Voting for the American President
04-11-2008
After reading all of
the responses to my previous post I have this to say: Brothers and sisters
before we carry this discussion any further we must agree on these three points:
The American leaders of today are playing the exact role of Pharaoh and Abu Jahl
of yesterday and the American people of today are playing the role that the
Quraish, Aad and Thamud used to play yesterday. Therefore the verses of Quran
and Hadith of Rasulullah that apply to Pharaoh and Abu Jahl apply to the US
leaders and the ones that apply to the Quraish, Aad and Thamud apply to the
American people. The US is in a state of war with Islam and Muslims and not just
against the so called extremists.
Democracy is a system
of governance that is different than the Islamic system of government and is
opposed to it and is being spread by the West in the Muslim world by force as an
alternative to the Islamic Sharia law.
It is a duty upon us
Muslims to strive through Jihad to establish the Islamic Khilafah again. This is
not a far fetched idealistic objective but is a tangible realistic one if we but
put the effort into achieving it. Therefore the Muslims in the West should see
their stay there as temporary and not permanent because it is not feasible to
establish such an Islamic state in the West and the Muslims should strive to
make hijra to Islamic lands even though they are not ruled by Sharia in order to
use their abilities and resources to bring back Islamic rule in Muslim land.
If you do not agree
with the above three points then we cannot reach an agreement on the issue of
voting because we are basing our views on two completely different platforms.
I would like to thank all of the brothers and sisters who posted comments and I
will bypass all of the insults and pure opinion that were piled up on the 100+
comments on my post and focus on some of the opposing views that brought forth
some reasonable arguments.
First: There are scholars who said that voting is Halal and in fact some said
it is obligatory:
On the other hand there are scholars who said that voting in the democratic
system is haram. But for those who say it is halal do they actually know what is
happening in the US? Have they been to the mosques and seen the US politicians,
male and female, speaking to the congregations that came to worship Allah on
Friday? Did they hear the lies, false promises and pure hypocrisy of what these
candidates are speaking inside the houses of Allah and most important of all the
kufr that they utter in our places of worship? Have these scholars seen how the
Muslims in the masajid are falling all over themselves in appeasement and
superficial generosity towards these enemies of Allah all in the name of dawa?
Have they heard the Imams using the time of the Friday sermon which should be
devoted to Islamic teachings calling the Muslims to vote for the same people who
will be leading the war against our Muslim brothers and sisters, and then
closing with the dua “May Allah bless America”?! Have they seen our Muslim young
boys and girls making fools of themselves wearing their “support Obama” T-shirts
and waving Obama signs? Have they heard how the Muslims who are part of the
campaigns of both candidates speak? Can they talk about wala and bara? Can they
even utter any word in defense of Jihad, Khilafah or hudud which are part and
parcel of our religion?
I doubt any of these scholars have factored in these issues when they gave their
fatwa.
Brothers and sisters the issue is not simply dropping a vote in a ballot box. It
is much more than that. It is the whole mindset and the actions that come with
it.
Also most of fatawa that were used as support for voting in the US were actually
referring to voting in Muslim countries so make note of this.
Second: We are choosing the lesser of the two evils and that is Obama:
I mentioned in my previous post that in the process of choosing the lesser of
the two evils you are committing an even greater evil. I would add here the
following: Even if you would follow the opinion of those who allow the voting in
a disbelieving system when there is a clear lesser evil, in the situation we are
facing there is no such clarity. In fact on most of the issues that concern
Muslims there is very little difference. For example they have similar views on
the war on terror and the issue of Palestine. Anyone with a simple understanding
of the history of American politics would realize that on the major issues both
parties share the same agenda. But even in the case where there is a clear
lesser evil such as Ron Paul I would still follow the opinion of total
abstinence because I believe that we are under no necessity to allow the
participation in a system of disbelief, and because our participation is a tacit
acceptance on our behalf to play by the rules of the democratic system.
On internal issues there are some who asked whether we should vote on issues
such as same sex marriage. If you agree with me on point 3 which I mentioned
before then it should not make any difference to us Muslims whether the
disbelievers marry the same sex or marry dogs and donkeys. Muslims make dawa to
the disbelievers and after they believe in Allah they are told what is halal and
what is haram, but not until then.
One of the comments mentions the treaty of Hudaybiyyah as evidence for voting.
The treaty of al Hudaybiyyah was a treaty between two parties at war. How does
this relate to a voter choosing who would lead him? Muhammad (saaws) never
negotiated with the disbelievers while he was in Makkah but negotiated the
treaty of al Hudaybiyyah after a culmination of five years of Jihad so the
Quraish knew that Muhammad (saaws) was negotiating out of strength. The case now
is totally different. The perception the American Muslims are giving is that by
giving them nothing substantial and by giving them just a little bit of
recognition you can get their support, vote and loyalty even if you carry on
your war against their brothers and sisters. Just like a dog owner abusing his
dog but as long as the bone is thrown out the dog will still give his owner all
his loyalty. It is sad but true. So as long as the Muslims are kissing up to the
American politicians, these politicians are not going to give them back anything
. The reality of the situation is that the American Muslims are desperate. They
realize the implications of the war on terror on them and they understand their
vulnerable position and are willing to go to extreme lengths just to be accepted
and recognized. This zeal for voting and having “our voices heard” and
“practicing our right” is a reflection of this mindset. Other minorities such as
the Blacks, the Hispanics and the Jews are getting a lot in exchange for their
vote. What are you getting? The sister wasn’t even allowed to wear her hijab
behind Obama in exchange for her enthusiastic support!
Another comment mentions that the Muslims wanted the Romans to win against the
Persians so this is evidence that we can support a candidate. The answer to that
is when the Muslims wanted the Romans to win against the Persians, the Romans
were not in a state of war with the Muslims and they have not harmed the Muslims
in any way, shape or form. So how can you compare that to Muslims supporting
candidates who are openly announcing war on Muslims? Quran makes it clear that
we should treat the disbelievers who are peaceful with us different than the
ones who show their animosity towards us.
Someone else mentions the pact of Fudool. This pact was a pact in the time of
jahiliyyah where some of the people of Quraish agreed to provide support for the
oppressed. Again this is different than voting. This is a binding agreement on
all. If Muslims agree with non Muslims to support the oppressed then that is
allowed. But how does that relate to voting? The voter takes no binding promises
from the one he votes for.
There where a few comments that accused me of having little knowledge of what is
going on in the US because I do not live there anymore, and others saying that
as an Imam I should not speak about politics. To all of you wise men out there
who are supposedly the “experts”, do you remember eight years ago that it was
you who actually told us to vote for Bush, the worst US president ever as far as
Muslims are concerned? Haven’t you learned from your mistakes?
Source: http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com