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.

How is Islam similar to Judaism and Christianity

How is Islam similar to Christianity and Judaism?

Judaism Christianity, and Islam, in contrast to Hinduism and Buddhism, are all monotheistic faiths that worship the God of Adam, Abraham, and Moses-creator, sustainer, and lord of the universe. They share a common belief in the oneness of God (monotheism), sacred history (history as the theater of God’s activity and the encounter of God and humankind), prophets and divine revelation, angels, and Satan. All stress moral responsibility and accountability, Judgment Day, and eternal reward and punishment. All three faiths emphasize their special covenant with God, for Judaism through Moses, Christianity through Jesus, and Islam through Muhammad. Christianity accepts God’s covenant with and revelation to the Jews but traditionally has seen itself as superseding Judaism with the coming of Jesus. Thus Christianity speaks of its new covenant and New Testament. So, too, Islam and Muslims recognize Judaism and Christianity: their biblical prophets (among them Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus) and their revelations (the Torah and the New Testament, or Message of Jesus). Muslim respect for all the biblical prophets is reflected in the custom of saying “Peace and blessings be upon him” after naming any of the prophets and in the common usage of the names Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Daoud (David), Sulayman (Solomon), and Issa (Jesus) for Muslims. In addition, Islam makes frequent reference to Jesus and to the Virgin Mary, who is cited more times in the Quran than in the New Testament. However, Muslims believe that Islam supersedes Judaism and Christianity-that the Quran is the final and complete word of God and that Muhammad is the last of the prophets. In contrast to Christianity, which accepts much of the Hebrew Bible, Muslims believe that what is written in the Old and New Testaments is a corrupted version of the original revelation to Moses and Jesus. Moreover, Christianity’s development of “new” dogmas such as the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and the doctrines of redemption and atonement is seen as admixing God’s revelation with human fabrication. Peace is central to all three faiths. This is reflected historically in their use of similar greetings meaning “peace be upon you”: shalom aleichem in Judaism, pax vobiscum in Christianity, and salaam alaikum in Islam. Often, however, the greeting of peace has been meant primarily for members of one’s own faith community. Leaders of each religion, from Joshua and King David to Constantine and Richard the Lion-Hearted to Muhammad and Saladin, have engaged in holy wars to spread or defend their communities or empires. The joining of faith and politics continues to exist in modern times, though manifested in differing ways, as seen in Northern Ireland, South Africa, America, Israel, and the Middle East. Islam is similar to Judaism in its emphasis on practice rather than belief, on law rather than dogma. The primary religious discipline in Judaism and Islam has been religious law; for Christianity it has been theology. Historically, in Judaism and Islam the major debates and disagreements have been among scholars of religious law over matters of religious practice, whereas in Christianity the early disputes and cleavages in the community were over theological beliefs: the nature of the Trinity or the relationship of Jesus’ human and divine natures.

How do Muslims view Judaism? Christianity?

Both Jews and Christians hold a special status within Islam because of the Muslim belief that God revealed His will through His prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Say, We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us, and in what has been sent down to Abraham and Ismail and Isaac and Jacob and their offspring, and what has been revealed to Moses and Jesus and to all the prophets of our Lord. We make no distinction between them and we submit to Him and obey. (Quran 3:84) The Quran and Islam regard Jews and Christians as children of Abraham and refer to them as “People of the Book,” since all three monotheistic faiths descend from the same patrilineage of Abraham. Jews and Christians trace themselves back to Abraham and his wife Sarah; Muslims, to Abraham and his servant Hagar. Muslims believe that God sent his revelation (Torah) first to the Jews through the prophet Moses and then to Christians through the prophet Jesus. They recognize many of the biblical prophets, in particular Moses and Jesus, and those are common Muslim names. Another common Muslim name is Mary. In fact, the Virgin Mary’s name occurs more times in the Quran than in the New Testament; Muslims also believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. However, they believe that over time the original revelations to Moses and Jesus became corrupted. The Old Testament is seen as a mixture of God’s revelation and human fabrication. The same is true for the New Testament and what Muslims see as Christianity’s development of “new” and erroneous doctrines such as that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus’ death redeemed and atoned for humankind’s original sin.