A dialogue with Arshad Mehmood, a philosopher with a keen eye on ideologies

Islam divides the world into two distinctive sections – that is Darul Harb and Dar ul Aman.  According to Communism, the world is divided between the Imperialists and Socialists. Just like Islam is based on the eternal hatred between the believers and the Kuffar, Communism creates division and ever-lasting animosity by focusing on the concept of ‘them’and ‘us’.  Communism declares that everything owned by the ‘enemy’capitalists and the bourgeoisie belongs to the people, that the workers in a factory are owners of all the wealth accumulated by an industrialist.  In Islam, it is commonly believed that all the assets, property, money and cars owned by the Kuffar are ‘Maal e Ghaneemat’ and owned by the believers and they have full rights to use it as they please.Communism floats the idea of a red heaven on earth and Islam talks about Jannat after death.  The main similarity between the two concepts is that the human issues and problems will not exist either in the Communist Red heaven nor in the Islamic Jannat. Communism floats the idea of despotic leadership in the shape of dictatorship of the proletariat. Islam is built on the concept of Khilafat which involves rule of a single Khalifa in very dictatorial manner. Both Communism and Islam are against democracy and individualistic freedom.  Just like Islam depends on the scripture and the Prophet, the concept and ideology of Communism is controlled by literature which is considered as holy, and certain individuals which are revered like holy persons.  The Communists will never be hear calling these people or their narrative as holy, but if anyone tries to criticise them, the communists will react in exactly the same manner as the followers of Islam do when faced with facts about the religion.  There is no concept of tolerance and constructive criticism in Communism.  Just like Islam, there is complete submission to content and particular words and phrases and the followers continue parroting it. Every time there is an opportunity to debate, the same phrases and verses are thrown into the faces of the debaters. Both sides have some chosen phrases which can be counted on the fingers. One of such infamous elements is the “Surplus Value Theory”.  Both sides refrain from trying to think logically.  Just like Communism tends to look at everything through red tints, Islam’s world view is limited to looking at everything through the lens of Islamic rules and regulations.  Just like Islam is known to have 72 sects, Communism also now has several ‘sects’ and each considers itself as the complete encyclopedia and the final word on the ideology.  Every self- proclaimed Communist leader considers him / herself as the oracle of Communism, just like every Islamic leader considers himself as the most knowledgeable on Islam. Just like Islam rejects all other faiths and calls itself the final word of God, Communism dismisses all previous social and economical systems and considers itself as eternal, and holds that no other such ideology will follow it. The irony is, Islam is not present in a ruling form anywhere in the world in its true sense, as in how it is described in the scripture (Taliban is struggling to get there).  Similarly, neither is Communism, but still the faithful from both sides consider these systems as firm entities.

Followers of both of these ideologies are very aggressive in nature and tend to indulge in verbal and physical abuse at the drop of a hat. They even resort to abduction and torture when present with a strong political backing. Both sides work in groups to assault and counter crticis, and both are enemies of the west.  They both dream of the complete downfall of the western political and cultural system, and both strive to immigrate to the west with almost equal fervor. Both have Jihadist and revolutionary visions and aspire to take over / occupy through aggression.  One can analyse that on most international issues, the Communists and the followers of Islam share the same point of view. The Leftist scholars of the west support the fundamentalism of Islam followers. In the same manner, the Leftists of India speaks the same language as the misunderstood and oppressed Muslims of Kashmir and Kerala.

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