of his The Islamic Movement -- A Systems Approach (1976), written well before Iran's Islamic Revolution. He developed his on the global Islamic movement in post-revolutionary writings, culminating in his final book Stages of Islamic Revolution (1996), which he described as 'a handbook for Islamic activists'. The first edition of this was rushed into print in South Africa to coincide with the conference in April 1996; he was thus able to see it before his death. Any understanding of Dr Kalim's work must start with his writings. Stages of Islamic Revolution is crucial for this. Zafar Bangash s compilation of his major writings from 1973 to 1992, In Pursuit of the Power of Islam, is also of tremendous importance. A compilation of Dr Kalim's writings in Crescent International is also under preparation. The way forward: Dr Kalim's legacy Dr Kalim Siddiqui will be remembered as both an intellectual and an activist. In his own life, he was probably known best for his establishment of the Muslim Institute and the Muslim Parliament. The fact that both these institutions have virtually disappeared under the leadership that took over after his death is a tragedy. The ICIT is committed, however, to continuing the work of the Muslim Institute, and ensuring at least that the principles of the Muslim Parliament are not forgotten just because of management failures. But Dr Kalim's and writings as important as his institutions, and it may well prove that the cold, calm light of hindsight will make them better understood and appreciated after his death than they were during his lifetime. Dr Kalim was never a man to sit back and contemplate the world around him. His commitment was to the Islamic movement and he understood that all his intellectual work must be such as to contribute to the ongoing work of the movement at the ground level. His most important legacy, however, may well prove to be his example. Few people have ever demonstrated the sort of commitment and dedication to the work of Islam that he did. Through years of ill-health, and numerous other kinds of problems and pressures, he always kept his eyes firmly on the goal on the horizon and worked towards it. Nothing ever got in the way of his next important task, his next goal. He was also a man who inspired those around him to make similar sacrifices in pursuit of the same vision, and leaves behind him a team of people all over the world whose commitment is to exactly the same work. The fact that vitually all of these people are now working with the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT) is one of the ICIT's greatest assets. Such people include Zafar Bangash (formerly Assistant Director of the Muslim Institute and editor of Crescent International), Dr Maqsood Ali Siddiqi (a Trustee of the Muslim Institute), and Haroon Kalla (formerly Deputy Leader of the Muslim Parliament); Imam Mohammed Al-Asi and Imam Abdul Alim Musa in the US; Dr Perwez Shafi in Pakistan; and numerous others all over the world. The onus on us now is to ensure that the work of Dr Kalim continues and provides precisely the sort of foundation for building a new civilization of Islam that he envisaged, insha'Allah. isra haber How Did Prophet Muhammad Treat Christians?"This is a message from [Prophet] Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion [in religion] is to be on them…” There are many Muslims who are motivated by what I call a “gang mentality” where the “other” is considered in a category much less than them and are doomed to hell regardless of their deeds. This is not only true of Muslims but it is true of people belonging to other faiths and organizations. This is not the attitude of the Qur’an because in numerous places the Qur'an points out the same message as given in the following verses: Quote: Allah is clear in the above verse and many others like it. There were no qualifiers using words like “Muslim soul”, etc. Allah has made the same equal standard of what we earn by our deeds the basis for reward and punishment for all humanity. The more interesting question to ask is: are the “gang mentality” Muslims -- having hatred and doom for others who are not like them -- following the leader of the Muslims, Prophet Muhammad (saaw)? Did Prophet Muhammad demonstrate sectarianism, doom and gloom of other faiths and people who did not believe like him? Would he have been like today’s Jewish sectarians, Christian sectarians, and even Muslim sectarians and subscribe to party loyalty as the Democrats and Republicans do? I have no doubt that the answer to that is a resounding NO!!! One proof of that is the Charter of Privileges made to the Christians of Najran. Please be aware that this is only one proof of the Prophet’s tolerant treatment of people of other faiths. There are many other examples of the same tolerance, love and understanding in the Prophet’s treatment of "others". His treatment was reflective of the verses in the Qur’an revealed by Allah regarding Christian treatment. The Charter of Privileges "This is a message from [Prophet] Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.Muslims today would do well to consider the actions of our leader in regards to treatment of religious people of other faiths. They should stop being Republicans and Democrats when it comes to Al-Islam. They should also consider these powerful words by Marmaduke Pickthall very carefully. “In the eyes of history, religious toleration is the highest evidence of culture in a people. It was not until the Western nations broke away from their religious law that they became more tolerant, and it was only when the Muslims fell away from their religious law that they declined in tolerance and other evidences of the highest culture. Therefore the difference evident in that anecdote is not of manners only, but of religion. Tolerance was regarded as un-religious, if not irreligious. Before the coming of Al-Islam it had never been preached as an essential part of religion.”
M. Marmaduke Pickthall, English Historian and translator of the Qur’an
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