Arousing the Nationalist Chauvinism and the Separatist Tendencies
Shaikh Abdul Qadeem Zallum
The attempts of the European countries, especially Britain, France and Russia to remove the Khilafah State from existence continued. However, their attempts to strike the State from the back, through organised wars, armies and battles failed. This failure was not exclusively due to the defence capabilities of the Khalifah, but due to the international situation and the differences over the share of the spoils amongst the states. As for the attempts undertaken in Europe by the European states, mainly in Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece among others, these were successful, because the European countries proceeded through inciting nationalist chauvinism and separatist tendencies which they called independence. Hence, the European countries adopted this style: The style of inciting nationalist chauvinism and tendencies towards independence i.e. separatist tendencies, all over the lands shaded by the banner of Islam and ruled by the Khalifah of the Muslims. They specifically focused their work on the Arabs and the Turks. The British and French embassies in Istanbul and the main Islamic cities started to incite nationalist chauvinism and tendencies towards independence. Their work was notable mostly in Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, Cairo and Jeddah. They established two main centres to carry out this mission: Istanbul, to strike the state in her main centre, and Beirut, in order to strike her in the provinces, especially in the countries inhabited by Arabic speaking Muslims.
The role of the Beirut Centre in working against the Khilafah
As for the Beirut centre, it was set up as a centre of Kufr to hit Islam and the Islamic State, and its plan was designed to work on a long term basis and to yield far reaching results. As for the Istanbul centre, a short term plan was designed for it, so that it yields speedy results with far reaching effects. Hence, the Beirut centre was a deadly poison, which converted thousands of the Muslims’ sons into Kuffar, and transformed the Islamic relations in general to relations conducted according to the rules of Kufr. The centre’s effect in hitting the Islamic State during her clash with the Kuffar in World War I was devastating.
The western Kuffar started their political activities in Beirut immediately after Ibrahim Basha’s withdrawal from Al-Sham. In 1842, a committee was formed with the aim of establishing a scientific association under the auspices of the American Mission and according to its programme. The committee proceeded according to its programme for five years, until it managed in 1847 to establish an association known as “ The Science and Arts Association”. This association was run by two Christian collaborators, known as the most dangerous British collaborators. They were Butros Al-Bustani and Naseef Al-Yajizi, backed by “Colonel Churchill” from among the British and “Eli Smith” and “Cornilos Van Dick” from the Americans. The goals of the association were at first vague, it however gave the impression that it aimed at spreading the various sciences among the adults, just like the schools would do with the children, and at motivating adults, just like the children would be motivated, into being cultured with the western culture, given the western thoughts and steered towards a specific direction. However, despite the activity of association’s members and their huge efforts, only fifty active members in the whole of Al-Sham joined over a period of two years. They were all Christians and most of them were from Beirut. None fromamong the Muslims nor from among the Druze ever joined the association.
Hence, another association was established in 1850 under the name of the “Eastern Association”. It was established by the Jesuits, under the tutelage of the French Jesuit father “Henri Debrenier, and all its members were Christians. Then in 1857 another association was established, adopting a new style and made its membership exclusive to Arabs only; the founders were also Arabs. Hence, it managed to persuade some Muslims and some Druze to join in their quality as Arabs; hence, a large number joined and they reached 150 members Among its administration board were some prominent personalities such as “Mohammed Arsalan” from the Druze, “Hussein Bayham” from the Muslims and “Ibrahim Al-Yaziji” and the son of “Butros Al-Bustani” from the Christians. The latter two were the ones who undertook the guarding of the idea and endeavoured to work towards it. The success of the association encouraged the Kuffar to adopt the direct approach in inciting nationalist chauvinism and tendencies towards independence, without having to resort to the ploy of spreading science, and to work in an open manner, not through intrigue and deceit.
Hence, in 1875, the “Secret Association” was established in Beirut by five young men from among those who graduated from the “Protestant College” in Beirut. They were all Christians and they managed to gather a small number of people. The association set about concentrating itself on the basis of a political idea. It was established as a political party and built on the basis of Arab nationalism. This association is considered to have been the first political party to be established in the Islamic countries on the basis of Arab nationalism. The association used to call for the Arabs, Arabism and nationalism, and to incite hatred against the Ottoman State which it called the “Turkish” state. It worked towards separating the Deen from the state, establishing Arab nationalism as the basis and shifting the Muslims’ loyalty from being towards the Islamic Aqeedah to being exclusively towards Arab nationalism. It published leaflets and distributed them in secret. Some of its leaflets used to accuse “Turkey”-according to them- of usurping the Khilafah from the Arabs, violating the noble Islamic Shari’ah and of neglecting the Deen, despite the fact that those who supervised and ran the association’s affairs were all Christians who nurtured hatred against Islam. The nationalist movements started to spread thereon and nationalist chauvinism started to be propagated. However, the activities of the European countries at the Beirut centre were designed to recruit spies and carry out activities aimed at destroying the thoughts and the dispositions. Hence, the political status of this association was backward, though its effects were intellectually devastating.
The role of the Istanbul centre in working towards hitting the Khilafah State
This was as far as the Beirut centre was concerned. As for the Istanbul centre, -the centre used by the western Kuffar to strike the Islamic State in the capital and through striking the state’s officials- the Kuffar undertook several actions, the most important and the most devastating of which was the establishment of “Young Turk” alias Federation & Progress. The Committee had been established at first in Paris by the Turkish youth who had been saturated by the French thoughts and deeply cultured on the French revolution. It was established as a secret revolutionary Committee. The leader of this revolutionary group was Ahmed Redha Beik. He was a prominent personality among people and his idea was to import the western culture to his country “Turkey”. The Committee established other branches in Berlin, Slanik and Istanbul. The Paris centre was meticulously organised, its programme was extreme and the means of publicity it relied upon were solid. It published a newsletter entitled “Al Anba”. It used to be smuggled into Istanbul along with the European mail. Then grabbed by a group of Turks who promised to distribute it in secret. The association also published political leaflets; these also used to be smuggled in the same manner.
As for the Berlin branch, this was formed by moderates, former ministers of state, former high ranking officials and skilful politicians. They used to call for reform and the organising of state affairs according to the German ruling system. They suggested uniting the several peoples out of whom the Ottoman empire was formed, and establishing amongst them something akin to the German federation.
As for the Slanik branch, the overwhelming majority of its members were from among the educated officers who had a strong influence within the army. They prepared for the revolution. Some of the Islamic Scholars joined them, hence increasing their strength further. They were also joined by some junior officials, like Tal’at, who later became prime minister. However, they were governed and controlled by the Paris centre and they never deviated from its opinion. The Paris centre used to guide them with the western opinions and theories and arouse in them the inclinations towards struggle and full dedication.
The Masonic lodges, especially the greater Italian lodge in Slanik, used to welcome the activities of this association and championed their cause from a literal viewpoint. Meetings used to take place in the chambers of the Masonic lodges, where it was impossible for the spies to gain access no matter how hard they tried. Many members of these lodges were affiliated to the “Federation & Progress”. The Committee managed through this means to increase its members and strengthen its influence, thanks to the aid it was receiving. Furthermore, the members of “Federation & Progress” used to benefit from the Masonic styles in establishing a liaison with Istanbul and even in getting closer to the Palace itself.
The “Young Turk” or “Committee of Federation & Progress” started to hold secret meetings and prepare for the revolution. It followed this trend up until 1908, when it staged the coup and seized power. Its strength became manifest and Europe expressed its approval of the Committee. In the autumn of 1908, and shortly before the opening of parliament, the members of the Slanik branch held a conference; this was regarded as the first muscle flexing exercise. The leader of the party was at the time its Parisian founder “Ahmed Redha Beik”. He delivered a speech to the delegates in which he expressed his happiness and boasted about the success of the party. He also confirmed that the European kingdoms themselves had expressed good will towards the nationalist movement and expressed their satisfaction about the country’s status quo.
At that time, i.e. in the autumn of 1908, Britain appointed a new ambassador to Istanbul called “Gerald Luther”. When he reached Istanbul, a group from the “Federation & Progress” Committee greeted him very warmly, to the point where they took the horses off the chariot and pulled it themselves. All this was instigated by the “Federation & Progress” Committee and of its own initiative. The fascination of the Committee’s men with the embellished western thoughts reached a point where they were no longer aware of these thoughts’ contradiction to the reality of the state they were governing in addition to their failure to perceive their contradiction to Islam. The extent of their recklessness and lack of vision drew the attention of the Europeans to their ignorance, to the point where one of the diplomats working in Istanbul at the time said about them: “They often take the second step before the first.” The activists of “Federation & Progress” rushed into handing the reins of government to the versed in western laws and western thoughts, and they eventually gained the upper hand within the “Young Turk” party. When they also realised that controlling the army leads to controlling the whole power, they endeavoured to make the new appointments based on a party policy. Hence, all the officers became party members rather than experts or military men. They also introduced a legislative stating that by law, every citizen of the Ottoman State is entitled to the same rights enjoyed by the Turks and should fulfil the same obligations .
This Committee gained total control of the whole State, its present and its future; hence the idea which the West had adopted to hit the State and destroy the Khilafah came home to roost. This idea came to power through the members of the ruling party and its supporters who did not deem that only Islam was suitable for this era, it rather considered that suitability as whole lied in Western thoughts and the Western culture. They also deemed the preserving of the Turkish nationalism to be amongst their main activities of their party, to the point where their loyalty to Turkish nationalism became above any other loyalty. Hence, they boasted about it and devoted their attention to it, to the point where they considered Turkey to be better than the rest of the Islamic countries and the Turk to be better than the rest of the Muslims.
Therefore, the founding of the Young Turk Party or the “Federation & Progress” organisation was one of the most horrific act perpetrated by the West in its drive to hit the Islamic State and Islam. The results of such a move were swift, for no sooner the party seized the reins of power than the pickaxe of destruction started to work on the body of the State and to dig between its subjects a ditch over which a bridge could not be arched. This is so because nationalism is the most harmful thing that divides people and generates amongst them animosity, hatred and war. Although the affiliation to the organisation was open to all citizens of the state, it was the nationalist policy of the unionists within the state that evoked the nationalist idea in the Ottoman subjects. Hence, the Albanians in Astana founded their own Committee, soon to be followed by the Circassians and the Kurds. The Romans and the Armenians had established in the past secret organised committees, thus they made them legal.
The Arabs for their part established the organisation of “Arab-Ottoman Brotherhood” in Astana and they opened the organisation’s club under the same name. However, the “Federation & Progress” Committee was chauvinist, especially towards the Arabs, for they allowed all the nationalities to establish ethnic groups, but they started at the same time to oppose the Arab Committees. Hence, they dissolved the Arab Committees and shut down its club by government decree. They also pursued a policy of ethnic discrimination within the armed forces; hence, they summoned all the Arab officers from their respective lands to Istanbul and prevented them from joining the Officers’ academic mission to Germany. They also decided to prevent the Arab members of the “Federation & Progress” from joining the “Central Committee” if this Committee. This Committee had been open to all the citizens of the Ottoman State, with no discrimination between a Turk, an Arab, an Albanian or a Circassian. However, when this party seized power and since the Turks enjoyed most of the influence, they acted in this despotic manner, and deprived the Arabs within this Committee from the sensitive posts. They also embarked upon turning the Committee into an exclusively Turkish Committee. This was followed by numerous measures being implemented in certain government departments, such as stripping the ministry of Awqaf from the Arab minister and handing to a Turkish minister, and such as the deliberate appointment of Turks to the posts of foreign affairs and home affairs ministries; also the deliberate posting of Turkish Walis to the Arab provinces, chosen from among those who could not speak Arabic. Then they crowned this by adopting the Turkish language as the official language, to the point where they started teaching in Turkish. Their contempt for the Arabic language was to the point where the ambassador of the Ottoman State to Washington published a communiqué in 1909 in which he prohibited the Ottomans living in America from addressing the embassy in other than the Turkish language, despite his full knowledge that the State’s subjects in America were no less than half a million and none of them could speak Turkish.
This racism between Arabs and Turks became conspicuously rampant amongst the armed forces. The Turkish officers affiliated to Federation & Progress used to display this racism in their conducts and when it comes to promotions and to assuming the high ranking military posts. The Arab officers expressed their anger but no doubt ever crossed their minds over the obligation to remain loyal to the State, for the point at issue was not an issue of union between Arabs and Turks, it was rather an issue of one Islamic Ummah, and a Khalifah in Istanbul whose obedience Allah (swt) has commanded and whose disobedience He (swt) prohibited; the Muslim is a brother to another Muslim, he does not demean him nor wrong him. Therefore, some of the Arab high officers were affected by this status quo, hence, at the end of 1909, they requested a meeting with the influential figures within the organisation of Federation & Progress. The latter accepted and they held a lengthy meeting in Istanbul. They discussed the measures which they had to take in order settle this dispute between Arabs and Turks once and for all. The meeting was on the verge of restoring the unity, discarding racism and rallying around the Islamic Aqeedah alone, but some of the Turkish youth, to whom Turkish nationalism took precedence to the Islamic Aqeedah, such as Ahmed Agha Beik and Ysuf Aqshurah Beik among others, found it too painful to relinquish their nationalism and devote their loyalty to Islam alone. Hence, they intervened and lashed out at the Arabs with harsh words and glorified the Turks. As a result, the meeting ended with the situation becoming worse than it had been before it started. The organisation continued to pursue its policy of racism and when the Turks gained the upper hand, they embarked upon changing the programme of the organisation so as to turn it into an exclusively Turkish affair. This amendment triggered the wholesale resignation of all the Arabs, all the Albanians and the Armenians, as well as the Turks to whom the Islamic Aqeedah, rather than their nationality, remained the basis.
The role of the European embassies in establishing the Arab Committees and parties
In the wake of these events, the European embassies became active in their contacts with the Arabs. Hence, they established the “Decentralisation Party”, with Cairo as its centre and Rafiq Al-Azim as its president. They also established the “Reform Committee” in Beirut and the “Literal Forum” among others. The British and the French infiltrated the ranks of the Arabs who started to carry the nationalist tendency and opened for them the coffers of their countries. Hence, on 18th June 1913 and under the auspices of the French, the Arab young man held a conference in Paris, and this represented the Arab nationalists’ first declaration of alignment towards Britain and France against their Ottoman State.
When the “Federation & Progress” men sensed this, they established the “Turk Ojaghi Committee” meaning the Turkish family. Its objective was to wipe out Islam and turn the Ottoman elements into Turkish ones. Then they started encouraging the publication of atheistic books and journals, such as the book written by the famous Turkish author Jalal Nouri Beik under the title of “The history of the future”, in which he wrote: “It is in the interest of the Astana government to coerce the Syrians to leave their homelands. Arab lands, especially Iraq and Yemen, must be turned into Turkish colonies, in order to spread the Turkish language which must be the language of the Deen. In order to protect our entity, it is imperative for us to turn all the Arab lands into Turkish lands, because the new Arab generation has started to sense a racial chauvinism and it is threatening us with a major calamity against which we should take precautions as of now.” Thus, the nationalist tendency and the patriotic chauvinism made an impact on the souls and loyalty to Islam shifted to be replaced by loyalty to nationalism and patriotism. This led to resisting all that Islam carries in terms what could be regarded as a threat to patriotism and nationalism. The criterion of those who assumed power within the state was that of nationalism and patriotism rather than Islam, even when it came to calling for the unity of the ranks between Arabs and Turks.
Furthermore, when Jamal Pasha was in Syria, and when he witnessed the Arab youth perpetrating the treason against the State, by acting on the guidance of France and the orders of Britain, when he became conclusively certain about this by seizing documents found in the French consulate in Damascus, he wanted to win the Arabs over in order to maintain unity among the citizens of the State. Hence, he invited the Arab leaders to a gathering held in Damascus and delivered a speech in which he exhorted them to unity. Some of what he said in his speech was the following: “And you have to trust the fact that the Turkish Committee, which you have witnessed in Astana and in the other parts inhabited by Turkish elements, does not clash in any way with the Arab aspirations. You do know beyond any doubt that the Ottoman empire has witnessed the establishment of Bulgarian, Greek and Armenian movements, and now there exists an Arab movement. The Turks have totally forgotten their existence to the point where they feared to even mention their people. The patriotic spirit had completely died to the point where it was feared that the Turkish people was about to completely disintegrate. Therefore, it was with the aim of quelling this imminent threat that the men of “Young Turks” rose with a zeal that deserves admiration; hence, they took up arms and embarked upon teaching the Turks the patriotic spirit”. He added: “Today, I find myself capable of confirming to you that the Turkish aspirations do not in any way clash with the Arab aspirations, for the Turks and the Arabs are but brothers in their patriotic objectives”. He also added: “And briefly, the utmost aspirations of that party, the party of Young Turks (i.e. Federation & Progress ) are to gain for the Turkish people the respect of all the peoples of the world, and to establish its right to exist alongside the peoples of the twentieth century”.
It was with these words that Jamal Pasha wanted to unite the Muslims under the banner of the Islamic Khilafah and to foil the endeavours undertaken by the Arabs to break away from the Turks, i.e. from the Khilafah and to seek the help of the British and the French Kuffar.
It is correct to say that Jamal Pasha was right in hanging the traitors who had been collaborating with France and Britain against the Khilafah, for they were either Kuffar or Muslim apostates for believing in the non suitability of Islam. He was also right in striking every traitor and every individual who worked against the Khilafah, even if he himself was working for patriotism, let alone if this individual was working against the Khilafah with the Kuffar and under their command. However, this Jamal Pasha and the party of Young Turks, i.e. Federation &Progress deserved to be punished and imprisoned for nursing the patriotic idea. This soothing speech he delivered was wrong and patriotic separatism should not be dealt with in this manner to say the least, for the speech in fact indicates the presence of corrupt doctrines, and a disregard to Islam as being the only bond that gathers the citizens of the State and as being the only ideology upon which the Khilafah is built.
The words he should have uttered, which would have been considered decisive and final, and it is forbidden to say otherwise, is that all of us should make of the Islamic Aqeedah alone the object of our loyalty. It is forbidden to have any other loyalty but for it. This Aqeedah should be alone the criterion for our actions. However, instead of saying this, he calmed the Arabic speaking Muslims by saying: “The Arab aspirations and the Turkish aspirations do not clash with one another.”, and by saying: “The Turks and the Arabs are but brothers in their patriotic objectives.”, and also by saying: “The utmost aspirations of that party, the party of Young Turks, is to gain for the Turkish people the respect of all the peoples of the world and to establish its right to exist alongside the peoples of the twentieth century.” i.e. with the British, the French, the Italians and the Greeks; in other words with the Kuffar.
Extract from "How the Khilafah was destroyed" by Abdul Qadeem Zallum
Available in Arabic, English, and Turkish at Al-Khilafah Publications.
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