The need for an Islamic liberation theology

By Abdennur Prado
The need for an Islamic liberation theology appears to many like a logical conclusion
as a reaction to the setbacks suffered by Muslim communities in the last century and
the geopolitical situation at the start of the 21st century. To understand this necessity,
we need to think back to the Cold War times, when Western powers allied themseles
with the most conseratie currents of the Islamic world to aoid an encounter
between Islamic moements and the international left. This alliance still e!erts a
stifling power oer Muslim populations.
"ll of this takes us to the key issue of corporate globali#ation, and the role that the
$%&% plays in it. We are witnessing the collaboration between the reactionary sectors
of the Islamic world with corporate globali#ation, to the point that they are now one of
its pillars. Tari' (amadan has referred to this alliance as follows)
*The whole of the Islamic world is under the tutolage of market economy.
Countries apparently Islamic from the iewpoint of laws and goernment, for
e!ample +audi "rabia or other petrokingdoms, are the most integrated
economically with the neoliberal system founded on speculation and immersed
in interest transactions ,in reference to usury-.* [1]
"lready two decades ago, economist +usan .eorge made manifest the role that the
$%&% has played since the /0s in the rise of 1orth2+outh ine'uality. +usan .eorge
states)
*%etroleum producing countries behaed like true capitalists, waiting to make a
lot of money trusting in professionals brought from 1ew 3ork or 4ondon. Thus,
they lost a historic occasion and opened the door to the formidable blow
carefully planned by wealthy countries. 5ebt, generated by western countries,
banks and their agents, such as the IM6, hae weakened countries in the +outh
further ,including $%&% members-7 it has placed them in an een more
disfaorable situation than before the age of loans, opening the door to a true
recoloni#ation.*[2]
+ome countries hae a significantly high debt, including many self8proclaimed *Islamic
+tates* supposedly guided by the +haria such as +audi "rabia ,9+:;/,<=0 millions7
200>-, %akistan ,9+:;2,2?0 million7 200>-, +udan ,:2=,>=07 200>-, or Iran ,1;,?007
200>-. +omebody should remind their ulama, great mufties and other goernment
wise men that usury is forbidden under Islam....Why is +audi "rabia, one of the
largest producers of oil, hae an e!ternal debt, when thousands of members of the
+aud family hae a lifetime monthly allowance assigned to them, @ust for belonging to
the familyA "lmost all of this debt has been spent in weapons, purchased from their
masters. 4etBs not fool ourseles, these countries are only *Islamic* in those aspects
that are in the interest of the state, especially when it comes to social control.
The obession oer religion understood as e!treme morality, a soffocating puritanism
obsessed with honor and se!uality, is a means to alienate Muslim populations, it acts
as a eil that preents the analy#ing of the real causes of the social in@ustices they
suffer, and presents those responsible for these in@ustices as guarantors of their
identity and national honor. We are witnessing an e!treme form of obscurantism,
brought upon by reactionary ulemas, who occupy positions based on their significance
in the history of Islam, such as the 9niersity of "l8"#har or the Mos'ues of Mecca
and Medina. "n obscurantist ision of Islam that intercepts any critical thought among
belieers, condemming their communities to remain in ignorance. If religion were
recuced to this, then we would undoubtedly suscribe to Mar!Bs phrase, of religion
being the opium of the people. 6ortunately, religion is much more than this, or rather,
it is something else, a potential that can be placed in the serice of the liberation of us
humans, insha "l8lah.
"t this point, we hae to locate anticommunist thought, promoted by certain Muslim
institutions, from the "rab world to +outheast "sia. We are placing ourseles in the
days of the Cold War, when communism was made to occupy the role of absolute eil,
like Islamism occupies it today. " good e!ample of the link between Islam,
anticommunism, secular dictatorships and Western interests is the infitah ,openness-
promoted in &gypt by +adat in the /0, in order to liberali#e the economy ,after a
period of *"rab socialism* said to hae been oercome-. 9nions and leftist
organi#ations opposed the priati#ing policies and the opening to foreing inestment,
but these get the support of the ulemas of "l8"#har and of the Muslim Crotherhood.
+adat supports the Islamic yamaat ,assemblies- at uniersities, in order to weaken
leftist student associations, one of the main sources of opposition. It is in this conte!t
that we need to place the appearance of anticommunism from ulema officials. (eturn
to relgiousness and liberalism go hand in hand. The successie +ei@s at "l8"#har issue
anticommunist fatwas. +hei@ Muhammad 6ahham makes a diatribe against students
protesting against the goernment. De calls them heathens and urges them to behae
religiously. +hei@ "bel Dalim Mahmud states *Eionism is the mother of communism.*
Imam +haltut states *communism is kufur. The communist in his rosary does not say
*"l8lahu "kbar* but *Mar! is great.* Dasanayan Muhammad Ma@luf, mufti of the
(epublic, proposes naming communist as Islam renegades, in a time when this could
carry grae harm.[3]
In indonesia, the two biggest Islamic organi#ations in the country ,1ahdlatul 9lama
and Muhammadiya, with seeral million militants- are deeply entrenched in the
anticommunist crusade. 5uring the years 1=>F81=>>, +uharto would unleash a wae
of killings that would end the life of oer one million communists. "ccording to 1oam
Comsky, 9+ agents handed them lists of communists of communist sympathi#ers to
local authorities, who carried out a merciless hunt, supported by Islamic organi#ation.
The Muhammadiya declared a yihad against the .estapu ,Indonesian Communist
%arty-. It is sad to confirm the role of the two most important Islamic organi#ations in
the country in one of the most tragic eents of the 20th century, that led to the
deaths of oer one million people for the mere fact of being communist.
Cut this alliance is not a thing of the past. Currently, some Muslim countries are
among the first when it comes to income per capita) Gatar, 9nited "rab &mirates,
Huwait, Crunei, $man and +audi "rabia, countries that carry out their economic
actiities under the protection of the 9nited +tates military. Cut this priileged position
is not made manifest @ust in the form of cooperation towards deelopment in
comparison with other Muslim nations. We hae to remember the numerous situations
where Muslims lie in dramatic circumstances. Dundreds of thousands of them are
packed in refugee camps) saharauis in the "rgelia desert, +udanese in 5arfur,
(ohingya in Cangadeshand Thailand. $ther situations are no less dramatic) like in
Chechnya &thiopia or +omalia. These circumstances of e!treme poerty coe!ist with
wastefulness. "s a contrast, we hae to mention the pharaonic pro@ects ,in the
Coranic sense- carried out by the petromillionaire dynasties in the %ersian .ulf, like
the construction pro@ects in 5ubai with ultra lu!urious hotels built in land gained from
the sea, including een ski tracks.
There is no ,to our awareness- true aid towards deelopment organi#ed by rich
Muslim countries towards the third world. There is large scale humanitarian work and
hundreds of organi#ations dedicated to alleiating immediate necessities, but not a
global pro@ect that would help needy communities generate their own surial
mechanisms for the future. In this aspect, we hae to regret the way +audi "rabia
spends all of its oil money financing large uniersities and schools to indoctrinate
foreign populations, creating a fracture in the Muslim world between traditional Islam
and wahabism. The sole concer of +audi "rabia in all of the tragedies mentioned is to
use them to inflitrate and impose their rigorous conception of Islam, killing local
traditions, always in the name of religious purity, always at the serice of imperialism.
+audi "rabia has earned the hatred of an immense ma@ority of Muslims across the
globe for its political dissemination of wahabism, its support for 9+ domination and its
disregard towards the suffering of fellow Muslims throughout the planet.
Wahabism is not an orthodo! interpretation of Islam, but a reformist moement born
in "rabia in the ?th century. 6urther, this reformism has taken the sense of
abandonment of an organic conception of the community, in faor of the power
structures that arose with industriali#ation. " state like +audi "rabia represents the
abandonment of tradition in faor of economic interests, and was chosen by the
Critish because it ad@usted to their plans of e!ploitation of natural resources designed
for the Middle &ast. Its e!ternal appearance gies them an Islamic guise, while its
modernist essence makes it simple to rule according to the whim of its masters.
Through the call of *opening the door of iytihad* ,interpretatie effort in
@urisprudence-, the ulemas at the serice of the +tate can issue fatwas to @ustify
anything that the goernment is interested in) 9+ bases in "rabia, political killings,
drug trafficking. Internationally, Wahabism tries to make Islam a piece of the world
market economy, collaborating thoroughly with the International Monetary 6und.
+audi "rabia) a country that is in the business of gun trafficking but which calls itself
Islamic because it cuts the hand of a child that steals an apple, where rulers lie
surrounded by e!traagant lu!ury while the e!ternal debt reaches astronomical
figures... Cut %rophet Muhammed ,saws.- said) *That who barters what he has, that is
who "l8lah proides7 that who hoards goodds and accumulates them, that is who "l8
lah curses and casts aside.* "ll that they hae done in the cities of Mecca and Medina
does not leae room for doubts. Were some years ago were the graes of the
companions of the %rophet ,saws- are now packed with Mercedes or Chrysler
dealerships. In places associated with the prophetic mission of Muhammed ,saws-
there are now fie star hotels managed by foreign companies. The destruction of the
heritage, the collectie memory of Muslims is part of the policy of the Cani +aud from
their beginnings. This dissarray is also being reproduced in a large scale, operated
from within Islam, from its geographic center.
This is the entry of Islam to the world of the spectacle, Wahabism represents the
westerni#ation of Islam, the abandonment of tradition to find its likeness in that
culture of representation and image. Culture of images) the acceptance of images
from different traditions but not their contents. We are in a world where the idea of
tradition is tried to be reduced to folklore. This is what Wahabism offers) not Islam,
only its appearance. 1ot truth, but a stereotypical image. In this cult of the image all
religions, all *representaties of .od on earth* are sucked in, like salesmen, like the
economists of the 1ew World $rder, like news manufacturers. +audi "rabia, like the
cradle of Islam, plays the perfect role for the policies of Western powers, a policy that
cannot end but with the sacrifice of the image they themseles hae created. The
concise definition by Tari' (amadan reflects a ma@ority opinion)
*+audi "rabia) crossroads of all lies and all hypocricy. 6irst, from the West,
whose goernments, although know of the horrors of dictatorship, of
reactionary enslaing and of corruption, keep 'uiet for economic reasons.
"fterwards, from the &ast and too many Muslims, who because of financial
mana, respond with silence to the most odious and oert treason to the
principles of Islam.*[4]
We are currently witnessing new episodes of this neer8reoked collaboration. The
agrarian counterreform carried out in 1=== by Mubarak, which implicated the return of
agricultural leases to capital, receied the support of the Islamic 3ahad and the
Muslim Crotherhood, in the name of sharia and the right of property. We can still find
on the website of the also &gyptian 3usuf Garadawi a fatwa where he states that it
incompatible to be communist and Muslim ,the fatwa is in response to a woman who
asked him if she could marry a *communist Muslim*7 his response is negatie, it is
haram to marry a communist, because communists are nothing less than diabolical
nihilists...een though in the 'uestion the woman stated clearly that the man was a
Muslim-. Garadawi himself is sitting on the right of the &mir of Gatar, while 9+ troops
prepare to inade Ira', from huge bases granted by the &mirate, a country where
&gyptian immigrants ,among others- lie in semi8slaery... "ll of this @ustifies their
re@ection of the left when it tries to appreach Islamic moements and makes eident
the close ties between religious fundamentalism and neoliberalism. We 'uote +amir
"min)
*In the field of true social 'uestions, political Islam allies itself with dependent
capitalism and dominant imperialism. It defends the sacred principle of property
and legitimi#es ine'uality and the re'uisites for capitalist reproduction. The
support gien by the Muslim Crotherhood to the &gyptian parliament to their
recent reactionary laws that reinforce property rights to the detriment of rural
renters ,the ma@ority of small farmers- is nothing but one e!ample among
hundreds. There is no e!ample of een a single reactionary law promoted by
any Muslim state that Islamic moements hae opposed...It is easy to
understand then why political Islam has always counted in their ranks with the
dominant class in +audi "rabia and %akistan. 4ocal comprador bourgeoisie, new
rich, those benefitted by imperialist globali#ation, generously support political
Islam. "nd this moement has forfeited any anti8imperialist perspectie and
replaced it with an *antiwestern* stance ,almost *antichristian*- that eidently,
only leads affected communities to a dead end and does not constitute an
obstacle to the spreading of imperialistic control oer the world. The history of
the Muslim Crotherhood is well known. The Crotherhood was created by the
Critish and the monarchy in the 1=20s in order to stop the adance of "l8Wafd,
secular and democratic. Its return home from their +audi sanctuary after the
death of 1asser, organi#ed by the CI" and +adat, is also well known. We are all
familiar with the history of the Taliban, formed by the CI" in %akistan to fight
against the *communists* that had opened schools for all, boys and girls. It is
also common knowledge that Israel supported Damas at first as a way of
weakening secular and democratic curents in the %alestinian resistance. %olitical
Islam would hae had much greater difficulties to moe outside of the borders
of +audi "rabia and %akistan were it not for the continuous, decisie support of
the 9nited +tates. +audi "rabia society had not moed further than its
traditional limits when it found oil beneath its soil. "n alliance was worked out
between imperialism and the traditional dominant class, sealed immediately,
that gae Wahabism a new lease on life...It is easy to understand then, the
initiatie taken by the 9nited +tates to break the united front formed by "sian
and "frican nations established in 1=FF, creating an *Islamic Conference*
promoted immediately by %akistan and +audi "rabia. %olitical Islam penetrated
the region through these means. The most conseratie conclusion one can
draw is that %olitical Islam is not the spontaneous result of the affirmation of
authentic religious conictions made by the people affected. %olitical Islam was
forged by the systematic action of imperialism, supported, of course, by
reactionary forces and the subordinate comprador classes.*[5]
In conclusion, Islam is being used from power, to in many cases @ustify priileges and
oppression, and fight the left. This use by the +tate is normally linked to an imposition
of a reactionary iew of Islam, focused on form and in herd morality. Corporate
globali#ation and religious fundamentalism feed each other, like two sides of the same
phenomenon. The structural measures adocated by the International Monetary 6und
and the World Cank create the necessary conditions that make the rise of
fundamentalism possible ,een ineitable-7 and in the end, it is this fundamentalism
that @ustifies the interention of Western states. "ll of this e!plains the support of the
most reactionary iews of Islam by the West.
Cut we must say that the analysis made by +amir "mir is e!cessiely broad) while it is
without doubt that the dominant political Islam ,especially the Wahabi2+alafi current
promoted from +audi "rabia- is aligned with imperialism, it does not mean that all
political Islam should be placed in that category. There is a growing awareness of this
issue within Muslim moements, an issue whose soling implies the construction of a
new alliance with the global left and the alter8globali#ation moement, such as the
one we will propose briefly. There is no other remedy than to work in this direction. It
would be a crass mistake by anticapitalist moements in Muslim countries to state
their ground aside from Islam, since Islam is the a!is around which life is carried out
in those societies. Cattling Islam and capitalism at the same time does not seem
reasonable, especially if we reali#e that Islam constitutes today one of the few liing
alternaties to neoliberal globali#ation.
"t this point we can understand the importance that the Islamic liberation theology
,I4T- can play in the conte!t of peoplesB struggles against corporate globali#ation and
new imperialism, as well as against the hegemony of the alienated forms of
understand Islam that are linked to them. That is) to counteract the e!isting alliance
between corporate globali#ation and religious fundamentalism.
We understand I4T as a discourse and social practice that places at the forefront the
Coranic mandate of building a @ust and egalitarian society, where the spiritual
dimension of human beings are taken into account, in opposition of both reactionary
conceptions of Islam and neoliberalism. In opposition of the drifting of Islamic
moements towards ultraconseratie positions politically and morally, I4T emerges
from the rescuing of the reolutionary message made by %rophet Muhammed ,saws-
fourteen centuries ago, against the oligarchies of his time.
I4T gains new strength in the post =811 world, with the inasions of Ira' and
"fghanistan, the situation of Muslims in Curma and the continuation of the %alestinian
genocide. Cut, aboe all, I4T emerges as a growing awareness of the social impact of
corporate globali#ation. The dominance of neoliberalism and free market theory poses
a threat towards e'uality and social @ustice, since both conceie society as a market
that reduces human beings to their dimension as producer8consumer. " liberali#ed
market economy, that has no consideration for social affairs or for local culture or
enironmental awareness, cannot promote global economic or social welfare, or
ensure sustainable deelopment. 1eoliberalism increasingly threatens ciil rights,
particularly the right to education, dignified employment and health.
6acing this situation, I4T proposes a radical reform of the +haria so that it may aid the
underpriileged. It proposes reforming Muslim family laws to achiee the e'uality
between men and wimen. It also proposes to incorporate the matter of economic
@ustice in contemporary discourse around the +haria and to focus on its hori#ontal
aspects, muBamalat or social transactions, before the Bibada or acts of adoration. This
reform is based on the notion of +oereignty of "l8lah, according to which only "l8lah
is our 4ord and therefore nobody can be the lord or master of his fellow men. This
understanding of Islam leads us to 'uestion the alienating understandings of religion.
To apply these principles, it becomes necessary to form unions inspired by I4T, capable
of indicating workers rights, in conte!ts where Islam is state religion and where
eerything reoles around Islam.
I4T defends the entry of Islam into politics. If all the ethical ,religous- components of
politics, medicine, economy were to be eliminated... what would we hae leftA The
postwestern ciili#ation) a system of generali#ed depredation of planet earth, that
does not respond to any ethical or rational criteria... In Western countries, this system
is balaced by ciil society, especially thanks to the efforts made by Mar!ists and
anarchists in the 1=th and 20th centuries, and to the ciil rights moement that
emerged after the +econd World War. Cut this balancing power does not hae
sufficient strength in a worldwide scale, much less in the third world, where large
corporations are dedicated to a policy of depredation of natural resources, robbing
people and annihilating their cultures, enthroning dictators docile to their interests
and financing warsin those places where communities unite against them. I4T
presents itself, therefore, as a challenge to the so called *liberal Islam* that seeks a
strict separation between religion and politics, also a complacent speech to the new
needs of the establishment. There is a policy of infiltration by Western think tanks that
promotes an antifundamentalist Islamic discourse and the defence of the compatibility
of Islam and democracy, human rights, etc, but which is not critical to the policies
promoted by the International Monetary 6und, the World Trade $rgani#ation and the
World Cank. This is the so8called *moderate Islam* that is promoted by the 9H and 9+
goernments as a parallel offensie to their inasions of Ira' and "fghanistan.
I4T has a distinguished figure in +udanese Mahmud Taha, who in his famous work
*The second message of Guran* identified the ideal society proposed by %rophet
Muhammed with a *democratic socialism* ,although a better term to define his
proposals would be communism-. "ccording to Taha, the actie pursuing of this ideal
community is necessary for our fulfillment as human beings. In a society ruled by
egotism and the e!sacerbation of passions, human beings cannot fully actiate their
capacities or lie as a creature worthy of "l8lah. "t the same time, he beliees that
socialism cannot come about without taking in consideration the spiritual dimension of
human beings. This e!plains the failure of historical meterialms and the +oiet
regime, whose materialist conception of the human being did not stand fully apart
from the proposal by capitalist society. Taha includes in a democratic perspectie
gender e'uality and enironmental alues.
IT4 does not deny its links with Muslim reformism or een with Islamic moement,
and can 'uote +ayed Gutb or "li +hariarti to support its positions. It connects with
reformism, from before it was swallowed by +audi "rabia and placed at the serice of
corporate globali#ation and conseratie policies. This return to the reolutionary
origins of Islamic moements is the proposal made by +habbir "khtar in IThe 6inal
Imperatie) "n Islamic Theology of 4iberation.J This is a Critish intellectual that
acknowledges himself as a disciple of +ayed Gutb. IT4 could connect to an Islamism
that has acknowledged the totalitarian e!cesses it has committed and is willing to
promote openness towards gender e'uality, enironmental and democratic alues.
Tari' (amada, a +wiss thinker of &gyptian origin, represents a bridge in this respect,
which e!plains the scorn he receies in Western media.
" work that has to be taken into account is IIslamic 4iberation Theology) (esisting the
&mpireJ by Iranian Damid 5abashi. The criti'ues to the Islamic (epublic of Islam do
not lead him to embrace Western modernity as a panacea7 'uite the contrary. 5abashi
contends that Islamic ideology has ceased from being a factor in the resistance
against Icolonial modernity.J Islamic militancy emerged from determinate conditions
and it remains a prisoner to them. It isnBt capable of responding to present needs or
to the challenges of corporate globali#ation. In order to renew Muslim aspirations it is
necessary to reisit the concept of IIslamic ideologyJ in the sense of offering a local,
and therefore limited, response of what presents itself as a global challenge. 1o
alternatie ideology will awaken the energies and create the synergies necessary to
face planetary depredation carried out by the centers of corporate globali#ation.
1either is this globali#ation Ithe WestJ or is Cin 4aden IIslam.J Kery especially, the
legalist isions of Islam hae to be oercome, since they lead to a multiple fracture
between Islam and the West, Islam and human rights, Islam and feminism...This is a
series of fractures that are e!ploited by the empire to undermine and delegitimi#e
Muslim resistance.
The only way to oercome these fractures is to think of an Islamic ideology of
liberation that conerges with other similar moements across the globe. Muslims are
not alone in this struggle. They cannot continue to think that their fight is carried out
to the back of the rest of the planet, or in terms of an Islamic supremacy. "n ideology
that separates the world between Islam and the West, or among belieers and non8
belieers does not hae anything to offer. The contemporary situation leads us
towards syncretism and the acceptance of uniersal alues. It beliees that Islam will
hae to rearticulate itself in relation to globali#ed capitalism. "s a result of the
globali#ation process, the mass worker migrations has dismantled the dichotomy
Icenter8peripheryJ or IIslam8WestJ that could hae had their raison dBetre during the
colonial period. 5ubashi defends multiculturalism and e!plores the similarities and
differences with regards to the Christian liberation theology, to reach an
understanding. The reolutionary potential of Islam has to be put to the serice of
humanity, and not to the serice of the Islamic cause. We hae to think in terms of
diersity and syncretism, not in terms of supremacy.
More than a theology, we should talk of a theodicea, a natural and rational theology of
uniersalist cut that seeks its foundation within human beings. 5abashi defines this
theodicy as a form of theology of liberation that does not just account for the
existence of its moral and normative shadows, but embraces them. [6]. In 5abashiBs
ision, this theodicy will result in the liberation of Islam itself from its ghosts, its
ataisms, and the forms of idolatry generated through the centuries. It is not @ust
about rethinking Islam in liberation terms, but to think of an Islam itself liberated.
Notas
[1] Globalisation. Muslim Resistances (ed. Tawhid 2002).
[2] Jusquau cou, enqute sur la dette du tiers monde (ed. La Dcouverte, 19, !!. 6"#1)
[3] $a%i&a 'e(ha%, Guardianes del islam, !!.140"144
[4] El islam minoritario, ed. )e%%ateraa, !.333
[5] *a+ir ,+i-, El islam poltico, al servicio del imperialismo
[6] Islamic liberation theolog! resisting the empire, !. 1