We Shouldn’t call ourselves Muslim Community – We are a Muslim Ummah

Some chickens have come home to roost for Muslims living in the West. First came Trumps Muslim ban, a clear statement that Muslims are not welcome in the USA. Far right movements throughout Europe clearly don’t want Muslims in their midst – mainstream parties in governments have taken on their views and are beginning to turn them into laws and policies. The recent elections in the UK rammed the point home, if it wasn’t obvious before. Practising Muslims are not welcome and to be accepted they would need to become Muslim in name only. Multiculturalism is as dead as dodos.

The events in India are alarming, Muslims there are from that land, but the government wants them to disappear- it seems a genocide is in the offing. The Muslims of East Turkestan have been there for centuries and now they are being rounded up so that they lose all links to Islam. This naturally causes disquiet for many of us living in Western Lands, after all our elders always told us that you will not be accepted here- learn your language and have a place to go to back home.

The truth of the matter is that Muslims in the West are not a community but a Diaspora. What is a Diaspora? The dictionary definition is “the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland”. We are viewed as such by both the people and governments in the West. That’s a hard fact that needs to sink in – if our actions do not take this into account then we risk being caught out for our flawed assumptions at some point in the future.

For the West to accept Muslims it is conditional on them having to renounce large parts of Islam or all of it. Look at the compromises of the Muslim in name only MP’s or the so called ulema that made haram a fard in the elections. Even renouncement may not be enough .This is not a price a Muslim with an iota of iman can accept.

Although many of the lands are in the Muslim world are in poor shape currently, they are full of great potential. We have little alternative to focus our energies to change the way those lands are run. This requires a great deal of intellectual, political and fiqhi work.

The links between Muslims in the west and their homelands are vast. Politically, intellectually and economically. To assist the work there in the modern age is necessary. The call for Khilafah is the only practical work that may salvage our future. When a system turns against you, you need to have state power that represents you and will apply itself to safeguard its diasporas.