David Myatt, Islam, National Socialism and Racism

Note by JRW, August 2007 AD: I have collected here, without comment, a few of the recent statements which Myatt has made about his commitment to Islam and his rejection, as a Muslim, of racialism, racism, and his former neo-nazi beliefs.

“As a Muslim, I regard the Way of Al-Islam as complete and perfect, and superior to the materialistic, arrogant, way of life which now dominates all the societies of the West. Thus, I reject nationalism, racialism, the kaffir-manufactured concept of "the State", and all the other Tawagheet of the kuffar.” (A Statement for Journalists by Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt)

“Since reverting to Deen Al-Islam, Alhamdulillah, I accept that all Muslims, whatever "race" they may be deemed to be, are my brothers and sisters and that the only distinction we Muslims should make is between Muslims and the kuffar.

Our aim is to obey and submit to only Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala - racial separation is a Taghut which many of the kuffar, in their ignorance, see as a worthy cause, a worthy goal, just as many of these kuffar judge people according to their alleged or presumed "ethnic origin" and give their loyalty and allegiance and obedience to a cause, or some organization, or some person, who seeks to separate and judge people according to their alleged or presumed "ethnic origin".

The criteria we use to judge someone - the criteria we should use, for example, to find a good wife or husband, the criteria for friendship - is the criteria of Taqwa, of obedience to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, of being Muslim. The assumed or presumed "ethnic origin" of the person is irrelevant, as is the culture of their ancestors, as is the place of their birth.

To make things perfectly clear - I reject nationalism, racism, racial separation and the ideas and concepts which underlie them and the behaviour and attitudes which accompanies a belief in them, regarding these things as incompatible with Deen Al-Islam.” (Questions For Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt)

“My commitment now is to Deen Al-Islam only: or, more correctly, to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and His Messenger, Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam). To striving (InshaAllah) to live according to the Deen which Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has revealed through His Messenger, Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and to striving (InshaAllah) to make this Deen triumphant in this world of ours.

In respect of race, I have touched upon the matter several times over the past two years, for example, in my essay Nationalism, Race, Culture and Islam and in some replies I gave to questions asked of me by Muslims on the IslamicAwakening internet forum.

Basically, for a Muslim, race is irrelevant - the criteria of judgement is fidelity to Deen Al-Islam - and the only distinction among people that Muslims make is that of taqwa, of honourably doing the duty we have sworn to do, which is to consider as our brothers and sisters all those who are loyal to, and who do their duty to, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and His Messenger, Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) regardless of what criteria non-Muslims apply to them, such as race, or place of birth, or social status.

On a personal note, I am most happy in the company of Muslims, of whatever race they are said to belong to - indeed, I am more "at home" among Muslims (who strive to obey Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) than I am among what I once regarded as my own people, for such Muslims have honour, dignity, reverence, manners and humility, qualities sadly lacking among many of the peoples of the West.” (Questions for David Myatt)

“As for my own political views and opinions now, I have none. For I am a Muslim, and so view this world, and its peoples, according to Deen Al-Islam, striving to think according to Deen Al-Islam, and striving to live according to the laws and customs of Islam, as revealed in the Quran and through the words, deeds and example of the noble Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam). My only loyalty and obedience is to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.” (A Statement for Journalists by Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt)

“I neither support such groups nor National Socialist ideology. I am a Muslim, and... as a Muslim I believe that racism and racialism, and nationalism, are Taghut; idols which are obeyed and believed in over and above Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. The people who follow such things, who believe in such things, are in Ignorance. They in their ignorance use these things to judge people; to judge themselves; to construct laws, and systems to govern people, as they fight for these things, and thus do they contradict Islam.” (Islam-OnLine Live Dialogue Transcript)

“As a Muslim, I regard my earlier philosophy, which I first called "Folk Culture" and then The Numinous Way, as kufr - a concealment of the reality, the truth, of Tawheed, and thus as a manifestation of Jahiliyyah.” (Questions for David Myatt)

“ If we consider the actions of the kuffar of the West over the last three hundred or so years it is quite obvious that they possess the pride (kibr), the arrogance, the attitude, the character, of ash-Shaitaan. For hundreds of years the kuffar of the West have ravaged the world, invading lands, occupying them, installing puppet-regimes, and claiming for themselves the wealth and resources of those lands, all the while regarding themselves, and their "European" or Western culture, as superior.

In the course of these colonial conquests and rampages, these kuffar have slaughtered millions upon millions of people and, in addition - in their own territories such as Europe, or in their new annexed colonies such as America - they have fought wars among themselves during which at least a hundred million people have been killed. In fact, the slaughter which the kuffar of the West have brought to the world is unparalleled in human history - from the ravages of Alexander the Greek, to the Empire of Rome, to the wars of Napoleon, to the genocide of the native Americans, to the so-called First and Second World Wars, to the hundreds of colonial wars in Africa, Asia and elsewhere, on to the more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This slaughter includes some of the most barbaric killings in history - such as the slaughter, in two days, of over 200,000 people in Japan by the dropping of atomic bombs.

During all these conflicts - during all this slaughter - the kuffar of the West, the "European" or the "White man", has saught to change the way of life of the peoples of the world, believing, in their kaffir arrogance, that the ways of the "white man", that the culture of "Europe", that Western values, were and are superior to each and every other way of life, and these kuffar have used every means at their disposal - from war, invasion, occupation, economic blackmail, propaganda, lies, deceit, flattery, and bribery to torture and imprisonment - to get their own way.

No wonder, then, that the peoples of other cultures often considered people from the West to be "foreign devils" who could not be trusted: people who, like ash-Shaitaan, were clever, cunning, unprincipled, manipulative and ruthless.

Of course, now with more people aware of the true nature of these "foreign devils"and their true intent to dominate and impose their ways on others, some of the methods of the kuffar have changed, and they have attempted to shift their claims of being superior from themselves to their culture, their values and their way of life. Thus, they mostly no longer openly claim to be superior as a "race" (although many still hold this view) but instead claim and insist that their Western culture, their Western way of life, are superior and that their Western values are "universal" and should and must be embraced by all the peoples of the world. In addition, they have often adopted a more sophisticated and underhand approach, such as persuading people, often through their vast and now world-wide Media propaganda machine, that they, the kuffar of the West, represent all that is "civilized and good" and that their opponents - those who fight them, their values, and their schemes and their plan for domination and control - are extremists and "uncivilized terrorists". But, as always, if these kuffar fail to get their own way, they will resort to force - as in Afghanistan and Iraq - and to torture and murder (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) and to the tactics of the bully, all the while lying about what they have done and are doing and intend to do.

However, the truth is that these kuffar, in their ignorance, pride, disobedience and arrogance, have set themselves up to compete with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, and they have manufactured many idols (Tawagheet) which they worship and bow down to, or which they expect those that they dominate to bow down to and worship. For these kuffar - like all kuffar - have lost their true nature, as human beings; a nature evident in tawadu and in our gift of 'aql.” (The Arrogance of Infidels)

“I learnt a great deal from my involvement with Islam - about myself, and the world. I also came to appreciate, and know, how unethical, for instance, racism was and is, and to know that Islam expresses, and has expressed, the Numen, the sacred, in the modern world..... I remember, several decades ago now, my first wife saying before we married that she did not believe in God - except when she listened to some of the music of JS Bach. I loved her for that - for there, in such music, I sometimes felt an intimation of the Divine, an expression of the Numen sufficient to bring us, even if only for a moment, to the feeling of humility we surely need to keep us human, to prevent us from committing the dishonour of insolence, of hubris: that moral crime against reason which the governments of the West, their officials, representatives, and minions, have committed, and are increasingly committing, and which some of the peoples of the West themselves are also increasingly committing in their prejudice and arrogance and support of a new colonialism.

So it was that I found - and find - this intimation of the Divine, in Islam - in the striving of the many Muslims, world-wide, who saught and who seek to be reasonable and honourable, and who sometimes succeed, bringing thus a civilized way of life into this world.” (Autobiographical Notes, Part 3)

(JRW: Updated October 15, 2007 AD)