The lead up to abolishing the Caliphate was a tumultuous time in the Muslim world. The Ottoman Empire was declining for decades. A handful of European countries began to take over swaths of land around the world, including Muslim lands. On top of that, there was a brain-drain in society where young Muslims were studying in Europe and eventually live. We lost our creative minority. Arguably the biggest nail in the coffin was placed by Turkish politician Mustafa Kemal, where he would formally abolish the Caliphate. Since then, there have been tries at reunifying the Muslim world. The only time unity means conformity is concerning major religious practice and even that has its differences. Historically, the Muslim world was surprisingly diverse politically and a unity was cultivated through it. The modern nation-state has fractured and, in some places, broken that unity. More on this in the next article. What would unity look like though in today’s time?
There have been numerous attempts in history to reestablish an Islamic polity. For some reason, I have found most of them to be political in nature in my research. I am curious as to why, but that is for another time. Here are some movements in the last one hundred years. I am not going to question a group’s intention. That is between them and Allah. But I can be critical.
First was the Khilafat Movement. It was a pan-Islamic movement that appeared in India under British rule in the early 20th century, founded in response to the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. The goal of the Khilafat Movement was to restore the Caliphate and reunite the Muslim world under a single Islamic leadership. The result was eventually unsuccessful, but it can be argued that it played a significant role in the development of Muslim nationalism and the Islamic awakening.
The movement lost support. As with many political ideas, support fluctuates.
Gandhi’s suspension of his movement and his arrest in March 1922 weakened the Khilafat movement still further. It was further undermined when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk drove the Greeks from western Asia Minor in 1922 and deposed the Turkish sultan Mehmed VI in the same year. The movement finally collapsed when Atatürk abolished the caliphate altogether in 1924.1
Another is the Arab League, founded in 1945, is still running today.
Founded in March 1945, the League of Arab States (or Arab League) is a loose confederation of twenty-two Arab nations whose broad mission is to improve coordination among its members on matters of common interest. The league was chartered in response to concerns about postwar colonial divisions of territory…2
How effective is it? There are individuals who will support it due to their political leanings. Others will not, due to the League’s complacency as seen in Syria and most recently, Palestine.
Maybe the most famous of them is the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in 1928, they are a religiopolitical movement birthed in Egypt3. The Brotherhood has branches around the world. In 2012, possibly the peak politically, Mohamed Morsi, a former member, was elected democratically as the president of Egypt. He was ousted within one year. Socially, the Brotherhood took care of people in and around Egypt. Different than their counterparts, this branch of the Brotherhood would be a light for others. What could it have been for the Brotherhood if the attention went here instead of politics?
Politics has not been friendly to the average Muslim. Movements and ideas have come and gone. In the post-colonial period, political action by leaders has not been effective. Why? I took an artificial turn and tried to see what the internet would say. I find them fairly accurate. I have edited them for succinctness and added a share link to see the full results for yourself.
The main challenges faced by Muslim leaders in their attempts to reunify the Muslim world after 1924 were:
Political divisions: The Muslim world was divided into many different political entities, each with its own interests and agendas. This made it difficult for Muslim leaders to agree on a common vision for the future.
Colonialism: Many Muslim countries were under colonial rule until the mid-20th century. This made it difficult for Muslim leaders to coordinate their efforts to reunify the Muslim world.
Lack of economic development: Many Muslim countries were economically underdeveloped, which made it difficult for them to contribute to the reunification effort.
Another challenge faced by Muslim leaders was the rise of secularism in the Muslim world. Secularism is the ideology that separates religion from government and public life. Secular leaders in the Muslim world often saw pan-Islamism as a threat to their authority, and they worked to suppress it.
Overall, the challenges faced by Muslim leaders in their attempts to reunify the Muslim world after 1924 were formidable. These challenges are still today, and it is unlikely that the Muslim world will be reunified in the near future.
The reunification of the Muslim world post-1924 was quite a feat - there were several major challenges that Muslim leaders had to overcome:
Dealing with the fallout of colonialism - this included the removal of European powers, and the need to rebuild nations and economies.
Economic instability - the colonial era left many Muslim countries economically dependent on their colonizers. The sudden removal of the colonizers created a power vacuum that caused economic turmoil.
Political challenges - Some of the newly independent nations faced power struggles and military coups.
After the formal abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, Muslim leaders faced several challenges in their attempts to reunify the Muslim world. Some of the main challenges are:
Struggle to establish a legitimate Muslim political order: After the advent of modern nation-states, there has been a constant struggle to establish a legitimate Muslim political order in West Asia and North Africa[3]. This struggle is centered around a set of issues, including Islam's relationship to the state, the state's relationship to Islam, and the role of religion in public life[3].
Secularization and western ideologies: Islamists were created in response to the fundamental challenge of secularization and western ideologies being imported into West Asia and North Africa[3]. The majority of Muslims regarded the Umayyads as nominally Muslim at best, given their worldly and opulent lifestyles, and they were unpopular on account of their having established dynastic rule by force[2].
Consolidation of political control: Mustafa Kemal's consolidation of political control in Turkey after the founding coup of March 1924 was a significant event that solidified his rule as president of Turkey[6]. He abolished the Caliphate, organized the Republican People's Party, and implemented secularism[6].
In summary, the main challenges faced by Muslim leaders in their attempts to reunify the Muslim world after 1924 included the struggle to establish a legitimate Muslim political order, the tension between Islamism and secularism, the abolition of the Caliphate, the impact of secularization and western ideologies, and the consolidation of political control.
History often speaks for itself. We all remember in elementary school the process of completing a research paper. Thank you, Ms. Bonner. Yes, do your own research, but do it to an academic standard. Dr. Cindy Ausec taught me to follow the research, even if it goes against your own hypothesis and preconceived notions. Historically we have always checked and rechecked sources. Is it sound? Are they truthful or a liar? What is the bias and how can you be transparent about it?
How then to think about unity? I propose that we start with us. Political structures have failed. People have always come together to take care of ourselves. The way of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave the incentive for those blessed to take care of those not in ideal circumstances. The third pillar of Islam, zakat, is a prime example. Muslims historically functioned well regardless of who was in charge. In the worldly sense, the believers are tested with pain. With that said, amid typing this part of the series, I must highlight the news. September 8, 2023 was the day a 6.8 earthquake rocked northern Morocco. 2,900 people died4. September 10, 2023 was the day a flood killed more than 4,300 people in Libya5. One month later, on October 7, Hamas, a political party in Gaza, entered Israel and triggered a siege by the Israeli Defense Force. By the time of this writing, it has been approximately three weeks where thousands of Palestinians, Muslim and Christian, have died. Muslims from all over the world came together and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the causes in Morocco and Libya in solidarity. For the last few weeks, Muslims have taken over the streets of London, Washington, D.C., New York City, Berlin, Sana’a, and more protesting to their leaders to do something about innocent people dying. Muhammad bin Salman has changed his tone and put talks with Tel Aviv on hold. This is exposing flaws in the security apparatus. The double standard applied by the US government in our response to innocent lives lost in Ukraine and Palestine. Trials and tribulation have brought us together. In an episode of Thinking Muslim Podcast with guest Sami Hamdi, he reminds the listener after being asked about the gloomy state of the ummah to look around and see what we are doing. The Muslims have come together from all levels of society and put leaders in check; scaring them to do the right thing. We are alive and must remember that the Ummah is strong. You are strong. This is just in the last few months. If we push back ethically, morally, and most importantly, prophetically, we will succeed. Innocent people everywhere will be safe. Do not forget, humanity will come together on the Day of Judgement for a reckoning unlike any of us have experienced.
War does not last forever. How else can Muslims come together? Let us elevate through service. “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware (Quran 49:13).” We were created to get to know one another. What is the call to action? Be noble. Attain those moral and virtuous traits. There is an honor given to us by Allah. “We have honored the children of Adam…(Quran 17:70)” “On the Day we gather the righteous as an honored company before the Lord of Mercy (Quran 19:85)” “It was said: Enter the garden. He said: O would that my people had known of that on the account of which my Lord has forgiven me and made me of the honored ones (Quran 36:26-27).” The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who showed us how to attain these things. He ﷺ is the glue of the ummah. Even while on the Earth, he ﷺ was a unifying force that brought together people of all types: widows, businesspeople, drunkards, warriors, criminals, and more and pushes us to be better. We still see that effect today at a local Islamic center. The path is easy. It takes a good intention, sincerity, and consistency to get through it all. Being like him ﷺ makes us noble and helps us attain Allah’s pleasure. In practice, we get to know one another and, coming from a beautiful, Quranic place, a unity is formed with the rest of humanity.
A third approach to unity is looking back in history. Indonesia is the most populated Muslim country. There is a grave found in Java from 10826. But we can say with certainty that Islam arrived there in the end of the 13th century. How did it become that way? The Wali Songo are attributed for establishing Islam in the country. They brought an ethic in how they conducted business. Their knowledge brought a responsibility of being present with the people, Muslim and otherwise, and integrated into society. What was good was incorporated in Muslim life and what was not, was left alone. This slowly attracted others into inquiring about them and eventually becoming Muslim. Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah writes in his important work, Islam and the Cultural Imperative that,
Its waters (Islam) are pure, sweet, and life-giving but—having no color of their own—reflect the bedrock (indigenous culture) over which they flow. In China, Islam looked Chinese; in Mali, it looked African. Sustained cultural relevance to distinct peoples, diverse places, and different times underlay Islam’s long success as a global civilization. The religion became not only functional and familiar at the local level but dynamically engaging, fostering stable indigenous Muslim identities and allowing Muslims to put down deep roots and make lasting contributions wherever they went.7
As the Muslim world became global, Muslims became key members of the societies they became a part of. In the United States, it is easy to enter politics in hopes to contribute to something important. That is not the only arena one can enter. Where are our television producers? Where are the journalists? The fashion designers? Our poets? Where are the culture makers? Most importantly, where are the good neighbors? If this is you, how can you be better? If we are to provide clarity to our American neighbors, we need to be neighbors in the truest sense. Be the best Muslim you can be, one that is Muhammadan and unapologetic.
Unity has been believed to be difficult, especially on the global scale. It is easy to get lost in the 24-hour-newscycle and get caught in the sensationalizing news ticker. That is not the reality of things though. We may be about two percent of the United States and that is okay. Change happens from the ground up. In the days writing this, Secretary of State Blinken has been pushing Netanyahu to pause the genocide in Gaza due to the world screaming. People from all over the world are coming together and scaring leaders. As the number of lives lost rises, it is important to mourn those lost and to not let their death be forgotten by our leaders. As we approach the end of time, we must do what we can to never let this happen again. If so, we take to the streets together. Do not forget, the day after is important to keep us together, unified. That way we see each other before the next genocide. I finish with the words of the great American writer and activist, Chuck D.
It's a start, a work of art
To revolutionize, make a change, nothin's strange
People, people! We are the same, no—
We're not the same 'cause we don't know the game
What we need is awareness, we can't get
Careless! You say, "What is this?"
My beloved, let's get down
To business, mental self-defensive fitness
Bum-rush the show!
You gotta go for what you know
To make everybody see! In order to
Fight the powers that be
Fight the Power - Public Enemy
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, September 15). Khilafat movement. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Khilafat-movement
Masters, J., & Sergie, M. A. (2023, May 25). The Arab League. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/arab-league
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, October 29). Muslim Brotherhood. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Muslim-Brotherhood
Rafferty, J. P. (2023, September 13). Morocco earthquake of 2023. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Morocco-earthquake-of-2023
UNICEF. (n.d.). Devastating floods in Libya. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/devastating-flooding-libya
McDivitt, J. F. , Adam, . Asvi Warman , Mohamad, . Goenawan Susatyo , Leinbach, . Thomas R. , Wolters, . Oliver W. and Legge, . John David (2023, November 4). Indonesia. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Indonesia
Abd-Allah, U. F. (2004). Islam & the Cultural Imperative. The Oasis Initiative. https://www.theoasisinitiative.org/islam-the-cultural-imperative