HOW THE KHILAFAH WAS DESTROYED

The 3rd of March is a painful day in political history of Muslim world. It was on this date in the fateful year of 1924 CE 28th Rajab 1342AH}, that the last vestige of legitimate Islamic rule was destroyed. The office of Caliphate was abolished by the treacherous Mustafa Kamal and the Muslim Ummah has since then been plunged in to darkness and humiliation. Ottoman Caliphate came to an end as the 101st Khaleefah of Islam, Abdul Mejid II was exiled from the now secular Republic of Turkey with just a suitcase and little amount of money.
Following is a historical account of colonial powers which led to the destruction of Muslim empire. After the siege of Vienna in 1529, Europe formed an alliance to stop the Caliphate and its expansion into the Europe. It was at this point the crusade animosity towards Islam and Caliphate was revived and plans were hatched to deal with this oriental problem as it became known. The crusaders realized that the cause of Muslims strength and resolve was the Islamic Aqeeda. As long as Muslims were strongly attached to Islam and the Quran, the Caliphate could never be destroyed. This is why at the end of the 16th century they established the first missionary centre in Malta and made it their headquarters for launching a missionary onslaught against the Muslim world. This was the beginning of Western culture entering the Muslim world by British, French and American missionaries. These missionaries worked under the guise of educational and scientific institutions. Initially their effect on the Muslims was minimal. But during the 18th and 19th centuries when decline had set in to the Caliphate, the missionaries managed to exploit weaknesses in the state and spread corrupted concepts to the people. In the 19th century Beirut became the centre for missionary activity. During this time the missionaries exploited civil strife between Christians and Druze and later Christians and Muslims, with Britain siding with the Druze and France siding with the Christian Maronites. The missionaries had two main objectives during this time. One was to separate the Arabs from the Uthmani state and second to alienate the Muslims from the bond of Islam.
In 1875 the Secret Association was formed in Beirut in an attempt to encourage Arab nationalism among the people. Through declarations and leaflets it called for the political independence of the Arabs, especially those in Syria and Lebanon. Those in charge repeatedly accused Turkey in their literature of snatching the Islamic Caliphate from the Arabs, violating the Islamic Shariah. The seeds of Arab nationalism which were sown by the long going Christian missionaries came to fruition in 1916 when Britain ordered its agent Sharif Hussein of Makkah to launch the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Caliphate. This revolt was successful in dividing the Arab lands from the Caliphate and placing them under British and French mandates. At the same time nationalism was being incited among the Turks. The Young Turks movement was established in 1889 on the basis of Turkish nationalism and achieved power in 1908 after ousting Khaleefah Abdul-Hameed II through a number of political maneuvers. The traitor Mustafa Kemal who went on to abolish the Caliphate was a member of the Young Turks. This is why Mustafa Kemal later said: Was it not because of the Caliphate, Islam and the clergy that the Turkish peasants fought and died for five centuries? It is high time Turkey looked after her own interests and ignored the Indians and the Arabs. Turkey should rid itself of leading the Muslims.
Alongside the missionary activities Britain and France alongwith Russia began to directly colonize many parts of the Muslim world. During the mid eighteenth century, in 1768 Catherine II of Russia fought the Caliphate and successfully occupied the lands of Southern Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, and Crimea which became incorporated in to the Russian Empire. France attacked Egypt and Britain set off to occupy India. In the 19th century France occupied North Africa and Britain occupied Egypt, Sudan and India. Gradually, the lands of the Caliphate were receding until the end of the 1st world war when all that was left was Turkey, which was occupied by allied troops under the command of a British general named Charles Harrington. On Nov 1917, head of the British Army said, ‘Today is the end of crusade wars’ just after capturing the Palestine. On the other hand when French general entered Damascus, he went to the tomb of Salahudin Ayyubi and yelled there, ’we have reached here and now if you salauddin, if you have courage, come on, drag us out’. Because it was the same Salauddin Ayyubi who had dragged these Western forces out of Muslim lands. In 1917, Belford declaration was passed for Palestine by the British government as Palestine came under British mandate. In 1918 The Western forces entered into Constantinople {Istanbul} the capital of Islamic empire. 22nd Nov 1922, Lausanne conference was organized by the British foreign Secretary Lord Curzon to discuss Turkey& its independence. Turkey at that time was under the occupation of the allied forces with the institution of the Caliphate existing in all but name. During this conference Lord Curzon stipulated four conditions prior to recognizing the independence of Turkey. These conditions were:
1. The total abolishment of the Caliphate
2. The expulsion of the Khaleefah beyond the borders
3. The confiscation of its assets
4. Declaration that Turkey become a secular state
This is how the 1342 years of Islamic institution of Caliphate came to an end. This was such an empire that the like of it was not found in Islamic history. The Ottomans were serving Islam for nearly 700 years and for 400 years Islamic institution of Caliphate was with them. Turks were defenders of dignity honour and prestige of Islamic empire. Enemy couldn’t even dare to raise an eyebrow over the Islamic world. But they are by now a long forgotten chapter of history.

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