Barry Rubin Caliphate

BARRY RUBIN: FROM WHENCE COMETH THE CALIPHATE…….?

 

Islamists with fingers in their mouths

Personally, I would assume that the OIC would assume control of such a role, but as always, facts are a sticky and stubborn things, so that’s why it’s important to listen to people who can prove what they know to be factual, and beyond a shadow of a doubt.

NOTE: I’m now informed that: “There must be one caliph and he must have a capital. You can’t have an organization be caliph.”

Who Gets to be the Caliph?

By Barry Rubin

Who gets to be the caliph? After all, if you want to have a caliphate , as revolutionary Islamists do with much popular support among Muslims, somebody has to get the job and he has to have his capital somewhere. And that’s why the caliphate issue, beyond the most abstract demagoguery, is a potential suicide machine.

Once the issue is raised the battle begins. The caliph would have to be Sunni and thus the Shia would not accept any Sunni caliph. Indeed, while the caliph may be a positive symbol for Sunni Islamists, such a caliphate would be a symbol of oppression for the Shias, that is the majority in Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain, as well as a leading factor in Lebanon and elsewhere . This situation would set off Sunni-Shia wars.

As for the Sunnis, who among them might be a legitimate candidate? Ironically, the two who have the best credentials are anti-Islamist monarchs: the kings of Morocco and of Jordan who both claim—a claim that is generally recognized—descent from Muhammad, Islam’s founder.

Ever since the Turkish Republic abolished the caliphate, Islamists have sought to restore it. Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the 1920s for that very purpose.  One should note, by the way, that the Istanbul-based caliphate had long been meaningless. When the caliph declared a jihad against Britain and France during World War One, a move promoted by Germany, he was almost totally ignored. In fact, Arab nationalists revolted against his rule and that event is the historical basis for most of the Arabic-speaking states that exist today.

Just two days after the Turks deposed the old one, Sharif of Mecca Husain Bin Ali, ruler of the Hijaz in western Arabia, declared himself caliph. But nothing came of it since he had so many enemies. In 1925 his own kingdom was conquered and annexed by Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud, who went on to create Saudi Arabia. Jordan’s king is one of his descendants.

 More here.

2 Responses

  1. Who ever is the biggest baddast warlord bandit, that’s who.

  2. Yep, it’s that little dilemma that proves that Islam as an ideology is not only false, but it is also illogical.
    The new Caliphate is doomed to fail from the start, essentially because of the Sunni-Shia split, but also because of the inherent self-destructiveness found in Islamic teaching. The Caliphate is nothing but a dream for Muslims (and a nightmare for non-Muslims) because even if it succeeded, even if Islam defeats the West and the World Caliphate becomes a reality, the Caliphate would never last. Muslims would tear each other apart!

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