Pan-Islamism or Islamic unity: Difference between revisions

Pan-Islamism (Arabic: الوحدة الإسلامية‎) is a political ideology advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate <ref>Bissenove (February 2004). "Ottomanism, Pan-Islamism, and the Caliphate; Discourse at the Turn of the 20th Century" (PDF). BARQIYYA. 9 (1). American University in Cairo: The Middle East Studies Program. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 23, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2013. </ref> – or an international organization with Islamic principles. As a form of internationalism and anti-nationalism, Pan-Islamism differentiates itself from pan-nationalistic ideologies, for example Pan-Arabism, by seeing the ummah (Muslim community) as the focus of allegiance and mobilization, excluding ethnicity and race as primary unifying factors. It portrays Islam as being anti-racist and against anything that divides Muslims based on ethnicity.  

The Arabic term Ummah, which is found in the Quran <ref>e.g. [Quran 21:91] </ref> and Islamic tradition, <ref>e.g. Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 9, Book 92, Hadith 384 </ref> <ref>Denny, F.M., “Umma”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 19 June 2020</ref> however was historically used to denote the Muslim nation altogether, surpassing race, ethnicity etc. <ref>Watt, W. Montgomery (1972). Muhammad at Medina. Oxford: Clarendon Press. </ref> <ref>Denny, F.M., “Umma”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 19 June 2020 </ref> and this term has been used in a political sense by classical Islamic scholars e.g. such as al-Mawardi in Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah, where he discusses the contract of Imamate of the Ummah, "prescribed to succeed Prophethood" in protection of the religion and of managing the affairs of the world.[6][7][8][9] Al-Ghazali also talks about Ummah in a political sense[10][11] e.g. in his work, "Fadiah al-Batinyah wa Fadail al-Mustazhariyah".[12][13]