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As we all know, the crisis in the Middle East is Muslims turning against other Muslims, separatist, militant and extreme groups regarding each other as nemesis - namely Shiite and Sunni Muslims, whereby the Shiites view the Sunnis as heretics who must be killed.
It is not meant to that way; first of all in the early Islamic era, people embraced Islam to be freed from the shackles of dividing social classifications - tribes as well as the caste system. The latter is true in ancient South Asia where the people in that region were divided along the lines of the Hindu caste system.
The Hindu Lembah Bujang shrine in Kedah, Malaysia. This shrine is testimony to Hinduism being the religion of the Malay archipelago before Islam's arrival in the region in the 13th century.
South East Asia's religions prior to Islam making its debut there by maritime Muslim Indian and Chinese merchants were Buddhism and Hinduism - empires like Srivijaya and Majapahit are now modern day Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand. Bar Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei are Islamic countries now. Indonesia, the seat of the Majapahit empire now has the world's largest Muslim population and the island nation is one of the most tolerant and liberal majority Muslim state, judging from its international policies.
The statue of Harihara from the glorious Hindu empire Majapahit. It resembles the coming of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu in one form.
[In the Qur’an, God commands all Muslims to be united, and to join forces for an intellectual struggle against oppression in this world. Despite this clear obligation, however, Muslims fail to fulfill this important command because of the ongoing conflicts and disagreements among themselves. Muslims’ Divine Book is the Holy Qur’an; and God reveals everything that He has made unlawful and lawful for His servants in the Qur’an. According to the Qur’an, Muslims are brothers, and any sort of quarrel and dissension among brothers are unacceptable. Islam stresses what unites people, and not what causes division. There is co-existence, collaboration and opting for the common ground for the sake of the good of humanity, and not separation, self-righteousness, and self-interests.]
The bracketed paragraph above rules any division among the Islamic brethren as a direct contradiction of the Quran - Quran is said to be the word and will of Allah and as the latter paragraph suggests, Muslims dividing themselves along the lines of sects and denominations is sacrilege in itself.
Perhaps the oppression and slaughter of Muslims in every part of the world could end right away with the establishment of a union of Islamic countries. In this union, while member states’ independence and national borders are preserved, they can be united under a shared Islamic culture, and develop common policies.
Alas, due to prevalent sectarian disputes, Muslims remain disunited, with some Muslims who follow the Quran very, very closely, verse by verse rather than the violent and divisive, fear and hate mongering Quran's extensions, the hadiths and sunnahs, written down hundreds of years after Muhammad's passing, merely watching the persecution going on from a distance. Such Muslims are passive and are armchair commandos, defending Islam on social networks and Islam hate pages. That is perhaps their sole contribution to Islam apart from being 'Quran sculpted Muslims.'
Focusing on discrepancies and differences among the different Islamic schools such as Wahabbiah, the notorious Al-Qaeda and Taliban school of thought and conduct would deliver no positive results for any individual in the Islamic world. The good of the Islamic world lies in the spirit of ‘unity and solidarity’ which is set forth in the Qur'an.
Obey God and His Messenger and do not quarrel among yourselves lest you lose heart and your momentum disappear. And be steadfast. God is with the steadfast. (The Qur’an; 8: 46)
The Islam world is all too quick to pass the buck to the West when troubles strike and problems afflict it. The blame game is unjust because the real mea culpa lies with the Muslim world, therein their inability to break free from the chains of disunity.
The core accomplishment of the Islamic world would be to disallow and disarm any conflict among schools or races and stand on common ground as Muslims, not Shiite or Sunni.
This unity in cluster will provide a solution to internal problems and prevention of other countries’ intervening in the internal affairs of Muslims. Furthermore this unity will be the means by which all the conflicts among various schools - as well as civil wars like in Syria and Egypt and seemingly nonstop bloody maelstrom will grind to a halt.
Unity of Muslims is essential for the good of each Muslim in this world. In the absence of unity, the Muslim world is merely setting itself up to be torn asunder.
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