Nationalism and cultural pluralism in Islamic thought

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

Nationalism and cultural pluralism in Islamic thought

Dr. Ahmad ibn `Abdul-`Aziz Al Holaiby

Abstract

Is it possible for one country to have several cultures, or in another way: can several cultures exist in one country?


This research attempts to answer this question from the perspective of the Islamic thought, adopting the approach of the Glorious Qur'an in referring any controversial matter to Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him) in order to reach the truth. It deals comprehensively and realistically with this topic, following a wisdom which is consistent with Islamic care for unity, the harmony of Muslims' hearts, the unification of their word, and warning them against the cultural conflict which is the reason for enmity and division.
The research deals with the following issues:

1- The meaning of home.

2- The concept of nationalism in the Islamic thought.
3- Nationalism and culture.
4- The function of Islamic culture in building the identity of the homeland culture.
5- The cultural identity and the multiplicity of cultures.
6- The Islamic culture and multiculturalism.
7- Diversity of cultures within an Islamic country.
8- The national culture and (globalization).
Introduction:
Praise be to Allah and peace be upon the one who was sent as a mercy to the worlds [i.e., Prophet Muhammad], his family, his Companions, and those who follow him until the Day of Judgment.
The cultural scene in Islamic countries has witnessed intellectual and sectarian conflicts, and subjected to political and social developments. In the middle of these complex circumstances and successive developments, the following question arises:
Can one country include several cultures or in another way: Is it possible that several cultures exist in one country?
This question has a basis to stand on and the answer is affected by different intellectual and dogmatic directions. As for the basis on which it is based, it is the reality of the Islamic societies which were gathered under one public Islamic culture, but were split into multiple cultures with special qualities. As for the intellectual and ideological trends, the answer is different because they affect these societies visibly.
This research attempts to answer this question from the perspective of the Islamic thought, following in this approach the manner of the Qur'an in referring any conflict to Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) seeking for the truth. Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "(And) if you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if you believe in Allah and in the Last Day. That is better and more suitable for final determination." [Surat An-Nisa': 59]. It deals comprehensively and realistically with this topic, following a wisdom that is consistent with Islamic care for unity, the harmony of Muslims' hearts, the unification of their word, and warning them against the cultural conflict which is the reason for enmity and division.
The issue of (nationalism and cultural pluralism) is vital and problematic in the same time, where if it is studied, it cannot end up to one precise view because of the methodological, ideological, cultural, and educational effect in accepting or rejecting the cultural pluralism. However, the best we can say is: it is an important and worthy issue that needs more study to illustrate its aspects and deal with its different problems.
The Meaning of "Home"
Home in terminology is: A place where a person lives [1, vol. 6, p. 4868].
The Qur'an calls it a house in Allah's Saying: "So the earthquake seized them, and they lay (dead), prostrate in their homes." [Surat Al `Ankabut: 37]. And in Allah's Saying: "Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion and did not drive you out of your homes. Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity." [Surat Al Mumtahinah: 8]. On the other hand, the Sunnah used both words "home and house" in the Hadith which says: "It is my home and house." [2, vol. 3, p. 177].
Place of Birth: is the place where a person is born and the place in which he loves to stay and years to. [3, vol. 3, p. 1252].
Citizenship has Two Meanings:
The first is: The meaning of "innate" instinct, stemming from the human love for his homeland and his sense of belonging to it as a result of getting familiar with its places, especially the places of play in young age as Ibn Ar-Rumy stated:
And the homelands were made beloved to their inhabitants because of the places where youth used to play.
Their homelands will remind them with the times of youth and youth will yearn to these days.
It is an instinct which humans, animals, and birds have in common.
The other meaning is: An intellectual and dogmatic that is deeper than being an emotional trend and a natural inclination to the place where a person is born and brought up on its land. The philosophical doctrines changed the meaning of citizenship to an intellectual ideology. These general principles and ritual behaviors are planted in people's minds and youth are raised on them, therefore, situations are judged according to them, and others are seen through them. [4, p. 172].

The History of Nationalism in human Thought

Nationalism is a modern concept that imposed itself on the map of human thought even if it is deep-rooted in history. It was known by this philosophical view in old communities, such as the nationalism of Greece that had divided society into free people and slaves and distinguished between them in terms of rights and duties. We had the nationalism of the Roman Empire which used to look at the subject peoples as slaves subordinate to the mother land. It did not allow these nations to melt into its pot and integrate into it. This tendency showed up again coupled by local nationalities in Europe after the French Revolution to ******* the religious tendency of Christianity gradually, and become one of the givens of the nineteenth century that are directed to all the state systems to serve this trend of sectarian tendency. [5, p. 47].
This tendency has managed to divide Europe into popular rival principalities; and each principality made up its national view of things and others. It also attempted to turn the general values into specific national values that led to the deterioration of relations between these countries fueling wars between them for many years, and bequeathed ruin and destruction generation after generation as the British philosopher Bertrand Russell said regarding the national Germans: "They believe that the interests of Germany are the most important regardless the interests of other countries and without thinking of the harm that might befall other countries. They do not think of the bad results of their policy to the destruction of cities and people, nor do they think of the damage that might lead to the deterioration of civilization that cannot be reformed." His words were about the Nazi Germany, which adopted a national trend. Sayings such as: "Germany alone could lead the world" [5, p. 50] circulated and as soon as the war, which raged between the countries of Europe, ended, competition took place again to colonize other nations. After the retreat of the colonial waves, these countries realized the bad consequences of the fanatic nationalities, began to escape from them, and getting close to one another in projects that are known as "the European Union" [4, p. 173-175].
In the Muslim world, the fans of the Western culture found in the tendency of nationalism, which spread in Europe, an idea to gather the people from each country to demand their rights, call for freedom, get rid of the injustice they suffered from. In the meantime, the colonial powers worked hardly to uphold this idea through arousing old disputes and nationalism among the Muslim nations, focusing on the natural features that distinct each country from the other and creating the spirit of localism and regionalism [6, p. 367] with the purpose of tearing Muslim societies apart and separating them from each other to prevent their unity and their common aspirations. On January 9, 1938, a report was submitted by the Minister of the British Colonies to his prime minister: "War taught us that Islamic unity is the greatest danger which the empire should fear and fight, not only the empire but all France. To our joy, the Islamic Caliphate had ended and I wish it would not come back. Our policy aims at preventing the Islamic unity as well as the Islamic solidarity, and it should ... " [7, p. 12].
Later on, this idea has been developed in the Islamic countries by those people who were affected by the European culture. They have turned the localism into nationalism, attacked the religious bond, and considered it a threat to the unity of Islamic countries, dispersed its word, kill its sympathy, and weakened its unity. [8, c. 1, p. 78].
Despite the black side of nationalism with its sectarian sense and the resulting conflict, the natural meaning of nationalism remains in the same meaning known today which seizes the human feelings, hopes, and senses.

Nationalism in the Islamic Thought

If the sectarian work linked the meaning of nationalism with land and home in the past, Islam does not deny the instinct of patriotism, and does not count it contradictory to its principles. Mustafa Kamel - an Egyptian nationalist - said: "Perhaps some people think that religion is contrary to nationalism or calling to religion is not part of nationalism, but I believe that nationalism and religion are correlated and the people whose hearts are full of religion will love their country truly." [8, 1, p. 82]. Islam considers patriotism an instinct that is well-established, so it promoted that instinct and did not confine it to any sectarian tendency, but linked between that instinct and religion. It worked to integrate humanity with one another without discrimination based on geographical boundaries; thereby, the concept of homeland was expanded to include faith and expanded nationalism to form an instinct belonging to earth and religious loyalty to Islam: its principles and values.
The harmony of religion and nationalism, where nationalism is imbued with Islam, had given patriotism a broader sense that exceeds regional boundaries and the meaning that is confined to the land to promote it from the concept of land and geographical ******** to the value, the prestige, and sanctity. It mixes that meaning with the meaning of principles and values that the citizens of a country believe in. The Prophet (peace be upon him) explained this meaning in his speech to Makkah when he migrated to Madinah: "What a good country you are! You are the most beloved country to me and were your people drove me out of you, I would not have resided anywhere else." [9, c 5, p. 723].
This situation explains his instinctive love to his country "Makkah," explaining that his emigration (from it) was against his wish and love, and because the Makkans drove him out and prevented Muslims to practice their teachings.
If the Prophet (peace be upon him) had sacrificed to stay home for the sake of his principles and values which the pagans of Makkah prevented him to practice, that was a choice between to continue to call for Islam by migration or give it up and stay home. There was a state of contradiction between giving priority to Islam or enjoying home and family. Therefore, the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) gave priority to religion over anything else. The Qur'an confirmed that religion has the priority over anything else in the following Ayah: "Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight ... are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and striving hard and fighting in His Cause, then wait until Allah brings about His Decision (torment). And Allah guides not the people who are Al-Fasiqun (the rebellious, disobedient to Allah)." [Surat At-Tawbah: 24].
It does not necessarily mean that Islam changes the loyalty of people from their land, peoples, and tribes; this is a physical and a natural matter that cannot be changed. The one who is born in a country is not condemned if he loves it. Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him), who emigrated to Madinah, sacrificed everything for his faith and yearned to his country Makkah while he was in Madinah saying:
Will it come the day when I see the water of Majannah (a place near Makkah) and will Shamah and Tafil (two mountains overlooking Majannah) will be visible to me.
When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) heard the description of Makkah from Asil, his tears flowed over his cheeks. He said: "O Asil, do not break my heart." [10, part 1, p. 84]. Islam has approved this loyalty and did not consider the love of one's country contradicts faith nor inherent to it.
Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion and did not drive you out of your homes. Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity." [Surat An-Nisa': 66]. This Ayah has shown the love of those people to their countries although they were not Muslims. [11, 1, p. 414]. Islam did not consider land, blood, ********, nor interests the first factors that connect people and did not give it priority to the sound faith. [12, p. 586].
If loyalty in human minds became complete and life became integral in its practices, there will be no contradiction between loyalty and faith. There will be no contradiction in thoughts and there will be no objection to practice the instinctive behaviors of humans. The connection between Islam and loving one's country exceeds contradiction to mixture, connection, and admitting what is instinct. Islam cannot be established except in a country, a place, a geography, and it will not become a Muslim land unless it subjects totally to the general concept of Islam, hence comes the need for a land to establish the religion on [13, p. 35].
Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "Have they not seen how many a generation before them We have destroyed whom We had established on the earth such as We have not established you? And We poured out on them rain from the sky in abundance, and made the rivers flow under them. Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and created after them other generations." [Surat Al-Hajj: 141].
A Muslim has the right to declare his instinctive love to his country and giving it priority to other countries: living in it, loving good for it, and providing it help to other without cutting the ties of Muslim brotherhood or neglecting other parts of the Muslim countries. The Muslim land does not have geographical boundaries for it extends with faith [14, p. 141] and it spreads in the corners of the globe because there is no contradiction between loving one's country and belonging to Islam. A Muslim may love his country and his fellow Muslims in other countries because it completes the system of Muslim brotherhood. [15, p. 31].
Islam recognizes nationalism as a right of peoples, and keeping this right is like giving life to it among nations because there is no meaning to life without keeping the independence of lands and countries. Any country gives up its right in independence and lives under the dominance of its enemy, it will be dead even if it takes the ruling of a living country. Professor Muhammad `Abdou says in the same context: "This is the norm which Allah, the Almighty, set for those nations that do not push away their enemies.
Life and death of nations are known to the people; the meaning of death is that the enemy destroyed the nation, eradicated its power, and ended its independence where they scattered and became dispersed and lost. Their presence depends on others and the meaning of life to them is giving them their independence. Cowardice of fighting the enemy, handing over the land, and fleeing is the real death that is fraught with shame. The dear and good life is the life which is free of aggression and fighting for the sake of Allah is more general than fighting for religion because it includes defending the boundaries of our land when it is attacked by enemies or it wants to humiliate us and attack our independence. If fighting was not for securing our religion, fighting will be for protecting the truth. Scholars have agreed that if enemy enters the Muslim lands, fighting back will become an individual duty for every Muslim." [16, c 4, p. 695-697].

Nationalism in Saudi Arabia

Nationalism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represents the meaning consistent with pure instinct and Islam where the meaning of belonging to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia bears great values as follows:
1 – It is the ******** that Allah has chosen for revelation, the stronghold of Islam, the store of its cultural values, its intellectual reference, their qiblah, and its land a home for Muslims alone until the end of the Hour. Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "Allah knows best with whom to place His Message." [Surat Al An`am: 124]. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "I shall drive the Jews and Christians out of the Arabian Peninsula until I leave only Muslims therein." [17, c. 3, p. 1388], i.e., do not let the People of the Scriptures live there because it is the fort of Muslims.
2 – Islam is the religion which Allah has chosen this ******** a home for it and its people. They establish the rites of Islam on its land, resort to it in arbitration, and act according to its principles, values, and legislations. Allah made it the last religion and abrogated all the previous religions, and did not accept any other religion. Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers." [Surat Al `Imran: 85]. So, by this religion, the Peninsula gained its status, its character is distinguished, and its people felt their duty connected with it in their way of life.
This meaning was embodied in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as since its founding, it is connected with religion and taking the responsibility to preserve it. In regard of reality, the country is entrusted with the Two Sacred Masjids and the sponsor of pilgrims and the visitors of the Prophet's Mosque. It also attempts to disseminate Islam through the institutions that call to Allah, enjoin good and forbid evil, establish the rulings of Allah, the executer of the prescribed penalties of Allah through the independent Shar`y courts which no one has an authority over them, but Shari`ah, and they are entrusted with Islam in all fields. The first article of the Saudi constitution stated that Saudi Arabia is an Arab and Islamic country with full sovereignty, its religion is Islam and its constitution is the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace be upon him), and its ******** is Arabic. The state has exercised this function in its three phases since it had been established at the hands of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn `Abdul-Wahhab. So, it is the output of a reformist call that prevailed in the entire Arabian Peninsula and all its people enjoyed its shades, picked up its fruits: unity, pure monotheism, prosperity, and widespread knowledge.
The concept of citizenship implies commitment that means belonging to the Saudi Arabia, which requires the protection of its land, supporting its mission, and fighting to protect its sanctities and defending its cultural achievements: the moral and the material.
At the present time and more than ever, we need to deepen this concept in the minds of the youth after some Western ideas and opinions had sneaked to that Muslim country and its children as long as the secured residents who were targeted by the bloody incidents. Perhaps the following are the best means used to deepen these concepts:
1- Curricula that can ingrain the meaning of home and highlight its position in the whole world in general and in the Islamic world in particular. They speak about the Islamic characteristics, duties, and its good stances of Islamic causes, such as: Palestine, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, the role of charitable organizations in relieving the distressed and the needy in the Muslim world, and its support for international Islamic institutions such as the Islamic Conference Organization, the Association of the Islamic World, and the Islamic Bank.
2- Information such as press, TV, and radio that can be used to show the true picture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and its leading role in maintaining the values and principles of Islam. They defend Muslim issues in the international forums, and subject them to serve the establishment of the identity of this country in the hearts of its children through meaningful dialogue, the program which is in contact with the problems of the people and their social conditions. They also fight the coming ideas that contradict the sound faith and Shari`ah, and in treating the cases of deviation and extremism that may appear in the community affected by the neighboring communities.

Nationalism and Culture

Nationalism was emerged in the early nineteenth century associated with the (liberal) values or individual liberty and (democracy). France is considered the most prominent example for this correlation in modern Europe where the French patriots had adopted the idea of defending their own national culture along with their loyalty to the French State. Turkey is also one of the leading countries in the Muslim world that interested in developing their national culture through separating itself from the Arabs in: alphabet, dress, education, customs, and traditions [18, p. 20-26].
In the Arab world, nationalism emerged coupled with the call for the Arab unity, which had the objectives of resisting the Western colonialism to the Muslim countries. This project was characterized by building a new national culture that matches the Western culture policy that aims at separating religion from the state. The first reaction which the Muslim thinkers declared was they will hold firm with their Islamic Caliphate and will call the people to revive it again, which led to the emergence of a new intellectual trend that contradicts the idea of the Arab unity. It also calls for protecting the Islamic identity and defending it against the Western cultural invasion [19, p. 34-37] that sought to shrink it, liberate the Islamic countries from colonialism that occupies its land, and unify its people based on faith and Islamic principles.
In fact, calling for nationalism was an earlier phase that was confined to the concept of gaining superiority due to one's land and regional history. When that call failed, a new call for the Arabian regionalism arose which followed the example of Turanian way in Turkey, Pharaonic in Egypt, and Phoenicia in Syria. Such calls contributed to tear the Islamic nation apart. The colonial influence in the Muslim world was powerful in emptying the concept of nationalism and regionalism of their true values, and separating it from the nation's heritage and its general culture. There is no doubt that such concept is new to us because it considers the unity of thought and culture a basis for the correlation of its people and their cohesion [20, p. 225-226].
The difference in the concept of citizenship between the nationalists and Islamists emerged from the differences in culture that identify home and its relation with others, but both groups agreed that the two parts agreed that nationalism, as Mr. Ali Mazrou`y said: "is a combination between culture as identity and culture as a method of communication." [18, p. 23] According to both parties, culture is one of the human characteristics. It is a thankful and rational creature and any derogation from that will be considered derogation for its humanity and any interest in improving its culture is an interesting in its humanity. Culture also is a very important issue for the community for it is the main factor for communication among peoples in order to know one another and exchange experiences, no matter what their races and beliefs are. Through these experiences, people exchange concepts, ideas, beliefs, life style, along other systems and perceptions. It is also a mean to distinct peoples from one another on the basis of qualities that distinct each culture and enable them to open doors for other cultures without fear of integration or melting in other cultures [21, p. 74-84]. This can be done by having the ability to maintain the special characteristics of one's country, its heritage that is represented in its principles, values, and systems.
Citizenship means to invest the culture of environment, which is in general terms: "the outcome of a variety of information and methods of thinking that expand and narrow regarding its connection with the human issues in general and the fields of identity in particular. The cultivated citizen is the person who is aware through his social sense, whether the matter is related to his time or exceeds it. This awareness is the humanitarian side of culture, as for what he feels and lives regarding his life, his identity, and national and regional affiliation, is the self-culture." [22, p. 6].
In this context, it is very difficult to imagine an abstract and neutral culture that do not relate to historical or religious backgrounds that form its source of balances, standards, and the reference of its values. Therefore, in most cases, it bears a quality that identifies its framework and dimensions. So, we find it attributed to a religion or a doctrine, such as Islamic culture, or Buddhism, or to a country, an area, or a territory, such as the Greek or Indian culture and holds many contents. When the Islamic culture adopted Islam as its cloak, it could hold all the contents of Islam whether creed, Shari`ah, thought, civilization, and a system of values [22, p. 8] like all other cultures.
If any country needs comprehensive and purposive development in all its facilities in order to invest all its capabilities and energies, this development must be compatible with its culture, data, and the components of its society, for example, development in the field of applied sciences. These sciences that have developed in that time rapidly and spectacularly and those who are interested have tried, in the middle of its rapid growth of data, to develop away from cultures and away from their contents, therefore this led to a kind of conflict and contradiction within societies. Perhaps this is what drove the world famous scientist Ilya Prigorine to say: "It has become persistent that science considers itself an integral part of the culture in which it develops." And to the saying: "Science will open a door for globalization when it does not isolate from the concerns of the community. It should adjust itself from being independent and isolated, then science will become able to communicate with people of all cultures and respect their questions. Perhaps, the experience of the Muslim world is one of the clearest proofs to the bad outcome when it imported patterns of development that are not compatible with the data of its reality, and the components of its societies, therefore, the outcome was blind imitation of the Western civilization [23, p. 26] and deterioration in many fields."

The Cultural Identity of Homeland

It is necessary for any country to have its own culture because it is inconceivable that a country does not have heritage or history and a society without faith and principles. A nation without systems or values, or at least there is no society without religion. Henri Bergson says: "We may find, in the past or in the present, human societies that do not know science, art, or philosophy, but there is no society without religion." [24, p. 25].