General Islamic Congress 1931

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Meeting of the congress delegates with Emir Abdallah ibn Husain I on December 12, 1931 in Shunet Nimrin

The General Islamic Congress ( Arabic المؤتمر الاسلامي العام, DMG al-Muʾtamar al-islāmī al-ʿāmm ) was an international conference that met in Jerusalem from December 6 to 17, 1931 , and was attended by around 150 Muslim delegates from over 20 countries. The Congress was convened by Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and Shaukat ʿAlī, head of the Indian Caliphate Committee . The most important topics were the future of Palestine , the project of an Islamic university in Jerusalem and the Hejaz Railway . An executive committee was set up at the congress, which should convene further congresses at regular intervals. The personal network created by the congress continued to exist until the 1960s and held various international conferences under the name Islamic World Congress .

prehistory

As early as 1928, Amīn al-Husainī held a general Muslim congress in Jerusalem to defend the holy places, but it was only attended by delegates from neighboring regions. The first idea of ​​holding an international Islamic congress after the failure of the Islamic conferences in Cairo and Mecca in 1926 came from Muhammad ʿAlī, Shaucat ʿAlī's brother, who proposed the creation of a Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem in early 1929, made up of delegates from the entire Islamic world should be composed. When Muhammad ʿAlī died in early 1931, Amīn al-Husainī turned to his brother Shaucat by telegram and suggested that he bury his brother in Jerusalem. The contact made on this occasion led to the revival of the congress idea.

Officially, the objectives for convening the Congress were: (1) Muslim cooperation; (2) spreading Islamic culture; (3) defense of Muslim holy places (in Jerusalem); (4) preservation of the traditions of Islam; (5) establishment of a Muslim university in Jerusalem; (4) Restoration of the Hejaz Railway.

There were critical voices in the run-up to the congress. Some modernists viewed the Congress as a "reactionary" event. For example, the Turkish Foreign Minister stated that his country would not send a delegation to the Congress because he was "dissuading the peoples from the path of progress" and using religion as a "political instrument". The leaders of the prestigious al-Azhar University in Cairo opposed the idea of ​​establishing a new Muslim university in Jerusalem . In Palestine itself, some viewed Congress as an attempt by the mufti to increase its influence over local rivals.

Since the British Mandate authorities had not been consulted prior to the announcement of Congress, the High Commissioner summoned the Grand Mufti in November to consult with him on the objectives and warned him that the Mandate Government would hold a conference "on internal or external issues Affairs of friendly powers "would not be allowed. Otherwise the British mandate authorities made no effort to prevent the conference.

Attendees

Delegates from Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Persia, India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Chinese Turkestan , the Urals , the Caucasus, Yugoslavia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Nigeria attended the congress. Well-known participants in the congress included Raschīd Ridā and ʿAbd ar-Rahmān ʿAzzām (Egypt), Riad as-Solh (Lebanon), Shukri al-Quwatli (Syria), Muhammad Iqbal (India) and Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai (Persia). The overwhelming majority of the delegates were Sunnis, but there were also eight Shiite delegates. The most important of these was the Iraqi Mujtahid Muhammad al-Husain Āl Kāshif al-Ghitā from Najaf .

Course of the Congress

The congress began on the evening of December 7th with a common prayer of the conference participants on the occasion of the Isrā'night (on 27th Rajab ), during which one commemorated the heavenly journey of Muhammad . The prayer was directed by the Shiite scholar Muhammad al-Husain Āl Kāshif al-Ghitā. The next day eight commissions were set up to prepare reports on specific issues:

  1. the Islamic Daʿwa and Spiritual Guidance Commission chaired by Rashīd Ridā,
  2. the Commission on Holy Places and the Buraq Wall ( Wailing Wall ) chaired by Muhammad al-Husain Āl Kāshif al-Ghitā,
  3. the Commission for Muslim Culture and the new "University of al-Aqsā Mosque" chaired by Mustafā al-Ghalāyinī, President of the Muslim Council of Lebanon,
  4. the Commission for the Statute of the Congress, chaired by Shaukat ʿAlī,
  5. the Hejaz Railway Commission chaired by Emir Saʿīd al-Jazā'irī, grandson of Emir Abd el-Kader ,
  6. the Finance and Organization Commission, chaired by the Lebanese ʿUmar Bey ad-Dāʿūq,
  7. the commission for proposals submitted to the Congress,
  8. the Congressional Propaganda and Publications Commission.

The reports prepared by these commissions were then discussed at the plenary sessions and either accepted or rejected.

Although the British mandate had banned discussions on the politics of "friendly powers", Congress not only spoke out clearly on the Zionist question, but also protested in general against the mandate system and colonialism , French politics in Morocco, and anti-religious politics the Soviet government and the activities of the Italian authorities in Libya. The criticism of the Egyptian Wafd politician ʿAbd ar-Rahmān ʿAzzām of the Italian authorities was so severe that the mandate government formally expelled him from Palestine.

The congress also paid great attention to overcoming intra-Islamic conflicts. In order to demonstrate the unity between Sunnis and Shiites , the Shiite Muhammad al-Husain Āl Kāshif al-Ghitāʾ was asked to lead the Friday prayer of all conference participants on December 11th . This was a revolutionary step because it recognized the Shiites as Muslims of equal value. Muhammad al-Husain also gave a sensational address to the conference plenary on December 15, in which he called for unity between Sunnis and Shiites.

Immediately after the meeting of Congress, the Grand Mufti's opponents, led by Raghib an-Naschaschibi , Mayor of Jerusalem, convened a counter-conference in Jerusalem calling for a reform of the Constitution of the Supreme Islamic Council and their distrust of the Mufti proclaimed its president.

Congressional Statute

The conference adopted a statute of 17 articles, which was subsequently published in Arabic and English by the Central Office in Jerusalem. Art. 1 provided that a regular, Islamic congress should be held for all Muslims in the world and that this should be named "General Islamic Congress" ( al-Muʾtamar al-islāmī al-ʿāmm ). Art. 2 defined the objectives of the Congress as: a) Developing cooperation among Muslims regardless of the multitude of their countries and schools of law and kindling the spirit of general Islamic fraternity; b) Protection of Islamic interests and preservation of the holy places and places from any interference or control; c) Combating Christian missionary efforts and campaigns among Muslims; d) Establishing universities and scientific institutes which endeavor to standardize Islamic culture and impart the Arabic language to Islamic youth; the first step is to set up an Islamic university in Jerusalem called the "University of al-Aqsā Mosque"; e) Investigating other Islamic matters of concern to Muslims.

The statute also provided that the Congress should meet regularly every two years and that the Executive Committee could also convene extraordinary meetings (Art. 5). The center of the activities of the Congress should be Jerusalem, whereby the Congress could choose another center for its own (Art. 6). The executive committee should consist of 25 people who should represent all Islamic peoples if possible; This Executive Committee had the task of a) implementing the decisions of the Congress, b) preparing the agenda for the next conference of the organization and c) establishing branches of the Congress in the Islamic countries and sending delegations to them in order to achieve the goals of the Congress realize (Art. 9). The Executive Committee should elect a seven-person central office from among the members of Congress (Art. 10). The finances of the Congress should be secured through membership fees, donations and other sources of income (Art. 13).

The congress as a network

During the conference, the 25-member Congress Executive Committee was elected. This consisted of three Egyptians, four Indians, four North-West Africans, one Persian, one Javanese, one Turk (from Warsaw), one Bosniak and ten Arabs (from Palestine, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula), two of whom were Shiites. This executive committee elected the central office with the Persian ex-prime minister Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai as general secretary. In the spring of 1932, the central office forwarded the protest resolutions of the conference against the usurpation of the Hejaz Railway, against Jewish attacks on Muslim holy places, against Italian war crimes in Libya , against the decree ( dahir ) recognizing common Berber law in French Morocco , against the persecution of Muslims in the Soviet Union and against any form of colonization to the mandate authorities, the League of Nations as well as the responsible high commissioners and foreign ministries.

In 1932 branches of the Islamic Congress were established in various countries, for example in Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Mombasa, India, Java, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and Geneva. A first conference of the representatives of these sections, devoted mainly to the question of raising funds, was held in Jerusalem in August 1932. In October 1932, the Persian student Hossein Danesch and 19 other people founded a branch of this organization in Germany, which he called the "Islamic World Congress, Berlin Branch". In relation to the local court he invoked the "statutes created in Jerusalem in December 1931". The plans for al-Aqsā University were also pursued. It should have three faculties (theology, natural sciences and medicine) and be able to accept 1,000 students.

In 1933, a delegation from Congress, headed by Amīn al-Husainī and former Egyptian Minister ʿAllūba Pasha, who served as treasurer, traveled to Iraq and India to raise funds. The delegation was greeted enthusiastically everywhere, but the donations fell short of expectations. A follow-up conference, which was actually due according to the congress statute, was also not called. On the other hand, in the spring of 1934, Congress made a name for itself again in connection with the Saudi-Yemeni war . The Executive Committee sent a peace delegation to Mecca on this occasion . It consisted of the mufti, ʿAllūba Pasha, the Druze emir Shakīb Arslān and the Syrian nationalist al-ʿAtāsī . The delegation met with Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud on April 14 , established telegraphic communications with the Zaidi imam and took part in the negotiations that led to the Taif Accords on May 20 .

In the years that followed, the activities of the Congress stalled due to a lack of financial resources, and the idea of ​​an Islamic university could not be realized. The central office with its premises in the Haram in Jerusalem remained. In 1936, Amīn al-Husainī was using his title of Congress President when he issued a fatwa stating that the Syrian Alawis were true Muslims. When Amīn al-Husainīs fled Palestine in 1937, the organization ceased its activities for the time being, even though the personal network created by the conference continued to exist. Amīn al-Husainī planned a pilgrimage to Mecca in February 1937 , the possibility of a renewed convocation of the Islamic Congress in this city came up. However, the Saudi King Ibn Saud prohibited the holding of such a congress.

Even after the end of the war, Amīn al-Husainī still saw himself as President of the Jerusalem Congress. In 1949 he convened a small international conference in Karachi , which he presented as a continuation not only of the Jerusalem Conference but also of the Islamic Conference of Mecca in 1926. Another conference he chaired, held in Karachi in February 1951 under the title Muʿtamar al-ʿālam al-islāmī (" World Islamic Congress "), met with far greater interest from the Muslim public. Representatives from 32 countries and various Islamic communities took part. From the Muslim Brotherhood , Mustafā as-Sibāʿī and Said Ramadan were present.

literature

swell
  • Muqarrarāt al-muʾtamar al-islāmī al-ʿāmm fī daurati-hī al-ūlā . Maṭba'at al-Aitām al-Islamiya bi-l-Quds, Jerusalem, o. D. Digitalisat (documentation of the conference with the names of the participants, the decisions of the eight committees and the names of the members of the Executive Committee)
Secondary literature
  • Rainer Brunner: Approach and distance. Schia, Azhar and Islamic Ecumenism in the 20th Century . Schwarz, Berlin, 1996. pp. 64-74. Digitized
  • Ralph M. Coury, "Egyptians in Jerusalem: their Role in the General Islamic Conference of 1931" in The Muslim World 82 (1992) 37-54.
  • HAR Gibb : The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 in Arnold J. Toynbee (ed.): Survey of International Affairs 1934 . London 1935. pp. 99-109.
  • Martin Kramer: Islam Assembled. The Advent of the Muslim Congresses . Columbia University Press, New York 1986, ISBN 0-231-05994-9 , pp. 123-141, 192-194.
  • Uri M. Kupferschmidt: "The General Muslim Congress of 1931 in Jerusalem" in Asian and African Studies (Jerusalem) 12 (1978) 123-162.
  • Uri M. Kupferschmidt: The Supreme Muslim Council. Islam under the British Mandate for Palestine. EJ Brill, Leiden u. a., 1978. pp. 187-220, 267-271.
  • Weldon C. Matthews: "Pan-Islam or Arab Nationalism? The Meaning of the 1931 Jerusalem Islamic Congress Reconsidered" in International Journal Middle East Studies 35 (2003) 1-22.
  • Basheer Nafi: "The General Islamic Congress of Jerusalem Reconsidered" in The Muslim World 86 (1996) 243-272.
  • Alfred Nielsen: The International Islamic Conference at Jerusalem in The Muslim World 22 (1932) 340-354.
  • V. Pravot: Le Congrès international islamique de Jerusalème in En Terre d'Islam (Lyon) 53 (1932) 77-92.
  • Rašīd Riḍā : "al-Muʾtamar al-islāmī al-ʿāmm fī Bait al-Maqdis" in al-Manār 32/2 (February 1932) 113-132 and 32/3 (March 1933) 193-208.
  • Reinhard Schulze: Islamic Internationalism in the 20th Century. Research on the history of the Islamic World League. Brill, Leiden u. a. 1990, ISBN 90-04-08286-7 , pp. 94-102.
  • Virginia Vacca et al .: Oriente in Generale in Oriente Moderno 12 (1932) 21-45. (Contains a detailed report on the conference on pages 24–43, based on the reports in the issues of the Christian-Arab daily Filasṭīn from December 7-18 , 1931.)

notes

  1. ↑ See Brunner: Approach and Distance . 1996, p. 64.
  2. ↑ Kupferschmidt: "The General Muslim Congress of 1931 in Jerusalem". 1978, pp. 143-147.
  3. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, pp. 123-125.
  4. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 102.
  5. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 102.
  6. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, p. 128.
  7. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 104.
  8. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 103.
  9. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, p. 123.
  10. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 103.
  11. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, pp. 131f.
  12. ↑ See Brunner: Approach and Distance . 1996, p. 67.
  13. ↑ See Brunner: Approach and Distance . 1996, p. 67.
  14. ^ Vacca et al .: Oriente in Generale . 1932, p. 27b.
  15. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 105.
  16. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 105.
  17. ↑ See Brunner: Approach and Distance . 1996, p. 67f.
  18. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 104.
  19. ↑ For the English version cf. Kramer: Islam Assembled . 1986, pp. 192-194.
  20. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 107.
  21. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 107f.
  22. ↑ See Bernd Bauknecht: Muslims in Germany from 1920 to 1945. Teiresias, Cologne, 2001. pp. 99–106. Here p. 99f.
  23. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 107f.
  24. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 108.
  25. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 109.
  26. ^ Gibb: The Islamic Congress at Jerusalem in December 1931 . 1935, p. 109.
  27. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, p. 141.
  28. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, p. 123.
  29. ↑ See Kramer: Islam Assembled. 1986, p. 141.
  30. ↑ See Schulze: Islamic Internationalism in the 20th Century. 1990, p. 110.
  31. ↑ See Schulze: Islamic Internationalism in the 20th Century. 1990, p. 111.