Whether we like it or not, the world today is dominated politically by the British Secularism, not because it is the most attractive political model, or because it has provided some solutions to our problems which otherwise would have not been possible, not because it has won the public political debate, but because the British Empire happened to rule the entire world in the 20th century, especially after the fall of the Ottoman Empire – the last political shelter of Muslims.
Whether the British Empire triumphed over other monarchies and empires because of its political genius or not, this is altogether a different debate, which is interesting, no less. In fact, quite often the question that what made the British Empire rule over the world intrigues me. It could be viewed as a general coincidence, a divine decree – which hasn’t necessary resulted from common consequences, or it can even interpreted as a divine punishment for the world, or perhaps all of the above are true. No one can deny the fact that the British Empire has brought to the world much evil and social degradation, so this is a form of divine punishment.
With regard to civilizations, the Qur’an presents a very curious view. In the Day of Judgment, every civilization, group, or community will have a collective judgement, apart from the individual one. So, there is a book of records for the community as a group,
“Every community will be summoned to its record (the book) of deeds. ˹They all will be told,˺ “This Day you will be rewarded for what you used to do.” [45:28] In a way, the British Secularism is given a divine chance to see what it has to present to the world, and there is a book of records for it.
In my view, the British Secularism has some serious problems, which have become active after having remained dormant for some time. First, the British Secularism is a political model of a certain empire, i.e., the British Empire; however, it appears as if it is a religion, a general model, as if it represents an alternative to the classical religions, or as if it is a universal ideological model. This leads to the second problem, and that is, the British Secularism has made some grandiose claims, such as its monopoly on truth and science, and it has made some big promises to the world: leave your religion, your tradition, submit your land to the government, abandon your tribe and family for the sake of the Secular government, and we take care of the rest.
In reality, this has been a deception, a war strategy of invading the world. The British Secularism is not what it claims and cannot deliver what it has promised. Therefore, in order to escape this responsibility and a possible political retribution for the lies, the British Secularism promotes permanent revolutions, conflicts, periodic economic crisis, financial bankruptcy, and it keeps the world under a gloom and doom mood, so people remain politically paralyzed.
Sabri Lushi
