How Capitalism maintains control and is Islam the anecdote?
Everyone talks about Capitalism, and I’ve argued that Capitalism is the inverse of Islam. However, the question that any intelligent human being will ask is—why don’t people just say ‘no’? Why is resistance so hard?
Firstly, I’m going to talk about Marx and Engels’ definition of Capitalism and how Capitalism uses different instruments of power to maintain control. How do we understand Capitalism? We go to Marx and Engels. Marx and Engels explored ideology in capitalist societies. In Marxism, social dominance was based on an economic structure that divided society into classes based on control over the means of production—for example, land, factories, and capital. In Marxism, we learn that the ruling class maintains power by controlling:
Economic base (the economy)
The superstructure (institutions like the state, education, religion, media, etc.)
Marx and Engels argued that this superstructure serves the interests of the ruling class by producing ideology—beliefs, values, and norms—that justify and legitimize the economic system.
This brings us to Antonio Gramsci, who, in the early 20th century, extended Marx and Engels’s analysis of Capitalism by focusing on how cultural institutions (schools, churches, media) work together to gain the “consent” of the governed rather than relying solely on force or coercion. Later, we will touch on the use of force to enforce and maintain control. This expansion into the realm of “culture” allowed for a more nuanced understanding of how control is maintained through social norms, values, and beliefs. He coined what is called cultural hegemony—which means a way of making the ruling class' worldview seem natural, inevitable, and universally beneficial.
What’s hegemony? Hegemony comes from the Greek word hēgemonia, which means “leadership” or “dominance.” Therefore, if society believes that Capitalism is natural and inevitable, then the system is less likely to be questioned and resisted. This is why the ruling class can maintain power despite widespread economic inequality and social discontent.
But even with all these intricate tools of Capitalism to maintain control, resistance is always happening.
Canada’s Role in Sustaining Capitalist Oppression
Now let’s relate this to the Canadian context in particular. In the 1940s, white South African politicians visited Canada to study how Canada instituted laws to oppress the Indigenous community and used that information to create similar strategies of oppression to use in Apartheid South Africa.
Why Canada? Why maple-syrup-drinking, immigrant-loving, liberal utopia Canada? What makes Canada unique in its way of maintaining control?
In a past blog post, I talked about learning Egyptian Hieroglyphics as a kid being symbolic of the state’s power over us in relation to Firoun (Pharaoh), representing the greatest oppressor to ever live in Islam. But even with that in mind, every state under Capitalism uses similar techniques (Egyptian revival architecture in Ireland).
But what’s different here? The extreme cold weather!
What does resistance mean in extreme cold weather? In 2020, when the pandemic hit and the way Capitalism functioned for so long was halted—we saw true revolutionary movements on the ground. In Canada, there were many things, but what stood out the most to me was the encampments in Trinity Bellwoods Park. People who didn't have a home built tents in parks across Canada, and the state sent their arm, the police, to destroy these encampments. But all of this was happening during summertime. What happens during the winter months? Extreme cold can kill you. Resistance in a place like Toronto could lead to death by homelessness. Extreme heat and extreme cold can lead to death. Earlier, we talked about the gained ‘consent’ of dominance through cultural hegemony, but when you can control people with the threat of death by homelessness, is that not a forceful way to maintain control? While keeping your hands seemingly clean?
What Does All This Have to Do with Islam?
The last Prophet, Muhammad (SAW), the greatest human being to ever walk the face of the earth, was born in Mecca, in the middle of a desert in a time when the Arabs had nothing but their language. Other societies at that time—the Romans, the Persians, and the Ethiopian Empire—were more civilized, but Islam came to the Arabs. During his life before Prophethood, our Beloved was a humanitarian due to the immense oppression he saw being inflicted by the Quraysh tribe. He spent his wealth and time to stand with, help, and defend the oppressed in society, particularly the poor and the orphans. Eventually, when he started to receive revelation and began to spread the message of Islam, he faced opposition and lost everything.The ruling class oppressed our Beloved so intensely that his wife, our mother Khadijah—one of the four women in the history of mankind to perfect her faith—died of starvation.
But what’s the similarity between Canada and the Arabian desert of Mecca? Extreme weather.
Extreme cold and extreme heat, both being deadly.So as a Canadian, the next time we see a houseless person facing the Canadian cold, think of our Beloved. And what an honor it is to be a reminder of our Beloved, Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Globalization
Now, let’s talk about Palestine. But before that, we have to talk about Globalization. Globalization allows for Capitalism to transcend beyond borders, touching every part of the world. From this, we can understand that the same oppressive forces that are harming and killing our brothers and sisters in Palestine are connected to the same oppressive forces that are streamlining our brothers and sisters in America into prisons. But how does this relate to Islam? During the time of Prophet Moses (AS), when Bani Israel sinned, they couldn’t ask for forgiveness directly like the way Muslims do today—they had to turn to Musa to pray for them. In Surat Baqarah, 2:54, the Israelites needed Musa (AS) to intercede on their behalf for worshiping the Calf. In 2:60, when the Israelites needed water, they appealed to Musa (AS) to pray to Allah, and then Allah instructed him to strike the rock for water. The same applies to the followers of Prophet Iesa/Jesus. In Surat Mai’dah, the disciples asked Iesa to bring down a table with a spread of food from heaven, showcasing Prophet Iesa’s intermediary role. With the coming of our last Prophet, Muhammad (SAW), Allah made it so that Muslims can worship Allah directly and pray to Allah anywhere on this earth.
Is this to protect Muslims against a Shaytanic threat that would attack them from every part of this earth, like Global Racial Capitalism?
Now, let's talk about Palestine
Why is the method of oppression in Palestine different from anywhere else in the world? Because Palestine is a blessed land. In Jerusalem, there isn't a single handspan except that a Prophet of Allah or Angel stood there and/or prostrated to Allah. When Musa (AS) was dying, he asked Allah to be as close “as a stone’s throw” from Palestine. Surat Maryam begins with Zachariya (AS) in Masjid al-Aqsa, asking Allah to grant him a righteous child. Allah blesses Zachariya (AS) with Yahya (AS). Later, Maryam’s pregnancy begins, and she comes with her baby Iesa (AS) in the courtyard of Masjid al-Aqsa. Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Lot (AS), escaping the tyrannical rule of their time, were granted refuge in Palestine. Prophet Yaqub (AS), crying while waiting for his son Prophet Yusuf (AS) to return to him, was situated in Palestine. So much of the Quran is situated in Palestine.
So if Capitalism is global and the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was sent to all of humanity, how can we link the oppression in Palestine to Canada?
In Palestine, the weather is moderate—it doesn’t get too cold, and it doesn’t get too hot. In that case, the threat of homelessness is inconvenient, but it’s not deadly. So how can they instill fear in them when they can’t use the weather to their advantage? They have to use blatant force. They have to use tanks, they have to use bombs, and they have to kill them themselves. And because they have to do it themselves, they need justification for that force. That’s where the concept of Orientalism is important. In Orientalism, Edward Said argues that the academic faculty and study of Orientalism:
"Is produced and exists in an uneven exchange with various kinds of power, shaped to a degree by the exchange with power political (as with a colonial or imperial establishment), power intellectual (as with reigning sciences like comparative linguistics or anatomy, or any of the modern policy sciences), power cultural (as with orthodoxies and canons of taste, texts, values), power moral (as with ideas about what 'we' do and what 'they' cannot do or understand as 'we' do.”
What he means by this is that we often think about imperial power in terms of the military, but our blind spot in thinking about imperialism is:
Power political
The state establishment of laws
the 13th Amendment allowing for slavery to exist within prisons.
Power intellectual
Comparative linguistics being used to classify and rank languages creates ideas of the superiority of European languages, and by extension, the cultures that come with that language.
Anatomy – Example: Eugenics; the study of the human body linked to racial science to suggest that certain races were biologically better than others.
Power cultural
Education institutions skipping over the fact that it was during the Islamic Golden Age that Muslims translated and worked through Greek philosophy, which led Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance period.
Power moral
The philanthropic efforts of Capitalism, while simultaneously consolidating the world’s wealth in the hands of a few.
In conclusion, my goal is to make us understand that Islam is the antithesis to Capitalism.
What can we do?
On a local scale, to Muslims in Toronto, when we have Sheikhs come to this city and go on and on about how multicultural and Muslim-loving this city is without acknowledging its oppression against the weakest in society, you have to question whether they are consciously or subconsciously spewing propaganda that further legitimizes the power of Global Racial Capitalism. When our Sheikhs during Jummah Khutbahs don’t mention those of us who are oppressed on the land we live on, but instead jump to places like Yemen and Palestine (both blessed lands that, as Muslims, we love), we have to question whether we are truly embodying the Sunnah of our Beloved (SAW). When we wait until Ava Duvernay releases 13th to show how prisons serve as a function of Capitalism, without acknowledging that Allah gave us the story of Yusuf, we have to ask ourselves if we’re truly making use of the tools Allah gave us. The sheer numbers of incarcerated people turning to Islam should be enough for us.
The Prophet (SAW) said:
"Seek me among your weak ones, for you are given provision and help only because of the weak amongst you.” — Sunan Abi Dawud
References
Orientalism - Edward Said