The Inevitable Clash of Civilizations by Al-Khilafah Publications

When we say dialogue or clash, we mean Muslims, their deen and their civilisation on one side; and Christians and their religion and the Capitalists and their civilisation, on the other side. It is a malicious attempt that the leaders and intellectuals of the Capitalist civilisation differentiate between Islam and its followers i.e. between Islam and Muslims. So they claim that Islam is great but Muslims are backward and some of them are terrorists. They are liars in their view, for if Islam was really great in their view, then they would have embraced it. However they attempt to delude the naïve from amongst Muslims, attempting to reduce the rancour against them when they strike a Muslim people, or when they attempt to spread the concepts of their civilisation among Muslims. They know that the Islamic ‘aqeedah still remains in the souls of Muslims and it is strong in the majority of them. So if they openly declare their enmity to Islam, they will stir up Muslims and provoke them. Thus they use these deceptive sentences as a weapon to anaesthetise Muslims and to deceive them. Some Muslims would swallow this bait and accept dialogue by the meaning presented by Christians and Capitalists or promoted by their agent intellectuals. They concentrate in the definition of this dialogue upon three matters: The first is equality between religions and civilisations in the dialogue without superiority or preference of a religion or civilisation over another. The second is that the limit of the dialogue is restricted to mere knowledge of the other's opinions without addressing its refutation or invalidation. The third is creating an alternative civilisation through the method of arriving at the common denominators between the two religions and two civilisations.

This is the meaning of dialogue in their view, and its benefit as they claim is: "Productive interaction between cultural peculiarities, to form an alternative superior civilisation, that invites to accept the other on the same footing" (Dr. Milad Hana in a cultural debate held in Cairo on Monday, 2/4/2001). And: "Every time civilisations seek to find what is common between them and what is human, they advance, flourish; and peace would spread" (Dr. Jafar Abdussalam, the Secretary-General of the Conference of Islamic Universities). One of them went to the extent of saying that: "Islam is a deen of interaction and a deen of development, and not like what is said that it is a deen of obscurity and a deen of isolation. On the contrary, the golden age of Islam and Muslims was when the Islamic civilisation interacted with other civilisations in the world, and when Islam spread in the world, took from and had a room for all the legacies and other human civilisations and gave them from its legacy and civilisation. This was the golden age of the Islamic State." (Dr. Qasim Jafar spoke, in a study circle on 'The First War of the Century', on Al-Jazeera channel, under the heading: 'Are the American explosions an incentive for dialogue or the clash of civilisations?' on 29/9/2001). He said: "It is upon us as Arabs and Muslims to abstain from this problem…it is upon us to possess sufficient confidence in ourselves, in our civilisation, and in our history and legacy, so as to burst forth in the world from the position of equality, and not the position of the follower (tabi')…" (The above-mentioned study circle of Al-Jazeera channel). Another said: "The Islamic civilisation was based upon the common denominator between world civilisations so it accepted the other and interacted with it in taking and giving (Amru Abdulkarim, a political scientist - IslamOnline.net). Another person attempted to use as evidence for the dialogue of civilisations the aayaat of the Noble Qur'an so he said: "And our Book, the Glorious Qur'an, emphasises upon the manner of dialogue with the others, dialogue with polytheists (mushrikeen):

'If one of the polytheists seeks your protection, grant him protection until he hears the word of Allah' [TMQ At-Tauba: 6], dialogue with disbelievers (kafireen):

'Say: O you disbelievers' [TMQ Al-Kafirun: 1], dialogue with the current and official religions in the world:

'O People of the Book, come to a just word between us and you: That we worship none but Allah, that we associate nothing with Him, nor some of us take others as lords' [TMQ Al-Imran: 64], dialogue from a position of equivalence…I view that it is not possible to say of eternal struggle because we are Muslims. I point to the Qur'anic ayah:

'Come to a just word between us and you' [TMQ Al-Imran:64]. This ayah means that it is possible for us to dialogue with Christians, we dialogue with Jews, and we dialogue with others. Why? Meaning there is a common word between us; we do not say that we dialogue to our word" (Ata-Allah Muhajirani, Iranian President adviser for the dialogue of civilisations in the above mentioned study circle of Al-Jazeera). There are those who call to dialogue between religions to create common denominators between them, and stay silent about the points of difference, in order to anaesthetise Muslims from the clash. They call to the saying of 'the sons of Abraham' to strengthen dialogue between the three religions on the basis that those who came with them descend from one father namely Ibrahim (as). Some Muslims use as proof the aayaat of Noble Qur'an that say the Prophets were Muslims, like His (SWTH) saying at the tongue of Nuh:

"And I was commanded to be the first of the Muslims" [TMQ 39:12] at the tongue of Ibrahim and Ismail:

"Our Lord! Make us Muslims to you and of our descendants Muslims to you" [TMQ Al-Baqarah: 128] and about the people of Lut:

"But We did not find therein but one house of the Muslims" [TMQ Az-Zariyat: 36] and at the tongue of the disciples (hawariyyin):

"And bear witness that we are Muslims" [TMQ Al-Imran: 52]. Perhaps there will come those who say that Christians and Jews are Muslims, and we hear those who say that the followers of the three religions are believers even though the Qur'anic texts, definitely proved and of definite meaning, are decisive in charging Jews and Christians with disbelief (kufr) such as His (SWTH) saying:

"Verily those who disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger and wish to distinguish between Allah and His Messenger and say: 'We believe in some and disbelieve in others' and wish to adopt a way in between. Those are in truth disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment" [TMQ An-Nisa: 150-1].

And:

"Those who disbelieve among the People of the Book and the polytheists were not going to leave (their disbelief) until there came to them clear evidence. A Messenger from Allah reciting pure pages" [TMQ Al-Baiyinah: 1-2].

And:

Say: O People of the Book, why do you disbelieve in the aayaat of Allah while Allah is witness over what you are doing?" [TMQ Al-Imran: 98].

And:

"Those who disbelieve of the People of the Book and polytheists do not like that there should descend upon you any good from your Lord. But Allah chooses for His mercy whoever He wills. And Allah is the Owner of great bounty" [TMQ Al- Imran: 105].

And:

"O People of the Book, why do you disbelieve in the aayaat of Allah while you bear witness?" [TMQ Al-Imran: 70].

And:

"And because of their disbelief and uttering a grave falsehood (buhtan) against Mary" [TMQ An-Nisa: 156].

And:

"Surely they disbelieve who say: 'Allah is the third of three'" [TMQ Al- Mai’dah: 76].

And:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and His Messenger forbid nor follow the deen of truth among the People of the Book until they pay the jizyah readily and subdued" [TMQ At-Taubah: 29].

And:

"He it is Who drove out those who disbelieve among the People of the Book from their homes at the first gathering" [TMQ Al-Hashr: 2]. Thus they are disbelievers (kuffar), and they are non-Muslims. It is not permitted to designate them as Muslims. Islam linguistically means submission (inqiyad) and in the Shari'ah technical terminology, it means the deen that Allah subhanahu revealed upon Muhammad (PBUH) . If it is permitted to designate Islam with its linguistic meanings upon the previous Prophets (as) and upon those who believed and followed them before the mission of Muhammad (PBUH) and before distortion (of their books), it is not permitted to do that after His (PBUH) mission. So whoever does not believe in him and his message is a kafir, and it is not allowed that he be called Muslim or a believer (mu'min). He ta'ala said:

"By the One in whose hand is Muhammad's soul, none hears of me of this Ummah, Jew or Christian, then dies without believing in what I was sent with except he is of the denizens of the Fire." And ibn Hibban extracted from the hadith of Anas that Caesar wrote to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) : 'I am a Muslim' and the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said when he read the letter:

"The enemy of Allah (SWTH) lied. He is not a Muslim while he is upon Christianity." Amr Musa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, made clear that he does not believe that there is a civilisation better than (another) civilisation, and from the meaning of his words is that the Islamic civilisation is not preferable to the Capitalist, Hindu or Jewish civilisation for he says: "We do not believe that there is a better civilisation" in the exposition of his refutation of the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. One of them attempted to use as evidence for accepting the other as they are without restriction or condition, and without attempting to pronounce judgments against him, the aayaat of Surat Al-Kahf that say: "Religious dialogue is the attempt of the individual encumbered with the values, conventions, beliefs and previous creeds to discover the other (of a different religion) - as he is - and understand him and crystallize a philosophical formal view towards him without resorting to pronouncing prejudiced value judgments against him…the supporters of religious dialogue raised the motto of sincere intention. So he assumes the divestment of conditions and goals except the desire to understand the other and view him intellectually…The content of dialogue does not, in principle, differ with the tale with which the Noble Qur'an brought in Surat Al-Kahf (aayaat 32-42) about the dialogue between two men. Allah (SWTH) gave one of them two gardens of grapes surrounded by palm trees and with crops in the middle, rivers flowing therein; and Allah (SWTH) increased its owner over the other in property and children. The tale reveals that the dialogue took place between the two men without condition or restriction, and the Qur'an brought it with its complete details; and despite it's including the kufr of one of them in Allah, the other did not interrupt the dialogue because of it. Likewise the Qur'an did not refrain from mentioning the sayings of kufr, because in their totality they are able to build and formulate the intellectual examination of the personality disbelieving in Allah 'azza wa jalla…Religious dialogue differs from comparative religion and religious competition even if these concepts commingle in the literature. Comparative religion is a science meaning study of a religion in comparison with others upon the level of the creed (‘’aqeedah), legislation and ritual worships, and its views about man, the universe and life and the like, of assuming objectivity and the possibility of eliminating prejudice. Whereas religious competition is a process aiming to prove the superiority and distinction of one religion over the other; a matter which is not of course aimed by religious dialogue which a process of understanding only" (Husam Tammam, researcher and journalist, Egypt: IslamOnline.net, under the title: 'Religious Dialogue: A Human Necessity or world Conspiracy').

These quotations are necessary to know what the advocates of the idea of religious dialogue intend of this expression, which is their technical terminology. The best of what guides us to the meaning of this technical terminology is what they themselves say or write, since the linguistic meaning does not benefit here. From all of these quotations, it is possible to crystallize the meaning of this technical terminology in the following:

Firstly: Equality and equivalence between religions and civilisations, and non-preference between a religion and another or a civilisation and another.

Secondly: Accepting the other as it is and discovering it without pronouncing judgments against it, but rather understanding and recognizing its views without restriction or condition.

Thirdly: The objective of dialogue between civilisations is interaction to create an alternative superior civilisation through the means of seeking to find out what is common and human; a matter that leads to the advance and flourishing of civilisations, and spreading of peace. The objective of dialogue between religions is to prevent Islam from entering the arena of the struggle.

All these concepts completely contradict Islam. There is not a single concept from these that has evidence or probable evidence. They are not from Islam; rather they are all distortion (tamweeh) and deception, and their danger against Islam is sure.

The meaning of equality between religions and between civilisations is a kufr, concept since it is an invitation to equality between the truth (haqq) and falsehood (batil), between the deen of truth and distorted religions, between kufr and iman, between misguidance (dhalala) and guidance, between the abrogating deen) and the abrogated (deen), between civilisational concepts whose source is revelation and civilisational concepts laid down by man i.e. between the mind and text (naql), between arbitrating to At-Taghut and arbitrating to the Book and Sunnah and what they both guide to, between the confirmed (thabit) that benefits mankind and remains in the earth and the vanishing foam that is scum. The evidences for that are difficult to limit. He (PBUH) ta'ala said:

"Nay We fling the truth (haqq) against the falsehood (batil) so it destroys it. And, behold, it is vanished!" [TMQ Al-Anbiya: 18].

And He (SWTH) said:

"What is there after the truth except misguidance?" [TMQ Yunus: 32]. And He (SWTH) said:

"They wish to arbitrate to At-Taghut while they have been commanded to deny it. And Satan wishes to mislead them far astray!" [TMQ An-Nisa: 60].

And He (SWTH) said:

"He (SWTH) is the One who sent His Messenger (PBUH) with the guidance and the deen of truth so that it prevails over all other deens, even if the polytheists detest!" [TMQ At- Taubah: 33].

And He (SWTH) said:

"And whoever seeks other than Islam as a deen, never will it be accepted from him. And in the Hereafter he will be among the losers" [TMQ Al-Imran: 85].

And He (SWTH) said:

"And We revealed to you the Book in truth confirming the Scripture that came before it and dominating over it" [TMQ Al-Mai’dah: 48].

And He (SWTH) said:

"Thus does Allah show forth truth from falsehood (by parables). Then as for the foam, it passes away as scum while that which benefits mankind remains in the earth. Thus Allah sets forth parables" [TMQ Ar-Rad: 17]. And He (SWTH) said:

"Is then he who is a believer like he who is a transgressor (fasiq)? They are not equal" [TMQ As-Sajdah: 18].

And He (SWTH) said:

"Say: 'Not equal are the evil and the good, even though the abundance of evil leases you.' Fear Allah, O men of understanding, so that you may be successful" [TMQ Al-Mai’dah: 100].

And He (SWTH) said:

"The likeness of the two parties is as the blind and deaf, and the seer and hearer. Are the two equal when compared? Will you not then take heed?" [TMQ Hud: 24].

And He (SWTH) said:

"They wish you disbelieve as they disbelieved so that you become equal" [TMQ An-Nisa: 89].

How strange for the one claiming Islam, then he equalises between Islam and kufr, between atheism (ilhad) and trinity and tawheed, between the denier of the Prophethood of Muhammad
and the believer in it, between permitting riba and forbidding it, between the worship of Allah and worshipping creatures, between fornication and marriage, between permitting homosexuality and forbidding lesbianism and homosexuality, between the pig and dates. It is even more strange; the one who remains silent and says nothing about preference and does not prefer tawheed to polytheism, halal to haram, the Shar'a to At-Taghut, the believer to the kafir, revelation to man-made, Islam to the remaining deens, the Qur'an to the distorted Books, worshipping the Creator to worshipping the sun, the cow and the stars. May Allah save us from fitnah! Subordination (tab'iyya) is rejected, equality is rejected, and remaining about the preference of Islam and its civilisation over the remaining religions and civilisations is rejected.