Dawa: The Islamic Strategy for Reshaping the Modern World
Published in the United States by Isaac Publishing
6729 Curran Street, McLean, Virginia 22101
Copyright ©2015 Patrick Sookhdeo
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by means electronic, photocopy or recording without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in brief quotations in written reviews.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014951766
ISBN: 978-0-9892905-8-6
Printed in the United States of America
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…if the ummah is united in this lofty and honourable aim, namely to dominate all other nations, fostering them and pruning their souls…1
—Muhammad Rashid Rida
The aim of the Islamic movement is to bring about somewhere in the world a new society wholeheartedly committed to the teachings of Islam in their totality and striving to abide by those teachings in its government, political, economic and social organizations, its relation with other states, its educational system and moral values and all other aspects of its way of life. Our organized and gradual effort which shall culminate in the realization of that society is the process of Islamization.2
—Jaafar Sheikh Idris
“Islamisation” has its own logic. It appropriates more and more space and leaves no room for societies to grow organically and in synch with the rest of the world. Secular culture is a victim and women bear the brunt of this.3
—Jugnu Mohsin
Islam wishes to do away with all states and governments anywhere which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam… Islam requires the earth – not just a portion, but the entire planet.4
—Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi
…the Kuffar [unbelievers, non-Muslims] are not allowed to establish a ruling system on earth because the earth belongs to Allah and only his righteous slaves are allowed to inherit it.5
—Muhammad Qasim
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.6
—Blaise Pascal
CONTENTS
| Foreword by Douglas Murray |
| Preface |
| Chapter 1 |
Introduction |
| Chapter 2 |
The history of dawa |
| Chapter 3 |
The agents of dawa |
| Chapter 4 |
Dawa through individual conversion |
| Chapter 5 |
Dawa through Islamisation |
| Chapter 6 |
Islamisation methods used worldwide |
| Chapter 7 |
Islamisation in Muslim-minority contexts |
| Chapter 8 |
Islamisation in Muslim-majority contexts |
| Chapter 9 |
Dawa through jihad |
| Chapter 10 |
Dawa through violence and threats |
| Chapter 11 |
Conclusion |
| Appendix 1 |
Guide to the International Islamic Council for Daw'a and Relief (1994) |
| Appendix 2 |
International Islamic Council for Daw'a and Relief: Resolution on the By-Laws (1994) |
| Appendix 3 |
Coordination System of the International Islamic Council for Daw'a and Relief (1993, 1995) |
| Appendix 4 |
Islamisation through democracy in Muslim-majority nations |
| Glossary |
| Bibliography |
| Notes and Sources |
| Index |
A NOTE ON THE SPELLING OF ARABIC WORDS
Arabic words are spelled in a variety of ways when transliterated into lan- guages that use other scripts. This book mostly uses the shortest and simplest English spellings. For example, the Arabic word for “Islamic mission” is written in this book as dawa. It is exactly the same word that other authors writing in English may spell as dawah or da’wa or da’wah or daawa or daawah. The Arabic term stayed the same when it moved into Turkish, but in Urdu it has become dawat and in the Malaysian language dakwah.
This rule also applies to names of people, places and organisations. For example, Mecca is spelled by some authors as Makka or other variations.
A NOTE ON QURANIC REFERENCES
Quranic references are given as the sura (chapter) number followed by the number of the verse within the sura. All are from A. Yusuf Ali’s The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1975) unless otherwise stated. Verse numbers may vary slightly between different translations of the Quran, so if using another version it may be necessary to search in the verses just before or just after the number given here to find the verse cited.
FOREWORD
The meeting of Islam and modern liberal societies is perhaps the most important story of our time. Yet despite eruptions of political and media interest in the matter (when someone is beheaded, or bombs detonated in some Western capital) there appears to be little or no will or desire to find out what is happening or why. Despite growing public concern, the posture of Western governments and much of the media remains an adamant refusal to connect the dots and a misguided, if understandable, desire simply to wish for the best.
Thirteen years ago, it might have been possible to excuse a widespread ignorance about the issues under discussion in this book. If the President of the United States, or Prime Minister of Great Britain, had been asked in the aftermath of 9/11 whether they could explain any principles of sharia law, Islamic banking or apostasy laws in Islam we might have forgiven their floundering. But all these years later, such an ignorance of basic Islamic doctrines and essential Islamic history is unforgivable. It is possible of course that our political leaders do now understand these issues. But if they do then it is curious that they continue to act as though they do not, giving in time and again to the most abrasive forms of Islam, conceding these to be the centreground and thus accomplishing the significant double-disaster of appeasing the radicals within Islam and cutting the legs from under any progressives.
Patrick Sookhdeo’s work – and this new work in particular – stands as a powerful warning and corrective to these trends of wilful blindness. It explains why people act as they act, what propels them and what they are hoping to achieve. He performs this task not as a polemicist or politician, but as a historian, a scholar and somebody deeply committed to explaining the truth.
Anybody who seeks to learn about Islam and in particular about its interactions with other faiths and cultures has one author they must turn to first: Patrick Sookhdeo. It is not often that one can say this about a book, but the more people who read this book the safer in the long-term our societies will be.
Douglas Murray
July 2014
Douglas Murray is an award-winning journalist and author, associate member of the Henry Jackson Society think-tank and associate editor of The Spectator magazine.
PREFACE
Islam is a missionary religion. Its followers are required to try to teach their beliefs to others, in order to convince them and persuade them to convert. In this respect, Islam resembles another world religion, Christianity, and also a number of groups that have grown out of those two religions, such as the Ahmadiyyas, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.
Such freedom of expression is a basic human right, as is the freedom to change one’s religion. These freedoms are set out in Articles 19 and 18 respectively of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.
All missionaries should be free to proclaim their message, and all their hearers should be free to accept or reject that message. Probably the best way to ensure a level playing field for missionary activity is by means of a common secular space in which followers of all religions and none can co-exist and propagate their respective beliefs by peaceful and lawful means.
Sadly, missionaries of all religious traditions have not always limited their methods to prayer, preaching and persuasion, but have sometimes used completely unacceptable methods, including force. Such abuses must be condemned, but they do not alter the fact that all human beings have the right to share their beliefs with others and to follow the religion of their choice.
The first three centuries of Christianity saw the faith spread rapidly in a hostile environment without the use of sword, political power or any other kind of coercion, but simply by the proclamation of the message. This expansion happened despite the fact that the Christians faced innumerable sufferings and persecutions. It is a sad reflection on Christianity that this state of affairs did not continue.
In the post-Constantine era, when Christianity had gained political power, it used this power – and the sword too – to further its mission. Indeed, in various times and places, Christian mission became associated with some of the worst human rights abuses ever recorded. These included the conquest, forcible conversion and massacre of Saxons by the Frankish king Charlemagne in the 8th century, the expulsion and execution of Jews and Muslims by the Spanish Inquisition from the 15th to the 17th centuries, and the harsh persecution of the indigenous peoples of Goa and Sri Lanka by the Portuguese in the 16th century and after.
The principle of cuius regio eius religio (whose realm, his religion) did great damage to the cause of religious liberty. This principle was enshrined in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which brought an end to armed conflict between Catholics and Lutherans in the Holy Roman Empire. It allowed each ruler to make the religion of his people either Catholic or Lutheran (other forms of Protestantism were not permitted). Although individuals who could not subscribe to the prince’s religion were allowed to leave his territory with their families and goods, this principle effectively thus tied Christian practice to state power.
In more recent times, particularly during the Western colonial period, some Christian missions and missionaries were closely allied to the expansionist policy of their respective countries of origin. After the end of colonialism, certain American missions and missionaries in the latter half of the 20th century continued to view their work as including the spread of democracy. Even today, some missions and missionaries still link the Christian faith with Western political power.
However, there have always been notable exceptions to this attitude. Even when it was prevailing strongly, there emerged individuals and organisations in recent centuries who saw Christianity and Christian mission as based more on New Testament principles and on the example of the first three Christian centuries as well as the mission of Jesus himself, who rejected the sword and earthly, temporal powers. For such individuals and organisations, Christian mission was devoid of political and economic domination. Many such found themselves caught in a head-on conflict with their own governments. Such missions and movements have always existed throughout Christian history and have played no small part in a counter-movement opposing church and state power. Islam, on the other hand, has from its inception embraced the sword. Many Muslims were proud of the fact that Muhammad was a military general. The early Muslim call (dawa) issued by Muhammad carried with it an implicit threat.
In contrasting Christian mission with Islamic mission, it is important to see what were the pattern, model and aim of each religion and its founder. In this way we can avoid the trap of contrasting the best practice of one with the worst practice of the other. We should consider what is authentic in each religion. Yes, there have been innumerable times when Islam has sought to propagate its message through trade and preaching and through the quality of the Muslims’ lives, and some Muslims and Muslim organisations still do so today. In this it is not dissimilar to early Christian mission. But the question remains: is this normative in Islam?
This book is an attempt to address the issue of Islamic mission. It is about how Islam uses its social calling to bring about transformation. It is therefore an exploration into political Islam and the way in which it has impacted the world, from the beginning of Islam but particularly in the modern era.
Patrick Sookhdeo
May 2014
— 1 —
INTRODUCTION
We are living in a time of rapid Islamic growth. This undeniable fact is true in two senses. Firstly, the number of Muslim people is increasing, partly due to a high birth rate and partly because non-Muslims are converting to Islam. (Relatively few Muslims choose to leave Islam, for reasons that we shall see later.) Secondly, Islamic principles are impacting and influencing societies across the globe, both Muslim-majority societies with a historic Muslim cultural heritage and non-Muslim-majority societies with Judeo-Christian, Hindu or other heritages.
Islamic sources, theology and history teach that all Muslims must engage in Islamic outreach or mission, known as dawa (literally “call” or “invitation”). In dawa, non-Muslims are called or invited to accept Islam as the true and final religion. Conversion takes place when a non-Muslim recites the Islamic creed (shahada): “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Muslims call this “reversion” rather than “conversion”, because they believe that every human being was a Muslim at birth, after which some went astray and followed other religions.
In this missionary aim, Islam resembles other missionary religions and sects. But there are two very important differences between, say, Christian mission and Islamic mission. The first is that most Christians are happy to see mission as a two-way process, with each faith having the freedom to propagate its message and try to convince others. Muslims, however, see dawa as a one-way street; only Islam has the right to propagate itself. They reject all Christian mission endeavours and seek to suppress them and smear them as aggressive, deceitful and evil.
The other key difference is that dawa is more than just the call to an individual to accept Islam. It also includes “the commanding of good and forbidding of wrong”, both in Islamic societies and in non-Muslim-majority contexts. This means that the aims of dawa include establishing an Islamic state under sharia for Muslims and dominating non-Muslim nations so as to bring them under command of “the good”, which is Islam.7 The aim is to convert whole societies and their structures and create Islamic states or at least enclaves ruled by Islam. These will serve as models to show non-Muslims the power and benefits of Islam, as well as serving as bases from which to work for further expansion. After the non-Muslim-majority states have been converted to Islam, they will be integrated into the global umma (all Muslims worldwide). As Khurram Murad, a British Islamic scholar, explained:
Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), who is regarded as the most prominent Muslim reformer of the 19th century,9 held that the first duty of the Islamic umma is the mission to call all other nations to the good, which is Islam.10 Indeed, according his disciple Rashid Rida (1865-1935), who interpreted Abduh’s teachings, “the umma … is created for the da‘wa in non-Muslim free countries”.11 The second duty, according to Abduh and Rida, is that of calling all Muslims themselves to obey God’s law afresh and apply it to their specific context.12
This teaching highlights the fact that dawa is not just aimed externally at non-Muslims so as to enlarge the umma and widen Islam’s religious and political dominion. Rather, there is also an internal dawa that targets Muslims to teach them the basics of Islam and strengthen their commitment to it.
The Arabic word dawa appears in the Quran and is understood by Muslims as a divine command. Islamic teaching about dawa is based on these Quranic passages and also on references in Islam’s second most important written source, the hadith, and on the example of Muhammad and of early Islamic history. The Quran and hadith show that dawa was a main activity of Muhammad; this fact is very significant because of the Islamic doctrine that Muslims should model their behaviour on Muhammad’s example. Teaching on dawa was developed by Quranic commentary (tafsir), sharia and Islamic theology. Although not traditionally listed amongst the “pillars” of Islam (its five compulsory duties), many Muslim scholars stress that all Muslims must engage in dawa. Dawa is not just the duty of individual Muslims, but also the duty of Muslim states, which are responsible for converting non-Islamic states to Islam, following Muhammad’s model.
CONVERSION, ISLAMISATION AND JIHAD
In recent decades, Islamists have re-discovered the Islamic principle of dawa. Islamic mission agencies are energetically engaging in an effort to convert individuals to Islam using literature, TV and every kind of media and method. Islamists are also driving a major project to Islamise society and culture, including converting institutions and state structures to conform them to sharia. Through well-funded, imaginative, bold and long-term strategies, they are already seeing much success. These strategies have been discussed openly by Muslims in many of their publications over the last few decades. Now, however, these Muslim writings, at least those in English, are becoming very hard to get hold of. They are disappearing from libraries and from the internet. The book of resolutions and recommendations14 from the key Muslim World League conference in Mecca in 1975, for example, seems to be available to non-Muslims now only as one copy in the library of a small and obscure American college.
Some Islamists are willing to engage in violent jihad to facilitate or speed up their dawa work, whether it be converting individuals or Islamising society. The ultimate aim of jihad is to impose Allah’s rule worldwide, and the practice can be supported theologically by certain interpretations of the Islamic sources. Violent jihad is by its nature very obvious and easy to spot. The majority of non-Muslims, whether ordinary citizens or senior government officials, are concerned only about violent jihadi activity; they do not recognise the non-violent conversion and Islamisation activities that permeate their societies. This lack of understanding and failure to recognise the substance and scope of the challenge, let alone the Islamic doctrines and strategies behind it, is not a matter of chance. In fact, disinformation and deception (taqiyya) are considered legitimate strategies in the Islamic cause, according to sharia and according also to the model of Islamic sacred history.
There is a sense in which violent Islam should be somewhat less of a worry to those in Muslim-minority contexts than more subtle conversion and Islamisation activities, just because it is impossible not to notice. The more discreet tactics that form part of the overall Islamist endeavour to establish Islamic rule in every level of government and society throughout the world might be considered a greater cause for concern. Daniel Pipes, for one, a noted academic and commentator on Islam and the Middle East, argues that non-violent methods are more effective than violence and therefore that “non-violent Islamists pose a greater threat than the violent ones”.15
Whether the visible or the invisible is the more dangerous, there is no doubt that the three overlapping spheres of activity of contemporary Islamism – conversion, Islamisation and jihad – pose an urgent challenge. The advance of Islam within a society is very difficult to reverse by peaceful means. Islamists may utilise democratic methods to gain political power and then ban elections as un-Islamic. They may use freedom of speech to promote their viewpoint and then, having gained political power, pass laws to prohibit any criticism of what they are doing. Laws based on a common secular space, laws that enable religions to co-exist and be propagated freely by their respective missionaries, would not exist in an Islamised society. Sharia’s rules, compiled in the Middle Ages and unchanged since the 10th century, would not provide a level playing field and would not try to. Although derived from a religion, Islamism bears many of the hallmarks of a totalitarian ideology that drastically re-shapes society and then puts a complete stop on any further change.
Of course, only a small percentage of Muslims are involved in the process described above. Like the majority of ordinary people in the world, most Muslims do not desire conflict but simply want to live out their lives in tranquillity. There are also Muslims who are liberal, progressive or secularist. Some interpret their scriptures spiritually, symbolically or eschatologically, rather than as a literal call to conquer non-Muslims and even to use physical warfare.
However, the combined weight of Islamic theology and history, the Islamic resurgence since the 1970s, and the oil money that helped Islamism to become increasingly dominant, mean that in the early 21st century it is the aggressive, literalist voices that have become the loudest in most Muslim-majority societies and states, while more tolerant views are supressed and marginalised, and these voices are having an increasingly powerful influence in Muslim-minority contexts too. A wise and timely response is needed.
HARMONY AND HOPE
The aim of this book is to raise awareness of the Islamist strategy and tactics. It is not to create fear or enmity. Not only is it important to remember the difference between active Islamists and moderate Muslims, but also we must acknowledge that Islamists are motivated by a sincere desire to obey what they believe Allah’s commands to be. So great is their commitment that many are willing to sacrifice their own lives in his service. And we must recognise the difference between Islamists as our fellow human beings and the beliefs or ideology that they follow.
How then should we respond? The Christians of Sabah, Malaysia, have seen their percentage of the population greatly reduced in the space of a generation, through a multi-faceted campaign of conversion and Islamisation. In January 2014, as they protested against a clever trick that had led 64 illiterate Sabahan Christians to become Muslims without even realising it, Perpaduan Anak Negeri (an organisation representing Christians in Sabah), stated:
These words can be expanded from one organisation in one state of one nation and applied across the world. They can be a pattern for all who are facing the challenge of dawa. While putting down a clear marker as to what they will not accept – that is, the destruction of their Christian heritage by political Islam – at the same time these Christians affirm their desire to live in peace and harmony with Muslims who are willing to live in peace and harmony with them. This is not the peace of Islamism, which says that peace cannot come until the whole world is subjugated to Islamic rule with all its injustices. This is the peace of equality, mutual respect and freedom: “peace and harmony”, as the Sabahans said.
The Christians of Sabah have also shown that it is possible to live in peace and harmony with Muslims. Their experience can give hope to us all. A similar peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims existed in Indonesia for many generations, where Christians were the minority. Other examples can be found by scanning history and geography. Writing this book would be a pointless exercise if readers were simply to be plunged into despair at a seemingly unstoppable process of global Islamisation. It is not unstoppable. Events in Egypt and Tunisia between 2011 and 2013 showed that Islamisation can be halted and reversed. Sabah and other places show that a stable state of harmonious co-existence can be maintained. There is indeed hope, both for non-Muslims and for moderate Muslims who reject Islamism and its political goals. But urgent action is needed.
— 2 —
THE HISTORY OF DAWA
DAWA IN THE QURAN
The term dawa, in the sense of a call or an invitation to Islam, is used more than a dozen times in the Quran. The following two verses command the preaching aspect of dawa; they tell Muslims that they must invite non-Muslims to Islam.
The next verse shows that witnessing for Islam is the primary reason why the original umma was created.
A key Quranic verse shows that the scope of dawa includes not only to preach but also to establish the rule of Islam and its law, sharia, thus changing the whole of a society:
This verse relates to the Islamic principle of al-amr bi’l m‘aruf wa’l nahy ‘an al-munkar (commanding right and forbidding wrong). According to Quranic commentators, “the right” in this verse means Islam.17 So this verse describes the religious duty of the umma, to call all humans to live according to sharia. This can be done, according to Islamic scholars, either in a gentle way by preaching or by force.18
DAWA IN THE HADITH
We have already noted how important the example of Muhammad is to Muslims. Muslim scholars in the past put together collections of traditions recording what Muhammad said and did, or as it is usually called in Islam, his sunna (way of life). The traditions, called hadith, were handed down verbally for generations, each with its own list of the people who had passed the story on from one to another. Eventually they were written down. The hadith are often easier to understand than the Quran and they have played a very important part in establishing the rules of how Muslims should live, based on the pattern of Muhammad’s actions. But Muslim scholars consider that some hadith are more reliable and authentic than others.
The call to conversion is supported by a hadith reporting that Muhammad sent one of his followers to Yemen with the instructions to invite its people to Islam:
The hadith also record that he sent letters to the neighbouring heads of state inviting them to embrace Islam.
Other hadiths speak of the reward to be given to a Muslim who is used by Allah to convert non-Muslims to Islam.
DAWA UNDER MUHAMMAD
Muhammad saw Islam as the true religion and mission of all earlier prophets. He believed that their call had been limited to their own people but that his was universal. His mission as the final prophet was to repeat to the whole world this call and invitation (dawa) to Allah’s true religion of Islam. As we have seen, Muhammad wrote to various non-Muslim rulers inviting them to convert. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius and the Persian Sassanid Emperor Chosroes were said to have refused19 his invitation, which, from a Muslim point of view, explains why Muslim forces invaded their lands after Muhammad’s death.*
When Muhammad began his rule over the first Islamic state, Medina, new converts to Islam were incorporated into the Islamic umma. Those who refused to convert were treated in different ways according to their religion. Jews and Christians who submitted to Islamic rule but did not convert to Islam were treated as conquered peoples (dhimmis) and allowed to follow their own religions, but under strict and humiliating conditions. Pagans, however, were fought and killed, their wives and children enslaved, and their property taken by the Muslims.20
DAWA IN EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY
The rashidun caliphs (the next four Muslim rulers of the Muslim community after Muhammad) followed Muhammad’s example and teaching. The Islamic state would issue a call (dawa) to its non-Muslim enemies to submit to Islam, either by converting to Islam or (if they were of an eligible religion) by accepting humiliating dhimmi status. If they refused both options, war (jihad) was waged against them. Successful jihad then created the conditions in which conversion to Islam could easily take place, supported by newly created, Islamic state institutions and unopposed by enemy forces. This practice was continued under the Umayyad caliphate (661-750) and the Abbasid caliphate (750-1258).
When the Muslims began to divide and splinter into different groups, the concept of dawa was also applied to the propaganda of any one of the various Islamic movements, each of which claimed that its version of Islam should be dominant within the umma. The Abbasid dawa ensured widespread support for the Abbas family in its plan to supplant the Umayyad dynasty in the 8th century and set up the Abbasid caliphate. The Isma‘ili dawa was crucial in setting up the Fatimid Empire (909-1171) and became institutionalised as the official state dawa, with branches all over the Muslim world and beyond. These two models were extremely efficient and successful propaganda machines for advancing their respective causes; today they serve as models for modern Muslim dawa organisations.
DAWA IN LATER CENTURIES
Following the great early conquests that had opened up huge areas to Islamic dawa, the dissemination of Islam was often carried forward by Muslim traders and Sufis (followers of mystical Islam).
In Central Asia, Sufis were influential in converting Turkic tribes to Islam. At the same time, the conversion of the Mongol conquerors to Islam in the Central Asian steppes (the Golden Horde) served as a catalyst for further conversions, as did the Ottoman conquests of Byzantium and the Balkans. Jihad and dawa thus continued hand in hand.
Islam was introduced into south-east Asia mainly by traders and Sufis who engaged in dawa. In contrast to other regions, where Muslim states were founded by the invading Muslim military elites, in south-east Asia existing dynasties converted to Islam, gradually converting the vast majority of the population to Islam.
There were two directions of Islamic expansion into sub-Saharan Africa: from North Africa south into the Sahel, and from the East African coastline (Kenya and Tanzania of today) westwards. Islam in sub-Saharan Africa was spread by several methods. In some cases it was by military conquest, for example, from Morocco to West Africa, from Egypt to Sudan, or from Oman to Zanzibar. It was also spread by traders coming from across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean. Berber conquerors and traders moved along the Sahara caravan routes (from Tripoli towards Fezzan in south-west Libya and from the Sous in southern Morocco). Muslim Arab traders and conquerors arrived by sea from southern Arabian regions such as Yemen, Oman and the Hadramaut. There was Muslim migration and settlement, especially in East Africa, as well as purposeful dawa, especially by Sufis. Furthermore there were periodic revival movements that included efforts to purify Islam from pagan elements, to establish Islamic states under sharia and expand them by jihad.
In India, successive waves of Muslim invasion and conquest opened the door for conversion of some of the Hindu population to Islam. Turco-Afghan- Mongol slave soldier groups displaced from Central Asia consolidated Muslim rule in North India in intermittent invasions over a long period. The first large-scale invasion was under the Arab Umayyads. The second occurred in the 11th century when Mahmud of Ghazni (997-1030) conducted 17 raids in northern India over the course of his 33-year reign.21 The Ghaznavids captured Lahore in 1030 and plundered north India. The third invasion was by Muhammad Ghuri (died 1206), who led his first expedition (to Multan and Gujarat) in 1175. The Ghurids began a systematic conquest of India, taking Delhi where they founded the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526).* The fourth wave of Islamic invasion was by the Turkic-Mongol ruler Timurlane (1336-1405) who crossed the Indus River in 1398 and marched toward * Delhi, ravaging the country as he went. His capture of towns and villages was usually accompanied by their destruction and the massacre of their inhabitants. The fifth wave of Islamic invasion was led by Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, and continued under his successors. Some Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam following the main battles, while others gradually converted to Islam through the efforts of the mystical Sufi orders.
DAWA ACCORDING TO MODERN COMMENTATORS
Most modern Muslim commentators, especially those of Salafi, Muslim Brotherhood and related Islamist groups, put a strong emphasis on the political aspects of dawa. For them the most important goal of dawa is Islamic reform and revival, leading to the eventual establishment of an Islamic state. These commentators focus on Islam as a comprehensive ideological system, regulating not only the private sphere and the relations between a believer and God but also the public sphere and politics.22
The dawa concepts pioneered by Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) and by Sayyid Abul A‘la Mawdudi (1903-1979, founder of the Jamaat-i-Islami in South Asia) aimed at integrating the religious and the political aspects of Islam into one ideological whole. Both al-Banna and Mawdudi emphasised the importance of reforming the character of Muslim communities so as to reverse the process of Islam’s decline from its ancient glory and to prepare the way, by systematically spreading Islamist ideology to an ever-wider audience, for the ultimate establishment of an Islamic state. Several important Muslim organisations, especially Tablighi Jamaat, dedicate themselves solely to the goal of re-Islamising Muslims across the globe.
For some Islamists today, the first priority of dawa at present should be establishing Islamic states under sharia in Muslim-majority countries. So they focus their efforts on changing the regimes of most Muslim-majority nations, in order to turn them into Islamic states under sharia, which can then carry dawa to the non-Muslim-majority world.23 Kalim Siddiqui, founder of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, explained this process:
— 3 —
THE AGENTS OF DAWA
A COMMUNAL OR INDIVIDUAL DUTY?
Muslim scholars over the centuries have argued among themselves about whether dawa is a communal duty (fard kifaya) or a personal duty (fard ayn). Some traditional Quran expositors saw dawa as a communal obligation, which either the Islamic state or a selected group of scholarly Muslims undertook to do dawa on behalf of all Muslims.
According to Rashid Rida, the command to perform dawa implies also a command to establish a special association of Muslims chosen to be professional carriers of the mission. These must be individuals suitable for their calling, possessing special skills and knowledge including knowledge of the Quran and sunna, and the culture, history, geography and psychology of the non-Muslim world. In this way, he argued, the early Muslims conquered other nations by using their knowledge of the habits and territory of the non-Muslims. To be effective in dawa, Muslims must also know the languages of the people they aim at converting, their political and social affairs, their religion and their legal system.25
The late Sheikh Abdul Azeez ibn Abdullah ibn Baaz, former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and head of the Council of Senior Scholars, argued that the obligation of dawa is both a collective duty of the Muslim community and a personal duty of each individual Muslim.26
Contemporary dawa activists generally stress that it is a personal duty incumbent on every Muslim. Mustafa Mashhour, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, declared that:
INSTITUTIONALISATION AND ADOPTION BY MUSLIM-MAJORITY STATES
In the early 1970s many conferences were held and many new organisations created to try to encourage dawa. Particularly significant was a conference held in Mecca in 1975 by the Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami, or in English the Muslim World League (MWL). At this conference the League proposed a total reorganisation of international dawa activities, with a much greater focus on the role of the mosque in dawa.28
As this decision was implemented, Islamic missionary efforts grew, and many more institutions and organisations specialising in dawa have since been founded. All over the world there is now an extensive network of dawa organisations drawn from all streams of Islam, which is seeking to win converts to Islam and change societies and states in the direction of becoming more Islamic. They are especially active in sub-Saharan Africa and the West.
These contemporary, Muslim activist organisations operate as something between a traditional Christian missionary society and a political party, effectively blending dawa with politics.29 Funding generally comes from the oil-rich Arab world and is therefore plentiful. This has in turn resulted in a vigorous programme of founding and funding Islamic institutions and mosques in non-Muslim-majority contexts, with the ultimate goal to create Islamic states in every country of the world. Force and the threat of force are used by some groups.
All Islamist movements see themselves as committed to dawa and often set up subsidiaries specifically to promote dawa. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Wahhabi, Salafi and Deobandi movements are all involved in dawa activities both in Muslim-majority states and in non- Muslim contexts. Dawa organisations join forces to create larger groupings and cooperative alliances, supported by various governments and intergovernmental Islamic bodies.
Especially influential among these Islamist organisations are Saudi-based and Saudi-funded international umbrella groups such the Muslim World League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference). Wahhabi influence is paramount, but the groups work in alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood and with similar groups in the Indian subcontinent.
Some of the Islamist organisations are for training and sending Muslim missionaries, disseminating Islamic literature and building mosques. They have studied the methods of Christian missionaries* and replicated all that seemed effective and productive. They have also added many other methods, as we shall see later in this book.
Other new organisations worked towards the re-shaping of societies across the world so that they would match more closely the wide-ranging requirements of sharia. Notable amongst these was the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), founded in Virginia by American Muslims in 1981.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
The OIC is a coalition of 57 member states, including not only all Muslim-majority states but also some states where Muslims are a minority. It sees itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world”.30 In its various summit meetings, the OIC has emphasised the need to strengthen and systematise the work of dawa in the world. Amongst its recommendations have been the establishment of educational and cultural centres to propagate the Arabic language and Islamic culture, the use of all modern methods of presenting Islam, appropriately contextualised for the various societies in which Muslims are present, and the creation of institutes to train da‘ees (Islamic missionaries). A main function of the new educational and cultural centres was to be the propagation of Islam: dawa.31
At its third Islamic Summit at Mecca in 1981, the OIC pledged to provide the material needs for dawa activities:
In its sixth Islamic Summit at Dakar, Senegal, in 1991 the OIC declared its intent to:
Similar decisions have been repeated at almost every OIC conference. The 31st Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) in 2004 approved the development of a joint Islamic dawa strategy within the OIC framework.34
Gradually over the years, structures have been set up to ensure coordination among the various Islamic institutions working in the field of Islamic dawa. These included the Committee for the Coordination of Joint Islamic Action, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) based in Rabat, and the International Islamic Council for Dawah and Relief based in Cairo (see Appendices 1, 2 and 3). The OIC has also established the Islamic States Broadcasting Organization (ISBO) with the goal of spreading dawa around the world.35
National Governments
In the West, Christian missionary efforts are operated only by churches and private voluntary organisations, with governments normally careful not to promote any specific religion. By contrast, the Islamic concept of nonseparation between religion and state means that governments of Muslimmajority nations see dawa as part of their foreign policy and are willing to create and finance dawa organisations and institutions on a large scale, using their considerable resources and influence. These organise and supervise the work of da‘ees around the world, in Muslim and non-Muslim contexts. Dawa is part of the way Muslim-majority states relate to non-Muslim-majority states in their efforts to Islamise the world.
Saudi Arabia has spent tens of billions of dollars on global dawada‘eesda‘eesda’ee
