The Special Place of European Muslims in the World Today

Talk given at the Faculty of Islamic Studies.
Sarajevo Bosnia.
by Abdulhasib Castiñeira
Friday 2 September 2005.

Bismillahi Ar Rahman Ar Rahim
Wa salatu was salamu ala Imami-l mursalina, wa khatimi-l Anbi-´ai, sayidina wa maulana Muhammadin, An Nabiyi al Ummiyi,
wa ´ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathiran.

As salamu alaykum.

Allow me at the outset to thank the hospitality of the Dean of the Islamic University of, Sarajevo, for granting us this opportunity. I would like to express my gratitude to Hajj Abu Bakr Rieger, Editor of Islamische Zeitung and President of the European Muslim Union, who has strong personal connection with Bosnia and during many years has awaken in me a strong bond with the Muslims in this land and who has invited me to give this talk today. I would like to thank Erdin Kadunic who has organized this encounter. And I would like to greet and ask Allah ´s forgiveness and acceptance to the great leader and inspiration of this nation in last few and difficult years, Mr. Alija Izetbegovic, may Allah cover him with His mercy.

This is a blessed gathering and it is also a miracle, if we are just able to see.

We have gathered n this city of great history, high culture and deep meaning in the presence of Islam in Europe. We are Muslims, some of us from areas of Europe where the teaching of Islam illuminated the hearts and brought justice, knowledge and guidance in the past, like Bosnia and Andalucia. The rest of us come from lands all over Western Europe where the guidance of Islam is now sprouting like new plants in virgin ground.

We, the Muslims of Spain, are ourselves a sign of the Mercy of Allah and a proof of the validity of Islam. After 500 years of military defeat and 250 years of complete disappearance of every living trace of Islam and Muslims from the land of Al-Andalus, a generation of young Spaniards was guided to the way of life and the wisdom of our ancestors that had been removed through genocide and religious persecution.

Our knowledge of the history of Islam in the Balkans and the centuries of Islamic rule brought by the Ottoman Caliphate to a large part of what is known today as Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro… was very limited. So was our knowledge of the Islamic history of our own country, limited to very short and poor interpretations given to us in the school system and very biased and negative explanations given at the university level, always impregnated with Christian views and a propagandistic, and therefore simplistic, version of the facts.

It has been through years of struggle to establish the Din in our lives, in our families, in our community and in the society where we belong, modern democratic Spain, that we have gradually discovered and step by step have begun to understand our own history.

In this matter -as in all matters- the Qur’an gives clarity to our view of our own history. Allah says repeatedly, “That is a nation that have already passed. They harvested what they acquired. You will harvest what you yourselves acquire”. Tilka ummatun qad khalat. Laha ma kasabat, walakum-ma kasabtum. Wa la tus´aluna ´amma kanu ya´malun. (Baqara 134, &141) With this ayat, we have abandoned all the fruitless, barren discourse of the Reconquest or return to the old glories of Al-Andalus.

It was through the brutal aggression and persecution suffered by the Muslims in Bosnia, followed by a devastating war in the nineties, that we discovered the history of Islam in the Balkans.

And that discovery for us had two very deeply emotional factors. One was the genocide of the Muslims undertaken by militant Christians with a dogmatic program, later renamed “ethnic cleansing”; a euphemistic term intended to make terrible crimes seem like some sort of rational technical planning. That terrible genocide was almost identical to the program of the extermination of all trace of Islam in Spain from the XV century up until the mid XVIII century by the Roman Catholic Machine of Repression and Death called the Inquisition.

This astonishing similitude between the genocide of the Bosnian Muslims in Yugoslavia and the Spanish Muslims in Al-Andalus was graphically expressed by Tayib Erdogan, at the time Major of Istanbul, when in a private visit to Granada was invited to the Municipality of Granada and there, at the Hall of Assemblies, he said to the Major and Members of the City Council from all different political parties:

“This city brings to us memories of a great past and also of a great suffering. The greatness of the Islamic civilization of Spain is very near to our hearts. And equally so is the brutality suffered by the Muslims after the fall of Islamic rule and the genocide of the Muslims that had started in Granada. So much so that what made the entire nation of Turkey become involved in supporting the Muslims of Bosnia at the beginning of the war in 1992 were the images shown on television of a huge demonstration in the streets of Sarajevo where the Muslims were seen shouting: “We do not want to be the next Al-Andalus!”

The second very deeply emotional factor that made us empathize with the terrible suffering, devastation, destruction of families, death of innocents, hunger, illness and injuries experienced by the Bosnian Muslims was the fact that they were contemporary European people, Mediterranean in culture and identity like us, a nation that could be our own.

Now, this brings me to the heart of what I want to say. I would like to refer to the ayat in the book of Allah which says, “Those were nations that have passed. They harvested what they acquired. You will harvest what you yourselves acquire”.

I would like to refer to what is ahead of us and what is our task, what is our contribution, particularly us the Muslims of Europe. What should be our striving in this difficult time in which we live.

Some Muslims feel, and this is a very widespread perception among the Arabs, that Islam is under attack on every front all over the world: in the media, in the military aggressions suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the economic field, usurious financial institutions rule every Muslim country. Even at the level of life style, Muslims in every corner of the world are being pushed into an alien materialistic and immoral pattern of life. This perception, made up of indisputable facts and realities of our time, has led many Muslims to feeling deep impotency, frustration and bitterness. These feelings, manipulated through the inflaming rhetoric of jihad – without a proper understanding of the God-given rules and delimitations of Jihad – have led some misguided minorities of ignorant and de-rooted Muslims to collaborate in acts of nihilism, defined as terrorism, believing them to be Jihad in its correct form.

But these are a minority, a marginal minority of the great Ummah of Islam.

These undeniable facts of enmity and hostility against Islam are nothing new. They are well explained with all clarity in the Qur’an. The entire life of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessing be upon him, prepared us to expect that these things will happen. He who was known as al Amin, the Truthful and Trustworthy, belonging to the noblest tribe of Arabia, the Quraysh, and the best clan, the Banu Hashim, the best among them and the best of all human beings, had to flee in the middle of the night with his friend to save his life after being persecuted and suffering embargo and isolation. He also underwent successive devastating confrontations at Badr, Uhud, the Battle of the Trench, Khaybar, Hunain, Tabuk, and so many intrigues, massive military attacks and aggressions intended to eliminate and completely wipe out him, his companions, his community and his message. All these attempts were unsuccessful.

And in despite of all these, never during the early stages of the Muslim community or any historic period of Islamic rule was Islam characterized by hatred, frustration, bitterness or impotency.

On the contrary, the Muslim community has always been characterized by greatness of spirit, generosity, justice, mighty power, scientific knowledge and benign treatment of other nations, including their fiercest enemies. That was the prophetic character and the basis for the character of the individual Muslim. This inspired even the most vicious enemies of Islam among the Quraysh Arabs to accept Islam. It was also because of that noble prophetic character that the Mongol hordes, which had devastated Baghdad, embraced Islam and in the span of two generations became the strongest force to defend Islam for several centuries to come. And it is by that superiority of character and behavior of the prophetic education, that the best soldiers from the USA and other European countries stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan will accept Islam in great numbers in the years to come.

As a Spaniard raised by a practicing Catholic family, I became Muslim almost 30 years ago and got actively involved and dedicated in establishing Islam in Europe. My personal experience and our perspective as pioneer members of a young Muslim community in the land of Al-Andalus, allows me to say that the present protagonism of Islam in the news, the ruthless campaign of assassinations of innocent people attributed to Islam and the sophisticated means of manipulation of the masses orchestrated by specialists in Washington, by the Neocons, and in Tel Aviv by the cunning Jews, are all only a manifestation of the greatness of Allah and His Wisdom. They are only a desperate reaction trying to stop the irresistible spiritual light, rational coherence, fascinating attraction and alleviation of suffering that Islam has for all people, and very particularly today for the thinking and educated citizens of the secular decadent societies of Europe and America, obsessed with Dunya, empty of inner meanings.

I will give a simple example from two weeks ago. A young Muslim community made up mostly of Spaniards living in the city of Seville, capital of modern Andalucia, applied for a piece of land to build a new mosque. The Municipality of Seville granted them a splendid plot of land of 6,000 square meters, next to the famous Guadalquivir River. Now, some recalcitrant right-wing Christians cannot tolerate this favorable treatment of Muslims and are using all means of pressure to try to prevent the building of the Mosque of Seville.

In August, the same Muslim Community of Seville organized a beautiful exhibition of Islamic calligraphy with the most spectacular collection of different styles and decorations from a museum from the Emirate of Sharjah. The exhibition will be running until September 23rd at the Royal Alcazar of Seville.

The right-wing newspaper ABC, strongly connected to the Church and the old oligarchy of Andalucia, published a one-page report about the calligraphy exhibition under the title, “Trying to Make Friends in the City”. The only picture was a photograph taken a few months ago of a bloody pig’s head left behind on the mosque grounds in Seville by protestors demonstrating against its construction.

This expression of hostility towards Islam and this vulgar treatment by a major newspaper of a cultural manifestation of high quality made many other journalists contact the representatives of the Muslim community offering them their support. When the spokesman for the Muslims was asked, “What do you have to say about this obvious provocation?” He replied, “ We have nothing to say, they are only portraying themselves”. The end result has been a resounding success of the Calligraphy Exhibition and a very sympathetic coverage by most televisions, radios and newspapers of Seville towards the Muslim community.

Again, our guidance is in the Qur’an, “You who believe! If you help Allah, Allah will give you victory, and He will make your steps firm”.

Intansuru Allah yansurkum wa yuthabbit aqdamakum. (Surat Muhammad 7). Supporting Allah, helping Allah, what does it mean? The mufassirrin have traditionally commented on this ayat saying it means supporting the Din of Islam, establishing the prayer, Zakat, Ramadhan, Hajj, justice and the remembrance of Allah on Earth.

In our particular environment on the European continent and in this specific time in which we live, there are two essential elements of supporting the Din of Islam. Imam al Ghazali, may Allah be pleased with him, said that each age and each place requires an assessment as to the priority of which elements of the Din of Islam should be stressed and given importance. He said, “If you are in the land of adultery, lay heavy on the punishment of fornication. If you are in the land of drinkers, lay heavy on the law of drunkenness”.

While all of these are rampant in our societies, there is no doubt that there are two main ills that cause destruction, misery and put veils between man and his Creator. In other words there are two main factors of kufr in our age:
- Usury, capitalism in the public, social sphere
- Individualism, the private manifestation of capitalism.

These two factors support one another and are mutually interdependent. The gradual permissibility and decriminalization of the practice of interest loan in Western Europe is well documented.

The usurious institutions have managed to control all human activity from private individuals to small businesses to the corporation and the state. They are all indebted, taxed and bled by the banks. This is the greatest crime of our age. The great American poet of the twentieth century Ezra Pound said, “Democracy is the system of governance in which the banks have absolute control”. He was in a psychiatric institution, locked up in a small cage and declared insane. But he was right.

The other factor of the modern democratic secular society is the lack of loyalty, lack of concern for the close ones, obsession with oneself, neurosis, compulsive consumption and individualistic definition of men and women in society. The family has been weakened to an extreme. The natural bonding of village, neighborhood, tribe, clan or extended family and the spontaneous solidarity among the community members has been replaced by the collective unconsciousness of television and the films and dependence on the institutions. Activism and commitment have been replaced by the political democratic play.

The strength of Islam is in the unity and strong cohesion of the community. The message of liberation in this age that people are waiting for is an alternative to usury. In Granada, we minted the first Islamic gold dinar with the weight and measurements as designated in the shari’ ah, as well as the Islamic dirham in pure silver. These coins hold a great importance for the Muslims and they are the corner stone of an alternative to the present usurious system. One of the pillars of Islam, Zakat, is strongly bound with these coins because the assessment of the nisab is made in gold dinar and because, properly speaking, it should be paid in gold and silver or in crops.

A system of trade where the currency is gold and silver will not allow for the obscene accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, while large masses of the population of the world suffer malnutrition and lack of drinking water not to speak of proper education, health care or a dignified home.

The restoration of Zakat and the return of bimetallic currency will have another effect; it will imply the presence of Islamic governance.

In Spain, the Amir collects Zakat, through appointed collectors, in real dinars of gold and real silver dirhams minted locally and then orders distribution among the poor and needy according to the shari’ ah beneficiaries.

The dominant capitalist society drags people with compelling force toward an individualistic way of life. On the other hand, our Din affirms the blessings of brotherhood, the necessity of the jam´ah, the benefits of loyalty to the Amir and the cohesion of the community.

The example of the life of the Prophet, his family and his first community are a luminous model of all these things. In this wisdom there is a medicine for our lives, a gift for our children and us. But it is also the key for the triumph of Islam, because that fitra, that unity of the community, the examples of brotherhood and loyalty, the integrity of the family and the generosity and hospitality of Islam is what many seekers are looking for and what makes many people embrace Islam.

The dominant capitalist society has almost completely managed to submit the vast majority of its citizens, “the masses”, to passively accept being exploited by an economic system which is unjust in its very root. This system promotes greed and aggressive competition, paralyses most people to the fear of debt, and allows the most ruthless, unashamed and unfair accumulation of wealth in the hands of small minorities by means of speculation and usurious transactions. Meanwhile the limits and parameters of the Prophetic teaching of Islam regarding business, trade and transactions, are clear and explicit. They are based on justice, equity and fairness.

Usury is not permitted in any of its forms. Zakat is obligatory and represents a means of the redistribution of wealth. Zakat implies Islamic governance because it is not a voluntary donation but rather an obligatory tax collected by the Amir and redistributed among the poor and needy. Dinar and dirham are the currency of intrinsic value, which is not subject to inflation or manipulation by speculators.

To implement the Din of Islam in its fullness, that is our jihad. To demonstrate by action that these delimitations of the Halal are not only possible but what's more they are a blessing and the liberation that people are looking for. That is our challenge. That is the arena, that is the field, where we can expect a success in this life and harvest the reward of Allah in the Next. There are millions of intelligent people in the world, aware of the intrinsic corruption and injustice of the capitalist doctrine that are searching for an authentic and workable alternative. They are waiting for Islam.

This is the alternative they are looking for. It is complete, wholesome, it is coherent and it is sound. It brings about sanity to the individual and to the community. But conversely, after the failure and the terrible atrocities of fascism and communism, humanity has had enough idealism and enough destructive ideologies and utopias. The persuading force of Islam can be neither ideology nor idealism, but has to be righteous action, prayer, sincerity to God and genuine human quality with intelligent solutions to the real problems.

We the European Muslims are in a position of privilege to present and make true this alternative because we know the roots of thinking and the history of the matrix. The matrix of this system of capitalism, the myths of liberal democracy, human rights and international law are all born in Europe. We now know its reality. Srebrenica taught us a lot about international law and human rights. We the European Muslims are also free from the resentment and the entrapment in dialectics that pervades the Arab world today. We are free from the colonial past that has created those negative, sterile reactions.

The Muslims of Europe must set ourselves completely free from the intellectual trap in which the present discourse has enframed Islam: the false alternative between a fundamentalist belligerent ideology on the one hand and a religion among religions which submits to the secular rule and accepts all the foundations and principles of the New World Order, on the other. Both positions are equally untruthful and both represent a betrayal.

It is our responsibility to regenerate Islamic knowledge and to establish a completely new set of parameters of thought, free from that entrapment.

The path to success is a return to the original source of all Islamic models and all Islamic knowledge: the practice of Madina in the first four generations of the prophetic community. This is the only possibility to offer a viable alternative to the present project of globalisation and world hegemony of the liberal capitalism. The original blueprint of Madina and all the sciences that derive from it will be source to a sound alternative will be the task of a new kind of fuqaha, people of knowledge seeking for solutions and answers to the present dilemmas, not simple scholarship for show off or religious preaching.

A restoration of all sciences of the Din integrated and unified: the sciences of inner illumination (ihsan), the sciences of sanity of the human being (ilm at-tasawwuf) and the sciences of transactions in the market place and government (ilm al mu´amalat). The disputes between and salafism must be abandoned by adopting the Sufism of the salaf. The choice between a militant Islam and a esoteric spiritualism is equally inexistent in the original blueprint.

It is my conviction that this revitalisation of Islamic knowledge and practice that will lead to the restoration of Islamic rule will come from the Muslims of Europe.

This is why Sarajevo, Granada and Istanbul are essential locations, meeting points and references for the future of Islam, not only references to the past.

These names represent not only the celebrated history of Islam in Europe but also the vitality of Islam today. I believe that it is from these cities that a new example, a renewed teaching and a new triumph of Islam will appear.

We ask Allah to give us success in understanding, acting upon correct knowledge and establishing justice.

We ask Allah to bless the Muslims in Bosnia and give them strength, might and pride in their Din.
Wa Huwa ala kulli shai-in Qadir wa bil ijaabati jadeer.