As a Muslim, one of the things which has confused me, which I could not give a reasonable explanation to myself for a long time, was the fact that, on one hand, Muslims were conquered politically and militarily by the British Empire, which culminated with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but, on the other hand, the British Rule has allowed Muslim countries to exist seemingly independently, to have their own kings, typically Saudi Arabia, have the right to spread and support the religion of Islam, as well as such countries, in this case Saudi Arabia, have the right to even build Islamic universities where students around the world can go and study Islam. Not only that, Saudi Arabia rightfully has claimed that it has upheld the pristine version of Islam and it has placed a special importance on its core, which is monotheism, to the extent that many people are inclined to call Saudi Arabia, ‘the country of monotheism,’ or ‘دولة التوحيد’.
My point here is not to talk about Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt or Pakistan or other countries who have the right to build Islamic universities, but to raise legitimate questions in order to understand the political reality of the Muslim Ummah:
How is it possible that the British Empire allowed such countries to exist independently when the war to bring down the Muslim caliphate of the Ottoman Empire was an epic war, of two century preparation, which such countries did not fight for independence?
Did Saudi Arabia, for example, fight for its independence because in this world as we know it no one grants independence for fun, or because they are tired of ruling other countries?
How is it possible that such countries are still allowed to have Islamic universities – students who graduate in order to teach and spread Islam, while obviously the British Rule still aims to wipe it out? No one can deny the war of the West against Islam.
How is it possible that the British Rule allows Saudi Arabia – as the latter claims – to spread monotheism and teach the unaltered version of Islam?
In my view, the answers are not easy because there is a reasonable contradiction of what we see, such as the existence of Islamic universities, the spread of monotheism and the unaltered version of Islam by Saudi Arabia, and, on the other hand, such countries are occupied by the British power.
From what I see, there is no contradiction. Indeed, the British have under full control all Muslim countries, but it uses smart strategies. It allows Muslims have universities because otherwise this would spark an immediate uprise, but with conditions and full of tricks.
For example, such universities exist, but what kind of students do they admit? What are their IQs? How effective are they? Are such universities in fact another insidious way of controlling such students anyway, who could have done better otherwise?
For sure, it is not easy to outsmart the enemy, but we have to look for answers.
Sabri Lushi
