Approaches to Islamic political unity in Imam Khomeini's perspective
Written by: Mohammad Akram Arefi
Introduction
One of the old and basic intellectual engagements of Imam Khomeini was the though of "Islam world unity". Imam Khomeini did not ignore this plan during his political-social activities whether before the victory of Islamic Republic or after it. Imam Khomeini's honest faithfulness to "Unity" not only made him the most prominent revolutionary character of the world of Islam but also placed him in a high rank among the different Islamic sects.
In the design of "Unity" slogan, Imam Khomeini never was affected to generalizations and superficiality, but in an eminent and scholarly way, he presented different dimensions of unity in two theoretical and practical parts with detailed explanations.
The design of this article is organized in two general parts which indicate a special step of the unity project process; the first step, intellectual-cultural movement; the second step, the practical-political movement.
Each of these steps possesses several sub-categories which distinguishes the practical approaches of these steps. Hope to best present Imam Khomeini's considered approach through the investigation of these issues.
Unity Strategy
Imam Khomeini's combating strategy, in the direction of creating the required condition and grounds, is focused on two general factors to achieve the unity in Islam word: the first is the cultural-intellectual movement and the second is the practical-political movement. In rational order perspective, the cultural-intellectual movement which is remembered as "the internal change", "the internal awareness" and "the internal nature" is prioritized on practical-political one.
Regarding the rational order of combating phases, Imam Khomeini perceived the political instruction as the foundation of political movement. He also presented people's first task as the development of "publicity" and "instruction".
Inspiring from this strategy which has placed the cultural-intellectual combat as the foundation of practical-political combat, we begin to investigate the practical approach of Imam Khomeini's thought in two sections.
A) the cultural-intellectual movement
based on Imam Khomeini's thought, the evolution in the Islamic societies and its freedom from dissociation is not a subject to be possible without founding a rooted and general intellectual plan, since the present situation of Islam world is the result of different factors such as intellectual decadence and Muslims' beliefs. Therefore, the domination of colonial powers and autocratic regimes focus on the essence (nature) metamorphosis of Islamic nation and the damage of their underground sources. Releasing from the present situation and reaching the desired condition is not possible unless to drive away the decadence roots which itself requires the integrated gatherings of all Islamic nations under one distinguishing strategy.
Therefore, Islam world as a unit collection with same political, cultural, and historical issues should place the return of its cultural and historical authenticities as the model of its movement and distinguish and internalize the national and religious elements of nature.
In Imam Khomeini's perspective, the growing and development of cultural-intellectual movement which results in framing common beliefs among people is expectable through two ways, in which the religious elite (the Ulema and thinkers) will take the responsibility of pioneering the movement.
The First Step: Cultural-Intellectual System
Organizing an integrated and common system requires mental and spiritual consistent relations among the participated forces which can direct them to a distinguishing way. The collective movements would not reach the victory unless to rely on a coherent intellectual and creative system which create same values, and beliefs. Believing in this mere fact, Imam Khomeini deeply understood the existing cultural-intellectual gap in contemporary Islamic societies. Therefore, to compensate and remove this gap, he founded a political-intellectual system in Najaf and presented "Islamic Government" theory on the basis of political Islam and a revolution in theological school.
Imam Khomeini's intellectual system is made up of three basic concepts; "Islam, Independence, and Freedom". These concepts are indicative of all Islam world chaos in past and present. Retrieval of these concepts makes possible the forgotten nature reconstruction of Islamic nations and will open the doors toward friendly mutual relations on countries, since in Imam Khomeini's perspective, the main crisis of Islam world result in the separation of Islamic nations from Islam regenerative instructions and the Muslims' place under the domination of western and eastern powers and their autocracy.
The Second Step: Generalization and Deepening of Intellectual System and the Creation of World's Beliefs and Values
As mentioned above, the first step in the direction of Muslims' cooperation and the development of Islam world movements is the cultural-intellectual system and the creation of world's beliefs. However, when the desired effect of "intellectual system" in creating common beliefs happens that the cultural-intellectual system indicates its place among the nations and influences common intellects.
This kind of convergence when leads to Unity among nations that can first, achieve the mental and intellectual direction, second, the social mutual relations should be consistent and third, the Islamic common interests should be framed. On the other hand, these issues will reach their end in case of the completing step of "development and deepening", since the results are achieved only through these factors or in Imam Khomeini's perspective, "publicities and instruction" factors.
Imam Khomeini believes that the development and deepening of cultural-intellectual system depends on several sources, each of which completes some part of this process. The most important and effective factors in completing the process of deepening are active human sources, social grounds and proper tools of sending messages which, in collection, create a publicized and instructional channel. In this channel, two special factors are of great importance which is active human forces and the instructional-publicized bases.
1- The activation of national and religious elites in the process of developing and deepening the cultural-intellectual system requires the active presence of religious and national elites in the grounds of propaganda and intellectual activities. The religious elite work in fields of deepening religious thought and the national elites have the role of leader in the field of deepening national culture.
2- The development and strengthening propagandistic bases and social relations: the religious and national elite who are responsible for executing the plan of "generalization and deepening" use the existing sources and facilities to develop people's intellectual level and nations' mutual-social relations. Imam Khomeini's perspective in utilizing the facilities and propagandistic fields is comprehensive and progressive. Against the "traditional and modern" currents in his society, he chose super-traditional and super modern approaches in presenting, publicizing and deepening the national-religious beliefs. Among these currents, the most noticing factors in the beginning of Islamic intellectual movements include the traditional propagandistic bases and the belief of its influence among the public, the old and the traditional domination of religious elites, and their inexpensiveness.
Among the applied traditional approaches and facilities in deepening of thoughts, Imam Khomeini paid great attention to "Friday" and "religious congregations" nationally, and "Hajj", "Quads Day", and "Unity Week" internally. Regarding the prominent role of Friday, religious congregations and Hajj, in belief making process and the creation pf practical-political movements, Imam Khomeini states, " in this way, Islam has prepared the communities to use them religiously, to reinforce people's cooperative and friendly feelings, to increase their intellectual level, so that they can find solutions to their social-political problems and in result began to work collectively".
Then he adds, "If they gathered together on Fridays, and presented the Muslim's problems, and decided to remove them, we would not face such a day. Today, it is necessary to establish such congregations and use them for instructional and propagandistic purposes; therefore, the political religious movement of Islam would reach its highest point" (Jurist Guardianship, p. 132).
B) The political-scientific movement
based on Imam Khomeini's strategy, after the development of the organized intellectual-cultural activities during which the purpose of combat was distinguished and the all-dimensional spiritual unity was shaped in the almost all societies and the Muslim have identifies their human, personal rank and national-religious nature, the time begins for the second phase of practical-political combating. In practical-political level, Imam Khomeini had presented several steps as combating approach which are studied under two branches; the level of governments and at the level of nations.
The First Level: Governments
In principles, Imam Khomeini's combating approaches are designed according to the objective realities of Islamic societies. Therefore, regarding this fact that Imam Khomeini is completely aware of the distinguishing role of governments in collective decision-makings and the change or evolution of nations' fate, his first practical approach was an attempt to bring the change at the level of governments.
Imam Khomeini believes that the shortest way to achieve the Islamic unity is covered in free wills of Islamic countries' masters, since they all have access to the required facilities for the establishment of United Islamic Governments. Therefore, if they enter the play seriously and officially, they would face just the least significantly problems against their collective decisions. This same realistic analysis convinced Imam Khomeini to call the Islamic authorities, publicly and to invite them for establishing a through unity, "we have in mind that before people decide to revolt, the governments should come to get united. All the presidents should come to the meeting, be friend with each other and present their problems and find the solutions. Every one should be on his own place, but in general benefits of Islam should have in agreement with each other" (Sahifeh-ye Imam, vol. 18, p. 268).
However, despite of these attempts and repeated messages, Imam Khomeini could not convince other governments to adopt the unity strategy and in result, Imam Khomeini could not be successful in his diplomacy. Therefore, Imam Khomeini became hopeless of the effective approach of "authorities assembly" and then presented another combating bottom-up approach and stated, "The nations should be concerned for Islam. We are disappointed of Muslim authorities. However, the nations should be thoughtful in this manner, and we are never disappointed of them" (Sahifeh-ye Imam, vol. 14, p. 138).
The second level: Nations
Imam Khomeini's second combating approach was based on people centrality which had a very important role in the evolution of political systems of, in expression, the democratic world.
Imam Khomeini, in this step, paid attention to the powerful force of the public. Although from the very beginning Imam Khomeini perceived oppressed people and nations as eminent, he never considered them as a means for an end. In the first approach, Imam Khomeini addressed the Islamic authorities with the "reformist and suggestive" strategy and in the second approach, he addressed the oppressed nations of the world to adopt a revolutionary strategy. In this phase, Imam Khomeini had presented several practical steps which are presented in the following ways:
The beginning of political combating from the part of nations toward being more coherent and native in the Muslims' liberal practical attempts, imploration for irate combating in case of ignorant and disobedient governments to nations' wants, the plan of establishing "the oppressed sect or Hezb Allah" as an indicator of public organized power in the present world, the establishment of independent republics in the present world, and in result, the establishment of great Islamic government as a final unity, in the liberalistic and justice ideals of the oppressed nations.
"And thou the poor! Thou! The Islamic countries and Muslims of the world! You should stand against the enemies and take back your rights! You should never be afraid of the super-powers propagandas and their authorities; and the felon governors who surrender you to the enemies; you should drive them away from your country; you, yourselves, or the liable servants should take the reins of power. You should defend the oppressed and stand against the enemies of Islam under the honorable flag of Islam; you should move toward an independent Islamic government by which you can put away the world's tyrannies and give the responsibility of Imamate and earth inheritance to the oppressed. Hope to that day which is promised by the exalted God" (Sahifeh-ye Imam, vol. 21, p.449).