Thursday, July 12, 2007

Comment on a Comment

Peace be upon everyone. I'm sorry about not updating this blog sooner, but I've been really busy lately. Anyhow, I'd like to address a comment in an old post titled Kafir Watch? that echoes a rather poignant sentiment:

Nothing in this world is perfect. Life is not easy for anyone, including western people. Everyone has to work to succeed. Don't blame the whole western society for the problems because they aren't the only source. Open that mind to the possibility that some nonbelievers are more than immoral bastards.

I almost wholly agree with this sentiment. But I did not blame the "whole western society". I should indeed have differently phrased or downright edited some of my views had I known they would be interpreted as such. Yes, but I acknowledge some hostility to the West in my words, but they weren't to be chucked on every Western bystander. I wrote:

Not reporting on the real issues faced by the downtrodden does not make them 'free people', however much they may invoke the Enlightenment period which as the Muslim commentator Amir Butler pointed out was a result of conflicts within Europe and its religions. Muslims, on the other hand, have no need of an Enlightnment. No thank-you, Mr Tariq Ali. You may continue to rail against the capitalists who hover around the other end of your system and preach to Muslims and the capitalists may continue to dominate and slaughter Muslims outside the system.

I wrote this in reponse to a popular belief that Western Reformation must be wilfully forced on Muslim populations, as outlined by authors and pundits like Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington. But a closer look at world history suggests that Western Reformation has never been successfully transmitted nor has it been seen as a virtue by centres of power that would like to enforce it. It has merely been an excuse for colonialism. I'm not denying that people in the East haven't benefited from Western virtues, but the concept of virtue is universal and democratic. It flows to and fro. When I wrote Muslims aren't in need of a European Enlightenment, it was to counter the new intellectual methods of global order that present virtue as a guise for economic and political greed. Moreover, I don't consider all Muslims innocents. But rather I'm very worried about "the recent terror fitnah being perpetrated by Muslims that has gripped all corners of the world as we know it".

The Western civilian population is as innocent and good as any. And most non-Muslims are not "immoral bastards" and if they were, Muslims wouldn't be very differerent from them, because we're all human beings to start with. There are extremist groups on both sides, and Muslims are equally to blame.

14 comments:

John Murney said...

You have a great blog. I am going to add a link.

Jay Currie said...

You might want to be a bit careful eliding the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Arguably, Islam has had its Reformation via the wahabbists. (Think John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli and, for extra fun, check out the Anabaptists.)

The Enlightenment (think Voltaire, David Hume, Adam Smith and thomas Jefferson) was, to a degree, a reaction against the anti-secularism of the Reform movement.

The question is whether or not Islamic societies can survive an Enlightenment. Realistically, very few Euro-Christian Monarchies did.

I suspect that this is implicitly understood by the mullahs and the jihadis - the 7th or 13th century is done and for the vast majority of Muslims the future beckons. Which, seemingly, terrifies the tiny minority of Islamists who seem willing to commit pretty much any act of terror against Westerners or their fellow Muslims to postpone the day when Islam joins the 21st century.

We Christians had similar fanatics and the assorted Christian on Christian atrocities which mar Western history from Luther forward shows how difficult it is to defeat a determined enemy who believes he has a direct line to God. (vide Sunni v Sunni v Shi'ite v Secularist in Iraq, Iran, Gaza etc.)

(There are also structural and textual issues which Islam has to come to grips with; but I have faith that the huge intelligence of a billion people will, in time, prevail.)

Anonymous said...

isn't just yesterday once more , when Islamists will take a back seat , and the secular values will usurp as happened with ancient christianity. but the point is that as it is taking a hell of a lot time to realize this obvious fact, lives are being lost. Islam in its curent form is hardly tenable with democracy , the refinement will take a long time , and perhaps we can all deal with a better future . By the way wont it be tantamounting to disown hadith , and by corrollary , your head seaarching for your body and finding nobody ? A brave new world ? time wil tell.

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