By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi: Time has come for the Muslim world to adopt the Charter of Madinah, prepared by Prophet Muhammad 1400 years ago, in its entirety, said Tunisian Islamic scholar Sheikh Rashid Ghannoushi in New Delhi yesterday.
Addressing a program organized by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on 27th February, Sheikh Ghannoushi, who is the leader of the Islamic Movement of Tunisia, said the charter was relevant today to face the challenges confronting Muslims across the globe. He said after migrating to Madinah, the Prophet prepared the charter in which equal rights and duties were assigned to all citizens of the Islamic State of Madinah — polytheists, Jews, Christians and Muslims. Jews, however, were expelled later from the state because they had violated the charter. He said a movement could succeed only when it accepted multiplicity of religions, cultures and civilizations.
For Muslim minorities, who constitute one third of the entire Muslim Ummah, there are only three ways open: first that they adopt the ideology of division of state into Muslim and non-Muslim population; second, surrender themselves before the majority, and third, participate with non-Muslims. Of these three options, the last one will help Muslims to enjoy their rights, said Sheikh Ghannoushi. The other two options may push them to confrontation with the world or undignified life, said he who is living in London in exile.
Reviewing the state of various Islamic movements in the world, Sheikh Ghannoushi, who is one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), said the reason behind their failure was their non-acceptance of plurality. “Can it be imagined that a Christian can ever become president of Egypt?” he questioned. Taliban waged a Jihad but when Allah handed over a country to them, they could not follow the ideology of pluralism.
Link:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Medina : Madinah Charter