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The Saddam branch of
Islam
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
BAGHDAD - Surprisingly, despite all the war
talk, the past few years (and months) have seen a boom
in the construction industry in Baghdad. So much so that
the industry has, in fact, served as a significant
source of earnings for poor Iraqis. Most interestingly,
perhaps, is the fact that the construction of new
mosques all over Baghdad has been the largest chunk of
this industry.
Over the past two years, in every
part of Iraq, one can witness newly constructed mosques
and many more under construction. When this writer tried
to find out how many, he was told (on condition of
anonymity by an Iraqi official) that the phrase "how
many" is prohibited in Iraq except on those occasions
when you're buying something in a shop. But even then
you are only permitted to ask the shopkeeper a simple
variant: "How much?" A simple visual inspection of the
city, however, results in an estimation that within the
past year or so, about 30 new mosques have been built in
every corner of Baghdad, with at least 10 more under
construction.
The anonymous official admitted
that Saddam Hussein had started building mosques after
1991 as part of a new posture in which he tried to add
"spiritual color" to the national fabric. This was the
need of the hour, when Saddam realized that the Cold War
was over and that his nation needed a new uniting
ideology. What it got was the new Islamic crusader
Saddam. There were new television programs about Koranic
recitations that began broadcasting day and night. At
Baghdad's large Saddam Hussein University, courses in
Islamic sciences were added. Saddam's newest portraits
(which permeate civic life here) now include "Saddam at
prayer".
The Islam preached in Iraq today is
certainly not the radical, political or fundamentalist
sort of the al-Qaeda variety. It is merely a new
"addiction" to lull the Iraqi people to sleep. In truth,
like other Arab rulers, Saddam also feels threatened by
al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (the Muslim Brotherhood). All
publications written by al-Ikhwan are banned, and its
leaders are still discouraged from staying in Baghdad
despite the fact that they supported Iraq in 1991 and
still support Iraq against the US.
Still, the
Muslim Brotherhood does exist in Iraq, although its
presence is not strong or overt. Because of the threat
it poses to the ruling regime, on Saddam's special
instructions mosques remain always closed except for one
hour before and one hour after each prayer time. This is
in recognition that mosques have historically served as
the strongest breeding ground and platform of Islamic
fundamentalism.
These observations apart, Iraq
has a centuries-old tradition of moderate Islam and
Islamic figures. It is the only land in the Arab world
in which the Muslim Brotherhood could not form an
organizational structure. Syed Ahmed Gillani is the
descendant of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gillani, the founder of
the Qadri order of Sufi Islam (the order with the
largest following among Sufis, with about 80 million
disciples all over the world).
A clean-shaven
man attired in a three-piece Western suit, Gillani
welcomed this correspondent at his office in Baghdad
recently. Gillani termed al-Qaeda wrongdoers to the
extent that they attack civilians. But he also insisted
that their stance against America is laudable simply
because of US aggressive designs in the Middle East.
Sufi Islam is divergent of the Salafi branch of
Islam (the more radical branch that includes Wahhabism).
After September 11, the two branches developed
sympathies with each other, but they still have not
abandoned their ancient rivalries. "We are sympathetic
with Osama [bin Laden] because he is Muslim, but we do
not agree with what he did in Tanzania, or other
places," Gillani said, referring to the 1998 attacks on
US embassies in Africa.
When this reporter
discussed the role of Salafis and al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun
in the Arab world, Gillani said, "They only preach
extremism, and they have only slogans to raise - not any
serious program." But he added that "it is only because
of the suppression by the Egyptian government that
sympathy has been allowed to grow among Egyptians for
the Muslim Brotherhood".
Similarly, Sheikh
Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab (founder of Wahhabism) was a
sincere Muslim, but he was strict and extremist in his
teachings. He refused even the taking of photographs of
Islamic shrines, said Gillani. "However, I do not say
that Sheikh Wahhab preached something that was
un-Islamic; I only say that he was too harsh in his
manners and teachings."
Syed Gillani is an
ardent believer in Saddam, calling him a real hero of
Islam. "We do not want organizations such as al-Ikhwan
in Iraq because our leader Saddam has fully implemented
Islamic rules in letter and spirit."
Unlike some
versions of Salafism, the Saddam interpretation of Islam
entails a strict separation of church and state. It
allows simple prayers within mosques only during prayer
times and promotes the hajj (pilgrimage to
Mecca), etc, but it leaves decisions regarding economics
and politics to the will of the rulers. It is quite
contrary to the teachings of Salafis, al-Ikhwan and
al-Qaeda, which designate the mosque as the center of
the congregation and maintain a defiant posture on the
superiority of Sharia over man-made laws
regarding social justice, economics and politics.
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