If we look back in the holy Qura'n, at how Muslims have responded to Almighty Allah throughout history, we see a tale of people turning away again and again from the straight path. Even though, time and time again, Allah has sent down Prophets to bring the people back, the Prophets were rejected and the people chose to go back to more comfortable ways, instead of submitting their minds and hearts to Allah. Even our more recent Islamic history tells us as much. When petty rivalries divided the Muslim kingdoms in Al-Andalus in Southern Spain, the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella were able to finally take Cordoba and bring to an end that Golden Age of Islam in Spain, when education and knowledge had been held in the highest esteem and Muslims, Jews and Christians had lived together in centuries for peace. Or we can take the example of the Arab world at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Enticed by Britain and France into believing that their future lay in splitting into small nation states, the Arab Muslims rejected their Ottoman Turkish brothers and hastened the end of the Caliphate. The disaster we see in the Middle East at the present time is directly related to Muslims not sticking together as brothers, but listening instead to the illusory dreams offered by Western powers. One even wonders nowadays what is supposed to be achieved by Arab leaders in Palestine talking peace and courting favour with the Jewish state, at the expense of Muslim unity, when history shows that the Jewish state has no interest in peace or in the rights of the Palestinian people. We might learn something here in Egypt by looking at the experience of Muslims living in the UK. There is no doubt that Islam is in the spotlight in many Western countries. Daily news coverage shows Muslims being questioned at airports or being asked to prove their loyalty to the state. BBC documentaries, for example, are not concerned with the Church of England or with Buddhists, but with Islam and Muslims. The so-called War on Terror, in looking for a visible enemy to fight, has settled upon Islam. The secularists, who find no place for religion or for God in our society, Islam use every opportunity to ally with this current trend. Muslim speakers and writers, instead of being able to talk about the real message of Islam, find themselves having to defend and explain the term jihad. Just as we see Muslims elsewhere in the world reaping the results of past mistakes, though, we cannot fail to wonder if the current situation in the UK is not at least in part due to the way Muslims have behaved in the past, and indeed in the way some still behave. Thirty years or so ago, Muslims there had it pretty easy. They were able to build mosques and to go about their business relatively undisturbed. The secularists at that time still had their eyes on Christianity, and were still in the process of making it seem irrelevant to British society and purely a private matter for the citizen. Whilst the myth of mutual respect towards all religions in the UK had not yet been fully articulated, there was at least a tolerance which Muslims could take advantage of. What did Muslims do with that relative freedom, though? They built mosques. But they didn't build them to promote the Ummah. They built Turkish mosques and Lebanese mosques and Bengali mosques, excluding from them those brothers and sisters who did not come from these backgrounds. It is quite right to celebrate our rich diversity as Muslims, adding the different flavours of Islam to the wider picture of a worldwide Ummah. Muslims believe that Islam is the natural religion of mankind and that it is universal. There is a place for the cultural and ethnic diversities which people from different backgrounds bring. But Muslims should surely never exclude other Muslims. Seen from outside, Islam in Britain looks very divided. Its very richness and diversity have led to disunity, with some Muslims not even talking to others because they don't follow this school or listen to that sheikh. And this, of course, is exactly what the secularists have wanted all along. They have given Muslims just enough rope to tie themselves in knots. Muslims are then easy pickings. Government ministers, the press and the most right-wing nationalist parties are able to attack Islam, making it seem foolish and unimportant, knowing that there is not a unified voice which can respond. We truly get what we deserve. So where does the answer lie and what can Egypt learn from this? Visiting the sacred mosque in Mekka is truly one of the greatest things a Muslim can do. Once we have wiped the tears from our eyes and touched the ground with our foreheads, offering prayer and praise to the maker of the Heavens and the Earth, we get a time to look around us. Not only are we moved by the thought that all Prophets have been to this place, but we also see Muslims from every place on earth, dressed in simple white clothes, submitting their minds and their wills to Allah Almighty. At Mekka, the rich diversity of Muslims is not a problem, but it encourages their faith. It shows us that Islam has existed since the beginning of Time and is at home everywhere on this earth. So why can't this rich diversity of backgrounds and opinions of Muslims be used to good effect instead of being a cause of division? Instead of being a cause of division, it should be the cause of Muslims'. In Egypt at the present time, different shades of opinion have created so many different political parties and groups. Not only do they disagree with one another, but they openly do so and often disagree in a very impolite and unseemly way. Islam is as much at home in Sydney as it is in New York or Damascus. It is certainly at home in both Bengal and Beirut. Muslims here in Egypt turn the tables on those who would make Islam and Muslims look divided and weak, by showing them that this diversity is their strength. In his final sermon, Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spoke these words to the Muslims gathered before him on the Plain of Arafat: “O People listen to my words. Know that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that all Muslims constitute one brotherhood." Instead of allowing others to divide them as Muslims and make the message of Islam seem a threat to modern Egypt society, and instead of playing into their hands, we should realise before it is too late that in unity lies our strength. As Muslims, we are a nation of prayer. As Muslims, we belong to Allah and we are attentive to the words and the life of His Prophet (PBUH). In Ramadan, we all share the same fast and break the same fast together, remembering those in the world who have nothing and giving thanks to Allah for having given us everything. We truly get what we deserve. By living as good Muslims, inshallah, we will deserve the blessing of Allah Almighty and draw our fellow citizens to the sweet and gentle message of Islam. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, teaches at Al-Azhar University and is the author of nine books about Islam. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com, join him on Facebook at Idris Tawfiq Page and listen to his Radio Show, “A Life in Question," on Sundays at 11pm on Radio Cairo 95.4 FM.
