In a Christmas and New Year’s message published in the ‘Trinidad Guardian’ (December 25th, 2005) the misguided head of the ASJA (an acronym for a Muslim Organization in Trinidad and Tobago) declared:

“Once more, as we approach the end of another year and the great event of Christmas, we join with the rest of society and particularly our brothers and sisters of the Christian faith in celebrating this joyous season. Certainly, the Muslim community recognizes the common beliefs and practices that we share and which are the embodiment of the respective faiths that are represented in this blessed country and emanate from the central doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of mankind.”

Although some time has passed since the publication of this strange statement, the leadership of ASJA appears to have made no effort to retract or modify it in any way. Nor has there been any response to it so far from the many scholars of Islam in this country, or from the leaders of the Muslim community. This could perhaps be so because many people, very sensibly, no longer read the daily newspapers. But it could also be the result of either unwillingness or incapacity on their part to recognize anything so profoundly wrong and dangerously misguided in that message as to warrant a response.

“O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and give up what remains of your demand for usury (i.e., the interest due on a fixed deposit, or on any other loan on interest), if ye are indeed believers.”  If ye do it not (i.e. if you persist in your claim or demand for the interest due to you), then take notice of (a declaration of) war from Allah and His Messenger: but if ye turn away (from such claim or demand), then you are entitled to the return of your capital sum (placed in the fixed deposit or otherwise lent); do not enter into (such) unjust transactions, nor allow yourselves to be subjected to such.

If (you forgo the interest due to you and then find) the debtor in a difficulty (in respect of returning the capital sum that was lent to him on interest), grant him time till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.

And (in this matter in particular, i.e., lending money on interest) fear the Day when ye shall be brought back to Allah. Then shall every soul be paid what it earned, and none shall be dealt with unjustly.’ (Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:278-281)

(Trinidad and Tobago’s highest national award was designated the ‘Trinity Cross’. This essay was published in 2004 in a full-page of a local newspaper, and it provoked a major Hindu organization to join hands with a Muslim body to take the matter to court. The judge ruled that the national award was discriminatory. The government which had procrastinated on the issue for almost 40 years, was forced to respond and change the award.)

Some declare, with their heads buried ‘ostrich-like’ in the sand, that there is no ‘Trinity Cross’ problem facing this country, or that it is a ‘non-issue’. Others recognise the problem but choose to do nothing about it, or to peddle disinformation and scurry around inventing flimsy and irrelevant defences for an unjust and, hence, indefensible status quo. We are saddened by this, but not surprised.

How should we, Indian Muslims in the Caribbean, commemorate the event of our arrival in the Caribbean almost 200 years ago? If we do not ourselves respond at this time to this subject in a manner consistent with our faith in Allah Most High, and with our mission as Muslims in the world, then our great grandmother’s tears would be shamelessly exploited by those who pursue a sinister agenda on behalf of the slave-master who brought us from distant India to these shores, and who still rules the world.

FIRST WORD

We begin with Allah’s blessed name. We praise and glorify Him as He ought to be praised and glorified. And we pray for peace and for blessings on all His noble Prophets and Messengers, and in particular on the last of them all, the blessed Prophet Muhammad.

The last Prophet warned that “before the Last Hour there would be great liars – so beware of them” (Sahih Muslim). We recognize this to be the Last Age, and we seek refuge and protection with Allah from the international bullies who hid behind a mountain of lies and deception in order to plan and execute the 9/11 attack on America, as well as the 7/7 attack on London (i.e., July 7th, 2005), and to then put the blame on innocent Muslims. They did so, the first time, in order to exploit the opportunity to brutally attack and colonize Afghanistan and Iraq (while again hiding behind a mountain of lies) and to take control of Iraq’s great rivers of water and huge oceans of oil. This second time around the attack is on the religion of Islam itself, the institutions of Islamic learning, and the rightly guided scholars of Islam.

What is the legitimacy of the modern secular state when judged according to the religion of Islam? Is it Halal (permissible) or Haram (prohibited) for Muslims to vote in elections of the modern secular state? This essay attempts to answer those questions.

A US-based Egyptian Islamic scholar declared in a widely circulated Fatwa (legal opinion) that it is Wajib (compulsory) for Muslims to vote in elections of the modern secular state such as USA. The preposterous implication of that Fatwa would be such that if Muslims were to refrain from voting in such elections they would have committed a sin!

On the other hand the outstanding Pakistani Islamic scholar, Dr. Israr Ahmad, has categorically declared that it is Haram for a Muslim to participate in the electoral politics of the modern secular state (i.e., the state which is established on the basis of a secular constitution). He has prohibited all members of Tanzeem-e-Islami, the Jama’at (community) of which he is the Amir (leader), from voting in elections of the secular state. He also disclosed that Maulana Maududi (rahimahullah), who took a stand in favor of participating in electoral politics, subsequently changed his position before his death and opposed such participation.