Qaradawi's sharia "gradualism" is a threat to liberal democracy

by A Millar
December 22, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/2006/qaradawi-sharia-gradualism-is-a-threat-to-liberal

During the Balkans war of the 1990s, Alija Izetbegović, then Bosnia's President, was championed by the Western media. For Western reporters, educated in the humanities, Bosnian Muslims were Europe's new Jews besieged by Serbian nationalists – Europe's alleged new Nazis. That Izetbegović had been a longtime member of the Young Muslims, a secretive and once-Nazi affiliated movement, was conveniently overlooked. Izetbegović, for the Western press, was more than a victim, and more than a "moderate Muslim." He was, in the view of reporters embedded in Bosnian hotels, a defender of the multiculturalism that was under attack from the Serbs (Orthodox Christians).

It seems curious today, but probably the only people in the West – certainly in Britain, at least – to challenge this rosy picture were the communists. Early on during the war, one communist organization held an exhibition of photographs of Serbian victims of Bosnian atrocities. It was, of course, ignored by the media.

Significant atrocities were, of course, conducted by Serb forces. Nevertheless, the media, we are led to believe, is composed of "experts." But, if reporters – allegedly after the truth – ignored photographic evidence of the frequently conducted Bosnian atrocities, and if one or two reporters may even have doctored evidence against the Serbs, universally ignored was Izetbegović's own long term plan to tear down the old (semi-communist) system and establish an Islamic state in its place. Even today, occasionally, a carefully extracted sentence or two from Izetbegović's Islamic Declaration (originally published circa 1970, and republished in 1990) is reproduced as evidence of his love of multiculturalism. (Readers can judge for themselves whether this is an accurate portrayal, since an edition of the Declaration can be downloaded here).

It is true that Izetbegović states at one point in the Declaration that non-Muslim minorities would have rights and freedoms in his envisioned Islamic state, although he is clear that this would depend on how assimilated to Islam the non-Muslims became. The more Islamic they became the more rights and freedoms (to be like Muslims) they would have.

Religious minorities were not the only ones that Izetbegović had in his sights. Notably, the alleged multiculturalist inveighs against feminism – and sees the role of women as that of mothers only – and liberal democracy in his Declaration.

He also presents Islam as an essentially political project: "History knows no genuine Islamic movement that was not a political movement at the same time," he says. For Izetbegović, one cannot be a Muslim and "act, work, have fun, rule in a non-Islamic way."

For Izetbegović, a religious revival would pave the way for the Islamic state, crucially, by educating (or indoctrinating) the masses over a long period.

This period of indoctrination would ensure the success of the revolution to come.

Izetbegovic is not the only Islamic scholar who has grasped the importance of paving the way for an Islamic or Islamist revolution over a long period, as The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report has noted. TGMBDR notes that the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Youssef Qaradawi, has recently stated that "Gradualism in applying the Shari'ah is a wise requirement to follow." Qaradawi goes on to say:

"Being a divine law, gradualism is to be followed on the political level nowadays. That is to say, gradualism is to be observed when it comes to applying the rulings of the Shari'ah in today's life when Muslims have been socially, legislatively, and culturally invaded.

"If we want to establish a real Muslim society, we should not imagine that such an end can be achieved by a mere decision issued to that effect by a king or a president or a council of leaders or a parliament.

Gradualism is the means through which such an end can be fulfilled. Gradualism here refers to preparing people ideologically, psychologically, morally, and socially to accept and adopt the application of the Shari'ah in all aspects of life [my emphasis], and to finding lawful alternatives for the forbidden principles upon which many associations have been founded for so long.

As Qaradawi and Izetbegovic know, sharia is a complete system that creates a particular way of acting and thinking in all situations, public and private.

It is, as both would acknowledge, political, although it would mean total submission to the dictates of the religion of Islam. Qaradawi, like Izetbegovic before him, recommends the gradual introduction of the "divine law" of sharia at the "political level."

Even if, traditionally, sharia is not to be applied in non-Islamic countries, it is clear that that is the intention here. Moreover, the establishment of sharia as the law of the land in the UK and elsewhere in the West is desired by a substantial proportion of Muslims – most polls put it around 40 percent. There are an increasing number of sharia tribunals active in the UK. And, although certainly extremists, Muslim or Islamist gangs have recently embarked on campaigns to enforce "shariah controlled zones" in British cities.

Sharia, as state law, demands the stoning of adulterers, and execution for homosexuality and apostasy, as well as other barbaric punishments, such as the cutting off of the hand for thieves. As longtime gay rights activist Peter Tatchell has noted of Qaradawi, "he favours female genital mutilation, wife-beating, the execution of homosexuals in Islamic states, the destruction of the Jewish people, the use of suicide bombs against innocent civilians and the blaming of rape victims who do not dress with sufficient modest." All of this, we should have no doubt, is absolutely in line with Qardawi's understanding of sharia.

For Izetbegovic, Islamists had to be "preachers first and then soldiers." Qaradawi might not be advocating violence against Western states, but the Balkans offers a lesson in the consequences of such "gradualism."

Liberal democracy should be defended. If the UK's Conservative-Liberal Democrats Government, and others in Europe, are serious about defending the rights of minorities, they will make it clear that sharia has no place in their society, and will take steps to prohibit it.

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