What Is Politics?
Politics means the taking care of internal and external affairs of the nation. It is practised by the state, which discharges this care practically, and by the nation, who call upon the state to account for its practices. The internal policy, which is the care exercised by the state over internal affairs, is fulfilled by applying an ideology upon the society. The foreign policy, which is the care exercised by the state over external affairs of the nation, is accomplished through the relations of the state with other countries and through the spread of Islam in the world.
It is of paramount importance to understand foreign policy to protect the state and the nation (ummah), and as a requirement for conveying the message of Islam. Foreign policy is also a prerequisite for the correct establishment of the relations of the ummah with other nations.
Political Idea And Method
As for the idea upon which politics is based, it is the idea on which the state builds its relations with other nations. A country with no ideology will possess ideas that differ and conflict and will be liable to constant change. These countries are discussed from the perspective of the political plans and means, while the study of the political idea does not apply to them. Contrary to this is the ideological country which builds its policies on a fixed idea, which is to spread its ideology to the entire world according to one fixed method no matter what means are used. This type of state falls under the area of study for its political idea.
A New Colonialism
In the modern imperialist policy, the western countries have abandoned resorting to military occupation and have replaced it by other newer means. In addition to the exertion of political pressure and harassment, the U.S. for instance, has started to use her assistance in so called development projects; uses American experts who are present in many countries, and also uses loans, as the new means of colonialism. Britain too has developed some new means of colonising, such as the recruitment of agents, British intelligence, loans, suspicious trade deals and reliance on its agents amongst the leaders of other countries. Beside all these means, Britain still adheres to the use of force and the construction of military bases in its colonies or in close proximity to them. As an illustration of how colonialism has become an objective rather than a method, one can refer to the fierce conflict between the capitalist colonialist countries to exploit Africa. The Congo crisis which lasted for several years illustrates very clearly the wild avarice and greed of the colonialist countries to exploit this continent, as does the Rhodesian crisis which set free the hands of the British to exploit it. However, inspite of all this, colonialism is still the method used by the west to spread capitalism and western civilisation. Actually, means such as schools, universities and missionary activities cannot be effectively used unless the colonisation of other countries by the west is achieved first.
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