"Darwish bin Zayed" .. This is how the UAE seeks to establish a religious reference that legitimizes tyranny

Click to listen

Support for the Egyptian coup, support for Haftar forces in Libya, adherence to the symbols of Assad in Syria, interference in Yemen, abandoning the Palestinian issue at the bargain of the century, mortgaging the Arab political future with the phenomenon of militarization and repression of the Arab Spring. This is the result of the achievements of Emirati politics since the Arab Spring, which expresses a confrontation with Islamic appearances. But the paradox, from Abu Dhabi itself, and near the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, will build Sufi institutions that call for peace, goodness and peace around the world. The Tabah Foundation, the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, and the Council of Muslim Wise Men, a triple that will roam the world to preach the peaceful Sufism that the Emirates has supported and will continue to march with.

Between modernity and Sufism, Ibn Zayd’s cultural projects vary, but looking beyond these projects shows the path in which that diversity intersects to unite to dismantle the narratives of Islamic movements and confront political Islam around the world in exchange for generating an Islamic understanding in a way that violates the traditional formula that operated Sons of Islamic movements since independence, starting from the Palestine issue and the position of the Zionist enemy, through the position of freedoms and the form of Arab identities, and claims of Arab independence away from Western dependency, and ending with the rejection of tyranny, oppression and silence of mouths. Sufism has been at the head of Emirati support movements around the world as a substitute for Islamic movements that have taken root in the Islamic world over the past decades.

American Islam?

"And so we are faced with the following questions: Do we, as Americans, support the Sufis or will we work with the Wahhabis? If we work with the Wahhabis we will risk working with the terrorists, while there is no danger with the Sufis."

(Bernard Lewis)

Since the eleventh of September, the United States viewed the salafi influence of its Wahhabi image as a representative of global terrorism, and voices began to rise in the West towards the direction of more moderate religious currents from the American point of view to enhance their presence and spread their concepts.

At the head of this campaign to support Sufism, senior American experts in Middle East politics, led by Bernard Lewis and Daniel Pipes, stood as they called for an alliance with the Sufi ways to fill the religious and political scene according to the rules of separating religion from life. In the summer of 2002, the RAND Corporation released a study calling for the establishment of a strategic alliance with Sufism to counter religious extremism in the Islamic world.

In this context, Muhammad Hisham Qabbani [a], the Sufi Naqshbandi, was one of those prominent names allied to the American trend, which would subsequently entail an intense presence on the academic councils to support Sufism in the Middle East, and build strong relations with him on the Abu Sufism. The head of them is Ali Al-Jefri. Qabbani has always been present at Sufi support conferences, and he has been known as one of the most active missionaries of American Sufism around the world. Qabbani visited Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Turkey, England, Spain, Morocco, the Levant and other countries to preach this pattern of Sufism around the world, and he launched in these various visits his hostile statements against Wahhabism that he linked to global terrorism, where Qabbani saw that Sufism would be able to accomplish Much to humankind on the path to peace. [1]

According to that approach, American research centers close to politicians have tended to urge a rapprochement with Sufism, after which a large number of recommendations and reports calling for what could be described as an "American mysticism" emerged, at the top of that list, the Rand Corporation for the Development of Public Policies, and the Nixon Center For studies, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Carnegie Research Foundation.

The most notable of these studies is represented by the "Sherrell Pinard" author of the report "Civil Democratic Islam - Partners and Resources" issued by the RAND Corporation, which is affiliated with the US Department of Defense, and through which it urged the formation of networks of partners in the Middle East that bring together modernists and Sufis, who own these two The two approaches - according to the report - the ability to identify with and preach Western values ​​in Arab societies, and thus the potential that could be made available by pulling the rug from under the legs of the Salafi fundamentalists and the Brotherhood, who, according to the report, were supported in the previous era with financial and media resources that enabled them to access the field General education institutions in the Middle East.

“Modernists are ideologically better and closer to carry the message of developing and disseminating democratic Islam, but they, on the ground, work under pressure from a number of obstacles that weaken their effectiveness,” says Benard. “To avoid this weakness, a Sufi backing tolerant of Islam must be created.” America wants it.

Pinard continues: “We will follow Sufism here with the modernists, as Sufism represents the open-minded interpretation of Islam. Sufi influence should be supported in schools, educational curricula, social and ethical standards, and cultural life. Through poetry, music, and philosophy, who are unique to Sufism, Sufi practice can act as a bridge. That moves these societies out of religious influences. " [2]

Thus, Sufism was taken as a substitute for Salafism that had spread in the Islamic world since the seventies of the last century, in which the United States saw the "cultural and social alternative and the basic religious perception to confront the solid Islamic ideology that dominated the Islamic world, through the concepts of independence, pluralism and respect for other religions and beliefs" ". According to this approach, America was keen to appear with the new Sufi ally in the Arab countries, where a number of American ambassadors attended the Sufi celebrations of the Prophet’s birth and provided aid to restore the shrines around the world. [3]

According to this shift in the American tendency, it is worth noting the intersection of this trend with the path of a number of prominent religious institutions in the Arab countries. Since independence, a number of leaders of Arab countries have moved towards the Sufi direction, to be printed on a number of governmental religious institutions, which have highlighted its behavior Sufi character in public rituals, such as Al-Azhar in Egypt, Al-Zaytouna in Tunisia, and Kairouan in Morocco, which helped consolidate the bond between the Sufism and the official religion of the state, and formed a more susceptible form of Sufi politicization.

From here, Abu Dhabi presented its new equalization with American Islam, as it supported the institutions of modern Islam, headed by "Believers Without Borders" organization in parallel with the support of global Sufism, in an effort to establish a unified Sunni religious authority in the Islamic world.

Ali Al-Jafri and the Tabah Foundation

"Do not let the slander of our brothers who are disgraced against you shake you one iota of your principles. You will hear words that this is an alliance of Sufism with the Americans, and that the United States will support the Sufi tendencies until it creates a kind of partnership with what it calls moderate Islam. We sit with the friend and enemy."

(Habib bin Ali Al-Jafri)

In 2005, the Tabah Foundation, one of the oldest international Sufism institutions launched by Abu Dhabi, emerged as a university with Sufi symbols from the Levant, Morocco, Egypt and Yemen, with the aim of creating a moderate Sunni axis confronting the followers of Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic countries. [4] "Habib bin Ali Al-Jafri" sits on the head from the Tabah Foundation, which is considered a central matter, as it is not possible to understand what the institution's roles are playing except by getting to know the leader of its helm, i.e. Ali Al-Jafri himself.

Al-Jafri has emerged as an active advocate in world conferences since the eleventh of September in the four continents Africa, Asia, Europe and America, and this was in conjunction with the so-called war on terrorism and the establishment of moderate Islam. Al-Jafri was characterized at the beginning of his appearance on Egyptian satellite channels, "by avoiding the criticisms of countries, systems and governments, and by addressing the sects, groups, jurists and scholars, a method that he administered through his diplomatic answers or his apology and his constant display of answering the questions presented to him."

This will change later, so Al-Jafri will always be present in political struggles, and Al-Jafri will subsequently become a model of the ideal Sufi that America wants in the region. [5] The opening of al-Jafri to the violator in a way that many describe as unusual, along with his tact in the hadith and the dye of asceticism that afflicts him, had a great impact on his export as a Sufi façade, and this led him to visit occupied Jerusalem with Ali Jum'a, the Mufti of Egypt and one of the symbols of Sufism, on the pretext of The mere visit does not mean normalization, but rather an openness to the other, in violation of the religious consensus that was supported by the general jurisprudential fatwas on the effects of normalization with the Zionist occupation. [6]

The Emirates found in the ambitious young Sufi an opportunity that could be invested to extend its influence in forming a Sunni reference under its auspices, which was what it was assigned to, as it was assigned a number of Sufi festivals that it sponsored, such as the “Al Burda Award” for organizing the annual Al Mawlid concerts, and the “Love Festival” [7] Which attracts artists at a religious festival, and the doors of the official UAE channels are rare in its kind in Abu Dhabi media dealings with clerics, to be hosted in the channels of Abu Dhabi, the Emirates, Dubai and Orbit. [8]

Returning to the Tabah Foundation, in terms of its responsibilities, it represented Al-Jafri’s most important role. The Foundation has defined itself from the outset as "a non-profit organization that seeks to provide proposals and recommendations to opinion leaders to take a wise and beneficial approach to society." Since its establishment, it has worked to build bridges between cultural and Sufi institutions around the world, [9] and for the foundation to form partnerships with various institutions such as "Zayed House for Islamic Culture" in the Emirates, "Dar Al-Mustafa" in Yemen, "Dar Al-Hikma" in Brussels, and "College of Studies" Islamism ”in Sana'a, the“ Madinah Satellite Channel ”, the project“ Reviving Sharia Education in East Africa ”and the“ Tabah Capacity Building ”program. [10]

In one of its contributions, the Foundation worked to support and re-establish the administrative structure of Dar Al-Mustafa, which is where Ali al-Jafri came out at the hands of its owner Omar bin Hafeez, which strengthened the latter's presence in the world with his student. Tabah also took care of holding religious events aimed at the West, such as the lectures of Hamza Yusef, Dean of the Zaytuna Institute, entitled "Islam in the West". She participated in the conferences of the Middle Way, a Sufi association in London.

In parallel with these extended activities, the Foundation has not forgotten to raise records with Wahhabi ideas with a number of studies, which fueled scientific discussions between them and the Salafists, and on top of that was the Brown Jihad study published by the Foundation on the destruction of shrines in Libya.

Since 2013, the Foundation’s presence has increased around the world, in parallel with the intense presence of Al-Jafri on various satellite channels. The Chechnya conference, which the Foundation supported with the religious leadership in Chechnya under the auspices of its ruler, was the most important mystic event for their various bodies around the world, which some considered an attempt to inaugurate a new Sunni reference around the world. [11] The Foundation also reached out to Arab youth through some of the youth initiatives it launched, such as the Sanad initiatives, a question among university youth in Egypt, and the Common Word initiative in Europe.

Forum to promote peace .. Ben Bayh and distribution of roles

"Our call is an invitation to peace, an invitation to love and harmony, an invitation to honor human beings and to exalt each of them."

(Peace Enhancement Forum)

For many years, the Council of the Mauritanian Sheikh Abdullah bin Mahfouz bin Bey was to the right of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and his deputy in the Union of Muslim Scholars. Bin Baih was considered one of the candidates to succeed Al-Qaa [1] [2] Ridhawi in Al-Ittihad, as he expanded the members after Al-Qaradawi, knowing and eligibility to complete the leadership of the Council after Al-Qaradawi. However, Bin Bayah will submit his resignation from the federation in September 2013 "due to his special circumstances and the role he is trying to play in the interests of reform and reconciliation, stressing that his work requires a speech that does not match his position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars." A mysterious resignation, many explained the cause of the escalation that the Union, headed by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, against the military regime in Egypt. [12]

The Emirates soon strengthened the presence of Bin Baih on its tables quickly, as it was celebrated by the Tabah Foundation, and it has always appeared in the Sufis and Mawls. He attended the "Burdah Award" at its eleventh session with Farouk Hamada, Advisor to the Abu Dhabi Court. "Bin Baih" established close relations with Western politicians and officials, which was beneficial to him in managing his programs at the Center for Renovation and Rationalization in London. [13]

Bin Bayeh's name shone as an advocate of peace and coexistence, until US President Barack Obama praised him, describing him as an Islamic symbol of peace and stopping the war in the region, and an example of tolerance and openness.

The paradox is that Bin Bayah, who separated from the International Union of Muslim Scholars, led by al-Qaradawi to distance himself from politics [3] [4], soon became involved in a new political alliance under the patronage of the Emirates, which was to establish a forum "promoting peace in societies." Islamic "which was headed by Bin Bih. The forum presented itself as a "global forum for peace and non-violence in Islamic societies, to promote a correct understanding of religion and the proper methodology of religiosity." [14]

The forum included a large number of symbols of Sufism around the world, on the head including Bin Baih Ali [5], the Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawky Allam, in addition to academic symbols such as the Lebanese Radwan al-Sayyid, and a number of children of religious institutions in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Palestine, Bosnia, Mali, America and Europe.

Participants in the first forum - which was sponsored by "Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan," the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Emirates and Chairman of the National Media Council - reached about 250 posts from thirty different countries. The Forum continued to hold a number of annual events aimed at confronting misconceptions, and supporting a number of awards and projects to stop the misconception of religion.

In conjunction with the convening of the forum, the Emirati press launched a sweeping attack on the movements of political Islam and linked it to Saudi Arabia. The Emirati newspapers quoted Ali Al-Naimi, President of the UAE University, as a feature of Saudi policy, before its rapprochement with the UAE, stating: “Saudi Arabia in the past was the incubator of the Brotherhood Muslims in all repercussions and crises. [15th]

This made the forum and its leaders an accusation of representing the new cultural agenda of Abu Dhabi. “The conference’s organizers contributed to reinforcing the state of congestion towards Saudi religious institutions, as Sheikh Abdullah bin Baih attacked the Fateh and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Evil in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, considering the performance of these institutions as a reason for the distortions that fuel extremism,” and reports were published on Calls to confront the Salafi religious flood that has been flowing to us since the end of the fifties. [16]

As for the final statement of the conference, it stated: "The importance of re-establishing the authority of the authority in the nation!" In other words: “establishing a new reference for the nation” away from the movement's brotherly and salafi jihadist Islam, but rather with a Sufi Islam supported by Abu Dhabi.

While there is a debate about the effects of religious currents, and the escalating efforts to confront "extremist" ideas, the context here is limited to highlight the political direction that capital owners manage in controlling the decisions of religious institutions and determining their priorities, regardless of the ideological pattern adopted by the trend without else.

Council of Muslim Elders .. Ahmad Al-Tayeb and the Sunni reference

"This council, upon the completion of its function, will pull the rug from under the feet of political Islam, especially the Muslim Brotherhood and the Takfiri movements, and it will undress it in front of the general Muslim and expose its goals and its scientific shallowness."

(Abdel-Fattah Al-Munai’i - Emirati researcher [17])

For the third time, and also from Abu Dhabi, the Council of Muslim Wise Men came out, which came with a joint initiative between Ahmed Al-Tayyib, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Baih, Chairman of the Forum for the Promotion of Peace. Al-Tayyib would later be singled out as president of the council after a three-month partnership. The announcement of the establishment of the “Council of Muslim Wise Men” as the first institutional entity for the sages of the Islamic Ummah came in implementation of the recommendations made by the participants in the Forum for the Promotion of Peace in Muslim Societies regarding the recommendations of the final conference.

Followers of the council viewed it as an "attempt to establish a new Sunni authority around the world" led by Ahmed Al-Tayeb in the name of Al-Azhar. The members of the Al-Azhar party overcame the members of the forum, as they reached seven out of fourteen individuals, and all the personalities that could compete with Ahmed Al-Tayeb were excluded from the presidency of the council, including Ben Baih, to be the only one with good.

At the opening session of the Council, Al-Tayeb praised the UAE’s role in sponsoring this new reference, saying: “Well, what the United Arab Emirates did when it was alert to the dangers posed to the nation from inside and outside, and was alert to the devastating effects that could come upon this nation from the roots, guided by the providence. To the idea of ​​the Council of Muslim Wise Men, ”Al-Tayeb added:“ As I extend my sincere thanks and praise to the leadership of the UAE for embracing this project that comes at the right time, and in this delicate circumstance, I hope that God will grant success to Muslim scholars and their wisdom to achieve this mission and this ambition to the face The most complete. " [18] Which directs another share of criticism to the Council and the limits of its independence from the UAE’s policies.

According to Emirati analysts, the council is a strategic dimension of the UAE, according to Abdel-Fattah Al-Munai’i, a researcher at Al-Mazmah Center in Dubai, “The importance of establishing this council stems from its functions, which will ultimately achieve several goals that are extremely important both for the UAE and the Arab and Islamic nation at the levels Intellectual, political and strategic. " [19]

This makes the council, with its formations that consist of spiritual scholars around the world, contest the traditional Sunni references affiliated to kinetic Islam, on top of which is the International Union of Muslim Scholars. According to Al-Munai’i, the center works "implicitly through its moderate intermediary work to expose the so-called Union of Muslim Scholars, formed by partisan Muslim Brotherhood under the supervision of the president of the union, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and with the support of the Qatar government to serve the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood and issue ready-made fatwas to support their point of view."

According to the presentation of the various institutions, the features of the intersection between them are evident, whether in a modernist or mystical form, so the alliance between the people of "Tabah", "Forum for the Promotion of Peace", "Council of Wise" and "Believers without Borders" is united by a common denominator represented in line up against the movements Islamic, on top of which is the Muslim Brotherhood. Based on Emirati financing, these institutions start by declaring that they have a moderate understanding, and marking the other currents as being devoid of the seriousness of truth. Thus, understanding the political overlap of religion and the political pursuit of control over the institutions of religion and thought seem important factors for understanding the changes taking place in reality, and understanding the reasons behind the rise of some religious currents at the expense of another, of course with regard to the colonial mood and its vision of the future of religion, and how to formulate it according to what is compatible With his general policies.