We should
understand that Islam is not a religion in the Western sense of the word. The
aim of Islam is to establish a state religion, which means Islam needs a
religious state. Only when Islam becomes a state, is Islam fully developed.
Therefore, we have to study the development of the whole Islamic culture in
order to understand Islam.
If we look
to the past one hundred years, we see that the last big Islamic empire was the
Ottoman Empire, now the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire was the reigning
super power for four hundred years and controlled the whole Middle East. The
other super powers of India, Indonesia and Africa were broken apart with some
Sultanates having only very limited authority. Today we have nothing but the
broken parts of previous empires.
The colonial
powers of England, France, Russia and others came and divided this Muslim super
power, the Muslim empires, into so-called national states. Actually, the
Islamic Empires were not divided according to language and culture into
national states but became protectorates. This colonial period did not last
long. In spite of the fact that the colonial powers developed the Muslim countries,
there was no real establishment of the Christian faith or Christian power in
the majority of the Islamic areas. Through the two World Wars, in 1948 and
finally in 1962, these Muslim nation-states rejected the Western powers and
became independent.
In the last
fifty years, four main streams developed as a result of the establishment of
these new Muslim nation-states. First an Islamic socialism developed, next an
Islamic fundamentalism, an Islamic materialism and finally an Islamic
syncretism.
The creation of the State of Israel, a
stumbling block to the Islamic countries, was responsible for the expansion of
Islam. Israel was founded in 1948 not as a religious state as many would think,
but as a Zionistic, socialistic state. Ninety percent of the whole country
belonged to the state not to individuals. At the time, only three percent of
Israel belonged to Jewish individuals and seven percent to non-Jews and
non-Israelis. They developed their own form of socialistic Zionism. This was
called the Kibbutzim and the Moshavim.
Kibbutzim
are units where people live and work together without private property. They do
not get a salary or have their own money. They live together with income from
one source. This is the practice of Zionistic Communism. In Israel 275 such
communities still exist today.
In addition
to this is the Moshavim. This is a mixture where people live together and work
together but everyone has his own capital, his own income, and his own
property. It is a kind of socialistic movement. Israel was started not as a
religious state but ninety percent of the people were socialistic minded.
As an
equivalent to this development, you will find Islamic socialism, which was
introduced by Jamal abdu l-Nasser, the president of Egypt. He said, “We have to
unite all the forces of our countries. We have to train all our students. We
have to unite all monies in order to overcome the state of Israel.” Therefore
he confiscated all the land from the landowners and all the rich people lost
their property. The idea was that the country should become rich and developed
and the poor people should learn to read and write. This idea was very quickly
adopted by many Muslim states like Algeria, North Yemen, Iraq, Syria and
others. So Islamic socialism, actually it was not Islamic, but socialism with
Islamic furnishings, was the movement in the Muslim countries for a time. These
countries became military states and were organized by military dictators.
Instead of socialism, the governments were ruled by military power as is still
found today in Nigeria, parts of Tanzania and in some other countries.
This
movement of organized socialism controlled by the military of the country gave
rise to Islam. However, the Muslim fundamentalists did not agree to it. The
Muslim Brotherhood (the first organized Islamic fundamentalist group) fought
against Islamic socialism. Jamal abdu l-Nasser understood that it was not
possible that the two main streams of fundamentalism and socialism exist beside
one another. He hung all the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and gave a
speech to the others, because he understood that Islamic fundamentalism would
not tolerate any other form of Islam than an Islamic state ruled by Shari'a
(Islamic law). They wanted to have a theocratic system, so he became very
radical in his Islamic socialism. It is similar to this in Syria and in Iraq
where many in the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to death or imprisoned and
where battles were fought in order to overcome Islamic fundamentalism.
Islamic
fundamentalism existed long before 1948. It started with Jamal al-Din
Al-Afgani in Egypt who died in the late 1800s. It was developed by Professor
Muhammad Abdu at the al-Azhar University and it had been finally organized by
Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949), founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sayyid Qutb
(1906-1966) became comparable to him as the thinker and the philosopher of the
Muslim Brotherhood. So Islamic fundamentalism is about one hundred years old,
but it dwindled and was suppressed by foreigners, colonial powers or by Islamic
socialism.
When Jamal
abdu l-Nasser was at the height of his power, he started to attack Israel verbally
and the result was the Six-Day War on June 5, 1967. The Six-Day War brought a
turning point for all Islamic culture and in the understanding of Islam. The
Sinai, Jerusalem and the West Bank had been lost to Israel and the Muslims
started to ask themselves why small Israel was able to overcome Egypt, Syria,
Jordan and Iraq combined? How could two million overcome two hundred million in
one week? It was right for them to ask, thinking something must have been wrong
with them, not with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood said, “Yes, this was the
rage of Allah. He punished you because you have hindered fundamentalism. If you
had prayed more, if you had fasted more, and spent more of your money, if you
were real Muslims, Allah would have given you victory.”
So, the
reformation of Islam started with the Six-Day War. And at the same time, they
said, “Allah has punished you, because the leaders of Muslim fundamentalism
were hanged. We must have an Islamic revival." After this war a whole new
way of thinking started in the Islamic countries.
I remember
getting a letter in those days from Bahrain. A young Muslim wrote and said, “I
don’t know who I am. Am I a Muslim, am I a Christian or am I a Communist? Whom
shall I follow? Shall I follow Christ or Muhammad or Mao?" And then he
signed it “The Puzzled One.”
In those
days many Muslims lost their faith in themselves and they searched for new
horizons. They started to seek answers from the voice of America, the voice of
Moscow, the voice of China, and the voice of England. They wanted new horizons
and this was the chance for Christian missions
in one sense but also the chance for Islamic fundamentalism.
So the Islamic fundamentalists taught the following:
·
You must live according to Islam.
·
You must form an Islamic state
because Islam cannot exist as a religion; it must exist as a state in order to
introduce the shari’a.
A big
movement started this way in the Islamic world. The high point of this movement
was the Yom Kippur War. The Yom Kippur War lasted from October 6th
to the 25th, 1973. During this time, there was a sharp increase in
the price of oil and the wealth of Muslim countries began to grow at an
incredible rate. Since that time we have the Islamic reformation appearing
openly on all five continents. Oil money helped the Muslims to make their
fundamentalist ideas become reality and to develop three different areas:
1. The
defense of the Muslim countries against any kind of non-Islamic influence,
whether Communist or Christian.
2. A
spiritual reformation of Islam developed saying that Muslims should become
better Muslims. In the mid-70s Muslims started a long reformation in which they
would not only look outside, but look inside themselves. Seventy percent of
Muslims do not know what is written in the Qur’an. The fundamentalists
wish every Muslim would live as a true Muslim. They fight for it; they do their
level best.
3. A
world mission of Islam has been established in all five continents. Most
Christians do not realize it, but Islam is growing fast, faster than we would
like or than we realize. Because of sheer birthrate the Muslim population
continues to double. In 1900, there were about 200 million Muslims; a century
later there are over 1.2 billion followers of the Islamic faith. If Jesus does
not come soon, they may double in another twenty-seven years.
The leading
figure of this Islamic fundamentalism became Ayatollah Khomeini. Ayatollah
Khomeini was the most honest Muslim I ever met, because he tried to create the
kingdom of Allah in this world. He used all means, including speeches, power
and tricks to accomplish this. When he is described as an extremist and as a
fanatic Muslim, it must be by people who have not read the Qur’an. He merely
tried to do what the Qur’an says. He became the spiritual leader of
fundamentalism, though he was a Shiite and was not accepted by the Sunnites.
But his agenda helped the Sunnites also in all
their 50 different fundamentalist organizations so they took him as an
influential spiritual leader for the development of Islamic fundamentalism.
It is very
interesting that fundamentalism not only happened in the Muslim countries, but
also in Israel. In Israel, while Jews were coming from Europe and Russia, Jews
were also coming from Muslim states: Morocco, Iraq, Yemen and others. These
Jews from the Muslim countries, from the Arabic countries, were nearly equal in
number to the Jews from the Anglo-American and Russian countries. They wanted
the political majority and they introduced Menachem Begin as their leader and
later on others. The mood in Israel changed from a socialist-minded country to
a fundamentalist-minded country. This is an essential point, the Kibbutzim and
the Mushavim were no longer the leading powers and the back bone of the State
of Israel but a new movement started whose purpose was to occupy the freed
lands of Judah, Samaria and Gaza. What did they do? They built new towns and
new villages on the tops of the mountains and strategically took the whole
country into their hands. They built one hundred seventy villages and developed
seventeen into towns inside of the Muslim countries that they took control of.
Begin gave an oath and said, “As long as I am president of the country, not a
hand span will be given away because it is the promised country.” Previously Israel
had not built itself on the promises of the Old Testament. They said, “No, we
will build our state on the promises of the United Nations”. But when Begin
came, he changed the thinking of the country. He said “No, we will build on the
promises of the Old Testament and the Lord has said, ‘This will be your Holy
Land’, and we will inhabit it.”
And so an
Israeli fundamentalism took place. It brought on the war in Lebanon as well as
other developments. It caused a big clash between Khomeini and Israel through
the Hamas organization that sprang up. The arguing and fighting about this is
going on today.
Islamic
fundamentalism was actually fighting against Israeli fundamentalism. At that
time Khomeini started a verbal war against Saddam Hussein. Khomeini said,
“Saddam Hussein is a devil, though he is a Muslim, he is not a real Muslim,
because he does not allow that the shari’a to be introduced into Iraq.
Therefore we have to fight against him.”
He did not
go to war with Iraq immediately, but he started a big propaganda campaign over
radio and television and he asked the Shiites in Iraq to start a revolution to
overcome Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was not ready to accept this. He had
thousands and ten-thousands of Shiites hung, killed and tortured in order to
continue his liberal socialist regime. As a result he finally said, “We will
attack the system of Khomeini." He started a war against Iran, but did not
succeed. Iran was supported by Syria and by some East German officers who
helped overcome the army of Saddam Hussein. Then shortly before the armies of
Saddam Hussein were conquered, Saddam Hussein used his secret weapon – gas. In
the big areas of southern Iraq hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed by
gas and put into the swamps of southern Iraq.
This war
between the two Muslim countries - Khomeini’s fundamentalist minded Iran and
the socialistic minded military government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq brought
the third main stream of Islam. They understood that a war would not be won by
socialism or by fundamentalism but only by modern weapons. They started to
believe more in modern weapons than in socialism or fundamentalism. This war
was a shock because the fundamentalists had been happy with Khomeini and the
socialists and the oil countries had helped Saddam Hussein. When Iran defeated
Saddam Hussein, the fundamentalists applauded, but when Saddam Hussein gassed
the whole army of Khomeini, the liberal powers rejoiced. Then they all started
to wonder how they could acquire newer, better weapons.
When Saddam
Hussein and the Iraqi Republican Guard started to conquer Kuwait and tried to
seize all their oil, they were conquered in one hundred hours by American and
coalition forces during Operation Desert Storm. Then suddenly these people
learned that a modern war can only be won by the most modern and sophisticated
weapons. You may remember that the American forces used rockets that could be
sent from twenty miles away and hit the target. Two to five minutes later, a
second rocket was sent and entered the hole which the first rocket made. All
the old weapons in the Muslim countries had little value compared to the new
technologically advanced weapons.
Since the
war between Khomeini and Saddam Hussein and Desert Storm, a run started in the
Muslim countries to buy the most sophisticated weapons available. They tried to
acquire atomic weapons, bacteriologic weapons and different chemical weapons
such as gas.
Muslim states
today are building up a stockpile of modern weapons greater than that of all
Europe and many other countries. For example, Saudi Arabia bought twelve
Sidewinder rockets from China with nuclear warheads for twelve billion dollars.
Since that time, the Muslims in China have been given the right to establish
themselves, to build mosques and to build Qur’anic Schools. The establishment
of Islam is behind this run for modern weapons. Syria has atomic weapons from
Russia and Gadhaffi tried to build the atomic bomb as Pakistan is trying to do
so. Today we have a materialistic run for the most sophisticated weapons. This
became a nightmare, especially after the Soviet Union broke apart. Why? Six new
Muslim countries appeared: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Half of all Russian factories producing atomic and
bacteriologic weapons were located in Kazakhstan. Therefore, the Muslim states
started to buy atomic bombs as quickly as possible. At least two atomic bombs
have been sold and nobody knows who owns them. When the United States
interfered and ordered a stop to the purchase and
development of atomic bombs, the Muslim
countries started to hire scientifically trained people from these states. They
took salaries ten times or one hundred times higher than
their former wage so they could start to build atomic weapons in the
Muslim countries. The latest development is that they have smuggled atomic
material in order to build bombs from these former Russian states. As a result,
today in the Muslim countries there is a run for the most sophisticated modern
weapons. This run for weapons is one of the most terrible things we see when we
speak about Islamic countries.
Israel is
also involved in the development of sophisticated weapons. They have started
from the very beginning in the Sinai Desert at an atomic factory. In the
English newspapers about weaponry it is reported that Israel has at least two
hundred atomic bombs and has developed the neutron bomb and is producing other
weapons. One third of their weaponry is sold abroad in order to profit
financially. Israel is building up a force that equals the combination of all
Muslim countries in their development. It is no longer religion only, it is no
longer fundamentalism or socialism only, but it is building up the power of
countries and their armies whatever the cost.
In Israel
the whole socialist system has collapsed. In Israel today there are twenty
thousand millionaires, one half percent of the population owns ninety-five
percent of the capital of the whole country. Within fifty years the Zionistic
ideal has collapsed. What had been socialism, that all should be equal, what
had been communism in a Biblical Old Testament sense, is only an idea now.
Today you have a pure capitalism without any socialistic roots. As a result,
Israel is producing heavy weapons and the Muslim countries are also producing
heavy weapons. The next war will not be a simple war like the Six Days War or
like Yom Kippur War or Dessert Storm. The next war is something that everybody
fears because all kinds of weapons are ready on both sides.
This leads
us now to the fourth development. The majority of the nations’ leaders in
politics and religion say we have to find a solution; we have to make peace –
we cannot risk a new war. They say that it would destroy all our countries.
Therefore, they say, "let us unite, whatever the cost; let us make peace,
whatever the cost." So, we have a syncretistic movement starting in and
around Israel.
There have
been meetings in Beirut of all the church leaders: the Catholic Church, the
Protestant Church, Orthodox Churches and of the Muslims from the Sunnites, the
Shiites and the Druses. They said, "we have to make peace whatever the
cost, the state of Palestine must be created and we all believe in one
God." So, the idea of a monotheism that does not exist is now used. They
say we all believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The idea that we are
all believers in the same God is now introduced. The Freemasons heavily sponsor
this idea. Leaders of the Freemasons are found today in the Protestant,
Catholic, and Orthodox Churches and with the Sunnites and the Shiites and even
in Israel. You may not be aware that Rabin was a leading Freemason and that the
Freemasons claim that peace must be made even if the different religions have
to level their doctrine.
In Europe
there are quite a lot of leaders of the different churches who say, let us put
the stumbling blocks of our religion behind us so that we can unite with
others. We have to find a common denominator between the religions in order
that peace in the world will be granted. They say, we will have no peace in the
world without peace between the religions. This is one of the big movements
found today. Politically they say Israel has to give land in order to get
peace. This movement is moving ahead.
Even Pope
John Paul II made a plan for the year 2000, to build a Cathedral or place of worship at the foot of Mount Sinai, where all
religions can bow down and worship the one God
together. If you study the development of the Catholic Church, you will see
that in the Second Vatican Council, they opened themselves up to the different
religions by saying, whatever is found in the different religions not
contradicting the Catholic faith should be accepted by the Christians because
the Christians alone do not have the truth. And in Canberra the Protestant
World Council of Churches adopted it and added that they should especially open
themselves to the influence of Islam because Islam has a sound faith and
believes in the real God.
So today in
politics and in churches there is a movement that is trying to unite the
religions, trying to bring them closer together. This is found in Islam and in
Israel, in liberal Christian areas as in the Druses and in other religions.
At the
moment in Israel, the fundamentalists have won the majority. A small majority
Aulisa Nethanjahu could gain power. The Muslims are now uniting against
fundamentalist Israel because the mood which we have seen in Rabin and in Perez
about making peace for giving land is at the moment stopped and so the liberal
Muslims see that their syncretistic movement is wavering. Therefore they are
now starting to build up an opposing power and at the moment war is very close
and some of them have already said that they will fight against Israel.
To
summarize, since the creation of the state of Israel, there has been an Islamic
socialism, an Islamic fundamentalism, an Islamic materialism (looking for the
most modern weapons) and finally, a syncretism which tries to unite all into
one world religion.