The crisis of role models - Nelson Mandela as an example
Peace be upon you, dear brothers.
The Crisis of Role Models: Nelson Mandela as an Example
One of the most dangerous issues we face today is the crisis of role models. This is evident in the way the media and people reacted to the death of Nelson Mandela, who long struggled to end the phenomenon of racial discrimination in his country. For example, one of the most widely spread channels, if not the most in the Islamic world, dedicated the first four news items on the morning of Mandela's death to him: "Death of Nelson Mandela," "World Leaders Mourn Mandela," "Mandela an Icon of Steadfastness," "Mandela a Symbol of Freedom and Tolerance."
My goal here is not to diminish Mandela's sacrifice for his fellow countrymen, for the man is undoubtedly better than the blacks who helped the white colonizer against their own people for a few crumbs. However, the question arises: Is Mandela worthy of being a global role model for freedom and revolution against injustice?
Mandela's Slogans and Their Application
To put things in perspective, we say: Mandela launched slogans about freedom, such as his statement, "Freedom cannot be divided," and his statement, "He is not free who is humiliated in front of a man and does not feel humiliated." Was he consistent with these slogans? Did he adhere to them as universal values or only within the borders of his country as drawn by the colonizer?
In places not far from Mandela, in his own black continent, freedom was being denied and humans were being humiliated. Millions were being killed in the Congo and Rwanda through international conspiracy, and peoples were thirsting for liberation from the international system in Nigeria, Somalia, and Mali, only to be attacked by imperialist, capitalist, and African systems. What was Mandela's position on all of this?
Do we expect him to fix all of Africa? No, but at the very least, for someone to be worthy of being a global symbol of freedom, rejection of injustice and discrimination, and to be consistent with his slogans, we would not expect him to accept medals from those who humiliate the sons of his continent, let alone those of other continents. Because the medal of freedom that the oppressor places on your chest means that you have reconciled with the oppressor and accepted from him a few crumbs of freedom within the limits he has drawn for you, which you do not exceed, and you have accepted that he may then practice his global arrogance.
Mandela's Medals and Their Contradictions
Mandela received medals of freedom and peace from the global slave traders and warmongers. In 1990, he received the award in the name of whom? Lenin, who killed him and his student Stalin tens of millions before.
Mandela received the "Bharat Ratna" award from the Indian government in 1990, at a time when India was exterminating, raping, and burning Muslims in Kashmir and Gujarat. He received the "Atatürk Peace Prize" from Turkey in 1999, during the military rule that suppressed the freedoms of Muslims. And he received the American Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 from George W. Bush, at a time when America was killing, torturing, and imprisoning in Afghanistan and politically and militarily supporting the Jews' massacres in Jenin.
Did Mandela truly free himself from the orbit of the international system? Did he revolt against imperialism, capitalism, and brutal enslavement as universal values? Or did he reconcile with them in exchange for some freedom and equality within the borders of his country as drawn by this enslaving imperialism? After that, medals of freedom and peace were bestowed upon him, which are an evil spreader of enslavement and destruction.
Would a free person accept being imitated by a rat that won the biggest rat award for cleanliness? And is freedom with a symbol of freedom only acceptable within the country that is already divided, and acceptable outside of it? Therefore, it is no wonder that America and the world leaders stand in a choir of hypocrisy, mourning Mandela, the symbol of freedom, while in their prisons in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and on their torture ships across the sea and secret detention centers, there are true freedoms who have not reconciled with imperialism but have revolted against it and sought to eradicate it completely.
It is true that Mandela had statements in which he criticized this injustice, but the one who feels humiliated when he sees people being humiliated does not accept being imitated by those who humiliate others with their hands dripping with the blood of people, medals named after their teachers in crime like Lenin and Atatürk. Especially since the criminal systems pay for themselves by imitating such medals. If Mandela had felt humiliated, he would not have imitated Gaddafi's medal while seeing him humiliate his people and deprive them of their freedom in prisons.
The Role Model in Islam
How can he be a role model for Muslims? How can a polytheist be a role model for the monotheists? Unless their monotheism is something secondary to them, and polytheism is a minor sin that is outweighed by good qualities. There is a difference between praising aspects of goodness in a polytheist on the one hand, and taking him as a role model on the other. Taking him as a role model after that is an indication of ignorance of our history and reality, such that we did not find in them an example to follow, so we went to seek it in people who associated partners with Allah and lied about Muhammad bin Abdullah that he is the Messenger of Allah. Focusing on people like Mandela at the expense of the real role models who are marginalized consolidates the psychological defeat and the feeling of inferiority among Muslim generations.
It is true that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, praised aspects of goodness in Mut'im bin Adi, Khalid bin al-Walid, and the Negus before his Islam, but he did not call the Muslims to take any of them as a role model or symbol, not even in a specific human aspect. And when Allah commanded us to follow, He did not say to us: "You have indeed had an excellent example in the wisdom of Plato and the politics of Aristotle," but He said about the prophets: "Those are the ones whom Allah has guided, so follow their guidance" [Al-An'am: 90]. And He said about Ibrahim: "Indeed, you have had an excellent example in Ibrahim and those with him" [Al-Mumtahanah: 4]. And He said about Muhammad, peace be upon him: "Indeed, you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example" [Al-Ahzab: 21]. And our Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "So hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly-guided successors after me, bite onto it with your molar teeth."
Thus, the concept of a role model in Islam is a serious one that is not directed to everyone. The Messenger of Allah and those who followed him with excellence did not bring the values of freedom and rejection of injustice only to their homeland, the Arabian Peninsula, and they did not reconcile with the Persians and Romans on this principle, for their Lord, the Exalted, said to him: "And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds" [Al-Anbiya: 107].
The Need for Contemporary Role Models
I see, brother, that you say: The Messenger of Allah and his companions are on the head and the eye, but people need contemporary role models. I agree with you and understand the people's thirst for models of freedom, courage, and sacrifice. But has our contemporary reality been devoid of Muslim role models greater than Mandela, even from a purely human perspective? And if it has not been devoid, why do we not hear about them? Who are they, and why does the media ignore them? Is it an involuntary shortcoming or a systematic policy? And what is the danger of concealing the true role models? This is what we will answer in the next episode, God willing.
Conclusion and Supplication
In conclusion, I say: This is not a call to cancel out the good aspects in non-Muslims, nor is my goal here to attack Mandela. Rather, I simply say: He does not concern us as Muslims. And it is also a call for you to be proud of the great religion you possess, so that if you see someone among the non-Muslims who has good qualities, you say: "This person deserves to be a Muslim, therefore I will invite him to Islam and appeal to the good that distinguishes him, because I have something great which is my Islam and I want to offer it to this man."
Who among us has done this? Who among those who will criticize my words and see them as harsh was merciful to Mandela and others, trying to save him from the Fire by inviting him to Islam? Or do you doubt that the disbeliever's destiny is the Fire?
I know two distinguished brothers in the field of technology who followed the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, and heard from him an unusual talk about death at a Stanford University graduation ceremony. They wrote him a letter in English before his death and sent it to him, praising the good aspects in him and inviting him to Islam in a kind manner. This is what we try to do with those among the non-Muslims whom we deal with and who we sense good in, and praise be to Allah.
Therefore, my brother, be just and merciful to humanity, and at the same time, be proud of your identity and know the greatness of the Islam that is within you. Strive to offer it to the thirsty humanity that needs it. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.