Islam - The No-exit Open Tribe Theory

 

 

About the genesis of islam, from 'Cruel and Usual Punishment' by Nonie Darwish:   p.18 One of Mohammed's aims for the new religion was to unify all the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula-yet preserve their unique warring culture. The genius of Islam was that it found a way to reconcile these two competing goals. Islam retained the superiority of the male, the submission of the female, slavery, and the culture of raiding, and male violence by channeling it toward the outside world in an institution called jihad. ...The only difference was that now the raiding was against the outside non-Muslim world instead of the nearby tribe.   p.194 The cutthroat desert environment produced men who understood what makes people surrender and submit in desperation. They understood the dark side of human psyche and how to manipulate and enslave it, because they had been doing it to each other for generations. p.200Islam discovered and preserved the side of humanity that wants to take from others, subjugate others, and perhaps even be subjugated to reinforce the feeling of victimhood. Islam exploit the dark side found in all of us to different degrees.   Nicole   Islam – The No-exit Open Tribe Theory   http://www.islam-watch.org/authors/59-kammuna/1269-islam-the-no-exit-open-tribe-theory.html   Monday, 11 March 2013 04:46 Ibn Kammuna The secret to the success of early Islam in Arabia in the 7th century is an open tribe system. I detail the basic of this concept in this article. Muhammad in Mecca Muhammad started his mission quietly and peacefully. Muhammad himself was a very vindictive person as attested by many incidents in his life that we read about. However, his start of his mission in Mecca was peaceful. He reason for that is a very natural one. He hardly had any followers. Those who followed him were mostly the lower class, some of the slaves and the poor. As his years in Mecca progressed, so did his insulting to the polytheists beliefs and practices. Arabs before the dark age of Islam were tolerant people. This is a fact history supports. Arabs had multiplicity of religious beliefs that spanned a wide spectrum of monotheism and polytheism. Such a culture was used to multiplicity of religious practices that Muhammad abhorred. At the beginning, polytheists just did not pay much attention to Muhammad and his followers. As Muhammad insisted on insulting their religions, they started paying him with the same currency he dealt them with. Annoyed and frustrated with his situation, Muhammad sought an alternative place to stay. Two groups of Muslims went to Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Muhammad himself went to neighboring Ta’ef in the year 619 AD. His rudeness showed up early enough during his stay in Ta’ef. He asked the people there to leave their ancestral religion. He also wanted them to join him against Quraysh. Ta’ef people asked him to leave, and he went back to Mecca. The only success Muhammad had during his trip to Ta’ef is that he met some Jinns on his way (Jinns are a species of spirits). Muhammad wasted no time in inviting them to Islam. The accepted immediately and became good Muslims! The year 620 AD will prove crucial to Muhammad’s grand greed to power and status. During the pilgrimage season to Mecca that year, Muhammad met with a group of pilgrims from Yathrib (Medina). He preached his religion to them and six of them converted and promised to be loyal to him and to preach his religion when they go back to Yathrib, which they did. Muhammad attempted migration then, but they discouraged him and asked him to wait a bit longer. The following year, more Muslim converts in medina were established. Twelve of them met secretly with Muhammad during the pilgrimage season at a place called Al Aqaba. All of them pledged allegiance to his faith. Muhammad sent Mosab Bin Omayr; a Meccan convert, to guide them in their new faith. The pledge of allegiance in that meeting is known in Islamic history as the First oath of Aqaba. Muhammad’s decision to send Mus’ab to Yathrib to preach his religion proved fruitful. During the 622 AD pilgrimage season, Mus’ab shows up in Mecca accompanied by seventy five Medinan converts (seventy three men, and two women). Again, Muhammad accompanied by his uncle Al-Abbas meets secretly with them at Aqaba. Al-Abbas addresses the Medinan crowd and tells them that although Muhammad is protected by his kinsmen and followers in Mecca, he-Muhammad- prefers to seek protection from the Medinan converts. Al-Abbas continues: If ye be resolved and able to defend him, then give the pledge. But if you doubt your ability, at once abandon the design Medinan converts reply they have heard what was said and ask Muhammad to choose for himself what he wishes for his Lord and what he wishes for himself. Muhammad responds with those words: I invite your allegiance on the basis that you protect me as you would your (own) women and children Al-Barra; a Medinan convert, takes Muhammad’s hand and says By Him who sent you with the truth, we will protect you as we protect our women. We give our allegiance, and we are men of war possessing arms which have been passed on from father to son This pledge is known in Islam as the second oath of Aqaba This was a prelude to Muhammad moving to Medina. Not long after that, he moved to Medina during September of 622 AD. It is this second pledge of Medinans that created in my mind the concept of an open tribe system that caused great success for Muhammad during his stay in Medina. But before I delve into that, I would the reader to notice that Muhammad moved to Medina on his own terms. The idea that Muhammad was greatly persecuted in Mecca, and that the Meccans were after him to assassinate him just do not find any historical support. They are lies invented by Muslims. For a thorough discussion of this matter I refer the reader to M A Khan’s book on “Islamic Jihad” (Felibri, ISBN 978-1-926800-04-2, pages 12-18). No exit - open tribe theory Muhammad observed that Arabs lived in a tribal system. Animosity stems between tribes more than individuals of different tribes. He utilized this fact to grab power and status. A tribe has one main leader. Muhammad wanted to insure a system that allows him to be the major personality in this tribe. He also wanted other benefits. His narcissistic tendencies made him place himself as a powerful spiritual and religious leader amongst his followers. Hence, he had to establish a tribe that bestows upon him leadership status mixed with spiritual aura. The idea is for him to be the leading tribe personality. In Arab tribal values “whatever the Sheikh (leader) of the tribe wants will come to be”. The second oath at Aqaba granted that right of “Sheikhdom” to Muhammad. Notice that the Medinan people at Aqaba were not of the tribe of Quraysh. They belonged to multiplicity of tribes in Medina. However, their loyalty now is to Muhammad; the new sheikh era has begun. While in Medina, Muhammad wasted no time in establishing his tribal leadership on other tribes. He made sure that he has the spiritual authority mixed with a religious aura. He was the one to judge between conflicting individuals and amongst tribes. Those who criticized him, he made sure his henchmen would go to assassinate them. Many of his assassinations were successful. Asma bint Marwan, Abu Afaq, and Sallam Ibn Abul Huqayq are some examples of his assassinations successes. Muhammad terrorized the individuals and the tribe leaders who thought negatively of him and his religious mumbo jumbo. He also had assassination failings. He failed in assassinating Abu Sufyan; a major leading figure in Quraysh. In any case, Muhammad’s system was a clear cut one. He needed the manpower for his power grabbing appetite. So, he designed his religion to include anyone who wants to join him through the verbal expressions of Shahada. Many men from multiplicity of tribes joined him, mostly in greed for booty. At the same time, Muhammad wanted to close the door on anyone who wanted to leave the Muslims group. It was important to keep who join and add to them. Manpower counts when you want to grab the fortunes of larger and stronger tribes. Those who are in must be prevented from leaving. Those who want to come into Islam, the open welcoming tribe, should join in very quickly. It takes seconds to say the Shahada: testifying that there is only one god, Allah, and that Muhammad is Allah’s prophet. With such a verbal expression, one gives ultimate ruler ship to Muhammad as a leader of the Muslim tribe. Never mind Allah. Allah is far away. Muhammad is the one who takes care of Allah’s business. It was also of equal importance to prevent anyone from leaving the Muslim camp; hence, Muhammad established the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam. This rule still exists today in Islamic Shari’a. A Bukhari Hadith states in Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57:  Narrated 'Ikrima:  Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'" Thus, Muhammad established a tribe for himself that will take in any one, but will kill anyone who leaves it. In fact, this is Islam’s status today. For Muhammad, it was a personal psychological need as well as an economic need. I have not discussed the idea that Islam was based on the economic need of Muhammad and his early followers. I plan to write another article on the economic side of Islam in its early history. Economics was one of the main motivating factors for the Arabs living during Muhammad’s time to follow him.