The Blood of Andijan and the Spirit of Islam

Taken from Khilafah Magazine August 2005
Islamic Revival in Central Asia
By Tanveer Ashraf

An Islamic revival is sweeping Central Asia driven by the fervent desire of the Muslims to live by Islam and fuelled by the brutal tactics of the tyrants of the area. Places such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, indeed all the Central Asian republics, are witnessing an unprecedented level of Islamic activism as the people sense that significant change is afoot. Muslims who have spent several generations under Communism, and who came out of it with little if any Islamic concepts are now adhering to the Quran and Sunnah with all their might and are giving their lives for it. They see an Islamic Khilafah as the only real and practical alternative to the secular tyrants who terrorise them. They are so determined and convinced of this path that the tyrants are prepared to commit genocide to stop them- as happened recently in the province of Andijan in Uzbekistan.

Islam has a glorious past in Central Asia and it will have a glorious future there too. Islam came to Central Asia as early as the 7th Century. Muslims controlled Russia by the 13th Century, and in the 15th Century they marched south to conquer India. Zahir-ud-Din Babar, who was the founder of the Mughal Empire in India, originated from the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan.

It was after many centuries of Muslim rule that the Russians finally overthrew the Muslims, gaining control of Central Asia by the middle of the 19th century. The Russian revolution of 1917 together with the destruction of the Khilafah in 1924 left the Muslims without any political protection and at the mercy of brutal and tyrannical Communist regime. The leaders of the Communist revolution were determined to impose their disbelieving and authoritarian system over the entire population of Russia, and they began a campaign to remove Islam from their lands, and imposed an iron curtain around the Muslim of Russia.

To gain a greater insight into the rise of Islam in Central Asia, Khilafah Magazine International spoke to Abdur Rahman. He is a member of Hizb ut Tahrir, the well known Islamic political party that calls for the resumption of the Islamic way of life, through the establishment of the Islamic ruling system-the Khilafah. Abdur Rahman is of Arab origin and has lived and studied for many years in Central Asia. He has been very active in the Islamic revival in the region, and recalls the changing times and situation;
"You know the Muslims never left Islam, the proper Islam, even though the Communists made it extremely difficult for them to have anything to do with it. They used to pray and learn about Islam secretly. They would meet in hidden places, often amongst the locked up animals, where there would be nobody to watch them or report them.
Many times Muslims were called up to do military service, where they would be forced to go to places like Afghanistan, and ordered to fight their brothers. Many of them would desert and escape to the surrounding countries".

Abdur Rahman explains how the party's call for Islam melted with the sentiments of the Muslims in Central Asia,
"The Hizb arrived in Central Asia in the early 90's, firstly in Uzbekistan. They found that the people were very eager to learn about Islam. There were many people who had learnt classical Arabic (fussaha) to understand Islamic culture. I mean hardcore fussaha that even many of us Arabs found it difficult to converse with them. Their mastery of our mother tongue was much advanced."

"They quickly understood the Islamic culture and very much agreed with the call for Khilafah. They quickly realised that their problem was not one or two bad rulers, but because of secular system in place. When they understood their Islamic history, they realised that their magnificent past was largely due to the implementation of Islam over themselves politically."

Following the demise of Communism the stranglehold of Soviet domination over Central Asia rescinded. A deep desire for learning and a quest for Islamic knowledge began in all the major cities. Instrumental in this revival were the Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir. They contributed to this awakening and began to culture people in their study circles (halaqat) from that time. It was clear that this call had a resonance with the people, because by 1997 there were many thousands of members and many tens of thousands of people studying in halaqat. In many cities there were literally hundreds of halaqat, but also in many rural areas and the countryside. By 1997 almost every family had a member or close relative studying with the Hizb. So what was the Hizb teaching the people in its halaqat that was so appealing? Abdur Rahman explains further; "The Prophet (saw) showed us that Islam is to be applied not only in the personal life, but also in the public life, and that means politically. The Prophet (saw) established a political Islamic State, and showed the Muslims how to rule by Islam politically. This is so important, because it is the Khilafah state that creates the Islamic society, the Islamic economy, the Islamic judiciary and decides the home and foreign policy based on the interests of Islam alone. To have this Khilafah is not only our right as Muslims, but it is an obligation from Allah (swt). When Muslims understand this, it naturally moves them and motivates them."

Having spread and influenced large parts of society, the Islamic revival became a serious threat to the governments of the Central Asian republics. Many of them began to view those who called for political Islam, especially Hizb ut Tahrir and its members, as enemies of the state. The reaction in Uzbekistan, where the Islamic call was most prominent and strongest, was the harshest. President Islam Karimov quickly outlawed Hizb ut Tahrir and other Islamic groups and began to imprison, threaten and torture anyone associated with political Islam. However, this clampdown did nothing to stem the Islamic call, and only empowered it, which incensed Karimov further.

Karimov had begun his attempts to remove the threat of Islam by advising people to beware of extremists and lunatics. However, realising that these groups were not lunatics, but rather people calling to something very real and very likely to remove him from his seat, he claimed he would fight idea with idea.

In fact, when his security services suspect a member of the Hizb is hiding in some house, they will raid it at night. If they do not find the person they will threaten those they do find. Parents will have guns pointed to their heads, whilst children will be beaten severely in front of their mothers and grandparents to force them to give information. Wives will often be arrested, brutally tortured and threatened with rape, a threat that is carried out more and more regularly.

If suspects are caught in public they will be arrested and beaten severely in front of their children and for everyone else to see in the market place, sometimes to the point of death. Tens of thousands of Muslims have been arrested in such fashion throughout Uzbekistan. The prisons are overflowing with such prisoners and it is in these institutions that the worst crimes occur.

Vitaly Ponomarev is the Director of the Memorial Human Rights Centre. He has extensively investigated and recorded the crimes committed by tyrants like Karimov. He has collected so much information he has published a 63 page book entitled "Islam Karimov against Hizb ut Tahrir". He details the initiation ceremony that is practiced at one of the prisons in Tashkent, KIN-1; on arrival, the prisoners who are religious or linked to the Islamic political work are told to walk down a corridor, where prison guards kick them and beat them with truncheons and sticks. Following this they are forced to sing the national anthem on their knees. Those who do not sing loudly or correctly are beaten, kicked in the head, made to kiss the floor and kept in solitary confinement for several months. They are beaten and tortured on a daily basis until they renounce their beliefs and declare themselves as Christians.

Abdur Rahman believes that what Ponomarev has documented is the norm in most of the prisons. Abdur Rahman says;
"Prisoners are tortured in the most unthinkable, inhumane ways possible. Prisoners are electrocuted, have needles put into their eyes, buried in excrement, and even injected with the Aids virus as well as other unknown substances. They even have a prison in a remote place where nuclear waste is kept. The area is uninhabited. It is said that anyone who is sent there is never seen or heard of again."


Karimov imagined that sheer brutality would destroy the Islamic revival, and people would cower into submission before him. However, by demonstrating his inability to fight thought with anything but mindless brutality, he has given strength to the da'wah carriers in both courage and numbers. People are not afraid to speak even in the face of severe torment, often risking death than capitulating to his demands. Abdur Rahman says that men, women, children and old people are equal in their desire to speak the truth and eager to participate in the Islamic awakening. He cites many examples,
"There are many of our sisters who distribute leaflets. One sister I know has been arrested many times, serving prison sentences on each occasion. Every time she is let out she begins to distribute again. They [Karimov's henchmen] used to be lenient on woman, but today the women suffer greatly, physical and sexual abuse is rife.

"A group of people were arrested and charged with being members of Hizb ut Tahrir. They appeared in court, and one of them was a boy, only 15 or 16 years of age. He was actually only just beginning to study, not a member. The judge asked him whether he was a hizbi (member) or a shabab (student). The members pressed him to answer that he was shabab, because it would have meant a more lenient sentence. But he refused, and asked one of the members, "What is that ayah, that ayah that makes it fard for the Muslim to work for Khilafah?" He meant the ayah:
"Let their arise from amongst you groups, who call to khair (Islam), enjoin the maruf (good) and forbid the evil (munkar) and they are the successful ones" [TMQ Ali-Imran: 104]

"He repeated it in front of the judge. Then he asked one of the members to make him a member in front of the judge, and he took the oath (qasm) that all the members of the Hizb take to work sincerely for the sake of Islam."

Sincere Muslim prisoners often have sentences far exceeding those who commit the most heinous of crimes. But there is no shortage of people willing to take up the positions of those who have been removed from the da'wah. Abdur Rahman smiles as he remembers the reaction of one woman who had her son sent to prison for 17 years,
"She brought her grandson, who was just a baby, and demanded that we make him a hizbi (member). She said she wanted him to become a hizbi and carry on the work for Islam until his father was released from prison."

Indeed the society has now been changed so much by the da'wah for Islam that people are no longer scared of the tyranny of Karimov and his harsh sentences. Rather people regard the punishments handed to the da'wah carriers as an honour, and something that elevates the Muslim by bringing him great reward from Allah (swt). Abdur Rahman relays the story of a seventy year old man, who was sentenced to prison after being caught distributing leaflets, "When he finished his sentence and was released, the entire village came out and greeted him with such joy and vigour; it was like someone who had just returned from Hajj"

The more that Karimov cracks down upon the people, the more they realise they are calling for the truth, and it makes them much closer to Allah (swt). There is a great desire to learn about Islam, to study it, to practise it, and to call for it. Even those who have to flee from persecution do not give up their desire to increase their knowledge. Abdur Rahman recalled the story of an Uzbek woman who had escaped to Russia after Karimov had killed both her son and husband. Her only concern was how she could travel to Saudi Arabia to study Islam.

With such tenacity, bravery and confidence in the Truth of Islam, the da'wah carriers are a constant nightmare for Karimov. Indeed, they have driven him to paranoia, once declaring on national television that he would "smash the heads of Hizb ut Tahrir". For many years he has failed to achieve this, and it seems now out of sheer intellectual bankruptcy and desperation, he has resorted to genocide.

In a widely publicised leaflet by Hizb ut Tahrir dated the 21st May, the party details the events leading up to and after the barbaric massacre of innocents in Andijan. A similar chain of events has subsequently been documented by others such as human rights activist Tolib Yoqubov. The leaflet describes how Karimov's security forces first spread news amongst the people, pretending they were with the people and inciting them to move against Karimov in demand for a better standard of living in terms of services: water, electricity and gas; besides demanding that their sons be released from prison.

The leaflet continues that Hizb ut Tahrir was aware of that plan since many of those calling for such things were known to be with the security services. The agents claimed they had turned against Karimov, and they began to contact many people including the families of members of Hizb ut Tahrir. The Hizb tried to warn people not to fall into this trap, but the security services managed to fool quite a few people, including some human rights organizations.

The Hizb states that on the 12th of May in the main city centre of Andijan many people began to gather and protest. The numbers continued to grow, and by the next day there were close to 50,000 people present. During the night of 12th, it was reported that an armed group of protestors freed prisoners from a local prison. The truth is that an armed group, which were mainly from the followers of Karimov headed for the prison of Andijan. They released a number of prisoners – most of them were killed and only a few survived. According to the testimony of one of the surviving prisoners, the Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir were the first to be led to their death by that armed group, and these prisoners were not seen after that.

On the morning of Friday 13th May, Karimov came to personally supervise the "crisis" in Andijan. However, the airport had been prepared three days prior to welcome him, i.e. it was preplanned. Karimov had made arrangements with Russia to commit a massacre. He asked Russian soldiers, who were brought to Andijan on the previous day, to kill all those gathered in the main square of Andijan, whether they were elderly, women, children or youth, without discrimination. He feared his own troops might be reluctant to commit a massacre against unarmed civilians however, the Russian troops have much experience of this.

The Hizb leaflet of 21st May describes how troops began to fire into the dense crowds, killing many innocent people. From trusted sources it is thought that close to 7,000 people were murdered on that day. Karimov's henchmen began to collect and hide 400-500 dead bodies at a time. Anyone found alive was finished off with a shot to the head. Following this, an iron curtain was cast around the country so that no word of this massacre could get out, or be independently verified.

On Saturday evening, 14th May, Karimov accused Hizb ut Tahrir of being behind these events. Karimov accused a small Islamic group (Akramiyyah) of attacking the prison, opening its doors and killing those prisoners who did not rebel with them, whilst it was Karimov's group itself that killed the prisoners inside the prison and outside it and not Akramiyyah.

Finally, the leaflet attests to how Karimov fabricated the plot that Islamic groups had staged a violent insurgency, in order for him to be able to kill all the da'wah carriers in huge numbers. After this event reports were obtained that many of Hizb ut Tahrir's members in other prisons were also being executed. Some of these reports suggested that many thousands had been killed.

Yet Karimov's genocide and bloodshed will have no more success than his previous brutality. Already there has been massive coverage of his massacre, and Muslims have demonstrated in their thousands at embassies in Britain, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Muslims throughout the world have put intense pressure on governments in the West, such that they have had to seriously rethink their complicit silence in supporting Karimov's failing regime.

Karimov is coming to the end of his days. He cannot murder his entire population, and Allah (swt) knows he has tried! But the people on the street in Uzbekistan are very clear in their view of him; they repeat the description of the da'wah carriers about him, "the kaafir Karimov!" Today their steadfastness, sacrifice and bravery have become known internationally and the tide has begun to turn against the tyrant oppressor.

Truly the goodness is in this Ummah until the Day of Judgment. Indeed, this Ummah has given birth throughout history to men of strength and taqwa, who have restored its dignity and the mighty position. Today, the Ummah should be proud that she has Shabab with full belief and conviction in their Creator, who has strengthened and guided them by His (swt) grace. They have set their minds to working day and night, sincerely for Allah (swt), with the aim to resume the glory of this Ummah by re-establishing the righteous Khilafah. They fear the censure of no one until they have achieved what they have resolved for or die while endeavoring to achieve that-for the sake of Allah (swt).

They are very conscious that the Messenger of Allah (saw) has given glad tidings about the return of a righteous Khilafah. Allah (swt) says;
"Allah has promised to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that of a certainty, He will cause them to accede to power on earth, as He granted it to those before them" [TMQ An-Nur: 55].

Many Muslims throughout the world have done much to aid their brethren in Uzbekistan, largely by speaking up against their oppression. Many thousands have participated in public demonstrations, complained to international embassies, written letters of protest to multinationals who invest in Central Asia and have refused to allow the Andijan massacre to fall from the public's attention. This has placed huge pressure upon those corrupt regimes and shaken their international backers.

The momentum for change in Central Asia, and in particular Uzbekistan, has reached such a level that is has become an inspiration for other parts of the Muslim world to work for the reestablishment of the Khilafah. Moreover, the call for Khilafah will not be drowned out by either the West in continuing to support Karimov or the ever more brutal antics of his security forces.

For those who remain unsure as to how the Khilafah will be established, they should consider the events in Central Asia as testimony to the strength of this idea. To the ever dwindling band of skeptics that view Khilafah as a distant mirage on the horizon, they should take lessons from the swift change that has seen Central Asia emerge from the godless, inhumane times of Communism to a people on the brink of returning to ruling by the laws of Allah (swt). This transformation has not taken decades or even a generation, but a matter of a few years. By Allah (swt) will the victory is imminent. As for Islam in Central Asia, its time has come.

Wafah bin Laden Reality TV Show

Guardian Unlimited has an article on Usama bin Laden's neice who apperently lives in the US and has recently signed a deal to have her very own reality TV show. The article also informs us that Wafah bin Laden (now known as Wafah Dufour) is having a very hard time getting along with her life while having an uncle like the infamous Usama bin Laden. Having her very own reality TV show pushed the September 11th Family Association group to cry out against such an idea that will create a celebrity out of a bin Laden family member.

It is interesting to note the defence Regan Media had for Wafah against such attacks. They stated in her defence "She is a young woman who falls in love, has her heart broken, worries about her looks, doesn't always listen to her mother, and hasn't spoken to her father in years." Pretty cute isn't it? So this is a defence for a woman to be accepted in a Western society? Interesting. However, what's even more interesting is that Wafah Dufour went even further to try and become acceptable and integrate into the Western society by posing for a "photoshoot reclining in a bubble bath, wearing only a necklace."

Now you may ask this is all very well, but what does it have to do with political Islam (supposedly the main theme of this blog)? Well, Wafah Dufour summed it up by saying "I understand that when people hear my last name, they have preconceived notions, but I was born in America and I love my country." The point is people, that this woman is (or was?) a Muslim. However, if she didn't officially apostate from Islam, then the only remenant of the deen in her is an empty label. Religion is a set of rules and laws that a follower follows to the best of his ability in the belief that it will grant him a reward in some form whether in this life or the after. Wafah Dufour's true religion, the set of rules that she abides by, are certainly not Islam. Neither does she strives to please Allah. Her deen is the deen of Democracy and it is the people who she is trying to please and gain their acceptance. And not any people (not that it would make much of a difference) it is the non-Muslims that she is trying to please.

My point is that Wafah Dufour is a natural consequence of Democracy on our lands. The system of rule is like a religion, if a country adopts it, then the people will sooner or later follow unless in specific circumstances. It is because the system of rule is what creates the environment we live in, it will mold the people it is implemented on if not this generation then the next. Wafah Dufour is a Muslim who was born and lived all her life under a system with absolutly no hint of Islam. It is only natural that she turned out the way she did. The question now is, what about our lands? Let the Americans deal with their lands and let the British deal with theirs. The question is about what's on the way into our lands? The land between Morrocco and Indonesia. What system will you allow to take leadership? As Muslims are we not expected to live by Islam? And how can we live by Islam if the environment is un-Islamic? We can lock ourselves in our mosques and avoid coming out, but for how long? And will Allah be pleased with you living your life inside four walls trying to keep away of anything that will bring actual change. A shade for us and our children to live under that we can rest assured that no Wafah Dufours would come out.

Raising children depends on the parents first and then the society and then the government. The parents in their guidance and teaching and punishment. The society in determining what is normal, what is acceptable and what is laughed at and what is frowned upon. The government in it's laws and punishments, in it's educational curriculem and public services that provides the atmosphere required. The government is in it's implementation of the system, which thus molds the society which the family is a part of.

In the case of Wafah, we know her family failed by the fact that she rarely listens to her mother and never spoke to her father. We know the society failed by the fact that Wafah is constantly trying to please them firstly by posing naked and secondly by using her disobedience to her parents as a defence. We know the government has failed because a law student such as Wafah is actually stooping to such a low to gain acceptance of the society. And we know their system failed because to say the truth, the government is doing nothing less and nothing more than its implementation of the system itself which caused this mess.

The Syrian Democracy Program

Reuters Article

Let's go through this step by step;
First of all we know that Iran and Syria are in the US list of countries to attack. We also know that an attack on Iran constitutes an attack on Syria and vice versa due to a joint military agreement between the two countries. We also know for a fact that Iran for the US is not going to be as easy as Iraq due to the following reasons.
(a) Iran's mountainous geography is completely different from Iraq's
(b) Iran has a generally good control over the Shias of Iraq
(c) Iran's leadership has stronger loyalties from it's subjects and the Iranian officials than Iraq under Saddam ever had.
(d) Iran has better relationships with it's neighbouring countries as compared to Iraq which was totally isolated.

As for whether the US will be able to deal with Iran (and thus Syria by default) while remaining in control of Iraq is not very clear. We do know that the US could get more powerful allies (France and Germany among others) if it waged war on Iran than it did against Iraq, however if that's enough is certainly beyond my knowledge. We also know that most likely the US will indeed get the green light from the UN (not that it would matter much) to attack Iran. Most likely because the UN wouldn't want to remove any shred of credibility it has left by being trampled on yet again by the US.

So what we do know is that it might actually take time before anything happens against Iran, however Syria is quite a different story.

Refering to the link I posted above, the US seems to have different plans for Syria. Syria indeed will not be directly invaded by the US and thus avoid any confrontation with Iran at this stage, however, they will get their way if Khaddam actually succeeds in ousting Assad. Khaddam stated he wants to create a "democracy" in the country and most likely, as an exile to Europe, he will probably ally himself with the US. We also know that the US started a program called MEPI aimed to fund political parties "that support democratic governance and reform in Syria." All this shows that the US is aiming to change the leadership in Syria by using the Syrian political parties and not its own military. Most likely, Khaddam is being closely watched by the US. One thing I am pretty sure of, the US has no interest starting direct military action against Syria. A coup from inside is the most likely thing to happen.

The Ideology II

Please read the Ideology article before you read this thesis.

There are people who claim that Islam is not an ideology, meaning, it is not a system that could be used to rule the people due to either an absence of any Islamic teachings on the matter of state leadership and government or due to the incompatibility of Islamic law to today's modern world.

Before I start refuting both arguments as to why Islam should not be put in a state of political leadership, I am going to first quickly scan through why Islam, if not in a position of political power, is in a state of absolute vanity. This has been explained in greater details in my Ideology article which I cannot stress enough on the importance to read before reading this article.

First of all, man is defined by his actions which are the reflections of his thoughts. Man's thoughts are the direct consequence of his education and education is any and every information man gathers from his environment from the time he comes out of his mother's womb until the time he parts with this world. Religion, like anything else, would have an effect on the man's thought if it was taught to him, however, the possibility of it being taught to him is subjective.

Political leadership is inevetible. If one system is not in a position to rule then another will be. A religion which lacks political direction will end up being under the mercy of the system that does have political direction. Whether it is taught to the masses, propagated and followed, will all be depending on the decision of the ruling system. Such cases not only weaken and limit the religion's divine honor into being under the mercy of a non-following leadership, but also break and mutilate the religion itself as it's rules will no longer be in consideration to societal matters however small and politically neutral it could be.

There was a time when the Catholic Church was in a position of leadership in Europe. Due to the absence of any political teachings in Christianity, the Catholic rule was completely dependent on the thoughts of the Pope himself, who in turn became nothing more than a dictatorial tyrant due to the complete absence of any form of legislative laws and guidelines in the Christian holy books. Several hundred years of such leadership pushed the Europeans into the Renaissance and the reformation of the church to steralise it of any possible position of actual leadership in the future. Not only were the teachings of the church reformed, but the thoughts of Christians worldwide to this day have been molded into the acceptance of the secondary importance of the church that a lot of Christians pay little attention to the church and a lot more simply officially or unofficially left the Christian faith. The fact of the matter is, people in the West left Christianity and embraced the new faith called the Democracy. No longer do they say “it is ungodly”, but they say “it is undemocratic”. It is the great importance of the ruling system that the people truly embrace and not what they claim to be the followers of.

The fact that a system will not accept competition should come as no surprise as it is only natural for it to protect, promote and propagate itself. In due course, all ideologies with absolutely no exception demand to be protected, promoted and propagated even through war if it has to. At the point where one of these three actions are halted by the government, then the system will begin to retreat and inevitably be defeated.

Changing a system can never come about through reformation. Reformation is using the system to bring change to something that is a consequence to that system itself. Advocates of reformation are people who believe that the current system could be used to bring a better way of life and therefore are advocates of that system whether they claim to be so or not. To change a system you need to completely remove the current system and replace it with a new one – you need a revolution.

Refering back to the Ideology thesis I wrote in another post, it cannot be said enough that correcting man, and thus correcting society, will never come about until the environment is corrected. And the environment can only be changed when the system of rule is changed. And as stated earlier, change can never come through reformation, but through revolution.

Therefore, how can a Muslim say Islam has no political aspirations? When we know that Muhammad (pbuh) is the last messenger from Allah, how can Allah leave his creation in a fragile position without any more guidance? Certainly Islam, unlike any other religion, is more than just a book of values and stories and basic general laws. Certainly Islam was meant to maintain the deen of Allah and to keep man along the straight path after the death of the last messenger, Muhammad (pbuh). And the only way it could do that is if it was to be put in a position of power and rule, else all it's teachings are completely futile on man under the leadership of laws and regulations that deny Islam it's voice and even go against it.

As for the people who claim Islam's time is long gone and in the 21st century the system we are meant to embrace is the one clearly to be dominant in this day and age; democracy. To them I ask, since when did time dictate what is right and what is wrong? Since when did it make any sense that yesterday man followed this set of rules and because of the passage of time, man is now to follow a different set of rules, most of which contradict the rules he used to follow in the past? Does the value of man change with time? Do his right vary? Technology is a means to make our lives easier, by no means does it interfere with the political leadership and the system of rule. Modernization? What is modernization? What is modern? Is it not the values and ways of the most dominant system imposing itself on the rest of the world? Today the West are in a dominant position and thus modern in the whole world is to dress like the west dresses, eat like the west eats, sit like the west sits and rule like the west rules. If it was the Chinese culture the most dominant today, would not modern be different? If it was the Arabians, would not modern be different? If it was the Indians, would not modern be different? Is it not clearly a subjective issue? And since when was Islam against the advancement and technology? When Islam was in a position of leadership, it was ahead of the world by several hundred years and it didn't change a thing in the political leadership of Islam.

"You will find that in the course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state." - Jinnah In his inaugural speech as first governor general of Pakistan