...............continued from part 17
On Man-made Ideologies
Democracy was born from the womb of medieval church (Groth, op.cit. pp. 37). Its common formula is majority rules with minority rights. It is per se not compatible with Islam (Radhi, 1963), but the concept of syura is the Islamic means of achieving the end.
Socialsim rejects private ownerships (Ramanathan, 1988) and replaces them with public ownerships in an attempt to create just societies. In the Gorbachev era of Perestroika and Glasnost in late 1980s and early 1990s, we witnessed the history of the collapse of socialism. Islam allows private ownership and accumulation of wealth, but institutions such as zakat and other statutory taxes allow fair distribution of the nation's wealth (Kolb, 1979).
Communism is socialism with Marxist-Leninist tinge which tries to establish classless society and common ownership of means of production and subsistence. It carries a terror-tag with it, as experiences from Stalin, Mao Tze Tung, Eastern Europe, Malayan Communist Party of Malaya, the Khmer Rouge and many other cases would tell. Its abhorrance to religion makes it completely incompatible with Islam.
Nationalism is the most belligerent of all man-made ideologies. Groth (op. cit.) wrote that nationalism historically tried to restore the wholeness of society in the name of certain shared values and symbols. Nationalism channels its aggression towards outsiders, emphasizing the cohesion and unity of the members of the national in-group. It can metamorphose into racism, communalism and tribalism. On further metamorphism, it can give birth to highly extreme and provocative ideologies such as fascism, nazism, zionism, apartheid, Serb superiority, Ketuanan Melayu and other forms of fanaticisms.
Nationalism has no place in Islam because the Qur'an is
هُدًىلِّلنَّاسِ
a guidance for all mankind
2:185
and the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was sent for all mankind:
وَمَاأَرْسَلْنَاكَإِلَّارَحْمَةًلِّلْعَالَمِينَ
We sent thee not, but
As a Mercy for all creatures
21:107
Just look at the Yusuf Ali's commentary on this verse: There is no question now of race or nation.....
..............to be continued
