Islamic State vs Imperial State [Archives:2006/953/Letters to the Editor]
By: Sharique Naeem
Lahore, Pakistan
[email protected]
Orientalist's distorted version of history, coupled with the legacy of exploitation of colonialist occupiers of past and present, has led a many to view the caliphate as an acronym of the same imperial system.
In principle however, the reality defies this abstract notion.
The regions ruled by Islam under caliphate – though constitutes various races and religions, all being linked to one central place – are not ruled by an imperial system but by a system contradictory to the imperial system.
The imperial system does not treat races equally in the various regions of the empire; rather it gives privileges in the ruling, finance and economy to the centre of the empire.
Contrary to this, the Islamic way of ruling establishes equality between the subjects in all the regions of the state. Islam grants non-Muslims who hold citizenship, the full rights and duties that Muslims have. They enjoy the same fairness as Muslims and are subject to the same accountability like them. Furthermore, every single citizen, regardless of his or her creed, enjoys rights that even a Muslim living abroad who holds no citizenship does not enjoy.
With this equality, the Islamic system differs completely from the imperial one. It does not make the regions under its ruling into colonies, areas of exploitation, nor a source of wealth funneled back into the central region for its own benefit, no matter how far apart they were, and no matter how different their races were. It considers every single region as a part of the state and its citizens enjoy the same rights as those in the central region. It also makes the ruling authority, its system and its legislation the same in all the regions.
Hence, given the current trends of globalization presently lead by capitalist nations, and the subsequent winds of oppression that have enveloped many a places, the revival of Caliphate would serve as in idealistic way forward, for entire humanity both at home, and as well as the international screen.
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