by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n What are the differences between the traditional Muslim and the so-called “Islamist”? As\u00a0words dealing with Islam<\/a>\u00a0continue to morph and multiply, it is important to differentiate, for there are real, if subtle, differences.<\/p>\n A recent\u00a0Arabic talk show<\/a>\u00a0on Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak’s trial sheds some light. The question was whether Mubarak, in the sight of Sharia law, should stand trial and be punished for, among other things, selling gas cheaply to Israel \u2014 or, as popularly portrayed, traitorously giving away Egypt’s precious resources to its mortal enemy.<\/p>\n Two Islam authorities debated. Taking the controversial position \u2014 that Mubarak should not be condemned \u2014 was Sheikh Mahmoud Amer, leader of Ansar al-Sunna, or, those who imitate prophet Muhammad’s way of living, which, of course, is what traditional Muslims \u2014 literally,\u00a0Sunnis\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 have always done. His opponent, arguing that Mubarak deserves to be tried without mercy, was famous Islamist lawyer Montaser al-Zayyat (who most recently professed his “love<\/a>” for Osama bin Laden).<\/p>\n Sheikh Amer, representing traditional Islam, stressed two points to exonerate Mubarak: 1) Dealing with the enemy (in this case, Israel) is permissible according to Sharia; Muhammad himself often appeased his infidel enemies, including Jews, when to his advantage, “for” \u2014 as the Sheikh quoted Muhammad \u2014 “war is deceit<\/a>“; 2) According to Sharia, the only justification for deposing a ruler is if he becomes an infidel; if he is unjust, violent, and tyrannical to his Muslim subjects, that is not reason enough.<\/p>\n In fact, the Sheikh’s position is very much in keeping with Sharia: Muslims \u2014 particularly their political leaders \u2014 are permitted to deceive and dupe non-Muslims, including by playing the role of appeaser, when circumstances call for it; moreover, even Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri admits that Islam’s jurists are “unanimously agreed” that “it is forbidden to overthrow” Muslim rulers, even if they are “cruel and despotic,” whereas “it is obligatory to wage jihad against” rulers found to be “apostate infidels” (The Al Qaeda Reader<\/a><\/em>, pgs. 121-122, 129).<\/p>\n It’s interesting to note, then, how “Islamists,” such as Zayyat, who appear tenacious of upholding Sharia, sometimes advocate positions that actually contradict it. To understand this phenomenon, one must first understand “Islamism” \u2014 a hybrid abomination of sorts, whereby the better principles of Western civilization are absorbed and rearticulated within a distinctly Muslim paradigm. For instance, the Western stress on human freedom, human dignity, and universal justice, is, for Islamists, transformed into a stress on\u00a0Muslim<\/em>freedom,\u00a0Muslim<\/em>\u00a0dignity, and\u00a0Muslim<\/em>\u00a0justice \u2014 all, naturally, at the sake of the infidel.<\/p>\n So while the Islamist maintains traditional hostility for infidels, he may exhibit a Western sense of “humanitarianism” to fellow Muslims, evoking things like their “human worth” and “dignity.” Zayyat, for instance, repeatedly accused Mubarak of “robbing the people,” “betraying the people,” “torturing the nation’s sons,” “denying sons from their mothers and fathers” \u2014 language as alien to the traditional Muslim mentality as it is familiar to the Western. Similarly, Islamists influenced by the Western notion of “nationalism” tend to Westernize Islam’s notion of Umma, as when Zayyat talked sentimentally about how “the Umma has a right” over Mubarak.<\/p>\n As Sheikh Amer indicated, however, traditional Islam \u2014 born of the deserts of 7th-century Arabia, and so, ever pragmatic \u2014 makes clear that the authority, the sultan, can be as ruthless as necessary with Muslims \u2014 Western concepts of fairness and equality be damned. Moreover, the nationalist element evoked by\u00a0Zayyat<\/em>\u00a0is non-existent in Islam proper:\u00a0Umma<\/em>\u00a0originally meant “community” (and in Koran 6:38 is even used to describe communities of animals).<\/p>\n These discrepancies were summed up towards the end of the show, when the traditional Sheikh exclaimed: “I say to Mr. Montaser al-Zayyat that you will be asked on Judgment Day about these claims you’re making \u2014 that he [Mubarak] took money and was a Zionist traitor. I am here telling you what the prophet said and what the prophet did [that it is permissible to deceive the enemy and that the ruler is above censure], and here you’re talking nonsense?!”<\/p>\n