Towards Revival - Part 3
(5) The CIO should set up New Islamic Schools, Colleges or Educational Institutions (NIEI) where specially selected people may be given an education specially designed to set up Islamic Communities which can become self-sufficient. That is, apart from a knowledge of Islamic Theology, Ideals and Ethics, they will learn some organising and administrative skills, some sciences including psychology, sociology, physics, chemistry, biology and various agricultural and industrial skills. The aim is not to create specialist but balanced persons who have comprehensive knowledge and skills. They can be known as Islamic Social Advisers (ISA).
Those who graduate from these schools will have three kinds of functions: - (a) To go as advisers to various villages or communities; (b) to set up self-sufficient communities, including industries, social and religious institutions, schools etc. on Islamic lines. As a truly Islamic system has to be built up from first principles, here all social experimentation can be done and that which is found to be successful can then be spread to other communities. These can be called New Islamic Communities (NIC) (c) To set up other school which can produce similar ISA.
The Islamic Communities so set up will co-operate with one another and form a Federation (FNIC). Each community will have its own Council, which will send representatives to the Federal Council, and so on. The system is open-ended and does not necessarily correspond to a geographical area. Islam forms communities not territorial nations.
(6) Arrogance, selfishness, greed and conflict is built into ordinary politics and business and many Muslim intellectuals have been conditioned by western secular habits of thought and motivation. They have abandoned Islam altogether and cannot understand it. This brings them into conflict with the people in general who still have Islamic aspirations, but unfortunately they are relatively less educated and they are ignorant about the modern developments in science and technology. Most of them come under the influence of equally ignorant self-appointed priests or religious authorities. This occurs despite the fact that Islam has no priesthood and everyone is responsible for his own development. Therefore, Democracy is almost impossible in most Muslim countries, and civil conflicts are inevitable. The installed regimes are oppressive to various degrees. But this state of affairs propagates itself. Each provokes the other. Westernisation continues at the top with aid of foreign powers and alienation, powerlessness and ignorance continues at the bottom. A new Pan-Islamic movement will be required which by passes political, commercial and religious authorities. Without such development the desire to recreate an Islamic Civilisation is a futile dream. A Global Ummah Movement (GUM) should be created which also ignores sectarian divisions. It can also be done using the Internet.
(a) There will be a centre where all Muslims willing to join the GUM will register their names. They will have to know, understand and accept the basic tenets of Islam. They will be given a membership number and a set of rules and privileges. These numbers will act as a passport giving them access to the organisation (or the Internet site for this organisation).
(b) The world will be divided into 7 zones - Zone A, Zone B etc. The sizes of these zones will vary but they will be more or less equal as to the population of Muslims in each zone.
(c) Muslims in each zone will be contacted personally or by e-mail in order to encourage them to find Muslims willing to register their names in the Global Ummah Movement. These do not need to be computer owners or have their own e-mail facilities. But they ought to have access to someone who has such facilities and who is willing to transmit ideas, suggestions, information to, and from, the Internet to these members. If necessary such Internet sites should be set up by the GUM in areas where none exist.
(d) As membership of a group grows then when it reaches say 150, it will split up to form 2 groups which need not be equal. A group should have a minimum of 50 members and a maximum of 150.
(e) At Level 1 of the organisation every average of 100 members known as Members Level 1 (ML1) will form a group, known as Group Level 1 (GL1). The purpose of the group is to discuss all matters of relevance and interest to the members of the group, to make practical suggestions and to find ways and means of implementing them. It also has an educational function. The matters for discussion can be civil, social, political, economic, financial, legal, environmental, cultural, academic or religious. It can direct trade between members or collect cash to finance projects and so on. Cash could, perhaps, come from a membership fee. They will also elect a leader or representative, known as ML2, and a few advisers to the leader. The leader may also choose his own advisers. The leader can be dismissed and replaced at any time by the members.
(f) If the number of members ML1 become large enough then they may split into several sub-groups which may each concentrate their attention on one or more topic. Any ML1 can be a member of more than one sub-group. The same applies to the higher organisations.
(g) At Level 2, every average of 100 representatives, known as Members Level 2 (ML2) will form a higher group, known as Group Level 2 (GL2). The members of this group discuss all matters of relevance and interest to the groups they come from. They too can make practical suggestions and find ways and means of implementing these, and set up various projects. They pass information from and to the members of their GL1. This group also elects its leader or representative, known as ML3 and advisers.
(h) At Level 3, every average of 100 ML3 will form a GL3. Their function will correspond to that of the ML2 but appropriate to Level 3. They will elect a leader or representative, known as ML4, with advisers.
(i) At Level 4, every average of 100 ML4 will form a GL4. Their function will correspond to that of the ML3 but appropriate to Level 4. There will be a GL5 within each of the 7 Zone consisting of 5 representatives from each of the GL4s.
(j) The global organisation is GL6 consisting of 10 members from each of the 7 zones. This constitutes the Islamic Shura. It should, in time, be capable of making all Muslim communities independent and self-sufficient without any political upheavals. Although it by passes all existing political and commercial institutions, it can become powerful enough to influence them all and even replace them. It chooses a Leader with a committee of 6 Advisors, which constitutes a Cabinet of 7. This is the highest Authority, GL7. The Head of this may be elected by the whole membership of the GUM, the candidates being chosen by the GL7. The membership at any level also has the right to remove their representative at anytime from the higher body.
The GUM will not come into conflict with present Political and Commercial institutions but may use them and influence them. The GUM will tend to increase in power as the number of Islamic Communities increases. If it grows sufficiently effective and powerful the GUM will gradually replace all present political and commercial institutions.
These are suggestions only and can be amended by discussion within the CIO or GUM.
Human affair are governed by three inter-dependent things - their psychological state, the social conditions, and the nature and state of the environment. Of these the first is most important because it can change the other two. But it is itself dependent on the other two factors. Policies must be constructed and action must be taken on all three fields. Economic conditions must certainly reach a point where all or an increasing number of people have enough attention, time, and energy to spare from the business to making a living which can be devoted to the improvement of social affairs and to their psychological self-development.
It is important that there is a balance between the size of the population and the resources of the land they live on, mediated by the level of technology. The development of appropriate and adequate technology together with its wise use can change the size of the population that can be sustained by an environment at an adequate level of mutual benefits. This implies the practice of Birth Control. As this also releases women from domestic duties and allows them to enter the industrial and public field, it creates social changes. Some of these have been beneficial and some have proved harmful. However, the increase in knowledge and organisation has also created the necessity as well as the opportunities that a greater amount of expertise and time should be devoted to the bringing up and development of children and the social and psychological welfare of the population as a whole. There is no reason why women cannot organise to fulfil this enhanced role.
This ability to create and use technologies depends on the nature and level of the educational system and the inherent capacities of the people. The educational level will depend partly on economic conditions and partly on social and cultural conditions. The inherent capacities will also depend on those social conditions that govern reproduction. It is necessary that conditions are set up where the most able also earn the most and are encouraged to sustain larger families while the less able are encouraged to limit their families by their lower economic standards. Inbreeding is one source of degeneration that needs to be countered. The practice of marriages between close cousins in these latter days has had harmful effects on Muslims. It was much rarer in the days when Islam was expanding and the mixing of races and cultures was probably one of the main causes of its vigour.
All this also requires that there should be greater respect for sexuality, family, life and the dignity of the person, and that everything which militates against this, including indiscriminate and frivolous sexual activity, should be discouraged.
The revival of Islam will be feared, opposed and sabotaged, not only by most of those who have depraved values and have achieved a great amount of wealth, power and privileges under other systems, but also by Governments, particularly by the USA. But the Muslim World is potentially strong having a population in excess of a billion which also has untapped natural and human resources. It is a question of achieving progressive political unity. This can be in the form of Federations as already outlined. There should be a gradual pooling of resources, strengthening of commercial ties and a common Market with a common currency. A Central Scientific and Technological Research Institute should be established that can advise on all aspects of life. A central system of Law that takes into account local needs and variations and eventually a Central Police force that is nevertheless accountable to local communities should also be established. It is essential that the Muslim world have a central United Military Force armed with the latest weapons including Nuclear ones. We have seen that the strong powers such as the USA bully and invade weak nations that do not conform to the US self-interest. And while they themselves have amassed and used nuclear, chemical, biological and psychological weapons, they prevent others from developing them - it is in their interest to keep others weak and dependent. This hypocritical state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue.
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