Kuwait Muslim Brotherhood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan in Malaysia to inspire Muslims - Will Malaysia's Muslims expect Singapore to fall like Istanbul and Rome?

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

The lecture above by Tareq Al-Suwaidan, leader of the Kuwait Muslim Brotherhood,  was delivered recently in Kuala Lumpur. Al-Suwaidan came to the attention of  the West after 9-11, when it was discovered that he was one of  that band of Brotherhood members who had been inciting Muslim youth to jihad against the  West, while living in the West (see story below).

In KL he was in usual  form, informing his crowd that October 7 was the beginning of Muslim conquest of the West, and in particular Rome (see video above). MEMRI has summarised important elements of  his speech : 

Kuwaiti Islamic scholar and Muslim Brotherhood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan said in a lecture in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that he met with Ismail Haniyeh a week before the lecture. He said that Palestine will be free, that October 7 was a "very clear start" to this, and that Hamas cannot be crushed. Al-Suwaidan said that Istanbul is in the hands of the Muslims and so will Rome be "one day too." He said that normalizing relations with Israel makes the leaders of Arab countries "traitors" to Islam and the Islamic nation. Al-Suwaidan said that the tunnels in Gaza were all built in one year, during the rule of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, who, he said, supplied the equipment.

The Brotherhood was forced out of Malaysia when it became apparent that it had fermented and initiated the Arab Spring. However, the new Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is known to have had Muslim Brotherhood links for over 50 years, appears to have welcomed the Brotherhood back into Malaysia:

  Tareq Al-Suwaidan officially welcomed to Malaysia  by Anwar Ibrahim

Tareq Al-Suwaidan's works are  banned in Saudi Arabia for extremist views, and he  was barred from performing the umrah for the same reason. Anwar however  has  welcomed Al-Suwaidan  to Malaysia, where Anwar expected that he would   impart " positive messages that can benefit the younger generation".

Malaysian Muslims are very much in the majority in their own country so how they take to Al-Suwaidan's exhortations and the consequences within Malaysia are of no real interest. However,if and  how they then attempt to implement his teachings regionally, given proximity , racial, religious and familial connections may concern Malaysia's neighbours, in particular Singapore, which Malay Muslims consider a non-Muslim Western oriented, West aligned nation. It does however, have an ever growing Muslim population which appears to have become increasingly conservative over the past two decades. 

END

The following is an excerpt from  a speech he gave at the ICNA conference in 2000 (full speech below -archived at link  http://web.archive.org/web/20010713042734/youngmuslimscanada.org/lecturesummaries/display.asp?ID=7 )

 

 

• So brothers and sisters, we are headed for a conflict: not between East and West, not between North and South, butbetween Islam and the West

• The Prophet (saw) said: " Prophethood shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away,then will follow a rule in its footsteps (i.e. the Khilafah) and it shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away, then will follow a 'biting' rule(lasting a long time, not easily removed) and it shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away, then will follow the rulers who oppress with power bestowed upon them not through inheritance of the people (i.e. the present dictatorships) and it shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away, then will follow a rule in the footsteps of the Prophethood (i.e. another Khilafah) !"

• The Prophet has clearly explained to us the trend, exactly as we observe it today

• We must therefore tell the West that we are extending a hand of peace now but it will not be so for  long

 

 

 

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Islam and the West 
Dr. Tareq Al Suwaidan

(Dr. Tariq Al-Saowaidan - ICNA Canada 2000 Conference held at Al-Falah Islamic Centre, Mississauga, ON Canada)

• The lecture focuses on the history of the Islamic and Western civilizations from an intellectual standpoint. It presents the trends that can be observed as world civilizations rise and fall with the passage of time, and the unique position of the Islamic civilization with respect to all others. Dr. Tariq then connects the analysis of the past to a study of the future of Islam, as opposed to the West

Dr. Tariq highlighted the following points:

• When we do an extensive research into the history of world civilizations, we observe that all civilizations have a trendin history. It takes centuries for them to reach their peak in strength, technology, authority, arts & sciences, and global domination

• But all civilizations soon after peaking, and only afterpeaking, have collapsed in an extremely short period of time! This trend is characteristic of every great empire of the past, whether it be the Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Spanish, or British

• Why do civilizations tend to collapse soon after reaching the apex of growth and progress? Why do they collapse in such a short time when it took them many centuries to rise to power?

• A few examples of this trend:
  • the first attack on the Roman Empire was in the year 2 A.H. by a small Muslim army, but by the year 4 A.H., a mere 2 years later, the Empire had begun to crumble in the East and the West
  • The same happened to the Egyptians when Muslims overtook the entire civilization by 12 A.H.
  • The Persian Empire followed, as it too fell under attack by the Muslims under Caliph Abu Bakr (ra) in the same year 12 A.H.
  • A young nation of Islam had challenged 3 super civilizations in a matter of a few years, even though at the time of the Prophet ( saw)'s death, there were 3 Muslim cities (Makkah, Yathrib, Ta'if)
  • By 14 A.H. in the Battle of Yarmuk, the Romans were eliminated by the Muslims for good
  • By 15 A.H. the Persian Empire had fallen completely, again, to the Muslims
  • The first attack on the Spanish Empire was in the year 92 A.H. and by 95 A.H. the Muslims were only 60km from Paris!

• So to those who are impressed by the success of the present world powers, let them look to the past and remember that history repeats itself

• Why did these great civilizations that seemed invincible collapse?
  • there was corruption from within
  • there was a breakdown of values, morality and the family unit
  • there was a loss of spirituality
  • there was no direction except the accumulation of wealth, power, lands, authority, fame, etc.
  • when the hopes of a people lie solely in theDunya (worldy matters), then… the end is near!

• Compare with this:
  • the Prophet (saw) preached in Makkah for 13 years
  • by the time of the Hijra, there were only 150 Muslims who had responded
  • 80 in Makkah, 70 in exile in Abyssinia
  • the lowest point of his mission was when he was driven from Makkah and went in search of support to Ta'if, where he was stoned
  • it was then that he made his Du'a : "Oh Allah! To whom do you leave me? My enemy who will abuse me? But if You are not angry with me, I am content, I will not complain!"

• What the Holy Prophet (saw) left behind was not property, not poetry, not armies, not technology, but a new breed of humanity!

• Accomplishments of this new generation:
  • it did not take Muslims centuries to peak, but decades
  • by 95 A.H. Muslims were knocking the doors of Paris in the West and China in the East
  • then followed a slower rate of progress for 600 years, but still peaking, still conquering new lands, e.g . Constantinople (Turkey) and Bosnia.
  • but when the people started to forget where they came from, when the rulers started worrying more about their she-slaves than the affairs of theUmmah, when the scholars became ignorant and power-hungry, and when the true believers were afraid to stand up to them, the decline began…
  • no other civilization has risen to power so quickly (10 A.H. à 95 A.H.) and no civilization has deteriorated so gradually (800 years)
  • compare this with the 2 years it took the great Roman empire!

• The rule of the Ottoman Empire 'officially' ended in 1924 A.D. (although the actual power had vanished since 1908 but it continued to drag under foreign appointed puppet rulers)

• Finally, Kamal Ata Turk came to power: his 'reforms' included changing the Arabic script of the Turkish language into Latin script, rendering the Turkish people unable to read their own books and history, cutting them off from their past and hence Islam

• Muslim lands were divided up among the Spanish and British colonialists in the same year, the final culmination of centuries of degradation

• So what kept us so powerful for so long?
  • the Qur'an : "It is We who have revealed it, and it is We who will preserve it!"
  • and He has preserved it and the Muslims didfollow it for 10 centuries

• But what then happened is phenomenal and unheard of in the annals of history: a civilization that had just collapsed began to rebuild itself under the same banner! The revival had begun …

• Muslims started calling themselves the 'teachers of the world' and 'witnesses unto mankind' (Shuhada alan-Naas) as they came together under various names, heralding the start of organized efforts as Ikhwaan-al-Muslimeen (The Muslim Brotherhood), and Jama'at-e-Islami (The Congregation of Muslims)

• What was happening?
  • The Qur'an was ALIVE
  • not on paper, but in the hearts and souls of Muslims, it had indeed been preserved!

• The nation was pulling itself together, as for the first time in 800 years, books were being written and published on a tremendous scale that the masses of Muslims could read and understand . Before that, only the scholars had access to Islamic literature, and most of which had already been lost as Islamic libraries were burnt down to ashes

• Where are we headed?
  • we have changed the trend from going down thanks to the efforts of people like Abul A'la Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna and many others
  • the Islamic Revival has begun, but only justbegun, that is why most can not see it and the non-Muslims can not perceive it
  • but Allah(swt) will not change the condition of a people until they change it with their own hands!
  • even if a civilization is ready to crumble (such as the West, with all the characteristics of deterioration of past fallen empires), it will NOT fall until we, the Muslims, strive to give it that last push, the last straw that will break the camel's back!

• So brothers and sisters, we are headed for a conflict: not between East and West, not between North and South, butbetween Islam and the West

• The Prophet (saw) said: " Prophethood shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away,then will follow a rule in its footsteps (i.e. the Khilafah) and it shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away, then will follow a 'biting' rule(lasting a long time, not easily removed) and it shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away, then will follow the rulers who oppress with power bestowed upon them not through inheritance of the people (i.e. the present dictatorships) and it shall be among you as long as Allah permits and then it will be taken away, then will follow a rule in the footsteps of the Prophethood (i.e. another Khilafah) !"

• The Prophet has clearly explained to us the trend, exactly as we observe it today

• We must therefore tell the West that we are extending a hand of peace now but it will not be so for long

• If they do not accept it now and turn away, there will be no peace to offer later, only retribution and justice when we return to power united under the banner of Islam

• And remember, history repeats itself. Ameen!