Mini Think Piece on "A Working Peace System" by David Mitrany

Three main core areas were discussed, mainly, 1) An association of nations 2) A federal system and 3) A functional approach. Thoughts on functionalism and ramification were theories introduced by Mitrany but Paul Viotti defines functionalism as focus on purpose or tasks, particularly those performed by organizations while ramification encourages an expansion of collaboration of states in one particular area to another. It's corollary with Ernst Haas 'theory of Spillover' although there are differences like in terms of regional integration literature.

Mitrany believes that world peace can be advanced if international activities are organized around needs like transport, health, postal services among others. He distinguished federalism from regionalism and remains Utopian, because he prefers consent rather than violence. He even proposed that functional organizations are to have powers, sovereignty (an essential requirement), authority, and are entrusted with tasks of government. But how can he theorized that achieving world government to keep peace must comes first from a powerful sovereign association or community of nations, when several states cannot submit its national sovereignty (etymological defined as the state's absolute power) to an identical international authority of functional organization like United Nations. It is in contrast to the functions of the '5 Big Powers' of UN Security Council, retaining veto powers is a clear manifestation of not surrendering their sovereignty to the institution. Here we sight the vulnerability of Mitrany's thought was not directed towards the goal of political integration, but only towards the goal of world peace. According to Andrew Wilson Green; 'Perhaps one can achieve world peace without political integration, and perhaps one can achieve political integration by violent means, or at least by authoritative rather than consensual means'. This leads me to ask, will functional institutions cause a sense of community or will a sense of community cause functional institutions, and thus ultimately world peace?

Even though his propositions were quasi truths, I still consider it partially true, in a sense that that he treats functionalism as a panacea (a cure for all problems); however, every states has their own interest and they want this be promoted and given attention. Hence, you cannot prevent conflicts and joining an international functional organization is like taking a part of you that you must share to achieve common goals and values.

A.M.Nassef

Mini Think Piece on "International Regimes" by Stephen Krasner

Since regime in its international context, the term is defined as voluntarily agreed-upon sets of principles, norms, rules, and procedures around which actor expectations converge in a given area of international relations. Scholars argued that international collaboration was obviously not restricted to formal international organizations such as the United Nations – cooperation was necessary in monetary and trade areas, telecommunications, air traffic control, and a whole host of areas of greater and lesser importance as it was implied by Viotti.

Scrutinizing Krasner's nitty-gritty analysis on regimes and the limits of realism is very complicated one. The autonomy of regimes is derived from lags and feedback. Lags refer to situation in which the relationship between basis casual variables and regimes becomes attenuated. Regimes come to have as independent impact on outcomes and related behavior. According to Krasner, the most common formulation refers to a situation in which power and interests change, but regimes do not. Transcending to the feedback terminology which refers to processes by which established regimes alter power and interest. How this can be? Well, based on my understanding, he stipulated a more serious puzzle for conventional ratiocination that has four mechanisms. First, regimes may alter actors' calculations of how to maximize their interest. The game-theoretic and microeconomic analyses of Stein and Keohane suggest that the existence of regimes can alter calculations of interest by changing “incentives and opportunities.” Second, regimes may alter interests themselves that would led to their creations in the first place by increasing transactions flows, facilitating knowledge and understanding, and creating property rights. Third, regimes may become a source of power to which actors can appeal. The underlying resources of the actors are not changed but then ability to influence behavior is enhanced, or circumscribed by the principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures of a regime. Fourth, regimes may alter the power capabilities of different actors, including state. By facilitating particular patterns of behavior, regimes can strengthen or weaken the resources of particular actors.

Many of the contributors in this book emphasized the relationship between complexity, interconnectedness, and regimes, and especially for Haas, regimes are designed to manage such complexity. They even adopted a structural realist perspective in approaching international regimes, which it is more accurately describes neorealism's focus on structure as principal determinant of the behavior of states, the principal units in the international system. But somehow knowledge and understanding can affect regimes as well as cognitive understanding.

A.M.Nassef

Mini Think Piece on "Principles of International Politics" by Kenneth Waltz

Waltz believed that the structure of the international system largely determines the behavior of individual states and that there is very little effective choice for leaders of states. Structural determinist is usually used in a negative or critical sense against realists, neorealists, and some Marxist. Few, if any, theorists would admit to complete structural determinism in their theories, but some do assign greater weight to structure as a determinant of the behavior of states and other actors. Structural realism is the term he preferred because in his view it is more accurately describes neorealism's focus on structure as a principal determinant of the behavior of states, the principal units in the international system.

He purport to present a systems theory of international politics, an explanation how patterns, arrangements of parts of a whole or structure of an international order affects the behavior of states. For Waltz, the perpetual condition of anarchy makes the international order very different from hierarchic national orders. Because states cannot appeal to any higher authority to resolve their disputes, understanding international politics writ large means we have “to conceive of an order without an orderer and of organizational effects where formal organization is lacking.” Taking a page from microeconomic theory, Waltz compares international politics to a market: The market arises out of the activities of separate units—persons and firms—whose aims and efforts are directed not toward creating order but rather toward fulfilling their own internally defined interests by whatever means they can muster. The individual unit acts for itself. From the coaction of like units emerges a structure that affects and constrains all of them. Once formed, a market becomes a force in itself, and a force that the constitutive units acting singly or in small numbers cannot control.

Waltz argues that over time a balance of power tends to recur among states, even if it is not the same states that are always powerful and even if the balance is achieved through different types of state actions. Fundamentally, “states are alike in the tasks that they face, though not in their abilities to perform them. The differences are of capability, not of function.” Balance-of-power theory “makes assumptions about the interests and motives of states, rather than explaining them. What it does explain are the constraints that confine all states,” which can generate broad predictions about how states will behave when confronted with similar situations.

Neorealism which is a label applied to structural realists or those realists who are interested in explaining state behavior under conditions of anarchy, which emphasize the importance of the structure of the international system and how this influences and constrains state behavior. However, it neglected the importance of values and norms as stressed by earlier realists such as Hans Morgenthau and E. H. Carr. In conclusion, Waltz concept of international politics can be compared to Marxism by German Karl Marx. It emphasizes the dialectal unfolding of historical states. It stresses the importance of economic and material forces and class analysis. It predicts that contradictions inherent in each historical epoch eventually lead to the rise of a new dominant class. Consequently, Waltz is concerned with elaborating a theory of how endogenous and exogenous factors at the international level of analysis explains state behavior and not conditions absorbed in one system than in another.

A.M.Nassef

Mini Think Piece on "Politic Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace" by Hans J. Morgenthau revised by Kenneth W. Thompson

The purpose of this book is to uncover the ‘objective truth’ of international relations through the discovery of underlying principles that can make political activity ‘knowable’ through scientific theory. It is in “Politics Among Nations” that Morgenthau makes clear on his philosophy of power and the logic of its operation in the international environment. The combination of a rational outline and the attempt to draw lessons from the historical record typify the approach of Morgenthau in “Politics Among Nations.” Morgenthau has a precise idea of the purpose of theory, which is ‘to bring order and meaning to a mass of phenomena which without it would remain disconnected and unintelligible.’ This is a revealing statement of intent by Morgenthau as it demonstrates that he is confident of his ability to uncover a method of understanding international relations by the deployment of theoretical strategies and the capacity of language to bring order to the chaos of international relations.

The theoretical space in of this book is demarcated between two political positions, liberalism and realism, cast in terms of antitheses of each other. The synthesis of utopianism and realism, so important to Carr, is left relatively unexplored by Morgenthau in this phase of his analysis of international theory, when he does so, it is generally in terms of the failures of both to provide answers to the fundamental problem of international relations, that of international conflict. In ‘The Machiavellian Utopia’ he clearly identifies the failure of existing theory, both liberal and realist. The Wilsonian vision of the League of Nations was heroic and futile, while the framers of the United Nations at Dumbarton Oaks are criticized for producing a solution less heroic, but no less futile.

The six principles of realism arise out of the initial juxtaposition of realism and liberalism in Morgenthau’s opening theoretical salvo. The battleground in this war of theories is clearly marked. On one side is liberalism, which is essentially rational and has as its aim further progress towards a moral political order. Its foundations are universally valid, abstract principles reasoned deductively from an a priori basis. It takes as its foundational assumption the essential ‘goodness’ of human nature: the failure of the social order is a failure to live up to rational standards, and the means by which to create order is through education, reform, and occasionally coercive violence. On the other side lies realism, which Morgenthau characterizes as rationally imperfect, a fault which is the result of human imperfection. The world is not composed of a single vision, but is instead composed of a multiplicity of opposing and conflicting interests. Moral principles, far from being universal, can never be fully realized and can at best attain an approximate morality based on the lesser evil rather than the greater good. Underpinning the realist world view is a form of reason based not upon the a priori but rather the uncertain and imprecise knowledge gained from historic precedent.

In what seems a peculiar decision, Morgenthau declares that it is not his intention to attempt a ‘systematic exposition’ of the political philosophy of realism, but rather to restrict his analysis of realism to the presentation of six principles ‘which have been frequently misunderstood.’ The first and most important of these principles concerns the very nature of human knowledge about political behavior. Political realism, according to Morgenthau, states that politics is governed by ‘objective’ laws that have their roots in human nature, which he claims has remained the same since the classical civilizations of India, China, and Greece first attempted to analyze them. This statement has implications with regard to the type of theory that Morgenthau is trying to create. The first of these is that the theory is based upon the assumption that human nature and the laws that are the corollary of human nature are immutable. This is necessarily a determinist argument and implies that the mode of analysis is essentially restricted to the single element of human causation and its effect on the international environment.

Throughout “Politics Among Nations,” Morgenthau cites countless examples in support of his theory of international relations, but seems unaware that this data is in fact specific, not general; one example that contradicts his theory of international politics is enough to falsify his assumptions of the ‘timelessness’ and immutability of human behavior. It is this lack of a rational outline to history that ultimately convinced him of the need to reassess as he had expressed it in “Politics Among Nations.” Morgenthau makes no effort to contextualize the writings of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Kautilya, Hobbes et al., he merely subsumes them within his concept of the notion of truth to which he subscribes.

In conclusion, Morgenthau developed a model of politics in “Politics Among Nations” which was based not upon empirical reality but was instead designed to contain this empirical reality within a rational framework. In doing so, he repeated the mistake of his liberal counterparts, albeit without their commitment to unrealistic Utopian projects. This book also paved the way, however unwittingly, for the much less reflective and more reductive neorealism, as his commitment to a human science was replaced with a theory that deploys the philosophy of science as the source of its authority. Morgenthau’s rediscovery of the real, in response to a Vietnam war that he opposed, provoked in Morgenthau a bitter realization that power and politics cannot be constrained within a rational framework. Ultimately, when forced to choose between abstraction and political reality, Morgenthau chose reality. This decision demonstrates the vitality of Morgenthau’s particular branch of realism; unlike the neorealists, who desperately cling to their theoretical frameworks in the face of all evidence to the contrary, the commitment to critique reality and theory from a series of fresh angles as empirical reality demands, suggest that Morgenthau’s ideas and attitude continue to have a significant role to play in International Relations.

A.M.Nassef

Mini Think Piece on "The Twenty Years Crisis" by Edward H. Carr

The 'Twenty Years Crisis' which is considered as the first scientific treatment of empiricism in modern politics. In his youth, Carr was a liberal, believing in free trade and social reform. But in the early 1930s the Great Depression convinced him that capitalism was bankrupt and must give way to a system in which the state played a crucial role. He argued that the failure of competitive capitalism meant that there could be no return to the individualistic democracy of a privilege class or to the weak state exercising only police functions. He also stated that everyone is committed to mass democracy, to egalitarian democracy, to the public control and planning of the economic process, and therefore to the strong state exercising remedial and constructive functions.

This book was in processed before World War II, thus predicting a prelude to a global war i.e. states' interests are paramount in world politics and creating a conflicting ideas between realism and idealism. One of the main points that he was trying to assess is that British academics and intellectuals were idealists neglecting power in international politics. This is due to the fact that he is regarded in official circles as “pro-Soviet,” and refused senior posts in the London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, the University of Oxford, and Kings' College, Cambridge. In this pattern, i am trying to compare Carr's personal thinking and the period he lives in, which led me to an individual level of analysis. Somehow and more frequent, his personal being affects his thinking in formulating theories as to whether it is timely or not.

Pointing out the significance of power in Carr's literary works; he forcefully assures that power is an essential ingredient in international politics. But he left unclear bases or grounds on the ontological perspective or rationale of concept of power in realism. British academics directly attacked his beliefs on the parameter of institutionalism and interdependency. John Mearsheimer of University of Chicago presented three main points of prospects of a new international order with regards to the analogy of Carr's Twenty Years Crisis: (1) Contemporary idealists will not going to transform international politics; (2) It is unwise for idealists to try to marginalized the study of traditional security issues; (3) Pluralism should foster in the broader field of international relations.

Given these three discoursed, I find the last one as contrasting view from the first and second for it promotes idealism while the first two points are trying to halt the impeccable concepts within the circle of idealism. In conclusion, this book does not actually elaborate nor expound the theory of realism but it greatly manifest the concept of power as an important parcel of world politics especially to the dominant actors which are the states. Further, it’s also a greater critique against the hegemonic course of idealism in British academics.

A.M.Nassef

Mini Think Piece on "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" by Samuel P. Huntington

Huntington proposed that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. I think this was written in reaction to Fukuyama’s The End of History and The Last Man. He believed that while the age of ideology had ended, the world had only reverted to a normal state of affairs characterized by cultural conflict. His view that nation states would remain the most powerful actors is in line with realism and that he sees the twilight years of Western civilization over the emergence of the Eastern fulcrum. Predominant religion (the three great dessert religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) seem to be the main criterion of his classification, but in some cases geographical proximity and linguistic similarity are important as well. Huntington argues that trends of global conflict after the end of the Cold War are increasingly appearing at his fixed civilizational divisions. These are the Western civilization, Orthodox world, Latin America as a hybrid of west culture, Muslim world, Sinic civilization, Japan as a hybrid of Sinic culture, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Buddhist areas. There were also minor civilizations as he transcribes as “Lone” countries i.e. Israel, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Turkey.

Somehow his proposal is somewhat true but I beg to disagree that these conflicts are measured in a global level. The origin of rival claim territories of today is not usually based on cultural and religious identities of his fixed civilizations; it is also blended with socio-political and economic factors as well as international regimes, interdependency and world hegemons. Some of the indicative rival claims were Antarctica, Basque, Chechnya, Kuriles, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Sabah, Cyprus, Kashmir, Kurdistan, South China Sea, Tamil, and the permafrost of the Arctic. Many of these were in a level of interstate and regional conflicts. There is a great chance of collaboration of the Islamic and Sinic civilizations against Western civilization as it was materialized on the US invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, the 2005 cartoon crisis, 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, and the ongoing Iranian nuclear crisis. The emergence of China as a world power may assert clashes with the American desire for the lack of regional hegemony in East Asia.

He believed that the Western-Islamic clash would represent the bloodiest conflicts of the early 21st century. What he didn’t perceive was that the Eastern civilizations have retained its cultural identity even if they adopted Western economic system. Modernization is pushing through for China, India, East Asian Tigers, and ASEAN. It can be seen that Huntington relies mostly on anecdotal evidence, despite more rigorous empirical studies have not shown particular increase in the frequency of inter-civilizational conflicts in the post-Cold War period. Clashes of civilizations were merely based on conflicts but its vulnerability is the essence of collaboration e.g. US and Saudi Arabia’s partnership, Turkey’s pending application to EU, and the onslaught of environmental problems such as climate change and global warming.

A.M.Nassef

Mini Think Piece on "Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism" by Vladimir I. Lenin

After reading the book, Lenin accurately describes and analyzes the structures, functions and organization of the economy, polity and society. He believed that the economic base determined the political structures; the economy determined politics and culture. From what I know, imperialism had been thought in two separate classical fields. One is from politics and the other economics, however, a new course has evolved and these two merge into one new discipline i.e. Political-Economy. There were various interpretation from different academics e.g. Sociology, Western and Eastern perspectives. Lenin’s theory captured the world economic, financial and military systems where imperial powers competed to dominate the globe. In this way, peaceful economic competition pursued through political and diplomatic means, which give way to military competition and war. Lenin called this process of economic and military competition between the great powers and the domination of less developed countries resulting from it – Imperialism.

His data and summary proved to him that imperialistic wars are absolutely inevitable under such an economic system, as long as private property is the chief means of production. He even argued that capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the population of the world by a handful of advanced countries. Lenin’s approach to the colonized by the great powers was qualitatively different. Underpinning the definition made by Karl Kautsky on imperialism as a product of highly developed industrial capitalism. It consists in the striving of every industrial capitalist nation to bring under its control or to annex all large territories, irrespective of what nations inhabit it. This new form of imperialism is an ambition of a single growing empire motivated by similar lusts of political aggrandizement, commercial gain and dominance of investments over mercantile interests.

The economic essence of imperialism is simply monopoly capitalism it arose out of the concentration of production at a very high stage, stimulated the seizure of raw materials, has sprung from banks, and grown out of colonial policy. But what would be the last result or stage? According to Lenin, there would be a decaying or declining stage of capitalism. Yet he failed to see economic alliances and the roles of globalization even though he clairvoyantly prophesized globalization that focuses on dominance to understand world politics. This image has been materialized through the formation of World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the like. Lenin’s consistent ideological insistence on the eventual decay and decline of capitalism blinded him to the other stages and possibilities that capitalism would develop in a measured duration of time.

A.M.Nassef

Anthropogenic Global Warming: Beyond the Hype, Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason by Dr. Perry S. Ong

Dr. Ong, a Ph. D. in Science for Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is the Director of the UP Institute of Biology. Ong was chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men by the Philippine Jaycees in 2000. That same year he was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) for his significant contributions to the knowledge and better understanding of the diversity of Philippine wildlife which has resulted in a greater public awareness and appreciation of the importance of this biological resource in the whole ecosystem. His efforts have drawn the active participation of the academe, private sector and NGOs towards the management and conservation of protected areas, including fauna and flora, in the Philippines .

Reactors:

Prof. Felino Lansigan, UPLB

Prof. Alyssa Alampay, UPD

Date:

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 2PM

Venue:

NISMED Auditorium, UP Diliman, Quezon City

Other related videos:

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www.WatchMojo.com presents... A quick look at what exactly Climate Change is and how its affecting our planet.

ABC World News Tonight on Climate Change

A.M.Nassef

The Quest for Pan-Islamic Civilization: Crisis and Prospects for a Muslim Ummah under a Rightly Guided and Ordained Caliphate

In the end of the course, the researcher was confronted with various cynical topics having diverse thinking on how to commence these research works. One thing seen is how to address an issue-area that until now is still an issue and haven’t been resolved. The Muslim jurists we have discussed had certainly give alternative solutions, however, mostly cannot be operationalized under the scheme of implementing it realistically. So in the light of all these thundering skepticisms, the researcher has come to a concluding part that this will be the focus of the study:

The need for a unified Islamic identity was a product of the challenges posed by Western intervention in and domination of Muslim societies during the colonialist period. Leaders throughout the Muslim world appealed to the Islamic tradition to solidify public opposition to foreign occupation and thereby gain political independence. Pan-Islamism used cultural ideas to achieve nationalist political ends and emphasized the religious heritage and symbols that both united all Muslims and set them apart from their Western Christian colonialist occupiers.

Pan-Islamism is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic governance or a Caliphate to be exact, which advocates the unity and independence of Muslims regardless of ethnicity, race, cultural orientations et al. This is actually the phenomenology used by al-Afghani in setting out his normative aspirations for a pan-Islamic civilization. By civilization, he meant the intellectual and moral achievements that contributed to the unity and greatness of a people. He strongly believed that the Muslim world could recover its lost glory and power if it would return to its fundamental teachings and, most importantly, would unite.[1]

Al-Afghani’s Introductory Ordeals

According to al-Afghani, the call for a pan-Islamic civilization was solely a political goal, not a religious one, meant to counter the infiltration of ideas from the West and the sense that Western society as a whole was to be imitated.[2]

Afghani argued throughout his life that Western civilization was not innately superior, it just happened to have the upper hand at that time because Muslim society was weak. Muslim society was, in his opinion, torn apart by internal division and immoral leaders.[3]

Afghani believed that to live in the modern world demanded changes in Muslim ways of organizing society, and that it must try to make those changes while remaining true to it. Islam, Afghani believed, was not only compatible with reason, progress and social solidarity, the bases of modern civilization, but if properly interpreted it positively enjoined them. However, he felt that this would be possible only if Islam was interpreted to make it compatible with survival, strength and progress in the world.[4]

In other words, Afghani believed that it was feasible for Muslims to regain their status and possession of the beautiful and the desirable; He felt it was the end of human activity and specifically of political activity to pursue this, and he felt strongly that there must be a way for Muslim countries to regain their power.[5]

Afghani felt that a united Islamic civilization was one answer to this problem. He felt that if all Islamic sects united, they could balance the threat from the West better than they could in their current divided state. He desired to unite all branches of the Islamic community in a program of self-strengthening that required theological distinctions to be played down -- including the Sunni/Shiite split -- in favor of a vague belief in the superiority of Islam that could appeal to everyone.[6]

Bernard Lewis argues that for Afghani, Islam was a civilization, potentially a world power, and only incidentally a faith; its basic demand was for loyalty rather than for piety. Afghani stressed the practical, political side of Islam, rather than its speculative or theological side.[7]

Specifically, Afghani called for an Islamic civilization that shared a common religion, common language and common faith. He stressed that in a pan-Islamic civilization, there would be no separation between church and state as there had been in the West. After all, in Islam, even from its earliest times, religion and matters of state, ethics, law and politics were blended and Islam does not make the western distinction between religion and politics.[8]

Research Problem

The researcher will try to answer vehemently the following inquiries:
1. How to rejuvenate and explain the critical decadence of the Islamic world?
2. Is it feasible to attain Pan-Islamism of an Ummah under the governance of a Caliphate? Why?

The researcher will examine historical context and other attempts, be it non-radical or radical movements, in reviving pan-Islamic civilization.

Hypothesis and Conceptual Framework

The researcher would like to hypothesize that to realize a great pan-Islamic civilization of Muslim Ummah under a rightly guided and ordained Caliphate, a sustainable economic, political and social development in every Muslim dominated area, not just countries but communities where Muslims are adamant must be feasible. To show this on matrix between the relationship of independent and dependent variables:

IV ---> DV
A sustainable economic, political
and social development in every ---> Pan-Islamism
Muslim dominated area

The independent variable somehow can be modify if this is implausible for the study, but, the researcher finds it highly plausible to attain the dependent variable, which is characterize of a critical factor precedence.

In the context of International Organizations (IO), the researcher is presenting a highly probable of parallelism between European Union, which is an off-shoot of Pan-Europeanism, to the central focus of the study – Pan-Islamism (since this is a political aspiration of al-Afghani, not theological one). European Union started from the ashes of World War II through Robert Schuman’s proposal of European Coal and Steel Community, this idea was to reduce the production of war armaments from the raw of steel and of course to gradually eliminate wars (and the rest as they say it were history). Mostly EU member states have the same political leadership style, which is democracy, and are socio-economic stable, so a union is very feasible.

How about in the Islamic world? This is difficult to answer since a very purge crisis is undertaking in the whole Muslim world, some geopolitical issue-areas are apprehended (these are the critical decadences):

§ Diverse political structures, some are ruled by totalitarianism, absolute monarchy, elitism or aristocracy; the others are in democratic form of government. Saudi is a monarchial form of government holding the premium titular of absolute, thus the king as vicegerent of the Arab League, Muslim World League and custodian of the two holiest cities in Islam, i.e., Madinah and Makkah. Totalitarian and socialist rule in Libya, elitism rule in some part of Arabian Peninsula, Mediterranean and North Africa, and mostly in Southeast Asia are democratic. So you cannot take away why Organization of Islamic Conference sometimes are in despair of political alienation and anomie.

§ Economic burdens and social apathy, e.g., rising levels of poverty and unemployment, lack of education, growing corruption, violence, wars, terrorism, and internal insurgencies. Just look at Sudan (especially the Darfur region), Chechnya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mindanao, among others.

The crisis in the Muslim world is the result of bad governance, poor strategic thinking and planning, and lack of freedom, dignity, and respect for inalienable human rights. Terrorism and extremism lies in the despair, anger, frustrations, and humiliation that most Arabs and Muslims feel and which they believed was caused by their corrupt and inefficient governments and the West which continue to support them.[9]

One intolerable manifestation is that U.S. supported repressive regimes in Middle East and hard-line Islamic movements that makes democratic and nonviolent options for the Islamic opposition extremely difficult.[10] The U.S. should support sustainable economic development in the Islamic world, so the benefits of foreign investment and globalization can be more fairly distributed with minimal social disruption, instead of repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia.[11] Convince US and European governments and policy-makers that they must stop their support for oppressive and authoritarian rulers in the Arab and Muslim world.

In understanding the IO context, we’ll utilize an appropriate theory of International Relations to construct a rejuvenation of Islamic world and propose a feasible set-up for the IV; this is Alexander Wendt’s Social Constructivism theory from his 1999 “Social Theory of International Politics” in addressing the major contemporary conflicting issues. Constructivism examines the role of norms and, in fewer cases, identify in shaping international political outcomes. Henry Nau of George Washington University has provocatively theorized that a country’s national interest begins with what kind of society the nation is, not just what its geopolitical circumstances are (Checkel 2004:3).

Entrusted as structure of human association wherein its constructed identity and interest is determined by shared ideas rather than nature or material forces. The idealist ontology of social constructivism is particularly attractive since it offers the prospect of “via media” (Baylis 2001:247). This is the most fundamental fact about society in nature and organization of material forces e.g. forces of destruction (Wendt 1999). Wendt looked at the structure of ideas in the social system. The structure of any social system will contain elements of material conditions, interests and ideas. These elements are equally necessary to explain social outcomes.

Common knowledge is the answer for this devastated problem. Common knowledge according to Wendt concerns actors’ beliefs about each other’s rationality, strategies, preferences, and beliefs as well about states of the external world. These beliefs need not be true, just believed to be true. Common Knowledge requires interlocking beliefs meaning those beliefs must be accurate beliefs about others’ belief. Common knowledge is an interaction-level phenomenon as one of the three levels of analysis relevant to theorizing about world politics. Constructivists are more interested on its constitutive effects. The relationship between agency and the structure is not of interaction but of mutual constitution.

By stating this theory, the feasibility of Pan-Islamism of Muslim Ummah under the governance of a Caliphate will be materialized through the preponderance of social norms, postulated by social-constructivists. If every Muslim dominated areas shared the same social norms through the advent of Islam as a theological and political entity, then, admissibly a political union paralleled to EU will materialize. just like Abduh’s tenet of gradual reforms, not everything can be done in just an instant, a gradual process of political reforms must be realize first.[12] Within the conceptualization of the framework and hypothesizing part of the study, we will now discuss the historical context and meanings of pan-Islamic civilization, Ummah, and Caliphate.

Survey of Historical Artifacts

The Caliphate
After the four “rightly guided” Successors to the Prophet, the “Caliphate” (or dynastic monarchies) started, and it remained among the Muslims for more than 1250 years. Muawiyya founded the Umayyad dynasty in 661, and his son, Yazid I, became caliph in 688. The House of Umayyad ruled the Muslim world for almost a century. In 749, the Abbasid (descendents of Prophet’s uncle Hadhrat Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib) overthrew the Umayyad and retained power for next five centuries. However, they suffered a great tragic setback when the Mongols attacked Baghdad in 1258, and the then Caliph al-Musta'sim was executed. Three years later, a surviving member of the Abbasid family was installed as Caliph at Cairo under the patronage of the Mamluk Sultanate; but this remained a “shadow”/titular Caliphate, and mostly limited to only ceremonial and religious matters.[13]

Turkish Sultans assume the Caliphate
The Turkish Ottoman Muslim rulers used the title “Sultan” for themselves, but the seventh Sultan of Ottoman dynasty, Mehmed II (1432-1481) and his son Selim I, claimed to be Caliphs to justify their conquest of Islamic heartland. In the beginning, they used the title "Caliph" symbolically, but it took a kind of permanency when the Ottoman Empire defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517. The last Abbasid Caliph at Cairo, al-Mutawakkil III, was imprisoned and taken to Istanbul, where he reportedly surrendered the Caliphate to Selim I. The Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman dynasties ruled in multifaceted forms of administrations. At times, multiple Caliphates were running parallel to each other. Internal conflicts, rebellions and rivalries leading to oppression and bloodshed were not uncommon. Thus slowly and gradually, the institution of Caliphate lost much of its legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslim Ummah. Clearly, the caliphs were far-removed from the norms set by the Prophet and the early Khulafa to be serious contenders to the leadership of Muslims. None of them could claim to be the spiritual and religious leader of the entire Muslim Umma. The objectives of Prophethood were mostly discarded. But in secular matters, cultural advancements were made in various sciences and arts creating a new and robust civilization. The moral and spiritual essence of khilafat survived to some extent through the religiosity of conservative Islamic Scholars (Ulama), but was mostly preserved and sustained by Aulia (Saints), Imams (spiritual and religious guides), Mujjaddids (religious reformers) and the Sufis (mystics).[14]

End of the Caliphate
During the World War I (1914-1918), the Turkish Ottoman Empire fought against Britain and her Allies, and was defeated. By the end of World War I, the Turkish Ottoman Empire was occupied by European allies, and its territories were divided among them. Mehmed VI, the 36th Sultan was exiled, and after his death the Sultanate was abolished in 1922. However, his cousin, the Crown Prince Abdul Majid II, was elected by the Turkish National Assembly in Ankara as ‘Caliph’. Later, on March 3, 1924, he was deposed and expelled from Turkey along with the rest of his family. This was followed by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) formally abolishing Caliphate and the shariah court system. Abdul Majid II, therefore, is considered to be “Aakhir Khalifatul Muslimeen” – the last Caliph among the Muslims.[15]

1960s and Beyond
Following the stunning defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War, Pan-Islamism began to reverse its position with nationalism and pan-Arabism. In 1979 the Iranian Revolution ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from power and in 1989 Muslim mujahideen successfully forced the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, which galvanised Islamists all over the world into renewed efforts, and increased their popularity. The various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Middle-East and in particular Egypt have since been a significant challenge to the secular nationalist or monarchical governments in the region. In Pakistan and Bangladesh the Jamaat-e-Islami enjoyed popular support especially since the formation of the Muslim brotherhood, and in Algeria the FIS was expected to win the cancelled elections in 1992. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hizb-ut-Tahrir has emerged as a Pan-Islamist force in Central Asia and in the last five years has re-emerged with significant strength in the Arab world.[16]

Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brothers is an international Sunni Islamist movement and the world's largest, most influential political Islamist group. The Brotherhood is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab nations, particularly Egypt. Founded by the Sufi schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928, several linked groups have since formed across many nations of the Muslim world.[17] In the group's belief, the Quran and Sunna constitute a perfect way of life and social and political organization that God has set out for man. Islamic governments must be based on this system and eventually unified in a Caliphate. The MB goal, as stated by Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna was to reclaim Islam’s manifest destiny, an empire, stretched from Spain to Indonesia. It preaches that Islam enjoins man to strive for social justice, the eradication of poverty and corruption, and political freedom to the extent allowed by the laws of Islam. The Brotherhood strongly opposes Western colonialism, and helped overthrow the pro-western monarchies in Egypt and other Muslim nations during the early 20th century.[18]

The Muslim Brotherhood advocates pan-Islamic unity and implementing Islamic law, it is the largest and most influential Islamic group in the world, and its offshoots form the largest opposition parties in most Arab governments. Founder Hasan al-Banna wrote about the restoration of the Caliphate, but officially sanctioned Islamic institutions in the Muslim world generally do not consider the Caliphate a top priority and have instead focused on other issues. Islamists argue it is because they are tied to the current Muslim regimes.[19]

Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international, Sunni, pan-Islamist vanguard political party whose goal is to unite all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law and headed by an elected head of the caliphate.[20]
The stated aim of Hizb ut-Tahrir is to unite all Muslim nations in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, headed by an elected caliph. This it holds is a religious duty, "an obligation that Allah has decreed for the Muslims and commanded them to fulfill. He warned of the punishment awaiting those who neglect this duty." According to the BBC, the group "professes non-violence and calls for the return in Muslim majority countries to the caliphate which oversaw the golden age of Islam before European imperialism colonized the Middle East." According to GlobalSecurity.org, Hizb ut-Tahrir is a "secretive sectarian group," that is "not against violence as such. It is just against the use of violence now."

It is particularly strong in Central Asia, Europe and growing in strength in the Arab World and is based on the claim that Muslim can prove that God exists and that the Qur'an is the word of God. Hizb-Ut-Tahrir believes in a non-violent political and intellectual struggle, that is both a ground up and top down approach in the Muslim World, whilst in the West its aim is an intellectual struggle to show Islam as an alternative system to Capitalism and a solution to regulate the environment and global warming. Its world view, similar to Christianity and Judaism includes depth perception i.e. that we will all be accountable to Allah on the Day of Judgment. In a Muslim world view, foundations of beliefs, rationality and causes are looked into rather than plain political analysis, which can be ideologically biased.

Operationalization of the Caliphate

A caliphate is the Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world. The Caliph, the political leader of the Muslim community (Ummah), has a position based on the notion of a successor to Muhammad's political authority. The caliphate is the only form of governance that has full approval in traditional Islamic theology, and "is the core political concept of Sunni Islam, by the consensus of the Muslim majority in the early centuries."[21]

The caliph, or head of state, was often known as Amīr al-Mu'minīn "Commander of the Believers", Imam al-Ummah, Imam al-Mu'minīn or more colloquially, leader of all the Muslims. Each member state (Sultanate, Wilayah, or Emirate) of the Caliphate had its own governor (Sultan, Wali or Emir). Dar al-Islam was referred to as any land under the rule of the caliphate, including a land populated by non-Muslims and land not under rule of the caliphate was referred to as Dar al-Kufr (lit. land of non-Islam), even if its inhabitants were Muslims, because they were not citizens under Islamic law. The first capital of the Caliphate after Prophet Muhammad died was in Medina. At times in Muslim history there have been rival claimant caliphs in different parts of the Islamic world, and divisions between the Shi'a and Sunni parts.[22]

Pioneer Islamist Abul Ala Maududi believed the caliph was not just an individual ruler who had to be restored, but was man's representation of God's authority on earth; Khilafa means representative. Man, according to Islam is the representative of "people", His (God's) vicegerent; that is to say, by virtue of the powers delegated to him, and within the limits prescribed by the Qu'ran and the teaching of the prophet (peace upon him), the caliph is required to exercise Divine authority.[23]

As a vicegerent, man is given the ability to manage and control his world as a trust (amanah) through which he achieves what is his worth and his conduct decides his eternal destiny in the hereafter.[24]
Islamic Jurists in Operationalizing Khalifa
Ibn Taymiyyah (gave pervasive criteria in general)
§ leaders of a state must get the trust of the constituents and act justly when setting conflicts
§ khalifa will be chosen base on the capability, competence and integrity
§ head of state as the shadow of God

Muhammad Abduh (gave insights of measurability over leader’s competency)
§ People’s counsel in phases
§ 15 years training, establish a city counsel, establish house of representative, while El Fadl provided a 25 years of training in jurisprudence.
§ Consultation (obligatory)

Muhammad Rashid Rida (gave concrete assertions for its criteria)
khalifa’s requirements:
§ establish a high education institute for religion
§ elected possessing superior in science and an ijtihad graduate
§ confirmed through royalty pledge
§ loyalty to the elected khalifah, an obligatory
§ pan-Islamism should be led by a sultan

Conclusion

The basic tenet in Islam is “equal rights for all citizens.”[25] Manifested in the Madinah Charter, an early document negotiated by Muhammad in AD 622 with the leading clans of Madīnah, explicitly refers to Jewish and pagan citizens of Madīnah as members of the Ummah. Prophet Muhammad exhorted the Muslims to rush to the aid of the neighbor, to help him if he needed help, to lend money to him if he needed it, to help him financially if he faced poverty, to visit him in his sickness, to console him in his misfortune, to help him in his difficulties, to participate in his funeral when he died and to shower on him gifts as well as display acts of good neighborliness. What is important to note is that Prophet Muhammad did not talk of a Muslim neighbor but a neighbor.[26]

Imam al-Ghazali states: “Know ye that the Shari’ah is the foundation, and the government is the sentinel. If the government has no foundation, it is bound to fall into ruins, and if the Shari’ah has no sentinel, it will be lost and destroyed.” Islam does not approve of a state based on the domination and power of one person or party. The idea is that a state must be based on the consent and co-operation of the people as the Qur’an commands consultation (Shura) which clearly accepted by the Shari’ah.[27]

The Muslim community is responsible for enforcing the laws of the Shari’ah in its collective affairs including certain commandments which guide matters to all Muslims. It is clear that the mentioned Islamic notion of equality to all citizens in a Muslim state provided them an equal right to participate in the decision-making process, and this notion of equal political right in Islamic constitutional tradition found its first practical expression in the constitutional life of the early Madinah state.[28]

The term representation (Wakalah) according to the Shari’ah means: ‘The appointment of a deputy for the purpose of acting on one’s behalf concerning matters in which representation is legally valid.” Ijma’ as a unanimous agreement of the jurists of the community of a particular age on a ceratin issue or in other words the consensus of the community as represented by the Muslim scholars (Ulama) or learned Muslim jurists. Majority principle should be the basis for decision-making in Legislative Assembly (Majlis al-Shura).[29]

Prospect for better relationship between Sunni and Shiite

In a special interview broadcast on Al Jazeera on February 14, 2007, former Iranian president and chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and highly influential Sunni scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, "stressed the impermissibility of the fighting between the Sunnis and the Shi’is" and the need to "be aware of the conspiracies of the forces of hegemony and Zionism which aim to weaken (Islam) and tear it apart in Iraq."[30]

In a milestone for the two countries' relations, on March 3 2007 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held an extraordinary summit meeting. They displayed mutual warmth with hugs and smiles for cameras and promised "a thaw in relations between the two regional powers but stopped short of agreeing on any concrete plans to tackle the escalating sectarian and political crises throughout the Middle East."[31]

On his return to Tehran Ahmadinejad declared that "Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are aware of the enemies' conspiracies. We decided to take measures to confront such plots. Hopefully, this will strengthen Muslim countries against oppressive pressure by the imperialist front."[32]

Saudi officials had no comment about Ahmadinejad's statements, but the Saudi official government news agency did say: "The two leaders affirmed that the greatest danger presently threatening the Islamic nation is the attempt to fuel the fire of strife between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and that efforts must concentrate on countering these attempts and closing ranks."[33]

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said, "The two parties have agreed to stop any attempt aimed at spreading sectarian strife in the region"[34]

Democratic Compatibility with Islam

Islam is antithetical to nationalism because of its negation of all racial, ethnic and hereditary criteria of distinction among human beings, and of its belief that all of them form one community. Islam can be compatible with democracy because there is no place in it for arbitrary rule by one man or group of men. A democratic principle in Islamic idioms is a mere reformulation of its complexities and challenges.

A democratic form of government that respects Islamic values without imposing them on citizens or on society. A democracy governed by Islamic principles, wherein the religious leaders as advisors to the lawmakers, and not become lawmakers or politicians themselves. (Enayat 1982:129)

Epilogue

The researcher hopes that this may added in the realm of Islamic literature in understanding the pit-falls of Pan-Islamism and its potentialities. Though this is only a seminar research paper, it may hopefully give insights to the focus of the study. Thorough research is needed to make this more plausible and may perform the causality requirements of precedence, plausibility and invariability in the helm of research work. The researcher have posited that if there is sustainable economic, political and social development in the Muslim world then an intact pan-Islamic civilization of Ummah under a Caliphate will be materialize by incorporating the theory of social constructivism in parallel with the European Union experiences.

Work Cited

Books

Baylis, John and Smith, Steve. The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 242-48.

El Fadl, Khaled Abou. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.

Enayat, Hamid. Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin: University of Texas, 1982.

Narayan, B. K. Pan Islamism: Background and Prospects. New Delhi: Chand and Company Ltd., 1982.

Sjadzali, Munawir H. Islam and Governmental System: Teachings, History and Reflections. Jakarta: Indonesian-Netherlands Cooperation in Islamic Studies, 1991.

Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.


Journals/Lecture

Bin Thaib, Lukman. “Politics from the Islamic Perspective.” SEASREP-TOYOTA Foundation Grant. Intensive Lectures, UP-IIS (18-22 September 2000)

Checkel, Jeffrey T. “Social Constructivism in Global and European Politics (A Review Essay).” Advanced Research on the Europeanisation of the Nation-States (ARENA) 15 (2004):1-26.
URL source http://www.arena.uio.no/ Path: download source

Masmoudi, Radwan A. “Political Islam and The Future of Democracy in the Middle East.” Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. The American Muslim (14 February 2008): 1-7.
URL source: http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/ Path: download features

Zunes, Stephen. “U.S. Policy toward Political Islam.” Foreign Policy In Focus. 6.24 (June 2001): 1-4.
URL source: http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol6/v6n24islam.html

Monograph in Online Articles

Ahmad, Mubasher. “Khilafat and Caliphate.”
URL source: http://www.alislam.org/topics/khilafat/khilafat-and-caliphate.pdf

Caliphate
URL source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate

Costa, Danielle. “Afghani’s Vision of a Pan-Islamic Civilization.” Tufts University: HIST 194 (1999)
URL source: http://www.indyflicks.com/danielle/papers/paper13.htm

Hizb ut-Tahrir
URL source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hizb_ut-Tahrir

Muslim Brotherhood
URL source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood

“Pan-Islamism, Jamal Al-din Al-afghani, Late Ottoman Politics, The Khilafat Movement, A World of Nation-states.”
URL source: http://science.jrank.org/pages/7946/Pan-Islamism.html

Pan-Islamism
URL source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Islamism

Sunni-Shiite Relationship
URl source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Shi%27a-Sunni_relations

Ummah
URL source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ummah


Monograph of Reporter’s Handouts

Adiong, Nassef M. on Muhammad Abduh

De la Rosa, Junelyn S. on Ibn Taymiyyah

Lakibul, Sabri Jain on Abul Ala Mawdudi

Macarimbang, Acmad Toquero on Al-Ghazali

Macarimbang, Acmad Toquero on Muhammad Rashid Rida

Mejia, Melanie P. on Jamal al-Din al-Afgahani

Mejia, Melanie P. on Syed Qtub

Mustapha, Shaha dianalan on Hassan al-Banna

[1] Taken from Danielle Costa’s “Afghani’s Vision of a Pan-Islamic Civilization.”
[2] Prologue for Costa’s paper.
[3] Asserted historical claims by Costa.
[4] Costa’s envisaged about al-Afghani’s methodology.
[5] Ibid, 4.
[6] Afghani was very ideal about uniting the two great factions in Islam, Sunni and Shiite, though he did not presented what are the processes or ways to do it i.e. diplomacy or by force.
[7] Op cit, Costa.
[8] Further, he believed in the independence of each member state in the Pan-Islam, and each head of state are to be treated with the same respect and belong to the same rank.
[9] Radwan A. Masmoudi’s “Political Islam and The Future of Democracy in the Middle East.”
[10] Stephen Zunes’ “U.S. Policy toward Political Islam.”
[11] One of Zunes recommendations.
[12] Nassef M. Adiong report on Muhammad Abduh.
[13] Mubasher Ahmad’s “Khilafat and Caliphate.”
[14] Ahmad’s presented how the turks assumed the position of Kahlifa in the Muslim world.
[15] As the Ottoman Empire diminish, the political power of the Caliphate declines.
[16] Pan-Islamism, URL source:
[17] Muslim Brotherhood, URL source:
[18] Ibid. Sources of the organization’s motivational aspects.
[19] Ibid. Organization’s advocacy.
[20] Hizb ut-Tahrir, URL source:
[21] Caliphate, URL source:
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Lukman Bin Thaib. “Politics from the Islamic Perspective
[25] Op cit. Bin Thaib.
[26] Narayan, B. K. “Pan Islamism: Background and Prospects”
[27] Ibid. Bin Thaib, 3.
[28] Ibid. 6.
[29] Ibid. 1.
[30] Sunni-Shiite Relationship, URL source:
[31] Ibid. Sunni-Shiite Relationship
[32] Ibid. Sunni-Shiite Relationship, interpolations.
[33] Ibid. interpolation 1.
[34] Ibid. interpolation 2.

A.M.Nassef

Relationship between Balik-Islam (Muslim Reverts) and Full-Fledged Muslims under the Auspices of Islamic Teachings in Philippine Setting

Abstract

This study will be composed of two presentations; the first one is a personal narratives difference between two prominent personalities in the league of ulamas about perceptions on Islamic theology and contemporary plight of Muslims in the Philippines. One is a full-fledged Muslim in the person of Uztadz Muhammad H. Cana, while the other one is a balik-Islam in the person of Hajji Abdul Salam. The framework used is Sakili’s model of Muslim space, each of their views and insights will be examined by determinants extracted by the researcher from his book. The second one is a material presentation of getting a sample of 10 respondents from the group of Muslims and Balik-Islam. They will be given a questionnaire and answer it with yes or no responses. Thus, this will be attest to the relationship that the researcher would like to posit in his hypothesis.

A Brief Balik-Islam Introductory Situation in the Philippines

There is an estimated 200,000 members of the Balik Islam movement in the Philippines. Where before, Muslims were concentrated in the southern part of the Philippines and represented various ethnic minority groups, Muslims now include a large number of converts, called Balik Islam who come from the traditionally Catholic provinces of the Philippines. Many of them converted to Islam when they were overseas contract workers in Middle Eastern countries, especially others converted upon their return to the Philippines and still others converted after learning about Islam in the Philippines.[1]

Among the new converts are women who were introduced to Islam by their husbands who converted while in the Middle East. They not only adopt Islamic beliefs but also the clothing prescribed by their leaders and gender roles that they believe come with the new religion. The major assertions of the paper are: First, Islam provides the women converts with a new sense of identity and spiritual fulfillment that were not satisfied by their previous religion, Roman Catholicism. Second, conversion brought about new perceptions of women’s roles as they learned and delved into the teachings of Islam. Third, this new perception led to a new form of relationship between the women converts, their families and the rest of Philippine society.[2]

Convert to Islam Society in the Philippines (CONVISLAM), is an organization established by Lauhi De Leon in 1968 for Muslim reverts. Ironically, its office was built in the vicinity of the Quiapo Church in Manila. Since its founding, CONVISLAM conducted missionary activities, Islamic propagation and published Islamic materials. Membership to the organization was mainly confined to converts and other concerned Muslims.[3]

In Metro Manila, the Balik-Islam have successfully initiated and founded many Islamic centers. There are at least four major centers operating in Metro Manila namely, the Islamic Information Center, Discover Islam, Islamic Wisdom Worldwide, and Fisabilillah. Unfortunately, some of these centers were closed as they were implicated with terrorism by the Philippine Government; an accusation strongly denounced by the Muslim reverts. This development affected the activities of Muslim reverts in the country.[4]

A Concise Look in the History of Islam in the Philippines

There are numerous theories about how Islam came to Southeast Asia and the Philippines. One theory is that Muslim traders established trading centers in Southeast Asia as commercial stopovers to China and intermarried daughters of village chiefs. There was a need for Muslim education in these trade centers, which brought about Muslim teachers and missionaries coming from Arabic regions. Another theory is conversion leaders of communities came to local superiors and forced the population to become Muslim. Another theory is that local people were automatically attracted to Islam, belonging to a larger community as a group of equal people in Muslim brotherhood, and the religion had respect for local culture and religion.[5]

Islam spread in the Philippines from the 13th century through the 1500's. The people combined Islam with their own practices and beliefs. Muslims founded communities (called sultanates) with the chief of each community (sultans). Muslim sultans in the Southern Philippines went with a fleet to northern islands for slaves to bring back to Sulu province. Once the slaves were integrated into the community, they were encouraged to marry Muslim Moros of the south so children could acquire freedom.[6]

During Spanish colonization for over 300 years, the Spanish took over the economy, politics, and brought their culture and religion (Catholicism) to the people. They wanted to make people Christian instead of native religions and Muslim. The Spanish sent fleets and armies of converted Christian Filipinos to sultanates to fight the Moros. The Spaniards wanted to annex sultanates to their Spanish colonies. Moro people weakened delivery of resistance due to a lack of modern equipment. Increased recognition of the Spanish as rulers lead to Christian settlers.[7]

The United States colonization period imposed beliefs through education of the Muslim people. The United States encouraged Christian people from Northern Philippines to integrate to Sulu and Mindanao. They gave Southern people the chance to study in Manilla to be taught modern Western ways, which allowed the United States to get a grip over the Southern Philippines and Islamic people.[8]

After the Second World War (post-1941) the Philippines became independent, and now, the predominant religion is Christianity. The Muslims, congregating in the south, are politically inferior to the predominantly Christian north. From the 1950’s onward, Muslims from all over the world have tried to make the Islamic community stronger in the Southern Philippines and they have supported them through money and other aids. Now, Moro nationalism is encouraged from other Muslim countries, and so has the idea of the Moros separating from the Republic of the Philippines. In recent years, various news sources have described the Southern Philippines as a site for violent terrorist groups.[9]

What are you investigating? Why?

The study is about the relationship between Muslims and Balik-Islam. This is presented in two ways; one is about the shared insights about two prominent personalities in the league of ulamas in consonance with Islamic theology and perceptions about Muslims’ plight in the Philippines, while the second one is a representation of a physical relationship between Muslims and balik-Islam as well, based on the five questions formulated by the researcher which he finds it salient to the focal point of the study.

This was done because it’s the passion of the researcher to investigate relationship and discover new information within the circle of Muslims. The proponent has not find any extant literature concomitant with this study, so it may only depend on received primary sources.

The researcher would like to hypothesize if Islam is the binding force that keeps both groups (Muslims and Balik-Islam) intact and that conflicts scarcely happen. In a matrix form between the relationship of the Independent and dependent variables, shows like this:

IV ---> DV
Relationship between full-fledged
Muslims and Balik-Islam is intact ---> Islam
and that conflicts scarcely happen.

The researcher would like to find out if:

- There’s a difference on the personal perception and knowledge of Islam between Uztadz Muhammad H. Cana, a full-fledged Muslim, and Hajji Abdul Salam, a Muslim revert.

- And there’s a social perceptive difference between random selected Muslims and balik-Islam, wherein 10 persons represent each group.

What have others done within the subject area?

There’s actually no extant literature about relationship between Muslims and balik-Islam. However, one significant study did by Abdel-Azeem A. Moh. Siddique about balik-Islam is examining on religious reversion, their identity changes and challenges. He asserts that reversion has brought positive and negative effects to the balik-Islam. They have attained spiritual fulfillment and contentment, met rejection from the mainstream society particularly their families who are not in favor of their reversion.

According to him, the reversion is a result of long struggle for religious truth and spiritual satisfaction. Another factor is the balik-Islam’s encounter with Islam through Muslim individuals who are involved in Da’wah (propagation). It is through the Muslim daiyah (propagators) that balik-Islam learned Islam and appreciated its teachings. One of the avenues making Muslims reverts to Islam is through marital engagement. Marriage, in most cases brings reversion to Islam, because in general, male Muslims invite their wife to embrace Islam.

On a positive note, reversion according to balik-Islam have gave them spiritual fulfillment and contentment. The personal transformation among female Muslim reverts mirrored with new disposition and projection, e.g. they are now wearing hijab (veil) to cover their head up to their chest. While on the negative side, balik-Islam has met rejection from the mainstream society particularly from their families who are not in favor. They are also affected by the Filipino public perception about Muslim’s reputation especially in Luzon and Visayas. They also have to cope up with Muslim practices and traditions, e.g. articulating their prayer in Arabic.

Discussions to Answer the Posited Research Problem

The first presentation will be shared insights of two personalities who are member of the league of ulamas. Uztadz Muhammad H. Cana, a full-fledged Muslim, who studied Islamic theology from Imam Mohamman bin So’ud University in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The other one is Hajji Abdul Salam, a balik-Islam, who also studied in Saudi for his Islamic theology and jurisprudence.

We will try to examine concomitantly the answers given by the two respondents coinciding with Sakili’s Muslim concept of space. Space is considered in Islam from a more inward point of view as an abstract, simple and intelligent idea existing only in man’s consciousness. It rejects the possibility of “empty space” and is something always filled. Islamic notion of space is that nature is a partner of man (that is why Muslims in Mindanao referred lands as their life and identity). Ikhwan (Muslim Philosophers) assert that space has no reality independent of this world, but is, on the contrary, one of the conditions of physical existence.

These are the given determinants on Islamic axioms as described by Sakili:

- Tawhid (Divine Unity) means monotheism as opposed to the polytheism of the pre-Islamic Arabs. The ulama (Muslim scholars) link Tawhid with Shari’ah-centric piety (Islamic laws). But to Sufis (Mystic Muslims), Tawhid means the ultimate non-existence of anything except Allah (God).

Ø Cana expressed that as a Muslim it is obligatory to continuously seek knowledge as it was said by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that “seek from cradle to graveyard.” While Salam stated that the strength of Iman (faith) is the best weapon of anyone to use to know exactly the purpose of creation... without faith every religion comes to an end. He even asserted that those who chose to adopt the modern way is due to lack of faith and knowledge.

- The doctrines of Tawhid are expressed in Shaha’dah (Profession of Faith) declaring that “There is no (other) God but (one) God,” zakat (annual ¼ legal alms of your wealth to the poor), salat (praying five times a day, every dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and after darkness falls facing at the Qiblah or the Ka’bah direction), Ramadan (fasting for cleansing of souls and sins), and, if practical (financially and physically capable), at least one hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca to visit Ka’bah, the house of God).

Ø Cana described a true Muslim, whom s/he must practice the five (5) pillars of Islam, six (6) articles of faith and avoid doing bad things which are considered forbidden in Islam. This is also congruent to Salam responses.

- Ilm (Islamic system of knowledge) emphasizes the interconnectedness of the Qur’anic values of khalafa (trusteeship), adl (justice) and istislah (public interest) for the pursuit and promotion of equality, social justice and positive moral and ethical values for all men.

Ø Since the researcher test their knowledge about Islam, I asked Cana about hereafter, and he abruptly said that the Holy Qur’an under Sunah Al-Kahl (chapter 18 verses 107 to 108), “verily those who believed on oneness of Allah (Islamic monotheism) and righteous deeds shall have the garden of Al-Firdaus (paradise) for their entertainment (18:107), wherein they shall dwell (forever). No desire will travel for removal there from (18:108). While Salam is very flowery in responding, he said that to oppose threat, always believed God as the creator and taking this away form Him is a blasphemous punishment.

- zahir(outer)-batin(inner) axiom, according to Sufi beliefs, the zahir of the Qur’an (Islam’s holy book) addresses the regulation of physical behavior while its batin meaning is concerned with the quest for the internal meaning of man’s relationship with Allah.

Ø Both of the correspondents can be indirectly categorized as Sufis (beliefs in Islamic mysticisms) for Cana stating that he seeks refuge to Allah from the saitan. and that a true Muslim has nothing in mind to be converted to other religion as Islam is the only religion accepted by Allah.

- The promotion of Dar-al-Islam (Space of Peace and Justice) and prevention Dar-al-Harb (Space, Corruption and Injustices).

Ø They both expressed Dar-al-Islam and Salam said that Islam teaches simplicity which covers all spheres of life. Its basic teaching is the unity of lordship caters all faith without resistance. And literally defined the etymological meaning of Islam which originated from the Arabic word Salama which means peace or guarantees peace in relation with our creator.

Interesting to note is that Cana answered straightforward all the given inquiries while Salam gave mischievous insights that show his reluctance and deep devotion to Islam. Moreover, when I asked him did his family expressed disappointments and rejections over his found new religion, and he vehemently testify to my question, i.e. it comes to a point that his family abandon him and his relationship with his wife got severe when some personal problems occur and one major affliction is his reversion.

The second presentation is the result of a small survey given by the researcher to randomly selected 20 respondents, 10 each for the Muslim and Balik-Islam groups, to show proximity of relationship.

Five (5) questions given to Muslim regarding balik-Islam:

1. Are balik-Islam can be categorize as good reverts?
Ø All of the 10 Muslims answered YES.

2. Did you have any balik-Islam friends?
Ø All of the 10 Muslims answered YES.

3. Did you encounter any devout balik-Islam?
Ø All of the 10 Muslims answered YES.

4. Do you believe that balik-Islams are terrorists, just like what the media portrays?
Ø All of the 10 Muslims answered NO.

5. Have you encountered any balik-Islam that are more devout than full-fledged Muslim?
Ø 5 Muslims answered YES while the other half answered NO.

Five (5) questions given to Balik-Islam regarding Muslims:

1. Are all Muslims can be categorize as practicing Muslim?
Ø All of the 10 balik-Islam answered YES.

2. Did you have any Muslim friends?
Ø All of the 10 balik-Islam answered YES.

3. Did you encounter any devout Muslims?
Ø All of the 10 balik-Islam answered YES.

4. Do you believe that Muslims are terrorists, just like what the media portrays?
Ø All of the 10 balik-Islam answered NO.

5. Have you encountered any Mulims that are more devout than balik-Islam?
Ø All of the 10 balik-Islam answered YES.

As you can see the breakdown results, it seems that both are not prone to conflicts, misunderstanding, or disagreements due to unison of beliefs in Islam. Here, the postulated hypothesis has been answered since we are measuring the chain relationship of the independent and dependent variables. The researcher concludes that there’s a satisfying camaraderie and amiable relationship between the two subjects (Muslims and Balik-Islam) since they follow the same teachings and principles of Islam. Though, on the part of reversion, balik-Islam have encountered personal problems sociologically, since there’s a big negative impression of the public towards Filipino Muslims.

Which part of that body of knowledge your paper will be added to?

The researcher humbly hopes that this paper may gave additional insights or answers about the relationship between full-fledged Muslims and Muslim reverts or the balik-Islam in the realm of anthropological context of discovering Philippine culture and society in the perspective of our Muslim brethren. In the first place of gathering the data needed, the paper has depended on the primary sources such as giving questionnaires to respondents for them to answer based on what they believed and stands for, while lack of extant literature or secondary sources about the central focal of the study.

So hopefully this may help those future researchers who would also investigate about balik-Islam and Muslim relationships or any related subject-matter.

Work Cited and Sources

Primary Sources

- Questionnaires answered by Muhammad Cana and Abdul Salam. This has 11 questions each.

- A survey questionnaire from 20 correspondents, Muslim and Balik-Islam groups comprises of 10 persons each. This has only 5 questions each with similar content but differ in the letter head based on the concern correspondent whether Muslim or balik-Islam.

Secondary Sources

Book

Oddie, G. A. Religion in South Asia: Religious Conversion and Revival Movements in South Asia in Medieval and Modern Times. London: Curzon Press, 1977.

Sakili, Abraham P. Space and Identity: Expressions in the Culture, Arts and Society of the Muslims in the Philippines. Quezon City: Asian Center, University of the Philippines, 2003.

Thesis

Moh. Siddique, Abdel-Azeem A. “Balik-Islam: Religious Reversions, Identity Changes and Challenges.” MA Thesis. Institute of Islamic Studies. University of the Philippines, Diliman, April 2005.

Monograph in Online Article

Angeles, Vivienne SM. “From Catholic to Muslim: Changing Perceptions of Gender Roles in a Balik Islam Movement in the Philippines.” La Salle University (Women Studies). Philadelphia, PA. USA
URL source: http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:ghEhjvt5AtAJ:www.euroseas.org/2007/documents/ateliers/euroseas_38_545.doc%3FPHPSESSID%3D0d93ca1b219aa5e6759fe12711f56959+balik-Islam&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14

[1] A study done by Vivienne Angeles in her work on “From Catholic to Muslim: Changing Perceptions of Gender Roles in a Balik Islam Movement in the Philippines.”
[2] Also, in the study done by Vivienne Angeles, her major source of information is the women’s conversion narratives which came out of interviews conducted with women who belong to the Islamic Studies Call and Guidance, a Balik Islam group.
[3] Abdel-Azeem A. Moh. Siddique on his thesis about Balik-Islam.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Taken from the monograph of History of Islam in the Philippines with an URL source at
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.

A.M.Nassef