Sayyed Fadlullah: Campaigns to distort the image of Islam make Muslims more attached to their religion.

Asked in his weekly seminar about the rise of Muslim movements despite the distortion campaign against Islam. The Religious Authority H.E. Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah said:

The rise of the Islamists in several countries of the Islamic world proves beyond doubt the falseness of what many have claimed concerning the imminent fall of the Islamic revival. The latest election experiments have proved that Islam, when given the freedom to act freely, will move quickly to the forefront. It also proved that when people are given the freedom of choice they will choose Islam, regardless of the high political economic and even security prices they know beforehand that they are going to pay.

This proves what we have repeatedly pointed out to about Islam being the major political player, despite all the threats and pressures those who belong to Islam are subjected to. The parties, organizations and factions might not represent the ideal Islamic civilization movement, yet they indicate how great the impact of Islam is on this region, and on the world. And this explains why they are facing such a campaign that aims at hindering their unification into one strong and effective force.

As we feel proud that the Islamic people insist on voting for Islam, and to whom they feel close to their principles, even if they had to change their names to non-Islamic ones, as in the case of Turkey , we warn that the struggle does not end here. The victory in the elections is but a chance to consolidate their position, because this stage is not the stage of Islamic rule, even though the Islamists could become the leading party. There are certain circumstances, complications and alliances that are ready to thwart these experiments; to besiege the popular Islamic spread and hinder its development into a power that has a major say in this country or this region.

Yet their success shoulders on them a great responsibility.  They have to work hard to respond to the voter’s ambitions. They should strive to prove that they are dedicated in seeking to maintain the political and security stability and economic progress of the countries they are in. In addition, they should adopt a political discourse and a development agenda that responds to the contemporary problems of development, globalization, freedoms, and the other concepts of the current world order. This does not mean that they should adopt those concepts as such, but rather, they should authenticate them on an Islamic basis, proving that Islam is a viable alternative on all levels.

This continuous success of Islamists in the various political and electoral levels proves that the campaigns aimed at distorting the image of Islam only makes the Muslims more attached to their religion. It also proves that all non-fatal blows will only make you stronger. Thus, as we appreciate the western calls for a “Just vision” of Islam and for, as the French foreign minister stated, “explaining the profound nature of Islam, its peace inspiration and it desire for reconciliation”, we call on the western countries to understand Islam from outside the context of the political complications that America, are trying to associate it with, and we say to them: “There are many Islamic movements that seek openness, flexibility and real politics, to coexist with others in a climate of openness and dialogue. Such a vision keeps away from the logic of exclusion and even violence which was not adopted in the first place, were it not a reaction to what Israel made and what America fed in the Islamic and Arab Worlds.