‘Do you know that in our country today: even if they have exactly the same qualifications, people with white-sounding names are nearly twice as likely to get callbacks for jobs than people with ethnic-sounding names?’

This admission from Former PM David Cameron is merely a testament to report after report detailing institutional racism in Britain. Across the Atlantic, despite having a Black president in power for 8 years, black lives still don’t matter.

Although race and equality laws have existed for decades, secular liberal societies have been unable to eradicate racism – as it stems from man believing his race has superiority over others, albeit not based on a sound justification.

This is a deeply held idea in secular liberal societies – and ideas cannot just be legislated away. An idea of arrogance – being better because of some arbitrary trait like the colour of one’s skin or the country where one was born! Racism has, and continues to, cause nothing but misery and hate wherever it exists.

However, a state based on the Islamic creed has a clear and unchanging view towards racism. Allah ﷻ the Creator of mankind, says:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ

“O mankind! We created you from a single [pair] of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is [he who is] the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted.” [Al-Hujurat: 13]

Such texts beckon people to something quite obvious – how can one be proud of something that one has no control over? Rather, Islam makes it clear what actually distinguishes one person from another – the adherence to the laws of Allah ﷻ and the good actions which one is in control of.

The ritual of Hajj bears testimony to how Islam gives no credence to race or colour. It doesn’t matter what colour you are, where you are from or what your background is – people stand shoulder to shoulder as brothers.

As for the many centuries of Islamic rule, they bear testimony to the Islamic ruling system melting all colours and creeds into one melting pot, creating a harmonious society whilst giving no airtime to worthless tags like colour. Even non-Muslims attest to the virtue of such a viewpoint – the historian AJ Toynbee remarks: “The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of Islam and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue…”

The Khilafah state is the only cure for such a backwards and medieval society which makes the colour of one’s skin and race a basis for separation and segregation.

Take home message:

Secular liberal societies believe one can be better than the other due to uncontrollable factors like skin colour or country of birth. Islam gives absolutely no credence to race or nationality and its history of all colours, races and religions living together peacefully, bears testimony to this!