24 May 2012
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD
"It is highly probable
that but for the Arabs modern European civilization
would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely
certain that but for them, it would not have assumed
that character which has enabled it to transcend all
previous phases of evolution. For although there is
not a single aspect of European growth in which the
decisive influence of Islamic culture is not
traceable, nowhere is it so clear and momentous as in
the genesis of that power which constitutes the
paramount distinctive force of the modern world and
the supreme source of its victory-natural science and
the scientific spirit."
Robert Briffault (The
Making of Humanity, Cambridge University, UK).
Future is not something
that happens out of the nowhere but visionary and
proactive thinkers, intellectuals and those
responsible and equipped with leadership assets create
it to serve the interests of the people. For eight
hundred years, the longest period in any known
civilizations, the Arab civilization flourished in
Al-Andalusia - Spain and enriched the dark-aged
European world with knowledge, Renaissance and
Industrial Revolution. The Divine knowledge of Islam
spirited the desert born simple Arabs to pursue Islam
as a movement of life and to influence the world for
the evolution of an Islamic civilization while the
Europeans lived in barbarianism, Muslims were the most
creative, progressive and successful people on earth.
Numerous Christian authors describe the 8th
16th century Muslims in Al-Andulus (Spain), as most
tolerant, knowledgeable and pioneer of scientifically
advanced civilization that facilitated European
Renaissance and Industrial Revolution. One factor
among the many, distinctively noted by reputable
Christian authors is that when they describe the
excellence of Muslim civilization and its
achievements, it is referred to as "people of the
Quranic Generation." Today, most of the Arab leaders
avoid using the concept of the "Quranic Generation" -
Muslim Ummah, and prefer to call themselves - an "Arab
Ummah" negating the intellectual magnificence and
glorious contributions of the Islamic civilization.
What went wrong with the
Arab pioneers of the Islamic civilization across the
European continent? Among many of the reasons, one
may cite few important ones:
1. Change
in Islamic Thinking: absence of a proactive vision for
the humanity as chosen people for the good of
humanity.
2. Conscious
neglect of the universal mission of Islam and
resulting discard of Islamic movement across the
globe.
3.
Non-conformance to the principles of Islamic movement
for change, development and human success.
4. Systematic
decadence in intellectual, moral and political
leadership.
5.
Dismantling of Islamic institutions for the
development of One Ummah, and to avoid the role of
reasoning and accountability.
6.
Increasing adaptability to western thinking,
behaviors, educational system and social norms that
drained out the Islamic THINKING for unity, creativity
and movement.
7. Conspiracy
"Fitna" of the transitory economic prosperity
discovery of the oil and aftermath of the oil export
revenues being used to propagate "modernity".
8.
Incurable illusions of the neo-colonialist elite that
oil revenues are forever their exclusive property.
9.
Overwhelming materialism and consumerism negating
spiritualism: training of body desperately needed
training of Faith (Eman) and a committed mind.
Leadership in Muslim
societies is occupied by those who have no educational
upbringing or interest in living Islam and lead
nobody, mostly seen as being ignorant, corrupt, and
subservient to the neo-colonialism and committed to
secularism as a system of life.
The Western strategic elite
justify wars against the Muslim world as dating back
to the Crusades. They know through patronage that
Muslims have no leader like Sultan Salahuddin Ayoubi
to challenge the Christian Crusaders and defeat them.
European imperialism viewed Islamic civilization as an
unacceptable entity to their goal of global domination
and feared Islamic movement as a force with
considerable challenge. In scientific discoveries,
technology development, educational advancement and
political emancipation, European colonial masters
drifted the Muslim masses to a subhuman level below
the pets. A former Arab and presently Canadian
educated journalist contend that Arabs love dog and
entitles his recent article "Arabs and dog". One
wonders is it an accumulated disgust or considered
failure of the contemporary Arab leadership?
Generation after generation, Muslims have been
defeated and submerged into other entities or punished
by the Western masters. So-called liberal democracy
had no listing of Muslim as suitable creatures for
progressive role-play in international community.
Humanity in the West shrinked from intelligence to
stupidity, whereas, Charles Darwin (Origin of the
Species), was uplifted and honored, man ("Insaan"-
human being) was degraded from all the entries of
making a human civilization. Whereas, Islam focused on
man ("insaan") as the primary aim of comprehensive
development.
Pioneers of scientifically
progressive civilization, those Arabs and other
Muslims became prisoners of foreign ideas from
freedom to human exploitation, all affixed on paper
phenomenon of exalted humanity Al-Hambra palace to
Taj Mahal, all transformed into digits and numbers to
become an abstract reference in tourist guide,
interpretive history full of material civilization and
nothing else. The folly of deliberate aim of the
pedagogy to conceal and distort the entire moral and
spiritual progressive evolution of the mankind; left
to be interpreted in questionable terminology. While
arrogance and stupidity rules, true knowledge and
divine wisdom live in denials.
Most Western mythologist
would prefer silence when their interests and
hegemonic goals come into intellectual and political
conflicts with the oil producing Arab world. Islam and
its followers believe in change as a precept of the
faith. Since "Islamic terrorism" phenomenon has
emerged as a new data in American dictated global
propaganda vocabulary and pre-conceived graphics of
the Muslim images, little tangible and constrictive
change can be imagined except resulting in clear
failure of the Muslim leadership, from intellectual
sphere to practically all value oriented domains. The
political language of progress is distortion of
reality, supremacy of American technology-based
culture, capitalism and ultimate integration of Muslim
countries into the fold of American Zionist
dominated economic block. The World Bank and IMF are
the true rulers of the global politics. America
controls all.
Arab leaders dream normalcy
that Saddam Hussein is no longer around them and was
hanged by the Americans on video. American first
colonial occupation of Iraq pleases the Zionist
strategists in short and long terms success:
availability of cheap Arab oil, fresh water, access to
lands, immediate trade links and political
recognition, open body culture of the west, and
diminishing role of the Islamic values across the
board. American and specially hired Brits former PM
and currently a candidate for war crimes against
humanity, Tony Blair's war protagonists do believe
that it was a real war fought against Saddam Hussein
(their former faithful client), and it ended up in
American victory and success even though the WMD hoax
was a staged drama nothing other than a planned
deception and treachery to the collective conscience
of humanity that demonstrated strong opposition
against the American planned war.
The Western strategic
planners have programmed the Arab elite to play a
robotic role in real world human affairs. Incomparable
to the Western higher standard of living as are the
newly erected sky-hi towers, putting-up splendid
fantasy towns on earth-filled sea resorts, shopping
malls, race tracks and night clubs are the attractions
of modern Arabian life, the expos of oil rich
economies. For decades, the Arabs leaders have been
doing this to please the Masters. Arab leaders curtail
political activism in the citizenry and forged
national positions in-between when principles of
Islamic justice, honor and valor warranted a bold
stand. They love Anglo-Saxon beauty and salute the
blond soul and body in totality. Western masters did
not train the Arab armies to fight for any public
cause. The mission of Arab armies is not the defense
of Islam, they are solely meant to guard the palaces,
lock up the intellectuals arguing for change and
reformation of political governance, and open fire on
the agitating masses. The Western materialistic
development formula flourishes throughout the Arab
oil-exporting culture whereas "Man" ("Insaan") has
been excluded in the planning and development scheme
of priorities. The Arab masses painfully strive for
intellectual leadership sense of security and
futuristic safety and human growth.
What is next in the
conflict making and conflicts keeping domain? Nobody
can predict in an unpredictable and fearful American
dominated militarism era. The Arab culture and
civilization is in decay and fast being replaced by
the illusion of a modernity, borrowed prosperity of
"big thinking" without moral and intellectual
substance to live or flourish in the Arab traditional
culture. Secularist Arabs rulers love Machiavellian
image than being conformists to Islamic values. They
live in a self-perpetuated conflict situation only to
support America, no matter what happens. American
leaders have declared a war against Islam, but not
against Muslims. American Intelligence Networks claim
all Muslim leaders are friends whereas; they view
Islam as an enemy. They believe that Islam belongs to
history; only American culture is living force for
prosperity. To humiliate the already victimized half
living bodies of Palestinians, American neo-cons have
offered a "roadmap" for peace in Palestine. It is a
map that has no road, and illusion of a road that goes
nowhere. Arabs leaders have missed many opportunities
to show courage and conviction in history and appear
fearful to face the mirror, but subscribe to the
bandmaster's tune being played again to appease the
American-Israeli interest lobby in Washington. What
futuristic culture would the young Arab generations
inherit from the contemporary authoritarian
leadership? Nobody wants to care about it while the
America run wars are raging across the Muslim world
and important celebrities are too busy to THINK! The
deprived Arab masses are kept happy with the illusion
of fake petro-dollars prosperity and that business is
as usual. Not so, realistically if you see the real
world, Arab rulers are operating from a position of
extreme weakness, not of strength to influence the
outcome of political conflicts and particularly the
Palestine problem. They NEED UNITY in their ranks and
it does not seem to be forthcoming as nobody is
aspiring to think of it. They desperately NEED
educated, intelligent and proactive policy makers in
global security, peace and conflict management,
whereas, they have none and mostly rely on obsolete
foreign opinions and experts. The influential Arab
rulers are not listening to the VOICES of REASON and
educated and innovative proactive visions of
intellectual Muslim scholars. For sixty years, they
have been a complete failure and not willing to change
their thinking outlook. If the future is to be
visualized as promising, the current Arabian leaders
MUST listen and learn from the educated Muslims. But
the Arab leaders continue to live in PALACES, not with
PEOPLE.
The West
exploits the oil producing Arab nations under varied
perceptions and political images. They view Arabs as
backward people entangled in tribalism and not up to
the value indicators of their standard of modernity.
The Arabs got the economic prosperity without working
for it. The West knows well that Arabs are often
emotional and disunited lacking intellectual
foresights and persuasive political activism in global
affairs. The contemporary Arab leaders operate from a
position of weakness and not of strength in global
political arena. Yes, Arabs lack proactive leadership
but they are rich in human values, culture and
civilization. What is needed is to straighten out the
Western policy makers with moral and intellectual
challenge, not to take the Arabs for granted as John
Perkins (Confession of an Economic Hitman) describes
to milk the cows until sunset.' If the contemporary
Arab leaders wanted to change the direction of their
outlook and were good listeners and learners to
educated Muslims and intellectuals, they could
articulate moral and political challenges to America
and Israel, and the political games and outcomes will
be different and favorable to the Arabs. American and
Israeli politicians do respond to challenges. It is
the leadership art to challenge that Arabs failed to
perceive in creative politics.
Some of the Arabs leaders
celebrate the American military success in Iraq,
Afghanistan and across the Middle East but prey at
their own people under the disguise of terrorism to
dispel any sign of public resentment against the
American-British intransigence and aggression in Iraq
and Afghanistan. So far an estimated 3 millions
civilians have been killed in Iraq war and millions of
habitats have been destroyed in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. Even the paper-based abstract Arab League
and OIC could not dare to name America and Britain as
the aggressors in Iraq and Afghanistan; as they
describe them "men in uniforms." They pretend to be
moderate. Deception and treachery knows no bound.
Most of the oil producing
Arab states are governed by authoritarian rulers who
are allied to the Western oil importing nations and in
return support these tribal chiefs with arms,
ammunition and secret police networks to keep the
young Arab new thinking and aspirations for change
under strict check of the brutality of the military
and secret police operatives. But people are
determined to break the solid barriers of "fear" and
cruelty and make ways for change as it is happening in
Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and other parts of
the Middle East. The Western policy planners never
imagined that the Arab world and its people could rise
against their installed military dictators and
ruthless rulers and create a new world of change and
people-oriented governance based on the rights and
dignity of common citizens. Western politician used to
fill the blanks and claim to advance human rights and
democracy in the Arab world but they were all lies and
political deceptions for convenient business deals and
oil trading. When there was no oil, the Arab people
were the most enlightened and peaceful and advanced in
knowledge and global co-existence. It is probable that
most of the Arab dictators will fall from
authoritarian rule and run away taking their stolen
wealth to the Western world. The prosperity bubble is
fast becoming to an end but the end appears dreadful
and disastrous and has ruin all the sectors of the
Arab societies. The armed forces who were supposed to
protect and defend the people are actively engaged to
destroy their lives, bomb the habitats under false
accusations of terrorism against the state, and to
keep the military dictators in power. The Western
world is watching and waiting to see when would the
Arab saga will come to a close chapter so that they
could move-in to take over the oil filed and other
natural resources much needed for continued
industrialization and its operations. The Arab leaders
lacking education and moral and intellectual
foresights are interdependent on the European-American
political masters and will do, what they are dictated
for their own survival. The Arab rulers have not
evolved any public institutions, intellectual
think-tanks or Islamic system of governance to enhance
Islam as a way of life. They view Islam as their
enemy. This is what is commonly shared between the
Arab rulers and the Western dominated policies carried
out in the Arab Middle East. But if the Arabs wanted
to reclaim honor and success, the formula is well
defined by the Al-Qura'an: "You are the best people
raised for the good of mankind, to invite to the
righteousness and forbid evil and you believe in
Allah." If they had practiced it, whether they pumped
the God-given oil out of the earth or no oil, they
would have been honorable and successful. Imagine,
with all the wealth and splendid palaces and borrowed
time and space, not one is a leader, not one has the
moral and intellectual capacity to play any rational
character or can do anything for the good of the
Muslims or the Arab culture. The Arab people once
again are being morally and intellectually coming
under planned subjugation of the Western ways of
thinking, knowledge and system of exploitation and
governance. There are too many Western secular
educational institutions bombarding the minds and
souls of the Arab people day and night. The Arab
leaders are happy, people are busy in doing something
and there is no herd moving around to disturb their
palaces or to question them. The Arab rulers and
armies are killing their own people and destroying the
traditional ways of life under false pretexts of
modernization, linked to oil pumping and nothing else.
Syria, Iraq and Yemen appear to be the reckoning
models in this context. The Arabs killing the Arabs,
their own life and diminishing human dignity for what
purpose - nobody can rationally tell the end purpose,
nobody can THINK out of the imposed box of triviality
and viciousness. They appear to have lost the power of
rational thinking that Islam furnished them for ages
and helped to facilitate a new world of honor and
success. Was the discovery of the "oil" a "fitna" a
conspiracy to destroy the Arab people, their natural
thinking - love for freedom, timeless space and the
universe, human dignity and their culture?
(Dr.
Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in Global Peace.
Security and Conflict Management and Comparative
Islamic-Western cultures and civilization.) |
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