This short essay is all about the two-headed monster that is the greatest, bar none, threat to the evolution and future of Islam in the world This monster is a formidable obstacle to Islam being regarded worldwide not simply as a religion of peace (a dubious distinction to start with since all religions claim the same) but as a religion that is for the welfare and betterment of people's lives globally, for humanity's generations to come.
The two heads of the monster are:
- Poverty and Ignorance
- Useless and Wasted Wealth
1. Poverty and Ignorance
With the vast majority of Muslims mired in a perpetual state of poverty and ignorance, a vicious cycle of inept rulers, corrupt administrations and oppressive living standards, it is nearly impossible to see Islam evolving into a 21st century-compatible religion, a way out for Islam from its current status quo into a promising future for it and all its adherents. Instead, it is likely that the immediate, if not long term, future holds more of the same:
- Corruption, deeply embedded inside the psyche of the common individual, a widespread way of life.
- Oppression as the default way of ruling, the first and last resort of regimes.
- Destitution as an acceptable state of affairs for the man/woman on the street.
- A retreat from the modern world into a more primitive yet comfortable existence, romanticizing the past at the cost of the future, and moreover substituting for the present.
- A defeatist attitude in the face of adversities, hardships, setbacks, broken promises,
irrelevancy, scarcity of means and future challenges. - Thoughts, ideas, behaviors and attires harking back to simpler, ostensibly safer and more sheltered times.
- Entire societies, confronted with an onslaught of advances in other cultures in science, technology, literature, arts and other basic elements of enlightened cultures, and realizing their lack of leadership, reform, know-how and means, losing confidence and choosing to withdraw and retreat to the past, rejecting interaction and integration with more advanced cultures in preference for isolation and looking for answers in the past, to their ancestors' wisdom to restore their lost confidence and help them survive.
- Entire communities trading their freedoms and their minds for the promise of an afterlife that will afford them everything, everything, they could not or would not try to attain during life. The greatest melancholy is that they do that for fear of God, when God put us here to begin with to do something with our lives!
- And last but most important, the resort to violence to cope with and vent the ever-growing frustration with life's conditions, giving-up on civilization, education, knowledge and health care, incorporating in their midst unspeakable and barbaric actions and practices. Every day one can read dozens of stories of Muslims having killed their sisters, mothers, daughters, to restore the honor of their family; of Muslims causing riots to repair minor offenses; of Muslims killing Christians and Jews because they are not " believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning rape victims for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating girls -- all in the name of religion and the Shari'a.
Three cases in point:
- Pakistan: Rape Laws in Islamic Pakistan, see video: http://youtu.be/tLN11ym5uXE
- Afghanistan: The recent incident during this year's Eid elAdha holidays, in which Afghan governor Arsala Jamal was killed and scores injured after a bomb placed in a copy of the Quran went off in a mosque during the Eid sermon. A Taliban put a bomb in the Quran and took it to a mosque in Pakistan, where Muslims were slaughtered on one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar. If that is not a threat to Islam, I miserably fail to see what is!?!
- Brunei: The recent announcement by Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, putting flogging, amputation and death by stoning on Brunei's statute book, see article below:
Sultan of Brunei puts flogging, stoning on the statute book
Leo LewisThe TimesOctober 23, 2013 10:16AMFLOGGING, amputation and death by stoning will be added to Brunei's penal code next year as the oil-rich and increasingly conservative Islamic kingdom applies the strictures of Sharia.
The legal shift, to which Brunei has been moving inexorably for several years, was announced by the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah.Opening a legal conference in Brunei on Tuesday, the 67-year old sovereign said the introduction of Sharia fulfilled the country's duty to Allah and would go down as "part of the great history" of Brunei.
Islamic law, which incorporates hand amputations for thieves and canings for alcohol drinkers, will be applied only to the country's Muslims."It is because of our need that Allah, in all his generosity, has created laws for us, so that we can utilise them to obtain justice," said the sultan.
One of the richest men on earth, and the brother of one of the world's most notorious debauchees, he has overseen and financed episodes of epic hedonism.
Prince Jefri, his younger brother, has spent most of his life at the heart of allegations that include cramming private jets and palaces with harems of women hand-picked by special emissaries.Brunei's decision to introduce stoning as a possible punishment for adultery comes just a few years after revelations that Prince Jefri owned a series of fabulously bejewelled watches that depicted copulating couples on the hour and that he had named one of his many luxury yachts "Tits".Close observers of Brunei believe that the sultan has gradually yielded to more fundamentalist influences within the family - particularly after the lawsuits finally caught up with Prince Jefri and he was found to have spent vast sums of money.Brunei, which has a population of just 420,000, of whom 66 per cent are Muslim, is already stricter than its neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia, in the enforcement of Islamic custom. Alcohol sales are forbidden and the country has become ever more restrictive on the activities of other religions.The new system unveiled by Sultan Bolkiah comes after long preparations to filter Sharia into the existing civil law and give it gradually greater prominence. According to local reports, crimes defined under the new Sharia-based code are expected to have a high burden of proof and will leave punishments at the discretion of judges.Despite the breathtaking wealth that Brunei's energy resources have generated for the monarchy and the country in general, the sultan is fully aware that the oil will eventually run out and Brunei will need to find an alternative income stream.Plans to attract tourists and investment may be dented, however, if its image becomes associated with the public stoning of adulterers.
2. Useless and Wasted Wealth
The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and economics sciences.
Between 1901 and 2013, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 561 times to 876 people and organizations. As of 2012, ten winners of the Nobel Prize have been Muslims.
Half of the ten Muslim Nobel laureates were awarded the prize in the 21st century.
Six of the ten winners were awarded th
e Nobel Peace Prize.
Between 1901 and 2013, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 561 times to 876 people and organizations. As of 2012, ten winners of the Nobel Prize have been Muslims.
I mention the Nobel Prize only to illustrate the abysmal track record of contribution to humanity's progress and achievements afforded by the immense wealth in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brunei and others.
As indicated above, Brunei chooses to concern itself with the institutionalizing Sharia'a law, to fulfill the country's duty to Allah, never mind applying its immense wealth to alleviate the plight and woes of Muslims worldwide.
Rulers in Saudi Arabia's, Qatar's and the other rich emirates' main occupation is decisively not for development and progress of their people, but most definitely to safeguard their seats of power, and their decadent and amoral enjoyment of their immense, unearned
wealth, primarily focusing on:
wealth, primarily focusing on:
- Installing the requisite regimes all across the Arab world, be it military dictatorship, Muslim extremists, rogue Muslim organizations, etc., charging them with the easy task of keeping their people drugged with their definition and interpretation of Islam principles and teachings.
- Keeping their people as bought loyalists, in constant state of uncertainty and fear, convinced or accepting that their nation's affairs, policies and wealth management is none of their business; the closest depiction of living, normal-looking zombies.
- Sustaining on religious grounds the illogical and unfounded belief that women's role is only to bear children and to keep house; thus willfully taking women out of any future change of mind and heart in regards development for their people. I strongly advise you see the new movie Wadjda, groundbreaking on many levels, in particular the issue of tremendous lack of women empowerment; see trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vZEiM9vIMI4
The world is littered with Muslim billionaires and millionaires who concern themselves not with focusing on the types of effort that wins the Nobel Prize; not with charitable organizations that could lend a hand to the masses of Muslims in need; not with worrying about the future of their faith, and its standing among nations or finding ways and means to invest in the Muslim people of the world. Instead their wealth sees its way to bank vaults, Wall Street and corporations, catering to the already having wealth beyond my or anybody's imagination, wealth that will never trickle down, never.
Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Bill Clinton administration, in his new movie Inequality for All addresses this issue with humor, wit and facts. While Reich's movie is about the middle class in America, his analysis applies in an even grander scale to the oil/natural gas rich countries, Muslim billionaires and Muslim millionaires and the downtrodden Muslim people across the planet. See trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud is a case in point. He singlehandedly redefines the meaning of profligacy and decadence, of greed and conspicuous consumption. With aplomb, he answers the eternal question: "What to do if you have an extra $310 million." See below the $310,000,000 Airbus Prince Alwaleed bought! As my mother-in-law used to say, "Rich or poor, it's nice to have money."
Considering all of this, and being fully aware that this is far from a comprehensive outline on the severity and graveness of the situation in regards Islam today, I would submit that this is a monster Islam must slay if it is to evolve into a bright and much-needed future.
Hussein
