Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (Nation of Nations)

Even a precisely targeted attack would likely provoke a North Korean response.

While Pyongyang would think twice before initiating a conventional strike on Seoul, it could take other steps: These might not immediately trigger regional conflict, but they would provoke an unpredictable escalation. A successful diplomatic initiative ultimately will need to address two competing preoccupations: An incremental solution could include pauses on North Korean testing of its missile system or weapons, before Pyongyang crosses what the White House sees as a red line; the United States agreeing to less provocative military exercises; and consensus on humanitarian support even as sanctions kick in.

That might not satisfy anyone. But at least it would provide the space needed to explore a more durable resolution. A Shiite Huthi rebel stands on a vehicle mounted with a machine-gun during a gathering to mobilize more fighters to battlefronts to fight Yemeni pro-government forces, on June 18, in the capital Sanaa. This rivalry will likely eclipse other Middle Eastern fault lines in It is enabled and exacerbated by three parallel developments: The contours of a U. It is based on an overriding assumption that Iran has exploited passive regional and international actors to bolster its position in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Washington and Riyadh seek to re-establish a sense of deterrence by convincing Tehran that it will pay at least as high a price for its actions as it can inflict on its adversaries. The strategy seems to involve multiple forms of pressure to contain, squeeze, exhaust, and ultimately push back Iran. It has an economic dimension via U.

Whether it will work is another question. Although recent protests in Iran have introduced a new and unpredictable variable, Tehran and its partners still appear to be in a strong position. The Bashar al-Assad regime, backed by Russian air power, is prevailing in Syria. Across Iraq, Iran-linked Shiite militias are entrenching themselves in state institutions.

Despite demonstrating its resolve to confront Iran and its partners, Riyadh has been unable to alter the balance of power. The Trump administration confronts similar obstacles. With so many flashpoints , and so little diplomacy, the risk of an escalatory cycle is great: Any move — new U.

A Rohingya refugee boy desperate for aid cries as he climbs on a truck distributing aid for a local NGO near the Balukali refugee camp on Sept. That assault led to a massive refugee exodus, with at least , Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh. Her government retains its hard-line stance toward the Rohingya and resists concessions on even immediate humanitarian issues.

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In this, it has the support of the population, which has embraced the Buddhist nationalist and anti-Rohingya rhetoric disseminated through state and social media. Pressure from the U. Security Council is critical, and Western governments are moving toward targeted sanctions, which are a key signal that such actions cannot go unpunished. The focus is rightly on the right of refugees to return in a voluntary, safe and, dignified manner. All this — indeed, the very presence of a large population of stateless refugees — creates enormous dangers for Bangladesh.

Conflict between refugees and a host community that is heavily outnumbered in parts of the southeast and faces rising prices and falling wages is an immediate risk.

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There are risks, too, for Myanmar. It or even transnational groups exploiting the Rohingya cause or recruiting among the displaced could launch cross-border attacks, escalating both Muslim-Buddhist tension in Rakhine state and friction between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Any attack outside Rakhine would provoke broader Buddhist-Muslim tension and violence across the country. Acknowledging the crisis, implementing recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, and disavowing divisive narratives would put the Myanmar government — and its people — on a better path.

Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, loyal to the Saudi-backed Saudi president, hold a position during clashes with Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies in Beihan, in the Shabwa province, on Dec. With 8 million people on the brink of famine, 1 million declared cholera cases, and over 3 million internally displaced persons, the Yemen war could escalate further in Saleh paid for it with his life; he was killed immediately by his erstwhile partners.

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The Houthis will continue to take the fight to the Saudi homefront, firing missiles toward Riyadh and threatening other Gulf states. Negotiations, already a distant prospect, have become more complicated. The Houthis, feeling simultaneously emboldened and embattled, could adopt a more uncompromising stance. The south is divided, owing partly to the widening rift between forces loyal to Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates.

There are signs of mounting U. Saudi Arabia and its allies should instead lift the blockade of Yemen and reopen civilian airports. Politically, there should be a new Security Council resolution providing for a balanced settlement. The Saudis are loath to concede anything to a group they consider an Iranian proxy, but were they to embrace a realistic peace initiative, the onus would shift to the Houthis to accept it. In this photograph taken on Dec. The War in Afghanistan looks set to intensify in For now, though, the strategy is almost exclusively military.

This strategy faces serious obstacles. The Taliban currently controls or is contesting more territory than at any time since ; it is better equipped and, even if pressured through conventional fighting, it would retain the ability to mount spectacular urban attacks that erode confidence in the government. Besides, between and , the Taliban withstood more than , U. Military leaders contend that this time will be different because Trump, unlike Obama, has not set a withdrawal date.

That argument holds little water. It also misreads the insurgency: Forthcoming Afghan elections a parliamentary poll is slated for July ; a presidential vote is due in will suck oxygen from the military campaign. Every vote since has ignited some form of crisis, and political discord today is particularly severe, with President Ashraf Ghani accused by his critics of monopolizing power in the hands of a few advisors. The strategy also underplays regional shifts. Given that they are likely to perceive such a presence as a threat to their own interests, it could lead them to increase support for insurgents.

It is true that demonstrating sustained U. This worked better in some areas Anatolia and less in others e. Along with the religion of Islam, the Arabic language, number system and Arab customs spread throughout the empire. A sense of unity grew among many though not all provinces, gradually forming the consciousness of a broadly Arab-Islamic population: There are a number of historians who see the rule of the Umayyads as responsible for setting up the "dhimmah" to increase taxes from the dhimmis to benefit the Arab Muslim community financially and to discourage conversion.

During the following Abbasid period an enfranchisement was experienced by the mawali and a shift was made in the political conception from that of a primarily Arab empire to one of a Muslim empire [18] and c. Other estimates suggest that Muslims were not a majority in Egypt until the midth century and in the Fertile Crescent until Syria may have had a Christian majority within its modern borders until the Mongol Invasions of the 13th century.

The expansion of Islam continued in the wake of Turkic conquests of Asia Minor , the Balkans , and the Indian subcontinent. The Ottoman Empire defended its frontiers initially against threats from several sides: Later, the Ottoman Empire set on to conquer territories from these rivals: Cyprus and other Greek islands except Crete were lost by Venice to the Ottomans, and the latter conquered territory up to the Danube basin as far as Hungary.

Crete was conquered during the 17th century, but the Ottomans lost Hungary to the Holy Roman Empire, and other parts of Eastern Europe, ending with the Treaty of Carlowitz in Islam has continued to spread through commerce and migrations; especially in Southeast Asia , America and Europe. At Mecca , Muhammad is said to have received repeated embassies from Christian tribes.

Like their Byzantine and late Sasanian predecessors, the Marwanid caliphs nominally ruled the various religious communities but allowed the communities' own appointed or elected officials to administer most internal affairs. Yet the Marwanids also depended heavily on the help of non-Arab administrative personnel and on administrative practices e. As the conquests slowed and the isolation of the fighters muqatilah became less necessary, it became more and more difficult to keep Arabs garrisoned. As the tribal links that had so dominated Umayyad politics began to break down, the meaningfulness of tying non-Arab converts to Arab tribes as clients was diluted; moreover, the number of non-Muslims who wished to join the ummah was already becoming too large for this process to work effectively.

For four months, the siege continued. Ultimately, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem , Sophronius , an ethnic Arab, [20] agreed to surrender Jerusalem to caliph Omar in person. The caliph, then at Medina, agreed to these terms and travelled to Jerusalem to sign the capitulation in the spring of Sophronius also negotiated a pact with Omar, known as the Umariyya Covenant or Covenant of Omar , allowing for religious freedom for Christians in exchange for " jizya ", a tax to be paid by conquered non-Muslims, called " dhimmis ".

Under Muslim Rule, the Christian and Jewish population of Jerusalem in this period enjoyed the usual tolerance given to non-Muslim theists. Having accepted the surrender, Omar then entered Jerusalem with Sophronius "and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities". The Mosque of Omar , opposite the doors of the Anastasis, with the tall minaret, is known as the place to which he retired for his prayer. Bishop Arculf , whose account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 7th century, De Locis Sanctis , written down by the monk Adamnan, described reasonably pleasant living conditions of Christians in Palestine in the first period of Muslim rule.

The caliphs of Damascus were tolerant princes who were on generally good terms with their Christian subjects. John Damascene held important offices at their court. The Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad , as long as they ruled Syria, were also tolerant to Christians. Harun Abu-Ja-'afar , sent the keys of the Holy Sepulchre to Charlemagne, who built a hospice for Latin pilgrims near the shrine.

Rival dynasties and revolutions led to the eventual disunion of the Muslim world. Palestine once again became a battleground as the various enemies of the Fatimids attacked. At the same time, the Byzantine Greeks continued to attempt to regain their lost territories, including Jerusalem. Christians in Jerusalem who sided with the Byzantines were put to death for high treason by the ruling shiite Muslims. As Jerusalem grew in importance to Muslims and pilgrimages increased, tolerance for other religions declined. Christians were persecuted and churches destroyed.

The sixth shia Fatimid caliph, Caliph Al-Hakim , , who was believed to be "God made manifest" by the Druze , destroyed the Holy Sepulchre in This powerful provocation helped ignite the flame of fury that led to the First Crusade. It used to be argued that Zoroastrianism quickly collapsed in the wake of the Islamic conquest of Persia due to its intimate ties to the Sassanid state structure.

Through the Muslim conquest of Persia , in the 7th century, Islam spread as far as the North Caucasus , which parts of it notably Dagestan were part of the Sasanid domains. By the 16th century, most of the people of what are nowadays Iran and Azerbaijan had adopted the Shia branch of Islam through the conversion policies of the Safavids.

Islam was readily accepted by Zoroastrians who were employed in industrial and artisan positions because, according to Zoroastrian dogma, such occupations that involved defiling fire made them impure. A number of the inhabitants of Afghanistan accepted Islam through Umayyad missionary efforts, particularly under the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and Umar ibn AbdulAziz.

The population within its areas began firmly accepting Islam in significant numbers, notably in Taraz , now in modern-day Kazakhstan. The first complete translation of the Qur'an into Persian occurred during the reign of Samanids in the 9th century. According to historians, through the zealous missionary work of Samanid rulers, as many as 30, tents of Turks came to profess Islam and later under the Ghaznavids higher than 55, under the Hanafi school of thought. This was followed by the Ghurids and Timurids who further expanded the culture of Islam. Islamic influence first came to be felt in the Indian subcontinent during the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders.

Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region , which was a link between them and the ports of South East Asia to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia.

In Malabar, Muslims are called Mappila. In Bengal , Arab merchants helped found the port of Chittagong. Sufi missionaries settled in the region as early as the 8th century. This fact is corroborated, by J. The Arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went. Embedded within these lies the concept of Islam as a foreign imposition and Hinduism being a natural condition of the natives who resisted, resulting the failure of the project to Islamicize the Indian subcontinent and is highly embroiled with the politics of the partition and communalism in India.

Muslim missionaries played a key role in the spread of Islam in India with some missionaries even assuming roles as merchants or traders. For example, in the 9th century, the Ismailis sent missionaries across Asia in all directions under various guises, often as traders, Sufis and merchants. Ismailis were instructed to speak potential converts in their own language.

Some Ismaili missionaries traveled to India and employed effort to make their religion acceptable to the Hindus. For instance, they represented Ali as the tenth avatar of Vishnu and wrote hymns as well as a mahdi purana in their effort to win converts. According to Ibn Batuta , the Khaljis encouraged conversion to Islam by making it a custom to have the convert presented to the Sultan who would place a robe on the convert and award him with bracelets of gold. Flag of Delhi Sultanate according to the Catalan Atlas.

Even before Islam was established amongst Indonesian communities, Muslim sailors and traders had often visited the shores of modern Indonesia, most of these early sailors and merchants arrived from the Abbasid Caliphate 's newly established ports of Basra and Debal , many of the earliest Muslim accounts of the region note the presence of animals such as Orang-utans , Rhinos and valuable Spice trade commodities such as Cloves , Nutmeg , Galangal and Coconut. Islam came to the Southeast Asia , first by the way of Muslim traders along the main trade-route between Asia and the Far East , then was further spread by Sufi orders and finally consolidated by the expansion of the territories of converted rulers and their communities.

When Marco Polo visited the area in he noted that the urban port state of Perlak was Muslim, [39] Chinese sources record the presence of a Muslim delegation to the emperor from the Kingdom of Samudra Pasai in , [38] other accounts provide instances of Muslim communities present in the Melayu Kingdom for the same time period while others record the presence of Muslim Chinese traders from provinces such as Fujian.

In , Sufi orders carried Islam from here on to Mindanao. As commerce grew in the region with the rest of the Muslim world, Islamic influence extended to the court even as the empires political power waned and so by the time Raja Kertawijaya converted in at the hands of Sufi Sheikh Rahmat, the Sultanate was already of a Muslim character.

Another driving force for the change of the ruling class in the region was the concept among the increasing Muslim communities of the region when ruling dynasties to attempt to forge such ties of kinship by marriage. In the mid 7th century AD, following the Muslim conquest of Persia , Islam penetrated into areas that would later become part of European Russia. The Muslim prisoner was brought [ by whom?

Around the 7th and 8th centuries some states of Turkic peoples existed - like the Turkic Khazar Khaganate see Khazar-Arab Wars and the Turkic Turgesh Khaganate , which fought against the caliphate in order to stop Arabization and Islamization in Asia. From the 9th century onwards, the Turks at least individually, if not yet through adoption by their states began to convert to Islam. Histories merely note the fact of pre- Mongol Central Asia 's Islamization. When the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck visited the encampment of Batu Khan of the Golden Horde , who had recently in the s completed the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria , he noted "I wonder what devil carried the law of Machomet there".

Another contemporary institution identified as Muslim, the Qarakhanid dynasty of the Kara-Khanid Khanate , operated much further east, [44] established by Karluks who became Islamized after converting under Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan in the midth century. However, the modern-day history of the Islamization of the region - or rather a conscious affiliation with Islam - dates to the reign of the ulus of the son of Genghis Khan , Jochi , who founded the Golden Horde, [45] which operated from the s to Kazakhs , Uzbeks and some Muslim populations of the Russian Federation trace their Islamic roots to the Golden Horde [44] and while Berke Khan became the first Mongol monarch to officially adopt Islam and even to oppose his kinsman Hulagu Khan [44] in the defense of Jerusalem at the Battle of Ain Jalut , only much later did the change became pivotal when the Mongols converted en masse [46] when a century later Uzbeg Khan lived converted - reportedly at the hands of the Sufi Saint Baba Tukles.

The failure to establish a reflective and adaptable discourse that maintains its core principles only leads to the implementation of an obsolete vocabulary that deepens rather than resolves the crisis. This leads to her second point in which she avers that. Revising foundational tenets of the Islamic tradition presupposes the critique of the systematic exclusion of women both from the pedagogical organisations and the higher strata of religious authority. The Qubaysiyat movement, a female-led religious community which provides access to Islamic knowledge to thousands of women in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, or the Women-Led Prayer Initiative on March 18, organised by Asra Nomani in the U.

This can be achieved only if European nations and the U. The present historical conditions also demand that the Islamic world revise fundamental laws of its religion not with a view to alter them or erase them but unconceal the democratic and humanistic potentiality inherent in these values in the name of a transnational co-inhabitancy capable of reversing the politics of rage and violence that have engulfed our world.

Stanford University Press, The End of History and the Last Man. Islam is a Foreign Country: New York and London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,