The real cause behind the invasion of Andalus was the revenge which Europe yearned for ever since their humiliating defeat in the crusader wars. After the crushing blow they were dealt by the Muslims, and after they had been chased away from Muslim lands, the Westerners carried a grudge against the Muslims. Their hearts were filled with hatred and malice towards the Muslims. They would not dare repeat their venture in the East, for they knew that the Muslims would be able to repel any offensive there. They thought that revenge would be easier to obtain in Andalus. In time, Europe directed its onslaught to Andalus and savagely ripped it apart using guillotines and crematoriums on its inhabitants. It was more savage than by beasts, being one of the most despicable of many shameful acts carried out by the West. Nevertheless, they were encouraged by the neglect of the Muslims in supporting Andalus.

The Muslims were strong enough at the time and in a position to militarily assist that Wilayah (province) against its Western foes. However, the Muslims slackened and left Andalus an easy prey. This encouraged the West to think even further about revenge and had it not been for the might of the Muslims, especially the ‘Uthmani State, the raids would have come strong and fast on the rest of the Muslim lands. It was the sheer might of the Muslims and the conquest of large parts of Europe by the invading ‘Uthmanis which caused great fright among the Westerners and pressed them to think twice about embarking on any rash venture against the Muslims lest they get defeated in the style of the crusades.

The Western invasion had to be delayed until the second half of the eighteenth century. Only then had stagnation hit the Islamic world. Thus, with the Muslims abandoning the conveyance of the Islamic message internationally and with the fervor of Islam having waned in their hearts and minds it was only then that their grandeur and might diminished in the eyes of their enemies. Following this, the cultural and missionary invasions of the Islamic world intensified, accompanied by the political invasion that carved up the Muslim lands.

During the rule of Catherine (1762-1796), Russia fought the ‘Uthmanis and defeated them. In the process, a large area was sliced off of their land. The Russians took the city of Azov and the al-Qaram Peninsula (the Crimea), as well as the whole of the Northern coast of the Black sea. They founded the city of Sevastopol as a military base in the Peninsula and built the commercial port of Odessa on the Black Sea in the South of the Ukraine. Russia became a major concern for the foreign policy of the ‘Uthmani State by assuming sovereignty over the Roman emirates and considering herself the protector of Christianity within the ‘Uthmani State.

In 1884, Russia cut the whole of Turkistan from the Islamic State, and then completed its occupation of all of Qafqas. However, Russia was not the only state to challenge the ‘Uthmanis, the rest of the Western powers did so too. On July 1st, 1798, Napoleon attacked Egypt and quickly occupied her. In February, 1799, he attacked the southern port of al-Sham and seized Gazza, al-Ramlah and Yafa. He stood near the fort of Akka (famous in the crusades as Acre), but his onslaught faltered and so he returned to Egypt, then to France and his venture finally failed in 1801. However, despite the fact that his campaign proved unsuccessful and abortive, it deeply affected the ‘Uthmani State. In its aftermath, most of the countries of Europe queued up to attack the Islamic world and occupy parts of its land. The French occupied Algeria in 1830, and worked towards occupying Tunisia until they did so in 1881. They occupied Marrakesh in 1912. The Italians occupied Tripoli in 1911 and this marked the separation of North Africa, which was no longer under Islamic rule, from the ‘Uthmani State. It came to be ruled by the disbelievers and was directly colonized by them.

The Westerners did not stop there but continued to complete the consolidation of their occupation of the remaining parts of the State. Britain occupied Aden in 1839 and expanded its covenant to include the Lahaj and the other nine Protectorates which spread from the Southern Yemeni border to the East of the Peninsula. The British had long before seized India, therefore, stripping the Muslims from their authority over it in the process. They specifically concentrated their oppression on the Muslims, who had been the people in authority in India, the British thus seized that authority and colonized India. Then they began a process aimed at weakening the Muslim stand in general.

In 1882, Britain seized Egypt and in 1898 Sudan. Meanwhile, Holland occupied the East Indies; Afghanistan was put under Anglo-Russian pressure and so was Iran. The Western onslaught on the Islamic world intensified until it was felt that it was about to fall under Western hegemony altogether and that the crusaders’ campaign had been resumed and was achieving success after success. Steps were taken to resist this Western invasion and to minimize its heavy pressure. Resistance movements broke out in several places. A revolution erupted in Algeria, the Muslims of China rose up in arms, as did the Mahdyyun in Sudan. The Sanusyya revolution also erupted. This actually proved that there was still some kind of vitality left within the Islamic world despite its decline and weakness. However, all these attempts completely failed and they never did manage to salvage the Islamic world.

The West, in addition to its military invasion, set about dividing the Islamic world culturally and politically, and went on to sever other parts of the Islamic world and worked tenaciously towards destroying the ‘Uthmani State, for this was the Islamic State that represented the Muslims world-wide. With this purpose in mind the West established ethnic and nationalist groups. To begin with, they incited the people of the Balkans to rebel in 1804. Such rebellions as these were financed by the West and they eventually led in 1878 to the Balkans gaining their independence.

The foreign powers also incited Greece to rebel in 1821 until this rebellion, thanks to their intervention, ended in Greece gaining its independence from the ‘Uthmani State in 1830. It was at this stage then that the Balkans followed suit, until the shadow of the ‘Uthmani State no longer engulfed Crete, Cyprus and most of the Mediterranean Islands which it had once governed over. Most of the inhabitants of these places were subsequently expelled from their homes and forced to flee due to the savagery of the disbelievers. They sought refuge in the Arab countries which were still Muslim land and remained part of the Islamic State. The Circassians, the Bushnaks, the Chechens and others are the sons of those heroes who refused to yield to the rule of the disbelievers and fled with their Deen to the safety of the Islamic household and Islamic rule.

The Westerners went even further and secretly encouraged and supported separatist movements among the Muslims themselves within the State, i.e. between Arabs and Turks. They backed the nationalist movements and helped to establish Turkish and Arab political parties such as the “Turkyya al-Fatah Party” (Young Turks), the “Union and Progress Party”, the “Arab Independence Party”, and the “Covenant (Al-A’hd) Party”, amongst others. This resulted in the State’s body being violently shaken from within and it began to crumble, coupled with foreign invasions. The disbelieving forces found it very promising to direct their onslaught against the Islamic world, seizing the rest of its land and destroying the Islamic State by wiping it out of existence. This was at the start of the First World War which the ‘Uthmani State was forced into and which ended in its defeat. The allies emerged as the victors and they divided the Islamic world between them as war booty. All that remained of the Islamic State was Turkish land which came to be known as Turkey and which remained at the end of the war in 1918 at the mercy of the Western forces until 1921, when she in turn managed to gain her independence from them after giving the allies guarantees that she would abandon the Islamic system of government.