Rashid Rida during World War I
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Before the outbreak of the First World War, scholars of the Arab Salafiyya movement represented the leading voice of Islamic religious dissent within the Ottoman Empire. Their most influential theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida, an ardent critic of Abdul Hamid II and Turkish nationalism, regarded Ottoman kings as unqualified to rule over the affairs of the Muslim World. While excoriating the Ottomans as an artificial caliphate based on unjust wars and conquests; Salafi scholars nonetheless strongly forbade rebellion against the Ottoman authority due to their insight of dangers posed by the expanding European colonialism. Rashid Rida and his pupils perceived the Ottoman state as an essential entity for allowing Muslims to successfully repel European imperial powers and rebuked the proponents for an alternative Caliphate; suspecting them of serving the aims of imperial powers.[1] All of this changed with the Ottoman entry into World War 1 in October 1914, on the side of the Central Powers. Rashid Rida viewed the war as part of the secular Turkish nationalist programme of the Young Turks, a faction he vehemently denounced as murtadd (apostates).[2][3]
In several Pan-Arabist journals of the time, the Ottoman Empire was condemned to the same extent as were the British and French, portraying it as a continuation of the Mamluk rule of oppression, humiliation, and impoverishment. Rida presented a more independent and sophisticated argument in Al-Manar, and dwelt much more intellectually on the consequences of the war for the people in the Middle East. He was far more critical of the French and the British empires and of their colonial ambitions. In his fatwas, Rashid Rida comprehensively explained the issue over political allegiance (bay'ah) to the Ottoman Empire, which had become one of the most important concerns in Salafi circles. During the early phase of the World War, Rida viewed the Ottoman Empire acted as one of the final barricades against encroaching European colonialism. He distinguished between the Young Turks, whom he opposed vehemently, and the Ottoman state, insisting that every Muslim's loyalty is only to the Ottoman Sultan-Caliph. As the war continued, Rida's stance shifted; as he saw the Ottoman state as synonymous with the tyranny of Young Turks. Rida described the Ottoman Empire as a client-state subservient to Germany and declared that German colonialism was as much evil as British empire. He was particularly critical of Berlin–Baghdad railway, which he considered as part of the wider expansionist project of German imperialism. Over the course of the war, Rida began warning about an imminent Ottoman collapse, motivating him to look to other Muslim rulers to wage the banners of Jihad against the European powers.[4]
During World War I, Rashid Rida's activities primarily involved bolstering efforts to establish an alternative pan-Islamic state, led by a suitable candidate elected as Khalifa, in the increasingly likely scenario of an Ottoman collapse. Throughout this period he was most concerned about British imperial designs to divide and conquer the Arab World. His skepticism intensified when British officials turned a blind eye to his proposed caveats. After the public disclosure of Sykes-Picot agreement in 1917, Rida became a fervent enemy of the British empire and described it as one of the biggest imperial powers that sought to obstruct pan-Islamist efforts to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate.[5]