Truth to Power
Led by Donald Trump, the theme of this year’s Republican national convention “Make America Safe Again” is an objective that Muslims must play a pivotal role in achieving. From Trump’s proposed advocacy to ban Muslim Immigration to Newt Gingrich’s call to deport Muslims, Muslims are continuously framed as a threat to national security. The Muslim community has a serious issue with radicals who utilize extremist beliefs, motivating them to commit grotesque acts of violence completely unfit for the twenty-first century, and jeopardizing America’s safety in the process.
While Muslim organizations have ushered in numerous repudiations and even utilized crowdfunding to raise money for the victims of such terrorism, it is my sincere belief that we are not doing enough to actually organize and root out radicalizing ideologies in America. In fact, Muslims have remained almost completely silent in condemning such radicalizing ideologies and, as a result, millions of lives have been lost and will continue to be lost until we take more initiative to condemn extremism and actively work to weed out such extremist beliefs.
As Muslims, have we condemned the hegemonic stability theory?
The Hegemonic Stability Theory (H.S.T.) is a mainstream theory of international relations that played a pivotal role in George W. Bush’s foreign policy. H.S.T. argues the world will descend into anarchy devoid of a world leader in the form of a hegemon to dictate order and impose rules upon other nation-states. In absence of a hegemonic power, the theory argues that widespread instability will ensue.
The origins of this theory is thoroughly explored in Dr. Alexander Anievas’ work titled Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line—the conception of the international order as inherently anarchic devoid of a world hegemon has its origins in a Eurocentric conception of the non-white world as a savage and disordered place without white rule. A best kept secret of the hegemonic stability theory’s foundational premise of anarchy is that it was developed based upon colonial perceptions of the non-white world as barbaric, and ideas of “the white man’s burden,” in which white imperialism was seen as a necessity to bring civilization to the non-white world.
Discussing the racist origins of hegemonic stability theory, Dr. Anievas writes that “white supremacist precepts are not only nominally associated with the origins of the field but have an enduring impact.” Hegemonic stability theory then rationalizes and sustains a master- subservient relationship as nations in the global south have their policy and countries continuously dictated to by the hegemonic power of the United States; the entire international order is shaped in terms of U.S. interest.
George W. Bush’s interpretation of hegemonic stability theory essentially indicates that the entire world will descend into utter anarchy unless the United States is there to tell other states what to do. By arguing the international system can only become stable with a hegemonic power in control, the hegemonic stability theory rationalizes continued U.S military presence throughout the world, denying self-determination and sovereignty to other nations. The theory is rooted in the inability of the non-white world to manage and dictate their own affairs.
When are Muslims going to condemn the democratic peace keeping theory?
In Iraq and Democratic Peace, John M. Owen, a Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, writes that:
“The defining act of Bush’s presidency was grounded in a theory that the political scientist Jack Levy once declared was “as close as anything we have to an empirical law in international relations,” namely, that democracies do not fight one another. The theory [was] originated in the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant…”
Hegemonic stability theory is interconnected to the democratic peace keeping theory, and it posits that the way the hegemonic power should manage anarchy is through the spread of liberal democracy. While in theory democratic peace theory states the world would be a safer and peaceful place through the spread of liberal democracy, one major radicalizing feature of the theory is that it justifies wars against non-democracies as the hegemonic power seeks to impose democracy on other countries.
The war in Iraq was a prime example of this. George. W. Bush’s war against Iraq was motivated by democratic peace keeping theory: “We will help the Iraqi people establish a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle East.” In pursuit of a democratic Iraq, 179,831 Iraqi civilians were killed. Democratic peace theory provides legitimacy for widespread violence in the form of a democratic crusade that assumes the inherent superiority of Western, Liberal, American democracy over all other ways of life.
When will Muslims take a stand against Supreme Exemption theory?
As Muslims, we must develop the courage and strength to denounce radical white American political theorist John Rawls and Michael Walzer, whose Supreme Exemption Emergency theory, a mainstream theory within international relations, argues that within a just war there are in fact certain scenarios in which “civilian casualties” are perfectly morally acceptable if it is for a greater good. Critics of supreme exemption emergency theory, such as Anne Schwnkenbecher, have persuasively argued that it provides a justification for state-sanctioned terrorism: “supreme emergency exemption justifies the re-sort to terrorism against innocents to avert moral disasters.” It is, in fact, the non-white and largely Muslim world that bears the brunt of this radicalizing ideology that provides the moral justification for drone strikes with in which numerous civilian “causalities” result.
In contrast, the Qur’an mandates that the taking of one innocent life is the moral equivalent of taking the life of all of humanity; “civilian casualties” can never be justified for an alleged greater good. Islam’s zero tolerance policy to both state-sanctioned terrorism or from vigilante groups is further demonstrated in a hadith found in (Sahih Muslim, 5567) when the Prophet (PBUH) indicated that a previous Prophet’s companion was bitten by an ant and he subsequently sought to burn the entire ant farm. However, God sends a revelation that explains to him that simply because one ant bit him, it was not right to kill the entire ant colony. Islam is such a religion of peace that supreme exemption to kill innocents isn’t even allowed in the ant world!
How to Make America Safe Again
The time of Muslims being shy about the solutions we have to terrorism or being bullied into actually believing they adhere to a violent and barbaric religion by some of the world’s greatest warmongers needs to come to an end. Black Muslim hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco unabashedly declared: “I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff the U.S. government allows to happen. The foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists.” In saying this, the esteemed political philosopher Lupe Fiasco gave the Muslim community a blueprint for making America safe again.
We need to join our brother in this struggle and transverse prior to the ascension of Eurocentric political theory that has wreaked immense devastation in the world and offer alternatives. Where are Muslims advocating and organizing against these radical ideologies of hegemonic stability theory, democratic peace keeping theory, supreme exemption theory, that continues to justify taking the lives of innocents? In doing this, we can work for a safer and more peaceful world.
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