November 18, 2005
(missed sending the Note on November 11, 2005)
Quantum Note
December 30, 2005
O I See O—Again
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), popularly branded “O I See” because of its attitude toward issues of primal importance to Muslims, is doomed. This is plain to see, if only because the kings, presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state who meet to raise storms in cups of tea do not represent the people upon whom they have imposed themselves. The recent Makkah gathering of this club was no exception, and does not warrant in itself this end-of-the-year Quantum Note. This time, however, the session was propped up on the shaky skeleton of an intellectually enucleated body—a so-called group of eminent scientists, thinkers, and scholars who purportedly prepared a roadmap for the Ummah. The occasion thus presents an opportunity to say something about the role of Muslim intelligentsia in the unmaking of Islamic civilization.
That Muslims are now faced with challenges so serious that their very existence as a distinct polity is threatened, is hardly a matter of debate in these early years of a century that has already witnessed two devastating invasions and occupation of two Muslim countries—occupation that continues to transform the social, political, cultural, economic, and educational institutions of Iraq and Afghanistan. In other parts of the Muslim world, where occupation is not direct, client governments are rapidly destroying whatever remains of Islamic civilization. If these trends continue, the day may not be too far away when the last remnants of this are destroyed. In fact, it may be merely within the life-span of two generations that the distinct life-styles, cultures, and modes of being and existence associated with Islam may disappear from the face of this earth.
It is this very real possibility that calls for a considered and effective response by Muslim thinkers committed to the vision of Islam articulated and lived by the Prophet of Islam—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him. Today, such a response is only present at an individual level and is not effective, especially when confronted with the multi-billion dollar effort supported by the self-appointed heads of state and their true master: the sole superpower of the world determined and committed to make the twenty-first century its own. The vision of Islam recently articulated by the “eminent” Muslim scholars doing the bidding of their paymasters is patently un-Islamic, as it conceives Islam in terms which are utterly foreign to Islam. Terms such as “enlightened” Islam, which our generals, kings, prime ministers and heads of state never tire of using these days, cannot be used for Islam for two reasons: (i) the Enlightenment was a characteristically Christian phenomenon that took place in the context of European history due to specific theological, political, and economic reasons; and (ii) Islam cannot undergo the enlightenment envisioned because its two incorruptible founding sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah, can only be interpreted from within the well-established tradition which does not allow any Luther to emerge. That the generals are bereft of any understanding of the real meaning of the term “Enlightenment” is understandable, but the so-called “eminent Muslim scholars” recruited to prepare the roadmap should at least know that the kind of enlightenment experienced by Christianity is simply impossible in Islam. Perhaps it is seeking the grand title of “Luther of Islam” that has prompted these self-styled eminent scholars to become accomplices in a deed conceived by the ideologues of the New American Century—a plan that aims to destroy the last remains of Islamic civilization.
Of course, the ideologues of the New American Century are doing their work, believing in their vision of the world, and their Muslim recruits are busy with the assignments given them, but the real question is: where is the true voice of Muslim intellectuals? Do they not see that Islamic civilization is being destroyed, brick by brick, day after day? Is it not obvious to them that the thousands of satellite television channels beamed into the homes of millions of Muslims around the world are effectively replacing all that is Islamic in lifestyles, daily habits, practices, desires, and wishes of the next generation of Muslims mercilessly thrown to the invading armies which appear on television and computer screens? Do they not see that the cultural invasion through technological devices is now in such an advanced stage that even remote villages are no longer safe? Do they not see that it is no more isolated pockets of the populace, but the entire Muslim world that is now rapidly undergoing secularization?
For the skeptics, a walk through the central district of Dubai, Bahrain, Oman, or any of the Gulf States may be an antidote. Yet it is not only the bars, the thinly-clad women, and the casinos in western-style hotels that are eye-openers; it is also the media, educational material being used, the destruction of language, and other hundred and one other expressions in daily life which testify to the fact norms and traditions of Islamic civilization—even of religion itself—are becoming things of the past. And if this is not enough, those who refuse to see the new plague should go out at night to see crowds of young men packed into internet cafes in Damascus, Tehran, Jeddah, and Kuala Lumpur—men in their teens or early twenties, ready to plunge into the heart of darkness.
That Islam is both beliefs and deeds is a self-evident truth anchored in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the most noble Prophet. When Islam is absent from lifestyles, daily habits, and practices, belief in the heart is merely a dead abstraction. Thus, those who fail to understand that the wide-eyed youth emerging from the internet café in the last hour of the night has spent the night in a hell of virtual reality cannot understand that his day will also be spent in the same realm, devoid of any real presence of Islam. Likewise, those who have thoughtlessly installed a dish on their rooftop fail to realize that children in their own homes are being led to another vision of life and day after day, bit by bit, they are being transformed into a new person who is losing all sense of the sacred through being pulled into a visual and aural world that captivates his or her being and metamorphoses it, eventually leading to a life that seeks to emulate the apparitions on the screen. So, the main question for Muslims concerned with this situation is: what can be done against this slow but sure suicide?
(to be continued)
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