Ummah, Irrelevant?

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I don’t understand how anyone could believe that uniting, under whatever umbrella, could be wrong or useless. Human race comprises of different races, creeds, religions etc (& of-course in today’s world “countries”) often driven by their own interests/perspectives which are not necessarily in consonance with the interests/perspectives of others. Who’s would reign supreme? And Muslims are fortunate to have a very clearly laid down ideology and raison d’être. Thinking of the strength of Muslims (being roughly 24% of world population); thinking of the combined military strength and thinking of the natural resources present in Muslims lands, the Muslims as a “nation” could actually be leading human civilization today instead of being subservient and underdeveloped.

(It is said that the purpose of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which introduced the concept of “nation states” was done so by “secularists” in order to ensure that the primary allegiance of man is not towards his religion but rather towards his country. If I was to say that this was a conspiratorial move by the secularists to break the hold of religion over society so that unbridled capitalism could be propagated and could give rise to greed and individualism to benefit a select few, I’d be branded as a typical Muslim with a hunger for conspiracy theories; so I won’t go there)

To qualify my point, I’m taking up a position in this debate from the perspective of a Muslim, who will necessarily believe that the Quran is the word of God and is perfect as guidance. The Quran recognizes the Muslims as “Ummah Wahida” (You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah (3:110)).And for the Muslims geographically dispersed in the world to be one “nation” it is essential that there be a central body or person that represents it and to which Muslims owe allegiance. This could be the institution of Khilafah or it could be an organization such as an OIC (I understand the OIC is perhaps the most useless and ineffective international organization today, but this is more about the concept of OIC and not as to how and whether it functions effectively).

The reason why Muslims are not united today is because of the Shia-Sunni split in the Middle East; & its an absolute pity. They are the biggest enemies/concern of each other because of the few differences even though there is so much else that is common. Its funny how they are willing to collude with a non-Muslim country but not with a Muslim country belonging to a different sect. The commonalities provide an ideology that could drive development in Muslim countries IF they support each other.            

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