Islamic Revival

Numerous well known scholars have become interlocutors for the current regimes across the Middle East and Muslim countries, forsaking leadership of the oppressed in the name of a wisdom they claim monopoly over, promoting a perversion of normative Islamic thought under the guise of a traditional Islam that they have ceased to represent, if they ever did. “The scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets” Much has been written, by scholars and others, regarding the prohibition in Islamic jurisprudence of intentionally killing civilians. This has generally been considered an abuse of differences within the Islamic tradition regarding the rules and conduct of armed conflict ( jihad ). Consequently, those groups and individuals who carry out and subsequently try to justify such actions with reference to that tradition are cast as perversions completely outside of the bounds of legitimate Islamic rulings ( ijtihad ). This is unsurprising, as generally the underlying cause ...

If Islam be denied political agency because it is too inconvenient, then surely by the same principle, the rest of Islam be also denied when inconvenient also. And when the voice of Islam that resides in the minds of Muslims, be also deemed inconvenient due to the insufferable dissonance between absence of action and Islam’s persistent exhortation to obligation, application and resolution of the affairs of the believer and the community of believers – it too shall be exorcised in the name of the same principle by which Islam was denied any political agency in the first place – inconvenience. Over time, the muffled and mostly silenced voice of Islam will be (mis)taken for an absence of the ability of Islam, and therefore God – to ever address and resolve worldly problems. Forgotten will be the reasons for the cause of the inconvenience, those who created and maintained it, who imposed and guarded it – the guns of foreign powers, the whip wielded by colonially created ruling elite...

Source:  https://medium.com/@thinkingmuslim Modi’s surprise actions in Kashmir after repealing Article 370 was influenced by a worldview that has seized India, Hindutva, a rabid form of nationalism that is built upon a grand conceit. For Hindu nationalists, Islam is the problem and its place in any future India is for it to be subdued, depoliticised and chastened by the power of the state and the braying of the mob. It is a necessary doctrine Modi has encouraged to create a direction for his country to provide purpose and meaning for what many Indian’s today call its historical moment . Modi has attempted to patch together a ‘grand narrative’ about the country, as he aspires to develop India into a regional power. Like most ultra-nationalists, focussing upon a perceived enemy within and an enemy next door enables a national sentiment for national progression. In this regard, Hindutva shares a lot with 1930’s European fascism. The mob lynching of Pehl...