UI – Part 341 – Islamic Isolationism or The Caliphate Monastery

Islamic Isolationism – Isolated From Freedom

Islam today is a reflection of the isolation of monasteries of the 500-800 period.  The Monks, the founders of the orders, located their center in remote areas.  Hard to find they were protected, made safer, but from what.  The ‘what’ is an answer today for Islam as well.  The ‘what’ is ‘freedom.’  Isolated and away from society the residents were removed from the temptations, distractions and dangers of the world as it relates primarily to moral convictions. Freedom suggests exposure to opportunities to pursue sinful desires.  If there is no marijuana to toke, or Cocaine to sniff, then there is no temptation to indulge.  Same applies to alcohol.  Most monasteries were without women.  That removes from view the figure of the female, that form that suggests a union of bodies, the lure of the climax, the seductive eyes as a tease, flirtation or invitation, and the curiosity of the differences between the sexes.  Freedom also suggests opportunity, which when removed from society leads to an oppressed, possibly depressed, culture trapped in a time warp ignorant of modernity.

The comparison is made to understand Islam, and ISIS, as a Caliphate.  The focus of ISIS is to contain Islam as an Arab sponsored ideology, more akin to fascism or nazism, a way of life, a system of governance and mind-control, in an isolated camp.  Inside the borders is the Caliphate, a monastery of thought precluded from the outside world and knowing only what the Caliph, in today’s case Caliph Ibrahim, tells the inhabitants.  They are to read what is permitted, to avoid dissent, to revere Allah, to accept without question the dictates of the Quran and honor, as the example, the life of Muhammad.  All this as defined in the 19th century by Abdul Wahhab, the cleric who influenced the family of Saud and in time laid down Sharia in form and practice in the Saudi Arabia we know today.

Saudi Arabia – A Caliphate in Disguise

In its own quiet fashion Saudi Arabia, arising from a history as a warrior family-nation headed by Abulaziz ibn Saud (late 1800’s-early 1900’s), but embracing the interpretation of Islam by Abdul Wahhab, a vile, militant, controlling, fanatical Islamist and confidant to the Saud tribe, has established itself as the future Caliphate.  The Saud tribe fought battles to become the overseer of Mecca and Medina. Victorious they assumed the mantle of Islam, the eyes that see, the ears that hear, the heart that beats, the judges that decide, the arms that behead or just dismember a body part, and the ones that throw the first stone.

The Arabian Peninsula at the end of WWI was ill-defined.  There was no Syria or Iraq, Jordan or Lebanon.  They were products of the divisions established by the British and the French (Sykes-Pikot). The Ottoman Empire ended.  Ataturk of Turkey declared the modern era be embraced in his Country.  The coverings of Islam, the Burka the symbol, were removed for the suit and tie, slacks and shirts of the West.

Defeated by Ibn Saud but a friend to the Brits and French, Prince Feisal (son of Husayn bin Ali – 1854-1931), a leader of the revolution engendering Arab independence from the Ottoman dynasty, was given the title as head of Iraq. The Sauds, however, were in control of the holy cities. Arabia was split between the Sauds and the rest of the Levant.  That was the Arab Middle East.  This is the area that ISIS wants to be re-defined as a whole nation for their Caliphate.  It would be the success that could then lead to an expanded area for the new Ottoman on the block.   The Law as practiced by Saudi Arabia is the Law as ISIS wants the whole of Islam to obey.  Inherent in that Law, Sharia, is the ideology and governance of Islam.  ISIS mindset includes Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Yemen.  They might desire Israel also, but that could be their greatest barrier to the taking of the Middle East as a whole for their Caliphate.  True Islam, as defined by ISIS (and Saudi Arabia) is that of the Wahhabi-Salafi interpretation of all books and records that have purportedly come from the desert of Arabia and centered on the revelations of Muhammad and oral recall and reflections of his sayings, habits, judgments and life.  Beware of Wahhabism.   Iran is excluded because it is Shiite, on the Eastern side of the Persian Gulf, and not part of the Arab Middle East.

Salafism

Saudi Arabia readily provides money to those that petition to build a school, a Madrassah, that would teach the Wahhabis curriculum. The name ‘Salafi’ Islam applies to this form of education.   Such schools dominate the world mosque and madrassa complexes and the influence of Wahhabism grows.  But it is the landmass of the Arab Middle East where the Caliphate is to be headquartered.  ISIS and Al Baghdadi (Caliph Ibrahim) has been more overt in their declaration.  The Saudi’s have had the same idea, a Caliphate, taking a more cautious, less militaristic, more political, approach.

The Schools of True Islam

The schools and the Middle East are areas that the Islamists, those who refer to themselves as the true believers of Islam, want to be their island, their monastery, devoid of the trappings of freedom, the outside temptations.  For the leaders they can travel outside their boundaries to indulge themselves.  Some even create areas within their compounds, or homes, in which their prurient desires can flourish.  There is hypocrisy after all.  Women are for production purposes – make babies.  The non-Muslim woman can be slaves, even sex-slaves, which are allowed by the teachings. Education is for the elitists, primarily the males.  Those with the knowledge can tell those without how to live.  Keep the standards of education low to maintain the hierarchy as the heads of state, to include the mosque.  The Ulema are the scholars.  They are to be dedicated, loyal, and submissive to the dictates of Islam as interpreted by Abdul Wahab.  It is the order of the true Islam that ISIS wants established, yet Saudi Arabia has established already.  It is totalitarianism with a religious handcuff, making their god, Allah, the mysterious maker of the ultimatums that the humans, the mortals, of Islam enforce.

Caliphate Monastery 

Saudi Arabia has been the Caliphate Monastery for decades.  They have been careful to maintain relationships with outsiders, while protecting their borders from invasion from more open-minded thinkers.  ISIS is now trying, using less devious, more overt methods, to build a larger monastery. Freedom is anathema.  Muhammad the example.  Wahhabism the rule of law. No other form of governance is to co-exist with Islam – especially not secularism nor any nation having nationalistic pride.  Islam is the only theocracy.  The Arab Middle East is their primary focus – currently.

Grace and Peace