The State of Moslems Today
Anyone addressing himself to the question of fundamental reform through Islam must begin by reviewing current conceptions of Islam and the theory and practice of contemporary Islamic movements and organisations. Such a review is essential in preparing the reader to understand the exposition of the Republican Brothers.
The most obvious fact about Islam today is its absence from the public and private lives of Moslems. Individual Moslems, for the most part, pay lip service to the teachings of Islam while practicing almost none of these teachings in their daily lives. Nor does Islam have any effect on their socio- political systems. Thus, whatever conception of Islam might be inferred from the present state of Moslems is misleading and erroneous.
More specifically, we need to disassociate Islam from regimes and movements that claim to be Islamic, such as those in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and such groups as the Moslem Brothers. All of them contravene the basic principles of the Sharia Islamiaa which they purport to apply.
To take a few broad examples, there is indeed no such thing as a hereditary monarchy in Islam although this practice is followed in Saudi Arabia. The so-called Islamic revolution in Iran also contravenes fundamental rules of Sharia Islamiaa by denying rules of natural justice and fair trial in their persecution of supporters of the Shah’s regime. It also contravenes Sharia through the indiscriminate killing of political opponents and the denial of the civil and political rights of religious and ethnic minorities. The list is endless. The fundamental Shai’a principle concerning the absolute divine powers of the Imams and their representatives is the most flagrant contradiction of Sharia. As for the Moslem Brothers, their practice of political terrorism and cowardly assassination of political rivals negates everything Islam stands for.
In our view, these regimes and movements are doomed to failure even if they genuinely and consistently observe all the principles of traditional Sharia. But we still find their failure to comply with those principles extremely significant. They must be exposed and confronted with their fraud and the absurdity of their position in order to convince them of the need for the evolution of Sharia.
