Can Formation of the Islamic State be Avoided?

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria now has become the target of the whole world. Meanwhile everyone who blew a coal this fire, now they are trying to extinguish it. There is only one option in the minds of all countries: Military Intervention. They will make matters worse while trying to be helpful and the fire will spread to the whole world!

Islamic State is basically an intellectual movements. Its source is a way of understanding of Islam. The idea of the Islamic State cannot be prevented unless the understanding of religion change.

A little over a century ago, the Political and Radical Islamic thoughts were not as common in the world as it is now. Educated people in the Islamic countries were very few. With the invention of the printing and the development of printing methods, the popularity of the religious sciences increased. Religious books have become written sources which are the most printed and read.

The idea of the Islamic State was the essence of traditional Islam and it was carrying only a symbolic meaning especially after 1000s. The first person who opposed the idea of the Khilafah State in the İslamic history was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who is founder of the republic of Turkiye. Justice Minister Seyyid Beg gave a speech titled “Religious Meaning of the Caliphate” in National Assembly in 3 March 1924 and the Caliphate was abolished. Ataturk made many reforms for the modernization of Muslim Turks. The Quran and the Prophet’s reliable hadiths were translated into Turkish and reinterpreted as scientifically. The modernization efforts of Ataturk who was carried out many projects about this subject, partially affected the entire Muslim world from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Egypt and Tunisia.

Following the 1950s, the founding of NATO and the beginning of the Cold War against WARSAV were deeply influenced the religious understanding in the Islamic world. While NATO was preparing Muslims to fight against Communism, some Muslims have developed the idea of the Islamic State against both Communism and Capitalism. The religious understanding crossed the faith line and has become an ideology.

The classification of the Islamic society as Moderate, Political and Radical is actually very insignificant. The slightly educated people of moderate Islam creates Congregants, the well educated people of congregants creates Political Islamists and the uneducated people of political Islamists creates Radical Islamists. These different forms of Islamic understanding like to the different levels of a pyramid. The radicalism on the summit is based the large mass on base.

The most important priority to cease to be a thread the Political and Radical Islam is the expansion of Modern Islamic Thought. Unfortunately, there is no country on the way of Modern Islamic Thought in the Islamic World. Therefore, this general understanding of religion will strengthen political and radical Islam rather than prevention in the future.

In short, the humanity, producing the most advanced technology, whether Christian or Jews or Muslim, has revived the religion and sectarian wars. We are fanning the flame and division in the name of freedom rather than unity and discussing the world peace under the understanding of One God and One Religion in this modern age. Sects within the same religion and congregants within the same sectarian are fighting with each other to death.

It should be our priority to establish the peaceful and reliable religious understanding, based on reason and science.

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Abdullah Manaz

Author, Researcher, Strategist, Producer, Director