Will Islam die in Mossul?
What did the Muslims do of the political project of Islam?
How do the “Believers” of the 21st century plan on accomplishing the great project initiated by Mohammed and his companions 14 centuries ago, sent into the world by the archangel Gabriel, the messenger of God?
Is Islam still political, or have the Muslims, as of now “moderate”, renounced to that intrinsic aspect, included without equivocation in the Qur’an and engraved in history by the acts of war of the Prophet and of the “Salaf al-Salih”, the “pious ancestors”?
Does Islam still have the ambition today of a Caliphate, or is it now only a religion of comfort, a spirituality, even a philosophy of life, quite weak as some Sufis perceive it?
Mutilated, without its political dimension, is Islam still Islam? And does its practice still make sense?
Many questions are asked with intensity, at the time when Caliph Ibrahim (aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) sees the remains of the Islamic State crumble in front of his eyes. A state, which he had been able to revive for the time of an “Arab spring”, whose evaporation is now verified.
For the fighters of the Caliphate, the choice had been made without ambiguity and without concession.
Whether they originated from the large European cities or from Arab and Muslim countries, the majority did not have the profile of “manipulated de-socialised idiots”, so often stated by the dominant media. It was about something entirely different, as those quickly realised who went on the ground and met those determined militants of the political Islam.
Some – more numerous than was expected – were indeed from wealthy and socio-culturally high backgrounds. Many had good employment, university diplomas and an intellectual aptitude, which singularly diverged from the cliché that was systematically spread on the 8pm news. All (or nearly all) knew very well what they were doing there and why they were engaged in the struggle.
Having interviewed those Jihadists or sympathisers of Jihad in Europe or Syria, I mainly met individuals of Arab and Muslim origins that were very well informed about the history of Islam and of the texts that it is based on. Men (and women) in revolt against a materialist society, which does not anymore procure a sense of existence, and who found in their religion an aim of life and an identity. And also – what is particular to the Islamic religion – a concrete political project to put in place.
Of course we speak here of the Islam of the Qur’an, that of the Prophet and his companions, and not of the “moderated”, sweetened Islam, the “Islam of France”, which hides under the carpet all that, which is disturbing in the original Islam, or even inacceptable for the morality, the traditions and the laws of the West.
But the motivations of Jihadists from the Arab lands were not very different… In those Arab lands, as many hectolitres of Coca-Cola are drunk, and tons of hamburgers (hopefully halal) are eaten, and the same debilitating series are played endlessly on TV… and the mosques are generally empty at the time of prayer.
“Who are those people who spread death at the price of their own death! Notice that I do not say ‘at the price of their own life’…”, exclaimed an editorialist recently. “What concept, what ideology underpins that?!”
Faith.
Faith in Islam and its political programme.
But then what of the others? All those who watched on TV how the Caliphate crumbles, destroyed by the “Unbelievers”?
Those who renounced to Jihad ordered by the heavens, accepting the compromise with the West and looking away from their duty as believers?
Those who, sometimes, even rejoiced at the failures of the Islamic State?
Does the destruction of the al-Nouri mosque mark the end of an era and that of an idea of the world?
Have all Muslims of the planet turned their back on Islam?
Have they never asked themselves what punishment the Prophet and the first sovereign Muslims, the “enlightened Caliphs”, would have kept for them?
