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Heavily armed soldiers patrol the Eiffel Tower as France stepped up security following a series of attacks linked to ISIS last week

Tichaona Zindoga THE INTERVIEW
The world has been numbed by the violent attacks that occurred last week in Paris, France which have been blamed on Muslim extremists. On the streets of Zimbabwe, some people may feel apprehensive mingling with Muslims because of the stigma that has now become widespread. However, Sheikh Abdullah Makwinja (AM), the resident Imam at Fatima Zahra College in Harare, explains that Islam is generally a peaceful religion save for a toxic school of thought commonly referred to as Wahhabism which has roots in the Middle East and has spawned extremist outfits such as Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and lately the Islamic State and is used as a political instrument and fed with Western funds and weaponry. Southern Africa and Zimbabwe are not fertile grounds for violent extremism, Sheikh Makwinja talks to our Political Editor Tichaona Zindoga (TZ) about this and other issues.

TZ: We have seen a lot of terrorist activities across the world, the latest being the Paris attacks which have been linked to Muslim extremists. We know you have argued before that Islam is a religion of peace. How then do we understand these activities which are largely blamed on Islam?

AM: Islam means a peace. It means submitting one’s will to God. So if a person claims to be a Muslim, he must be a man of peace. So what is happening in the Middle East cumulatively, or wherever in the world, those who are claiming that they are fighting for Islam by killing innocent civilians totally contradict the meaning of Islam.

They might just be doing it in the name of Islam but actually there is no relationship between violence and Islam, between killing innocent people and Islam.

Islam is for peace. Islam is for peaceful co-existence. Islam is for tolerance. Muslims and Christians can live side by side. If you look at the life of the holy prophet, he used to allow Christians to pray in his own mosque, in the mosque of Medina.

That shows tolerance. It does not necessarily mean that if someone is a Christian, he cannot live side by side with a Muslim. What is happening today in the Middle East and this recent case which occurred in Paris in particular, people have got to understand where is this violent extremism coming from and who started it, otherwise we might not understand this at all.

Without understanding the root of this, we might not understand why it is happening, who is doing it and why are they doing it?

TZ: So may you take us through what you think is the genesis of this violent extremism?

AM: If you look into the history of the Middle East, starting from the 1980s, you find that there was this invasion of Afghanistan by Russia and later on, there comes in the Mujahideen and then later on in that scenario, this Bin Laden comes in. Bin Laden is a Saudi and is being supported by the Americans to fight the Russians and then from there, from the Mujahidi came what was called Al-Qaeda which was being led by Osama bin Laden.

After Al-Qaeda, then came in this ISIS. Then if we look at the ISIS, who is funding them, where are they getting their arms and vehicles? You find that the American government has clearly stated that they are supporting the rebels in Syria to topple Bashir Al-Assad. And now the same people who created ISIS are coming back to say that they are fighting it.

We condemn what happened in France – these horrific crimes – in the strongest possible terms. Our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of those killed and the injured the rest of us, we sympathise with them.

TZ: Some people have said that Islam is supremacist and encourages intolerance towards non-believers. How do you respond to that?

AM: As I have said earlier on, the role model of being a Muslim is the holy prophet himself. The holy prophet used to accept Christians in his own mosque. If these people are claiming to be Muslims, then why are they doing it? The term jihad itself is being misused. The word jihad means struggling to change oneself, to purify oneself.

So jihad in the broader sense can mean that one is struggling even to take care of his family, one is struggling even to develop his own nation. He is striving. So jihad does not necessarily mean fighting?

TZ: Islamic scriptures like Quran 2:191-193 instructs believers to kill infidels unless they submit. Are these scriptures not the genesis of jihadism as it is being practised today?

AM: You know when you are quoting scriptures, if you just quote a verse in isolation from the rest of the Quran because one verse is explained by other verses. The jihad which is explained in the Quran is where if people attack you, you have got to defend yourself.

One good example is Zimbabwe. When we were fighting colonialism, that is another form of jihad, but jihad stops to be jihad when you fight innocent people and also jihad, or fighting of physical power, cannot be used t convert people to Islam.

There is a verse in the Holy Quran, since you have quoted a verse in the Holy Quran, let me also find a verse in the Quran which says there is no compulsion in religion. It’s also in Chapter 2. It means that you cannot force someone to accept a religion. Therefore, if fighting is allowed, it should be defensive, whereby you defend yourself. Look at what they have done in Paris, they killed innocent people, civilians. And they call it jihad.

TZ: The likes of Boko Haram also sexually abuse women…

AM: Yes. They even forbid women from attending school. If you look at the teaching of the Holy Prophet it says that seeking knowledge is compulsory upon every Muslim. So where are they getting it from, the Boko Haram. These are people who have been created by the Western countries, especially the Americans and the British to portray a bad image of Islam so that people will say Islam is not good. But Islam is not like that.

I would like to give you a good example in Christianity. When colonialism came, the missionaries came with the Bible. Even though the missionaries were somewhere, somehow collaborating with the colonialists that does not mean that Christianity taught them to colonise Africa, to kill Africans, to subjugate Africans, to oppress Africans, or to steal the resources of Africa. So in that context, religion cannot be used to justify their actions. Islam itself is a merciful religion. It is a religion of tolerance, religion of kindness and peaceful co-existence.

TZ: But there are also countries such as Saudi Arabia which have been bankrolling terrorism. How do you explain such a situation whereby a supposedly Islamic state sponsors terror?

AM: You know my brother, that is a very good question, I was going to come to that. If you look at the Middle East, you will find that there is Saudi Arabia, there is Qatar, there is Kuwait. These kingdoms were not there before but were there through the support of the British government. They are puppets of the British government through whom Britain has been able to employ the tactic of divide-and-rule.

Within the Muslim world, they have created what is known as Wahhabism. This Wahhabism is an ideology that was born in Saudi Arabia with the support of the British so that they can portray a very bad picture of Islam. There is Al-Qaeda, the IS, the Boko Haram, the Al-Shabaab, look at all of them. You find that the all follow Wahhabism. Their basic teaching is that they cannot co-exist with non-believers. They are not tolerant. You find that they are not even tolerant to their own fellow Muslims

TZ: There is widespread sectarian violence in the Muslim world. Now, if Muslims cannot co-exist among each other, how do we expect world peace?

AM: That is where I was coming to. I was saying that this Wahhabism, it was created in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century and if you look at this history of the Wahhabism it was through the support of the British people.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for it to be there, it was through the arms of the British. They gave them guns and empowered them and then they managed to establish the Saudi Kingdom.

Moreover, that country was not called Saudi because Saudi is the name of the family . . . It would just have been Arabia.

So their teachings are not tolerant and through these teachings you have Al-Qaeda coming from there, you have the Boko Haram, the Al-Shabaab. They do not tolerate even their own Muslim brothers.

That’s why you find that there is this issue of the Sunni and Shia. For instance, in Iraq or in Pakistan the Wahhabists will just go into the Shia mosques and start shooting at their Muslim brothers. Why, because they are taught to be like that.

These same people are the ones killing people in Syria and in Afghanistan. All over the Muslim world they are causing havoc throughout.

TZ: Across the world Muslims are a minority and they express a sense of being under siege. Now, in Zimbabwe, can we say that we are safe from violent extremism?

AM: If you look at the society in Zimbabwe, the Muslim community, you find that the majority are the Yao Muslims, those who originate from Malawi and they are of the Sufi order and follow the school of thought called Shafi. Those are the majority and the Wahhabi have not yet infiltrated. Of course, they have students, we have graduates who studied in Saudi Arabia.

They are here, but I don’t see any possibility that they can create the same situation in the Middle

East. Why? Because in Zimbabwe there is peace and there is that freedom of worship. I might be a Sufi while the other one is a Wahhabi but there is no way that he can attack me. There is no way that he can point at me that what I am doing is wrong or maybe try to be violent because there is freedom of worship.

But in countries where the Wahhabis have the government, for instance in Saudi Arabia, they have these groups and fan these groups to go into Muslim countries and cause havoc and even kill their fellow Muslim brothers, for instance in Syria they kill those who are called Shias.

Saudi Arabia itself right now is fighting a war against Yemen and this war if you study it deeply you (find that they are)fighting the Houthi Shias. Why? Because they do not tolerate any ideology besides what they believe.

TZ: We have seen in West Africa, in North Africa and in East Africa there have been these terrorist attacks and activities. Southern Africa has been generally peaceful. Do you think it is going to subsist for longer? And what do you think should be done to keep this region and this country particularly safe?

AM: The situation I want to believe is going to exist for- ever and that is my prayer as well. But you know because of the existence of the products of these Wahhabists the seeds of this extremism are already here but the ground is not fertile for them to germinate.

They will not germinate because there is freedom of worship, there is peace and peaceful co-existence between Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and everyone is free. Even the Wahhabis can practise whatever they believe in.

And those Sufis even Shias are free to practise whatever they believe in. In countries where these people like Saudi Arabia and Yemen and other Arab countries the situation is different. So I don’t foresee any possibility that such things can happen here.

TZ: What do you think the Government and the people of Zimbabwe could do to forestall the possibility of such violent extremism taking root?

AM: My advice to my fellow Muslim brothers, the Government and the whole nation is that at the moment as Muslims here in Zimbabwe we have held several dialogue seminars whereby Muslims, Christians we come together and sit and discuss common points between Muslims and Christians.

We have had several meetings here in Harare so such gatherings should be encouraged; gatherings in which we discuss similarities rather than differences. If we continue such gatherings there is no way the enemies are going to come.