The Term “Muslim Minorities” … How Did It Emerge?

At the beginning, these minorities were in fact majorities in most of their lands, living in independent sovereign states, and they experienced successful Islamic rule that lasted for centuries. For example, the Champa State established by Muslims in southern Vietnam endured for four centuries. This success terrified the major powers of the time and stirred fears both in the West and the East alike—the global church, the United States of America, the Soviet Union, Japan, the Hindus, and others from all religions hostile to Islam. They set aside their disputes and conflicts and united—in one of history’s rare moments—despite their differing beliefs and orientations, in a single alliance to eliminate what they considered an “Islamic danger.” These states forgot their rivalries and formed an evil coalition against Islam, determined to topple Islamic states wherever they existed and erase them from existence, especially since these states had lived through successful Islamic governance for centuries.

Indeed, this malicious international alliance succeeded in overthrowing these Islamic states, dismantling them, dividing their lands, fragmenting them, and scattering their peoples into neighboring countries. They became small entities emptied of their Muslim majorities, who fled with their faith from the persecution and massacres of the new anti-Islamic rulers. Those who remained became minorities, clinging to their religion and their land, but suffering horrors under the new rule. From here began the ordeal of what came to be called “Muslim minorities.” Needless to say, this term had never existed in the Muslim lexicon before; it only appeared in the 1990s when these minorities took shape under the following circumstances:

1.      After the native populations embraced Islam.

When Muslims, under pressure, repression, and occupation, migrated from their homelands to non-Muslim lands in order to preserve their faith—especially to Europe, America, Canada, and Australia—arriving with their culture, civilization, customs, and traditions, only to find themselves in societies with different religions, languages, cultures, and lifestyles.

2.     When Muslim lands were occupied by non-Muslim states, their peoples became minorities under the control of the occupiers.

Thus, Muslim minorities were formed in various ways as mentioned.

Today, these Muslim minorities scattered across the world are subjected to continuous campaigns of restriction, persecution, killing, and mass expulsion. Many have been forced to disperse across different countries, living in a state of diaspora in search of safe refuge and stable life. Those who remain—a small few—have stayed rooted in their lands but remain weakened, suffering poverty, disease, and deprivation of rights amidst non-Muslim majorities. Yet they continue to hold fast to their faith, cling to their land and homes—even to this day—offering sacrifices that would turn the hair of children gray. Still, the flame of hope has not been extinguished within them for establishing an independent state in a free homeland.

By virtue of my journalistic work since 1985, and through my continuous reporting journeys spanning more than thirty years across the world, I have been able to visit the regions and entities of most of these minorities, meet their peoples, examine their conditions, learn about their ideas and intellectual projects, live their suffering, and listen to their aspirations and pains. This has obliged me to convey all of this to the Muslim reader everywhere, through Egyptian and Arab newspapers whose pages I am honored to write on—fulfilling a trust and informing people of the condition of their brothers who live holding fast to the embers of their creed without compromising or relinquishing it.

Before embarking on these articles, the series “Muslims Behind Memory” had already begun, covering nine Muslim minorities under the sponsorship of the Insan Center for Human Studies, which I was honored to establish in Istanbul in 2015.

Faced with the scarcity of documented information, I encountered great difficulties in producing this series—due to weak reliable sources on one hand, and manipulation or even falsification of statistics on the other by Western and other entities seeking to bury this issue and consign it to oblivion, so that its rights are lost and its memory erased, in line with the designs of colonial powers and enemies of Islam.

With God’s help and will, I will continue writing and publishing more works and books about Muslim minorities spread across the seven continents of the world (considering the Arctic region as a separate continent with its own Muslim minority). I extend thanks and gratitude to my teacher, Professor Dr. Muhammad Harb, Professor of Ottoman Studies at Sabahattin Zaim University in Turkey, who drew my attention to this issue—as he did for others—through his writings in the late 1970s, while I was still a university student diligently following his work on this matter. Today, I am honored to remain in contact with him in Istanbul regarding this important issue.

And so… This is our story of Muslim minorities, which we shall narrate, documented, one after another, until we reach the last Muslim minority on earth—as long as life endures, God willing.

{O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.} [Al-Hujurat 49:13] 
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Disclaimer:
 This article marks the opening chapter in a series exploring Muslim minorities around the world. It is written exclusively for Al-Mujtamaʿ magazine by Shaban Abdelrahman, former Managing Editor of the publication.

 Writer's Mail: shaban2012 @gmail.com