‘British Queen Was Sent By God’ -Jubilee Celebration
5th June 2022
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
In the last four days, uncountable photos, documentaries and articles about Queen Elizabeth as the dutiful servant of her country, grandmother and mother who does no wrong. Welcome to the land of Elizabethism.
You just landed at Heathrow and took a train into Central London or the middle-class suburbs. On Oxford Street, on TV, and in the shops in some areas, the national flag and Queen Elizabeth’s face are everywhere. Recent days has seen a celebration of the Queen’s platinum jubilee marking 70 years on the British throne.
Queen Elizabeth compared to others
Boris Johnson, her current Prime minister, is widely seen as a man with no shame, a liar, and a corrupt politician. The Queen’s son, Prince Andrew, recently settled a sexual abuse case out of court. So even members of her family are tainted by sordid scandals. Not the Queen. She is seen as above it all. Pure.
She is an enigma who is very careful not to say much. No one really knows the real Queen. That allows officials, columnists and many in society to construct and project a persona of her as someone above politics. Someone who does no wrong and who only cares for the good of her subjects. Someone unbiased. This serves a purpose.
She’s portrayed as someone who embodies all the British like to think make them ‘the best’. Hence you constantly hear them talk about the Queen embodying ‘British values of honesty, integrity, fairness, duty…’.
True? Don’t ask the Kenyans tortured and killed after she became Queen. Don’t ask the Afghans, Iraqis, Indians or Caribbean Islanders colonised, brutalised or killed by the British doing their bit for Queen and country. Don’t ask the children of immigrants living in the UK yet still facing racism and being used as scapegoats by successive governments.
This separation of the Queen’s projected persona from that of her governments policies allows governments, officials and individuals to be tainted by scandals, but not ‘Her Majesty’. Hence, she becomes the source of renewal after such national scandals. She is therefore seen as the source of all that is ‘good’.
Elizabethism fills a void
That’s why many people here subscribe to it. Even some ‘republicans’ who oppose the idea of a privileged monarchy and would like to abolish the monarchy.
Whether they like it or not, implanted in each of us is a craving for something missing, an object that is a unifying force. In an age where fewer and fewer people in the UK believe in God, so many harbour this instinctive yearning for what can draw people together. The British monarchy, specifically Queen Elizabeth II supplies a persistent answer. She fills a spiritual void and is a unifying force.
And that allows ‘the British’ establishment to get away with all sorts at home and abroad since they can invoke the name of the Queen, the one beyond reproach.
Fallible humans in a parliament are able to make laws to deport immigrants to Rwanda, promote sordid lifestyles and wage unjust wars because they are acting as ‘her Majesty’s government’.
Correctly satisfying the spiritual void
Islam acknowledges that humans have the innate need for reverence. It directs humans to think rationally and those that do come to the conclusion the only One worthy of worship, is the All-Knowing and Infallible Creator.
And that Creator has designed a system and sent shariah laws to be implemented by the ruler in the Islamic Khilafah system in order to solve human problems.
God’s comprehensive and unbiased guidance is what the state and society unify around. That brings true unity, unlike the divisions caused by nationalism and racism – which we see in the UK and other ‘advanced’ societies
Islam frees humans from worshipping other humans, be it a Queen, a monarch or other man-made ideologies which benefit a few and are used to oppress others.Please share the newsletter. Thanks.
Love and salams,
Taji
🧔 What have I been up to?
I attended a Photography exhibition at the Photographer’s gallery in Central London.
One section had photos and video about bees. How they organise and carry out tasks is truly one of Allah’s amazing creations.
Another section had photos about the conflict in Northern Ireland. Sad, powerful images of funerals, killings and other atrocities. The British are unable to solve this sectarian and nationalist conflict yet put themselves forward as peace makers globally!
📖 Ayah and Hadith
لِيُحِقَّ ٱلْحَقَّ وَيُبْطِلَ ٱلْبَـٰطِلَ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ
To firmly establish the truth and wipe out falsehood—even to the dismay of the wicked. [Al-Anfal 8:8]
Quote of the Week
Surely, I am only a man. I err and am at times correct; so thoroughly investigate my opinions, then take whatever agrees with the Book (the Qur’an) and the Sunnah, and reject whatever contradicts them.
—Imām Mālik
❤ My Favourite Things
Podcast –The bank war, an episode from Planet Money.
In the 1800s, populist US president Andrew Jackson went head-to-head with the most powerful banker in America over who should control the country's money. This clash ended in disastrous results.
Read past newsletters at tajimustafa.com