How Secularists have Exploited Islam?

Abstract

Secularists have a history of collective demonization of religions. The beginning of secularism has been violent and on the basis of hostility against religion rather than understanding and tolerance. Fundamentalism has always existed in a symbiotic relationship with a secularization that is experienced as cruel, violent and invasive as the history of secularism shows. History of secularization is thus brutal whether in Europe, Ottoman Turkey, Shah’s Iran or Nasser’s Egypt. It continues to be as well in atheistic communist China, North Korea, nationalist racist Russia and in historical Islamic Middle East.

Full text

How Secularists have Exploited Islam?
M. Alashari/Mohammad M Rahman
Secularists have a history of collective demonization of religions. The beginning of secularism has been
violent and on the basis of hostility against religion rather than understanding and tolerance. During the
French Revolution, one of the first acts of the new National Assembly on November 2, 1789, was to
confiscate all Church property to pay off the national debt, so that secularization began with
dispossession, humiliation and marginalization. This segued into outright violence during the September
Massacres of 1792, when the mob fell upon the goals of Paris and slaughtered between two and three
thousand prisoners, many of them Christian priests. The glory of secularism comes not from its
benevolence but from its empowerment of human ego. Free from the divine the human made himself
his god defining his own path and purpose of life. Fundamentalism has always existed in a symbiotic
relationship with a secularization that is experienced as cruel, violent and invasive as the history of
secularism shows. History of secularization is thus brutal whether in Europe, Ottoman Turkey, Shah’s
Iran or Nasser’s Egypt. It continues to be as well in atheistic communist China, North Korea, nationalist
racist Russia and in historical Islamic Middle East.
Secularists have always appealed to the religious emotional attachments of people to make themselves
attractive and achieve their political goals. One of the first such tactic was used by the Roman empire,
which to defeat Christianity and as well as controlling it’s growing appeal, embraced it through
paganization
1
. In other words, teachings of Jesus and his disciples were abused for the secular political
benefit towards the Roman heritage and dominion. Roman paganism was nothing less than hedonistic
secular adherence to mythical deities. The Romans correctly intuited that the victory of Christianity
would mean the end of the Roman Empire, the end of the classical pagan secular world just as America
today thinks victory of Political Islam will mean the end of American empire. Luckily for the Roman
general Constantine a perfect opportunity rose in the form of a dream for him to proclaim himself as
someone like a chosen one which made him embodiment of the righteous king. In other words,
Constantine found an excuse to exploit Christianity for his Roman ambition. Constantine continued to
behave like a pagan well after his so-called conversion. It didn't stop him from killing people. It didn't
stop him from doing all of the kinds of unsavory things that Roman emperors were wont to do
2
.
1
Davis, Loren. The Paganization of Christianity. CHI, 2012.
2
Lee Hendrix, Holland. “Why Did Christianity Succeed? - Legitimization Under Constantine | From Jesus To Christ |
FRONTLINE | PBS.” Pbs.org, 2014, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/why/legitimization.html.
Accessed 2020.

However, the most effective exploitation of religion was done by Adolf Hitler who being a Darwinian
atheist
3
had embraced Jesus Christ apparently to promote hatred against Jews
4
, even though according
to Christian history Jesus forgave his killers. Today we also see similar practice by the secularists when it
comes to Islam whether Nasser, Sadat, Sissi, Shah of Iran, Emirati royals, Assad or Saddam’s Baathists
and other self-declared Muslim rulers, politicians and governments. These so-called Muslim people of
authority want to transform Islam like Roman empire did with Christianity to consolidate their corrupt
rule and dominion under American empire.
No other armed group than ISIS has caused this much damage to Islam. Even though ISIS may not have
directly caused the damage, but they have been catalysts while Islam haters from all over the world
rejoiced in bashing Islam by associating it with ISIS. However, most people do not know ISIS is a secular
run group who have exploited Islam and Muslim love for Islam to further their anti-Shia, anti-America
agenda in Iraq and Syria. It is true many Salafi Muslims had joined ISIS but the truly gruesome acts such
as burning or raping women which were done by ISIS members were dictated and implemented by
secularists Baathists
5
6
. Overseeing the network of ISIS were the former army and intelligence officers,
many of whom helped keep former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party in power for
years. Even with the influx of thousands of foreign fighters, almost all of the leaders of ISIS were former
Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority
of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.
The secularists Baathists had strengthened the ISIS group’s spy networks and battlefield tactics and were
instrumental in the survival of its self-proclaimed un-Islamic Caliphate, according to interviews with
dozens of people, including Baath leaders, former intelligence and military officers, Western diplomats
and 35 Iraqis who had fled ISIS territory for Kurdistan. Of Islamic State’s 23 portfolios – equivalent to
ministries – former Saddam regime officers ran three of the most crucial: security which oversaw the
gruesome brutalities, military and finance, according to Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi analyst who had
worked with the Iraqi government. These Baathist commanders and officers had brought to the
organization the military expertise and some of the agendas of the former Baathists, as well as the
smuggling networks developed to avoid sanctions in the 1990s and which facilitated ISIS illicit oil trading.
3
Rosenwald, Michael. “Hitler Hated Judaism. But He Loathed Christianity, Too.” The Washington Post, 20 Apr.
2019, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/20/hitler-hated-judaism-he-loathed-christianity-too/.
4
Hitler’s speech April 12, 1921 stated “My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It
points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they
were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a
fighter….”
5
Special Reports. “How Saddam’s Fighters Help Islamic State Rule.” Reuters, 11 Dec. 2015,
www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mideast-crisis-iraq-islamicstate/.
6
Sly, Liz. “The Hidden Hand behind the Islamic State Militants? Saddam Hussein’s.” The Washington Post, 5 Apr.
2015, www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-hidden-hand-behind-the-islamic-state-militants-saddam-
husseins/2015/04/04/aa97676c-cc32-11e4-8730-4f473416e759_story.html.

Some people say whether the former Baathists adhered to the ISIS ideology is a matter of debate. But
understand that a lot of these Baathists were not interested in ISIS running Iraq. They wanted to run
Iraq. A lot of them viewed the Salafi jihadists with the Leninist mind-set that they’re useful idiots who
we can use to rise to power. These Baathists, during Saddam era were drunkards, rapists and hoarders
of Iraqi people’s wealth
7
8
. To think that they embraced the Islamic faith en masse is really a miracle in
action.
7
INVISIBLE AND SILENCED WOMEN. 2006.
8
Bowden, Mark. “Tales of the Tyrant.” The Atlantic, 1 May 2002,
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/tales-of-the-tyrant/302480/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2020.