HVK Archives: Anwar Shaikh of Great Britain
Anwar Shaikh of Great Britain - The Observer
Posted By ashok (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
Tue, 10 Sep 96 07:56:50 PDT
ANWAR SHAIKH
of
GREAT BRITAIN
Interview by Dr Ranjit Kanwar
R. Kanwar: We have heard your name in India, yet we do
not know much about you. Will you tell me something
about yourself?
A. Shaikh: I was born in 1928 in a village near the city
of Gujarat (Pakistan). Religion has been part of my
family tradition. Naturally, I was brought UP to be a
scholar of Islam. To the best of my knowledge, it was my
great grand father, who had embraced Islam. He was a
Kashmiri Pandit. After conversion, he became an Imam-i-
Masjid, a fervent preacher of Islam. My grandfather was
conscious of his Brahmin ancestry, and resented if anyone
spoke ill of the Vedas yet he could not return to his
roots owing to the Psychological grounding he had
received over the years.
In Pakistan, I was a teacher and then became headmaster
of a high school. Though economically life was bearable.
socially it was not. I emigrated to Great Britain in
1956. After initial hardships, I struck lucky. At the
height of business success, I suddenly realized that I
wanted to do some reformative work instead of indulging
in money-making. It was in 1978 that 1 started winding
up my commercial activities and am glad that I did so
because it gave me a chance to re-educate myself,
especially in philosophy and religion.
Kanwar: I have read your book "Islam - The Arab National
Movement" which is be#coming world famous rapidly. Did
you write it to oppose Islam?
Shaikh: Its purpose is not to oppose but to expose Islam:
it is a serious work based on long research and personal
experience. There is not one word of lie, insolence or
intentional misrepresentation in this book. Since it is
based on truth and nothing out the truth. it is an open
challenge to those who use Islam as the tool for
personal gain, politically and religiously.
So great is the force and authenticity of this book that
no Muslim scholar has come forward so Ear to refute its
contents.
Kanwar: Are you another Rushdie?
Shaikh: I am being labelled as such. For example, the
Urdu Daily Pakistan and Weekly Maharat of Lahore, have
called me "a satan of much greater stature than Rushdie
and Taslima," and the Daily Jang of London has described
me. "a Rushdie whose writings are infinitely more
dangerous to Islam than Rushdie and Taslima Put
together." The Muslim readers of the Jang have written to
that newspaper repeatedly begging the mullahs and other
scholars if Islam to answer my questions to "save" Islam
out they have deliberately kept quiet to the utter
annoyance of the believers, who are really worried by the
contents of "Islam - The Arab National Movement." They
had demonstrated against Rushdie in every country through
Public meetings, recessions slogans and murders. but
about my book they have wilfully observed a conspiracy of
silence because they do not want the world to know the
truth about Islam. This clearly shows that I am the
exact opposite of Rushdie. His work is fiction based on
insult to the Prophet Muhammad and his family, whereas my
book is a serious work founded on scholarship, reason and
research. At the most, Rushdie is an artistic protector
whereas I am a challenger to the very concept of Islam.
Kanwar: I see. But has your book any relevance to India?
Shaikh: My book has relevance to the entire mankind but
it has especial relevance to India because before the
coming of Islam. India was a prosperous, peaceful and
proud country, which has riot only been reduced to
extreme Poverty and ignorance by the Muslim predators and
the Islamic rule, but has also been fragmented into
geographical and Political units.
The book clearly demonstrates that, as Islam seeks to
impose Arab cultural imperialism on other nations through
a doctrine of divide and murder, India and Islam cannot
live together. This book is a must for India.
Kanwar: Do you realize that this book exposes you to
serious danger? Aren't you afraid?
Shaikh: Truth has its price which I am prepared to pay. I
have not resorted to swearing or falsification
simply to uphold the dignity of truth. Fear is a part of
human nature and it will be wrong of me to deny it.
However, I must add that by making me a martyr, they will
sound the death-knell of Islam.
Kanwar: It is a revolutionary book with profound
consequences. What prompted you to write it?
Shaikh: This is an excellent question and proves your
competence as a journalist. Having lived in the West for
such a long time, one day it crossed my mind why the
white people love their countries but the Muslims of
India hate their Motherland. There is no exaggeration in
it because they think ?f Bharat not as their Motherland
but Darul Harb i.e. the battlefield, where people murder,
plunder and deceive out of hatred and greed. Having
given this point further thought I soon realized that
Islam was based on the doctrine of hating and murdering
non-Muslims and reducing them to the status of political
slaves. It is totally false to say that Islam is the
ambassador of international brotherhood. Again, it is
completely untrue that the Muslims of all countries are
one nation. It is the law of nature that nationality is
constituted by blood ties and geographical boundaries,
that is, the homeland. A nation being an expanded form
of family, is subject to the familial rules of identity.
Of course, a person can adopt another nationality quite
legitimately but it is an exception and therefore cannot
change the basic rule. Calling Muslims of all countries
as one nation is wrong because all these nations have
their separate homelands with their independent interests
and different policies. Pakistan was soon split into two
halves, i.e. Pakistan and Bangladesh. The government of
Pakistan in 1951 stopped entry of all Indian Muslims into
Pakistan despite the fact that they were the people who
had made most sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan;
even more shameful is the treatment of Pakistanis from
Bihar, who stood by Pakistan against the Bangladeshis.
Muslim nationality is a myth which is extremely injurious
to the non-Arab Muslims but highly beneficial to the
Arabs. And this is what leads to the inevitable
conclusion that Islam is not a religion but the Arab
National Movement.
Kanwar: Good Lord! Is it what Islam is? Do you mind
explaining this point a bit further?
Shaikh: The philosophy that lies behind Islam is stunning
and proves the consummate political skill of the Prophet
Muhammad: by declaring all Muslims as one nation and the
non-Muslims as another, he created the Two Nation Theory
perpetually setting Muslims against non-Muslims. Again,
he stressed that in this struggle the Muslims would be
victorious. This is exactly the theory Karl Marx had
adopted after many centuries. Presenting his dialectical
view of history he emphasized that all material progress
owed itself to eternal social strife between the
capitalists and the proletariats, in which the latter
would win the struggle.
However, Karl Marx did not show the mastery that the
Prophet Muhammad did: by creating the Two Nation Theory,
he subjected all non-Arab Muslims to the cultural
imperialism of Arabia. He achieved this purpose with a
mind boggling subtlety: he made Arab-worship the
cornerstone of Islam. Thus, those who embrace Islam
naturally feel inferior to Arabia as a devotee believes
in relation to his Goddess.
Kanwar: This is an unusual explanation of Islam. Can you
tell me how the Prophet Muhammad raised the reverence of
Arabia sky-high and made it an article of faith for his
non-Arab followers?
Shaikh: Here is a small summary of steps the Prophet took
to realize his dream: 1. He declared that when Adam was
evicted from paradise, he came to Mecca where he built
the first House of God. Thus he identified Godliness with
Kaaba, a Sanctuary of Mecca where God lives! Not only
that, Abraham, the Jewish patriarch also came to Mecca to
rebuild the House of God! 2. For the purpose of imposing
Arab psychological superiority on non-Arab Muslims, he
decreed that they must prostrate five times a day facing
Mecca. This is not only an act of submission to mecca,
the capital city Of Arabia, but also proves beyond a
shadow of doubt that God lives in Mecca; otherwise why
should people prostrate in that direction? 3. A Muslim
must not defecate himself or answer the call of nature
facing Mecca. It is a blasphemous act in view of the
sanctity of Mecca. 4. When Muslims die, they must be
buried facing Mecca, which is the guarantee of their
salvation. 5. To make sure that the Arabs enjoy economic
opulence, the Prophet made Hajj an obligatory ritual for
his followers. It is a pilgrimage to Mecca. There are
countless Indian Muslims who sell their homes and
personal belongings to undertake this journey. I can
give many examples to this effect but it is enough to
explain the real purpose of Islam.
Kanwar: It does show the Arab national tendency of Islam;
but the non-Arab followers of Islam do not have to adopt
a slavish attitude to the Arab national Institutions to
prove their Islamic faith. Do they?
Shaikh: I regret to say, Sir, like countless non-Muslims,
you do not know the master stroke of the Prophet.
Kanwar: I have never heard of this master stroke before.
Can you enlighten me in the interest of humanity?
Shaikh: I am referring to the Prophet's declaration that
Allah has made him the Model of Practice for his
followers. It has come to mean that the Muslims must
copy him in everything; they must eat, drink, walk and
talk like him, even must look like him, that is, they
grow beard like his, have a similar hair-cut and dress
like him.
This is what is called following the Sunnah, i.e. the
Prophetic Model which is the guarantee of salvation. One
can easily say that Islam has been .designed to induce
love and respect for Arabia. There are express commands
of the Prophet, which state that a person is not a Muslim
until he loves him more than his own father and mother.
The idea is that people must be weaned away from their
own nationalities and motherlands and attached firmly to
Mecca. This is the reason that the Muslims of India call
their own homeland as the battlefield and Arabia the
fountain of peace and celestial glory.
Now, it is perhaps, easy for you to understand why the
Muslims of India partitioned their own Motherland for
practicing. the Arab cultural values in Pakistan (and
Bangladesh).
Kanwar: What is likely to happen if the non-Arab Muslims
do not follow the Prophet in loving Arabia
even if it involves unpatriotic practices against their
own homelands?
Shaikh: The Muslims must love Arabia because the Prophet
did so. They must follow him as the Divine Model of
Practice. This is what Islam expects; if they don't,
they are sure to enter hell because the Prophet will not
intercede on their behalf.
Kanwar: What is intercession?
Shaikh: This is the special power of the Prophet
Muhammad. He will recommend paradise for his followers
on the Day of Judgement. His recommendation is final and
Allah cannot deny it. It is available to all murderers,
rapists, arsonists, cheats, thugs,' pickpockets and pimps
provided they are followers of the Prophet.
On the contrary, all Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Christians will
be cast into a flaming hell, no matter, how pious and
God-fearing they may have been; piety has no meaning and
value without believing Muhammad and the greatness of his
homeland.
Intercession is the climax of the Prophet's national
wisdom. It is this Muslim belief which gives them the
hope of free sex and economic abundance, and they feel
obliged to kill in the name of Islam. This is why they
are ever ready to stab their motherland. After all,
caring about one's country entails sacrifices whereas the
comforts of paradisp are sweet and splendid. And it is
specially so when they involve no moral responsibility.
Kanwar: Poor India! "Islam - The Arab National Movement"
seems to be the book, not only for every Indian,
irrespective of religion, but also for every Pakistani
and Bangladeshi as well. After all, they all belong to
the Indian subcontinent. What have you done to propagate
its contents?
Shaikh: By writing this book, I have discharged my duty.
Its propagation, I believe, is a duty of everyone.
Kanwar: Will you be prepared to allow translations of
this book into various languages without expecting any
financial reward?
Shaikh: I shall be delighted to do so provided such task
is undertaken for public good and not as a trade.
Kanwar: What is the price of the book and can people get
in touch with you?
Shaikh: The book costs =1C5 only and the address is: Anwdr
Sheikh, p.o. Box 918, Cardiff CF2 4YP (UK)
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