ENGAGE launches Get Out & Vote Campaign

ENGAGE’s new initiative, Get Out & Vote (GOAV), designed to galvanise the Muslim community to participate fully in the general and local elections 2010, is already making waves featuring today on BBC Asian Network and The Asian Today newspaper.

As we draw closer to polling day, ENGAGE via GOAV will be working to bring news, views and issues that matter to Muslims in this election to the fore.

In the first of a series of articles we deal with the question that arises at every election: Should Muslims vote and participate in the democratic process?

Sheikh Abu Eesa Niamatullah writes:

‘Historically, rulings considering participation in such a system to be impermissible have been based on specific scenarios and situations which are not at all applicable to us today in Britain. It is a well known principle of Islamic jurisprudence that if a change of circumstance occurs, the ruling can also change.
 
‘Contemporary scholars have determined that the circumstances facing today’s Muslims living peacefully in the West, in an environment where the State protects our individual rights to worship, own property and be treated equally with non-Muslims under the law, are sufficiently different from historical precedents to depart from the traditional rulings of impermissibility.
 
‘Once this key distinction is made, several other Islamic considerations come into play.’

‘Firstly is the key consideration, especially relevant in the context of Muslims living in Britain, that if a person is presented with two evils and has no choice but to perform one of them, then he wards off the greater evil (or harām) even if it means performing a lesser evil (or harām).

‘Secondly, that to enjoin good and forbid evil is an intrinsic part of Faith, and is one of the greatest communal obligations in Islām, as Allāh says, “You are the best nation ever to be brought forth for people. You enjoin the good and forbid the evil, and you believe in Allāh.” (āle-‘Imrān, 110)
 
‘Based upon this, it is mandatory that every Muslim actively work towards changing the evil in his or her life. Undoubtedly, if we have the ability to potentially delay and disrupt the ill-considered plans of those who would want to rule us, this becomes important. Likewise, blocking the BNP and other similar parties at the local level is undoubtedly from the communal obligations upon the Muslims.
 
‘Thirdly, according to many scholars, it is allowed to enter the political system in order to elicit change using a well known principle found in Usūl’l-Fiqh namely “The legislative law of the previous Prophets is legislation for our nation too.”
 
‘The scholars who accepted this principle, clarified it would only be applicable if it had not been abrogated by legislation in our Sharī‘ah, based in turn on the Qur’ānic narrative on the Prophet Yūsuf (‘alayhis salām), who accepted a ministerial position in a government that was ruling by laws other than the Law of Allāh in order to achieve the greater good.
 
‘Accordingly, the vast majority of contemporary scholars have ruled that it is at the very least Islamically permissible, and many state indeed virtuous to vote. Moreover, some scholars have gone further and considered it to be an Islamic obligation to vote.
 
‘To recap, the rationale behind these rulings is, given that we as law-abiding Muslims have chosen to live in Britain, and given that the electoral process and governmental system has a profound impact upon our lives, it is important to influence this process as much as we can so that the positive elements of the system can be strengthened and the negative elements weakened.

‘Consequently the person who votes with this intention is one who will be rewarded for his action.
 
‘Once this perspective is accepted, another dilemma then immediately presents itself in the form of two questions. Firstly, will my individual vote make one jot of difference, and secondly, how do I decide exactly which party or candidate to vote for?
 
‘These crucial questions require careful analysis and thought and will be tackled via a subsequent article.
 
‘Let us conclude by restating that the forthcoming general election is highly likely to be one of the closest in living memory, and in such circumstances, the outcome of a few dozen seats which depend on the Muslim vote, may prove crucial in determining the overall winner.’