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Islamization: A Sociological Approach

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 Islamization: A Sociological Approach

M. Alashari/Mohammad M Rahman

The book The Islamic Society: The Sociological Perspective discusses mainly about the Islamic
society while this paper mainly discusses the ways to realize the Islamic society.

There are two levels of changes in human society: System and Personal. Islam also aims to
change on both levels each complementing the other. The system change happens in the
political level, the legal level, the economic level, the financial level, the diplomatic level, the
education level and the research level. Islam has guidance, rules and laws for making changes in
these. This paper mainly proposes policies to change the individual level but may also touch on
the system level as well. When the collective individuals change it will change the society as a
whole. The Islamic society offers an alternative and unique existence and not simply
conforming to western secular liberalism.

Towards this end Muslim must utilize the maximum potential of Islamic texts towards collective
empowerment. Today most Muslims only utilize a very minimum sets of Islamic texts mainly
related to personal worship such as prayer, fasting and Hajj yet most of these Muslims do not
even realize the reality and totality of these worship and why they are called pillars of Islam.
Muslims must fulfill the obligatory and prohibited commands of Islam in their individual and
collective capacity but even that Muslims are not doing. Then we must at least fulfill the
recommended and disliked commands of Islam which empower our collective existence and
Islamic identity. For examples take the Hadith of removing harmful substance from the street as
being the lowest of faith but doing this empowers us collectively as our society becomes better
in health, economy and aesthetic thereby improving us over our adversaries. Also take for
example weekend. Many Muslim countries follow Jewish and Christian holidays giving lame
excuses while they should have followed Thursday and Friday as Islamic holidays. This
empowers our Islamic identity over our adversaries. So, Islamization is meant to realize this
utilization of the maximum potential of Islamic texts towards collective empowerment.

Islamization of Muslim majority societies starts with two categories of policies: policies of
persuasion and motivation, and policies of realization. The former set of policies is meant to
change the psychology and thought process of the members of the Muslim societies while the
second set of policies is to realize the practicality of the Islamic society. But before I begin
discussion some basic terms need to clarify about social psychology.
The basic building blocks of social psychology are two main categories: the internal and the
external. The internal consists of the mind which contains cognition, emotion, intention and
desire. The external consists of the body which contains: the behavior, the attitude and the
society itself. The society however contains situations & events about the people and/or
objects. Islamisation is meant to change the internal, external and thereby the society on the
basis of Divine guidance to create an unique Divinely infused social evolution meant to create
thousands years of Islamic civilization where all ethnicity of Muslims and non-Muslims are a
single Ummah under Islam.

Know that the body and the brain is the instrument of the soul which many call the mind. The
soul is the endpoint of all human feelings and cognition. To change the Muslim societies
towards Islam we must change the social acts and behavior of its members. We must thus
understand the underlying causes, rules and values that affect the social acts and behavior of its
members. So, the process of trying to determine the causes of people’s behavior is known
as causal attribution. It can be internal cause such as the person or external such as an event or
situation. Islamisation of society and political system must at least ensure that Islam identified
causes of evil are rejected and prevented by Islamic laws. For example, lack of welfare increases
hardship for people and that consistent hardship may push some to crimes. Or for example
nudity tempts men and at some point it will result in rape and other violent crimes. So
Islamisation will control and guide the internal and external causes of social acts and behavior.

In order to achieve this Islamisation must aim at controlling and modelling the social and
cognitive schema. Schema is a collection of basic knowledge about a concept or entity that
serves as a guide to perception, interpretation, imagination, or problem solving. Schema
engineering must take place at all levels of aging process and in multiple critical places starting
in childhood education, familial upbringing, public places, various social programs and the
media etc. As an example schema engineering will teach children how to perceive others and
other ideologies. In the social dynamic with others, then, we have two goals: First, we need to
learn about them, and second, we want them to learn about (and, we hope, like and respect)
us. Muslim children must learn about non-Muslims primarily based on faith and humanity. First
Muslim children must learn world is divided between faithful and faithless. Muslim children
must learn their social category (gender, religion, social role etc. ) and its role and values based
on Islamic guidance. For example a female must learn the importance of chastity, husband and
child bearing and the male must learn likewise about chastity, wife and leadership and
protection of the family. This is a schema of the Islamic family.

So the Islamization aims of schema installation in human brains is to create genuinely moral,
empathetic and honest society at least 75% of the society. People must be programmed to do
good primarily for the sake of good rather than personal goals or selfish achievements. This will
make them habitual performers of good in the Islamic society. Collective betterment is the aim
rather than personal betterment at the expense of others which impedes collective
betterment. Individualism is not total but must be limited so that not to encroach upon the
collective betterment.

To achieve these, we need to change the behavior through social program and social
institution. For children imbue in them positive Islamic morals and alienate negative morals.
This should occur in all context of cognitive development. For example you are teaching the
child to dislike pork in classroom but at the same time pork is being sensationalized in cartoon.
This wont work in Islamic development of child's morals and cognitive thought. However once
child has been taught the negativity of pork the child can deal with pork sensationalism as an
adult because the child's moral and cognitive capabilities about this issue has been developed.
This is why in west they use age rating for movies.

Islamization should create social interaction to instill sense of community based on Islamic
values. This community interaction should take place first through education in primary schools
continuing to universities and also through various weekly and monthly social occasions based
on Islamic values for example one of the values that need to be implemented is segregated job
industry and education system. A society based on care and feelings will create a close
relationship depending on blood relation, similarity of values and companionship. Close
relationship does not mean violation of privacy, being imposive and demanding but some
people by mutual understanding may waiver these limits due to the intensity of their closeness.

Sometimes social situations may motivate people to do something bad without them really
doing it out of firm intention and purpose. That is why Islamization of society is necessary that
does not create a deviant society which overpowers individual will to do good. To create
responsible, sympathetic and altruistic people we need to spread Islamic conscience and values
by education, socialization through media and ads, familial upbringing and political action and
legal rulings.

The Islamization process should also be dealing with negative emotions. Negative emotions
which may harm the Islamic society should achieve positive thinking and optimism
through trust, patience and hope in God and inspiration to achieve goals. These can be
achieved in many ways and some of these ways are traditional education, Islamic preaching,
various entertainment tools such as movies and TV shows, through extracurricular
activities, through encouraging research. We also need to prohibit negative image of Islam or
Muslim in their religious capacity in the public space. We don't want negative social conscience
to develop against Islam through misunderstanding and incomplete or wrong
information. Positive thinking will result in positive attitude towards Islam which will be
expressed by belief, behavior and emotion of the Islamic citizens.

How to realize Islamic acts/values/rules in the social setting? We need to create group norms in
political and social groups which must earn admiration by piety, morality and ability to govern.
We must create norms in the political institutions, academic institutions, public institutions and
legal institutions. The jurists and theologians should scan through Islamic texts, biographies and
history to extract relevant values to be applied in these institutions thereby achieving group
norms. Also Muslims should be required by law to attend weekly sessions on reading Islamic
texts to improve their Islamic awareness. Group based feedback must be formed not only in a
mosque gathering session but in every public institutions to generate brighter ideas to
empower Islam and people’s lives even more. In such groupthink process various problems may
be presented and the group acting as a whole through brainstorming proposing new solutions
for Islamic society.

For group norms to be successful and long lasting we need to do the following on a persistent
basis:

Create Models of Persuasion

Dismantle propaganda against Islam and expose enemies lies and psyops. These can be
achieved by educational curriculum, movies, TV shows, media and mosque sermons.
We must also through these means promote positive things about Islam and Muslims. We must
rationalize Islam rather than liberalizing it. This along with previous guideline will make Islam a
powerful social influence to achieve conformity.

We should teach and promote Islamic history and heritage in various social context mainly
starting from the context of education. We must present Islamic heritage and history in such a
way as to create inspiration, positivism, by encouraging reliving and showing a purpose and
motivation. One of the most influential contemporary social contexts is the film industry and
Muslims must truly exploit this context to achieve these. These will teach Muslims Islamic self-
concept on monotheism and the totality of the ummah and imbue in them positive self-esteem
through Islamic identity. This will also show Islamic rule is rationally inclusive and rationally
liberal.

Achieve Conformity
Conformity is the normative standards of a social group or situation. The characteristics of the
social situation, including the number of people in the majority and the unanimity of the
majority, have a strong influence on conformity. So for Muslim majority countries Islam must
define conformity.

As we proceed in implementing these guidelines, we must not forget welfare of people which
will also act as motivating factor. We know humans are motivated to find food and water, to
obtain adequate shelter, and to protect themselves from danger, that is humans like their life
to be convenient. So Islamic rule should make and announce Islamic policies to fulfill these and
obtain convenience for people as much as able and reasonable, and towards this end Muslims
in their official and professional capacities must prove efficiency and skills to achieve
convenience for human life and in the process achieve informational
conformity. This conformity is the change in opinions or behavior that occurs when people
conform to those people whom they believe have accurate information, abilities and skills.
While working towards informational conformity Muslim professionals and officials should
reveal Islamic identity. Such as Muslim doctors for example having Islamic dress code and
appearance and mentioning God often in their medical activities along with Islamic sincerity
and honesty.

Create Social Support for Islamic Values Among Muslims

This can be achieved by declaration, encouragement and adherence from authorities, by

publicity and having one to one reminder and conversation, digital or otherwise between the
authority, religious officials and the Muslim and non-Muslim individual. Declaration must be
continuous persistent and consistent from multiple authorities of Islamic rule. This is to create a
social Islamic conscience because social influence creates social norms. The model and
framework of this need to be determined and implemented.
The approval, assistance, advice, and comfort for Islamic values and for those who support
them and live by them should be achieved. This support starts by political and academic
declarations which psychologically motivates people and prepares them by making them think
as part of a greater whole and cause. The key is to start a trend. Once declared Muslim
institutions public or private must start implementing this and gradually it will spread among
Muslim individuals. We can start gradually from small things such as changing to Islamic dress,
Islamic looks, Islamic greetings etc and move towards greater aspects such as political, legal,
economic systems etc. Muslims must start thinking before acting by asking "is this belief or act
Islamic" should help achieve this?
Suppress Contradictory Values

Contradictory values will impede Islamization and as secular liberal values are dominant it will
impede Islamic conformity. The result has been normative conformity which occurs when we
express opinions or behave in ways that help us to be accepted or that keep us from being
isolated or rejected by the majority others. Muslims have been overwhelmed by secular liberal
conformity by failing to live by Quran 5:100. So achieving conformity starts by political, legal
and social policies by promoting, supporting and protecting Islamic values and resisting,
suppressing and rejecting un-Islamic values. This should occur through consistency and almost
unanimously to create strong Islamic social norm and influence.

Cease & Desist Social Distractions

That which derails our traits, desires, motivations, and emotions away from Islam, Islamic
values and Islamic rule must be suppressed. We can change the social situations by this act as
well. Towards this end social media must abide by rules and laws of Islamic society and failing
to do so should terminate their presence. Technologically social media access must be made as
hard as possible and also legal action taken if anyone accessing banned social media. Some
entities such as education and businesses may be allowed under conditions.

Form Close Relationship

A Muslim is practicing Muslim who reveals signs of Islamic adherence. We must form close
relationship among these Muslims internationally and locally. It is essential for Muslims to
create close relationship through many social acts such as in mosques, in social parties arranged
for get together, through games online and offline, in education system, through marriage,
through persistent charitable endeavors etc. The standard of Muslim Islamic charity must be to
prioritize those helpless people who are practicing Muslims. Like this Muslims will have
continue to maintain close relationship, bond and a sense of solidarity. Islamic government
should form a regular national detailed roster of people in need and publish it.

The four rules of forming close relationship according to psychology are: proximity, similarity,
physical attractiveness, and reciprocity. Discuss further on Islamic texts.

The element of proximity in attraction means that people are more likely to be attracted to
someone who is in close physical and social proximity to them. Quran has ordained one rule,
one peace, and one geography for Muslims in many verses. This will achieve physical and social
proximity, and this is a monumental task because of what western colonialism and
neocolonialism has done and is doing.

The element of similarity means exactly what you’d think — it means that people are more
likely to be attracted to people who have similar traits to them. Islam is most effective in
achieving this. For example Islam states Muslims are one body. So Islam is about creating
intense and essential similarities among its followers so they admire each other. However again
colonialism, neocolonialism, Muslim nationalism and racism have destroyed this.

The element of physical attractiveness is also pretty self-explanatory. It means that people are
more likely to be emotionally or romantically attracted to people that they also find physically
attractive. However, this is mostly to be used in Islamic marriage. Muslims must not judge each
other or non-Muslims by their looks. God sees the hearts and actions rather than looks and
likewise Muslims must look in to others beliefs, values and actions and compare these with
Quran and Sunnah before judging them.

The element of reciprocity is the idea that people are more likely to be attracted to people who
are also attracted to them. If you know someone who likes you or expresses their feelings for
you, you might feel more inclined to like them back. So Muslims must like each other and this
can be expressed by various means such as greeting each other often even they are strangers
to each other, being charitable to the needy Muslims, having an open and friendly discussion
when meeting on various social occasions such as while travelling or in a restaurant etc, being
eager to help and supportive to fellow Muslims. These are all indications of reciprocity.

Islamic texts have laid down numerous behavioral and mental protocols to achieve close
relationship among Muslims. What is holding us back is suspicion, envy and mistrust. We just
need to overcome those negative barriers by first initiation which means just be the first to
initiate trust, amicability and friendship towards your fellow Muslims and as this becomes
widespread we will achieve a wide reaching solidarity which will create a culture and habit of
Islamic relationship.

Forming and Managing The Cognitive Schema

The aim is to guide the society's and its members feelings, thoughts and behavior instead of
leaving these to whimsical choice. This will achieve social perception of groups and individuals
and guide that towards either liking or disliking depending on the value set of that group or
individual. The goal is to attract good existence and repel bad existence. This is also the goal of
amr bil maruf nahiy an munkar. By this social cognition is attained that involves the active
interpretation of events of the Islamic society. While imparting message to the public by any
lawful means we must understand the context of message passing whether it is formal such as
education or informal such as media or advertising billboard.

In the informal context we should utilize people's spontaneous message processing, in

which people accept a persuasion attempt because they focus on whatever is most obvious or
enjoyable or depressing in the message, without much attention to the message itself. In the
formal context we should utilize thoughtful message processing which occurs when people
think about how the message relates to their own beliefs and goals and involves their careful
consideration of whether the persuasion attempt is valid or invalid. Because the thoughtful
processing of the message bolsters the attitude, thoughtful processing helps us develop strong
attitudes, which are therefore resistant to counter-persuasion.

In the Islamisation process children should be started with spontaneous message processing
then as they mature gradually then the move should be towards thoughtful message
processing. The primary message subject matter should be Islam and related issues. All
messages related to Islam should be strong in content, sourced from authority such as Islamic
government or important Islamic institutions and must be relevant to context and audience.
While promoting Islamic message we need to ensure that citizens of Islamic jurisdiction does
not accept anti Islam persuasion. We should use forewarning which is giving people a chance to
develop a resistance to persuasion by reminding them that they might someday receive a
persuasive message and allowing them to practice how they will respond to influence attempts.
Quran uses forewarning technique to warn believers about potential hostilities from Islam
haters.

Forewarning prepares us for action—we bring up our defenses to maintain our existing beliefs
so forewarning can be effective in helping people respond to anti Islam persuasive messages
that they will receive later. In the formal context of education as students mature, we need to
inoculate them that involves building up defenses against anti Islam persuasion by mildly
attacking Islam. While Islamizing the society we need to be careful about psychological
reactance that is strong emotional response that people experience when they feel that
their freedom of choice is being taken away when they expect that we should have choice. So
previous steps need to be implemented properly and freedom defined and presented to people
in a controlled way to avoid psychological reactance. But psychological reactance must not be
always submitted to as people may not always know what is good for them only an authority, in
this case Islamic authority, which is meritocratic and pious has the best interest of the Islamic
society. Sometimes psychological reactance can take the form of armed rebellion such as
hiraba which demands strict punishment from the authority.
 In conclusion Islamization is meant to realize the utilization of the maximum potential of Islamic
texts towards collective Muslim empowerment. This will in turn change and guide the system
and also the personal. Islamization of Muslim majority societies starts with two categories of
policies: policies of persuasion and motivation, and policies of realization. This is meant to
change the social psychology and the basic building blocks of social psychology are two main
categories: the internal and the external. To change the Muslim majority societies towards
Islam we must change the social acts and behavior of its members and we need to change the
behavior through social programs and social institutions. In order to achieve this, Islamisation
must aim at controlling and modelling the social and cognitive schema by various psychological
means. Islamization should create social interaction to instill sense of community based on
Islamic values, disregard negative emotions and promote positive emotions. We need to create
group norms in political and social groups which must earn admiration by piety, morality and
ability to govern. We must create norms in the political institutions, academic
institutions, public institutions, and legal institutions. The jurists and theologians should scan
through Islamic texts, biographies and history to extract relevant values to be applied in these
institutions thereby achieving group norms and the psychologists and sociologists must guide
how media and entertainment impart their contents. To create group norms, we need to create
models of persuasion, achieve conformity, create social support for Islamic values, suppress
contradictory values, cease and desist social distractions and form close relationship among
Muslims.

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