Hot political topics were discusses yesterday (Friday) in a session called "The World Against the World" featuring Egyptian author and journalist Dr. Ahmed Al-Maslamani during the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2015 at the Expo Centre from November 4 -14.The seminar was hosted by Hassan Yacoub, head of the Radio Department at Sharjah Media Corporation and looked at political Islam, and how it plans its actions and mobilizes its organizations around the world, which, he said, has become a burden and constituted a serious threat to civilized Islam and its role in the world. Dr. Al-Maslamani said, “This lies in the nature of political Islam, which consists of two parts, the first puts Islam against Islam, by provoking a civil war among Muslims themselves. The second puts Islam in confrontation with the rest of the world, which puts Islamic civilization and all Muslims in jeopardy.”
Dr. Al-Maslamani said after the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 the Islamic world faced the division between 'Muslims' and 'Muslim Brother'. The next significant difficulty came in 1948 with the establishment of Israel with long drawn wars between them and Arab nations. The Iranian Revolution in 1978 divided the Islamic Nation into Sunni and Shia and established Shia fundamentalism, which he said, was another form of extremism that gave rise to the Sunni-Shia wars. And in 1998, Al Qaeda was established, further dividing society.
“Islam is the second most prevalent religion in the world, after Christianity, and is followed by 1.6 billion people. Statistics show that there are over a billion atheists in world, making atheism the third most prevalent faith in the world. Not addressing atheists and not trying to convert them shows the hypocrisy of political Islamic groups, who have adopted the slogan, Re-conquering the World,” he said. In terms of the theme of, “The World Against the World” Al-Maslamani said that the emergence of ISIS is a serious problem. He said, “Former US President Ronald Reagan was able to bring down the Soviet Union by reducing the price of oil to $10 a barrel which led to exhaustion of the Soviet economy. He also used the Afghan Mujahideen, exploiting their cause to help topple the Soviet Union. Today the US administration has reduced the price of oil to one third, having a huge economic impact in Russia. Along with this, the ISIS card is also being played, as the terrorist organization includes around 5000 Russian members. I believe that the Arab world is not the target, it is merely a bridge to pass turmoil to the Russians.”
He added that a global economic crisis is being caused by the decline in oil prices, causing a long recession in Japan, economic slowdown in China, and an economic crisis in southern Europe. This comes in the shadow of the emergence of ISIS causing a sharp ideological polarization, with a significant role played by political Islam movements, he said.Al-Maslamani called for civilized Islam to occupy the the position abducted by political Islam in thought, behavior and ethics, in order to put an end to Islam against Islam struggle. He continued, “It is now evident that political Islamic groups are an enemy of Islam and Muslims, and civilized Islam can be the solution.”