The Absence Of A Muslim Great Power

View by S. Sayyid
Sunday , 04 March 2007
TurkishWeekly

Imagine a country large as Russia with a population the size of China and an economy as large as Japan’s. Would such a country not be a major force in the world? Would its concerns and interests not be respected?

A country of such dimensions would emerge if the Organization of the Islamic Conference was not divided into 57 separate states but presented itself as one actor on the international stage.

It could be argued that neither China nor India would be thriving if they, too, were divided into 57 countries squabbling with each other. A US fragmented into 50 independent states would probably not be striding the world like a colossus. Great size is a great help in being a great power.

It could be argued that from the time of the battles of Yarmuk and Qaidyisa until the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the world has never been without a Muslim great power.

Today, the Muslim Ummah finds itself weak and divided, despised and dominated. Clearly there is no Islamicate great power.

But why should it matter to ordinary Turks, Arabs, Pakistanis, Indonesians, Somalis and Iranians that there is no Muslim great power? After all, most people who claim to be Muslims have a state to call their own.

The fate of unfortunate Chechens, Palestinians, Afghanis and Iraqis, however, is an illustration of what happens to those without a strong state able to defend them.

This did not have much political significance during a period when Muslim identity was considered to be of minor relevance, the absence of dedicated Muslim great power was not really an issue.

However, as an increasing number of people began to identify themselves with Islam, and being a Muslim becomes an identity that increasingly has social and political relevance, the absence of a Muslim great power becomes more and more noticeable.

The assertion of a Muslim identity in a context in which there is no Muslim great power has created a situation in which large numbers of people are marginalized from the international system. Many of the world’s major powers find themselves confronting restive Muslim populations, whether irredentist (Russian, China, India), diasporic (the EU) or a more conventionally colonized nature (the US).

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that one of the largest groups of people in the world who do not seem to be content with the current division of world power would describe themselves as Muslims. The absence of an Islamicate great power points to the way in which Muslims remain unrepresented at the global level.

Now it could be said that most Muslims live in Muslim countries: This means they have the protection of states and it does not really matter that there is no specifically Muslim great power that would speak for all Muslims. In fact, it could argued that it is a blessing that there is no such single entity because if there were, it would impose one interpretation of Islam and would simply be an invitation for continual strife among Muslims. Such a line of reasoning confuses the content of state policy with the existence of the state itself. There is absolutely no reason to assume that a continental size state is, by virtue of its size and strength, bound to be despotic.

A great power is sovereign, that is, it is more or less able to pursue an independent policy. It could be argued that most Muslim countries are ruled by governments that have to follow polices laid down not in their own capitals but foreign capitals.

There are many Muslims governments who feel that their rulers depend not on the support of their own people but the support of Washington.

It is easier for sovereign states to be democratic because a people can only influence their governments if their governments are dependant on support of their own people and not support of foreign countries.

The absence of Muslim great power means that the ability of Muslims to make their own history and exercise their autonomy is severely restricted. This is not only an abstract limitation but something that works its way from historical to biographical level.

Ordinary Muslims continually face the difficult task of making their biographies fit into a history that remains alien to them; a history in which they are extras.

The biggest problem that Muslims face is that most have live under regimes with a gap between rulers and ruled.

This gap is created because in the absence of a powerful political structure Muslims find that their rulers are themselves ruled.

Without sovereignty it is difficult to have prosperity.

The problems that Muslims face stem not from cultural inadequacies or individual pathologies but from political weakness: a weakness that comes about because there is not a Muslim great power.

-----------------

* Prof. S. Sayyid teaches at the University of Leeds, England.

He is the author of A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and Emergence of Islamism