The Political Invasion of the Islamic World
Allama Shaikh Taqiuddin An-Nabahani Rahimullah
The real cause behind the invasion of Andalus was the revenge which every Westerner yearned for ever since their humiliating defeat in the crusader wars. After the crushing blow they were dealt by the Muslims, and after they had been chased away from Muslim land, the Westerners carried a grudge against the Muslims, their hearts were filled with hatred and malice towards them. They would not dare repeat their venture in the East, for they knew that the Muslims would be able to repel any offensive there, they therefore thought that revenge would be easier to obtain in Andalus to the West. In time, Europe directed its onslaught to Andalus and savagely ripped it apart using guillotines and crematoriums on its inhabitants. It was more savage than the savage beasts, being one of the most shameful of many shameful acts carried out by the West; nevertheless they were encouraged by the slackness of the Muslims in supporting Andalus. The Muslims were strong enough at the time and in a position to assist that wilayah (province) militarily against its Western foes. However, the Muslims slackened and left Andalus an easy prey; this encouraged the West to think even further about revenge and had it not been for the might of the Muslims - especially the ‘Uthmani State - the raids would have come thick and fast on the rest of the Muslim lands. It was the sheer might of the Muslims and the conquest of large parts of Europe by the invading ‘Uthmanis which caused great fright among the Westerners and pressed them to think twice about embarking on any rash venture against the Muslims lest they get defeated in another bout of war like the style of the crusades. The Western invasion therefore had to be delayed until the second half of the eighteenth century, only then had stagnation hit the Islamic world. Thus, with the Muslims abandoning the conveyance of the Islamic message internationally and with the fervour of Islam having waned in their hearts and minds it was only then that their grandeur and might diminished in the eyes of their enemies. Following this the cultural and missionary invasions of the Islamic world intensified, this was accompanied by the political invasion aimed at dividing up the Muslim land bit by bit, tearing apart the Islamic world until finally it was destroyed. This was indeed accomplished and they achieved a most disastrous feat.During the rule of Catherine (1762-1796) Russia fought the ‘Uthmanis and defeated them, in the process a large area was sliced off their land. The Russians took the city of Azov and the al-Qaram Peninsula (the Crimea), as well as the whole of the Northern coast of the Black sea. They founded the city of Sevastopol as a military base in the Peninsula and built the commercial port of Odessa on the Black Sea in the South of the Ukraine. Russia became a major concern for the foreign policy of the ‘Uthmani State by assuming sovereignty over the Roman emirates and considering herself the protector of Christianity within the ‘Uthmani State. In 1884, Russia sliced from the Islamic State the whole of Turkistan, and then completed its occupation of the whole of Qafqas. However, Russia was not the only state to challenge the ‘Uthmanis, the rest of the Western powers did so too. On the 1st July 1798, Napoleon attacked Egypt and quickly occupied her; in February 1799, he attacked the southern port of al-Sham and seized Gazza, al-Ramlah and Yafa; he stood near the fort of Akka (famous in the crusades as Acre), but his onslaught faltered and so he returned to Egypt, then to France and his venture finally failed in 1801. However, despite the fact that his campaign proved unsuccessful and abortive, it deeply affected the ‘Uthmani State and shook it violently. In its aftermath most of the countries of Europe queued up to attack the Islamic world and occupy parts of its land. The French occupied Algeria in 1830, and worked towards occupying Tunisia until they did so in 1881; they occupied Marrakesh in 1912. The Italians occupied Tripoli in 1911 and this marked the separation of North Africa, which was no longer under Islamic rule, from the ‘Uthmani State. It came to be ruled by the disbelievers and was directly colonised by them.
The Westerners did not stop there but continued to complete and consolidate their occupation of the remaining parts of the State. Britain occupied Aden in 1839 and expanded its mandate to include the Lahaj and the other nine Protectorates which spread from the Southern Yemeni border to the East of the Peninsula. The British had long before seized India, therefore stripping the Muslims from their authority over it in the process. They specifically concentrated their oppression on the Muslims - the Muslims had been the people in authority in India - the British thus seized that authority and colonised India; then they began a process aimed at weakening the Muslim stand in general. In 1882, Britain seized Egypt and in 1898 Sudan; Holland meanwhile occupied the East Indies; Afghanistan was put under Anglo-Russian pressure and so was Iran. The Western onslaught on the Islamic world intensified until it was felt that it was about to fall under Western hegemony altogether and that the crusaders’ campaign had been resumed and was achieving success after success. Steps were taken to resist this Western invasion and to minimise its heavy pressure. Resistance movements broke out in several places, a revolution erupted in Algeria, the Muslims of China rose up in arms, as did the Mahdyyun in Sudan; the Sanusyya revolution also erupted. This actually proved that there was still some kind of vitality left within the Islamic world despite its decline and weakness, however, all these attempts failed completely and they never did manage to salvage the Islamic world. The West, in addition to its military invasion, set about dividing the Islamic world culturally and politically, then it went on to slice off parts of the Islamic world and worked tenaciously towards destroying the ‘Uthmani State, for this was the Islamic State that represented the Muslims world-wide. With this purpose in mind the West established ethnic and nationalist groups; to begin with they incited the people of the Balkans to rebel, this took place back in 1804. Such rebellions as these were financed by the West and they eventually led in 1878 to the Balkans gaining their independence. The foreign powers also incited Greece to rebel in 1821 until this rebellion, thanks to their intervention, ended in Greece gaining its independence from the ‘Uthmani State in 1830. It was at this stage then that the Balkans followed suit, until the shadow of the ‘Uthmani State no longer engulfed Crete, Cyprus and most of the Mediterranean Islands which it had once governed over. Most of the inhabitants of these places were subsequently expelled from their homes and forced to flee due to the savagery of the disbelievers. They sought refuge in the Arab countries which were still Muslim land and remained part of the Islamic State; the Circassians, the Bushnaks, the Shashans and others are those heroes who refused to yield to the rule of the disbelievers and fled with their deen to the safety of the Islamic household and Islamic rule. The Westerners went even further and began - secretly - encouraging and supporting separatist movements among the Muslims themselves within the State, i.e. between Arabs and Turks. They backed the nationalist movements and helped to establish Turkish and Arab political parties such as the ‘Turkyya al-Fatat Party’, the ‘Union and Progress Party’, the ‘Arab Independence Party’, and the ‘Covenant (Al-A’hd) Party’ amongst others. This resulted in the State’s body being violently shaken from within and it began to crumble, coupled with the foreign invasions. The unbelieving forces, represented by the West, found it very promising to direct their onslaught against the Islamic world, seizing the rest of its land and destroying the Islamic State by wiping it out of existence; this was at the start of the First World War which the ‘Uthmani State was forced into and which ended in its defeat; the allies emerged as the victors and they divided the Islamic world between them as war booty. All that remained of the Islamic State was the Turkish land which became known as Turkey and which remained at the end of the war in 1918 at the mercy of the Western forces until 1921, when she in turn managed to gain her independence from them after giving the allies guarantees that she would abandon the Islamic system of government.
Extract from 'Al-Dawlatul Islamiyyah,' by Taqiuddin An-Nabhani.
Available in Arabic, English and Turkish - Al-Khilafah Publications.
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