Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

In this article, Sayyid al-Qimnī writes about some examples of how Muslim scholars twist their interpretation of Islam and the Qur’ān.

"Dr. Faysal al-Mūlawī, General Secretary of the Lebanese Islamic Group, has been occupied for a long time with establishing a modern Islamic state," al-Qimnī writes, "He believes that having a modern Islamic state would be the solution for the backwardness and weakness of the Islamic nation. However, he does not want to look for reasons why an Islamic state would be strong in our times. He looks for these reasons through the history of the Islamic state which dates back to almost three centuries ago."

Dr. al-Qimnī explains that Dr. al-Mūlawī faces a huge problem which is that of having religious minorities in Islamic countries and that asking these minorities to pay the jizyah deforms the principle of citizenship because this makes the minority pay the jizyah tax for choosing to embrace a religion other than the official religion of the state.

"In order to prove modernity in the Islamic political way of thinking," al-Qimnī adds, "al-Mūlawī ignores what is known to be a necessity according to Islamic countries. He said that there is no need for Islamic governments to ask non-Muslims to pay the jizyah for it is applied only after war. In addition, if a peace agreement was signed between Muslims and non-Muslims, there would be no need for such ruling [Dr. al-Mūlawī gives an example of such a situation during the times of ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattāb]."

In order to justify his idea, Dr. Mūlawī adds, “The problem with the expression of Ahl al-Dhimmah for many people is that of the jizyah. Dhimmah is an agreement between Muslims and non-Muslims who chose to live with the Muslims. However, this agreement is usually done after war and since this war is usually started by non-Muslims, Muslims may decide that non-Muslims may pay the jizyah as a sign of their loyalty to that new society they are going to live in.”

Dr. Mūlawī continues by saying that the jizyah could now be substituted by a more modern agreement that would also show the loyalty of non-Muslims to the Muslims societies in their countries. He explains that non-Muslims could follow the general law of the country, which he thinks is based on sharī‘ah.

“Does Dr. Mūlawī not know that common law is the law which is agreed upon by all people of all races, colors and religions?” al-Qimnī comments, “He only chooses common law in our countries because it follows the Islamic sharī‘ah; what about Muslims who live in European countries?”