The State of the Muslim World
Comments facility on this post has been turned off temporarily as it looks like people whose brains cannot articulate without using profanity has acquired the knowledge to post comments.
With the days rolling by after the attack of 29th September many are calling for the motive behind the attack. It is important, as one commenter on this blog suggested, that we identify the root cause of this attack – not just the motive. All evidence currently points to religious extremism. It makes sense because extremist forces such as al Qaida are causing mindless destruction of life and property the world over. Besides we are witnessing an increase in extremism in this country too.
Many point the finger directly at Quran and Hadhith as the source of these extremist beliefs. Others claim that it is the wrong interpretation of teachings of Islam that is to be blamed and not Islam itself. But with the world gripped in terror caused by various militant factions – almost all of them Islamic – there is a serious need to find out what really is going on. I believe it is important for us, as a Muslim majority country, to analyze the root cause of this evil so that perhaps we can clearly see the road ahead.
There are some 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. This accounts to 20% of the world population. That means 1 in every 5 people is a Muslim.
Now, here are some nice facts according to the latest CIA factbook (2007):
- over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt) * two-thirds is about 523 million*
- of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women
- extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)
Here are some points to be noted. Among the list of most illiterate countries are the two countries home to the largest Muslim populations in the world, namely, Indonesia and India. India alone is home to some 154 million Muslims that make up the largest minority group in that country. Among the list Pakistan (50% illiterate), Bangladesh (57% illiterate) and Egypt (30% illiterate) are classified as Muslim majority countries. They alone contribute 192 million possible candidates to the 523 million illiterate in the world. That does not include India, which although has 154 million Muslim who have “abysmally poor” lives due to illiteracy (more on this later), is not a Muslim majority country.
Also notice how two-thirds of the illiterate in the world are women. This is an important statistic when one considers fertility rates of countries. It is believed that women who are literate are more cautious about bearing many children regardless of whether they are religious or not. Only 31% of Bangladeshi women and 36% of Pakistani women are literate. Pakistan has a 3.71 children born per woman, Bangladesh 3 children and Egypt has 2.7 children born per woman. So every year we Muslims are adding more to our numbers of illiterate in these countries and possibly creating millions more who are unemployed and just loitering about doing nothing.
Notice also that extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in regions that include South Asia (the SAARC countries?) and the Arab states. Half the women in these countries cannot read and write. If we exclude India, with its 2nd largest population, we are still left with Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh that contribute a large amount to the illiterate in the world. I do not want to jump into conclusions yet but if these statistics are correct, could it be that there is something inherently wrong with Muslim countries and Muslims in general? Please note that I am being lenient with the figures because much of the 1.4 billion Muslims are concentrated in the regions described as most illiterate and that is alarming! Let’s find out more.
According to a report on The Star (a Malaysian daily - 17th Sept 2007):
“While India has had two Muslim presidents and two vice-presidents, including the present incumbent, Hamid Ansari, and quite a few Muslims in high constitutional posts, there is no denying that the socio-economic lot of ordinary Muslims continues to be abysmally poor. On all human development indices, they lag behind the majority community.”
While the report does touch well on the prejudices faced by the Muslim minority in the country it also gives some hint as to how Muslims themselves are to be blamed for there deplorable state including why Muslims have a low government (and private sector) employment rate.
“Low employment might be partly explained by lower levels of literacy among Muslims, 10% less than the national average of more than 68%. School and college enrolment too is lower, and school dropout rate much high, than the rest of the population. Even in the matters of health, nutrition, credit availability from banking and financial institutions Muslims are laggards.”
Laggards indeed! That is the state of Muslims in their second largest home in the world and very likely through out the world.
According to a report on Dinar Standard the “50 odd countries (actual figure is 57) of the Islamic world cut a sorry figure when stacked against the modern and advanced countries of the West [when it comes to science and technology], or even, for that matter, the states of the former Soviet Union and the under-developed India or China."
It goes further in saying that for decades “Muslim countries have struggled with appreciating the value of scientific and technological research, and in many cases, have become blind consumers of western technology.”
Ok fine we Muslims are not that advanced and we use Western created Internet, mobile phones and automobiles while conspiring against the West. I think we can all agree to that. Most of us are illiterate but we still got our powerful Arab states with their oil, don’t we? But even in the Arab world, to which all Muslims look up to (and who are especially revered in the Muslim world as the keepers and protectors of the faith), things are not that much brighter.
According to a report published in Nature, "the countries of the OIC have the lowest spending on science and technology and instead concentrate on the spending on armaments.”
Armaments for what, we all know. It goes further saying that the “OIC countries produce so few patents that they are invisible on a bar chart of comparison with other countries”. How miserable indeed.
If we look at the list of Nobel Prize winning universities around the world we will not find a single university from an OIC member country listed. Of course, this is not a western conspiracy; they just have not done anything worthwhile since the establishment of the Nobel Prize over a hundred years ago. Or ever before that. This means that the Muslim world has not contributed much to the betterment and advancement of the human race and the world around them. What have we been doing? Praying for the chemical formula for Penicillin or giving alms so that the polio vaccine maybe revealed?
In fact, the 0.23% of Jews in the world have produced over a hundred Nobel Prizes. The 1.4 billion Muslims (currently living – forget about those who’ve died over the last century) have mustered a mere 4 or so. Out of which 2 are for peace.
But there is hope. The article goes on to say that there are signs of hope when looking at the OIC top and bottom performers: “Turkey, for example, is not rich in oil, but is the most scientifically successful of the Muslim states. Turkish intellectuals attribute this to the 1923 revolution, which led to the creation of a constitutionally secular state.”
What? The shock! The horror! That thought would make the hardcore Muslim in us freeze in mid-prayer! Obviously something is definitely not right here. This is showing a trend towards lack of education, lack of interest in knowledge – particularly science and it has something to do with being a Muslim or an Islamic country. So what is going on I wonder. But let us march on a bit further.
Apart from oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia much of the Arab states are in the illiterate statistic. In countries like Yemen, the overall literacy rate stands at just 50% out of which only 30% are women. And according to another newspaper report (the source of which I have since misplaced) the entire Arab world translates only a fifth as many books per year as does Greece alone. This is most likely due to fear that people might actually learn something. Readers may notice that we hardly translate anything either!
We also forget that oil is not an infinite resource and will definitely see depletion within a limited time. What then will happen to Saudi Arabia, Iran and so on? This may explain why it makes sense for Iran to explore nuclear energy – but that’s another story. Oil or not, we Muslims are not a very industrial bunch. (Iran is considered to be one of the more scientifically astute of the OIC members). We are, as I like to say it, afraid of knowledge. But that is probably not the root cause either. It is probably the result of the root cause.
So how are Muslim economies doing?
The combined GDP of the 22 members of the Arab League is $1.8 trillion. Huge amount until we compare it to, say, Italy which alone has a GDP of $1.8 trillion also. The combined GDP of the 57 member Organization of Islamic Countries (to which we are also members) is just $5 trillion. The United States has a GDP of $13 trillion!
According to a keynote speech by the Malaysian president at the OIC Trade Forum , the unemployment rate of the countries of the OIC range from 3% to about 20%. With those kinds of figures we can expect the Muslim world to produce a staggeringly vast army of unemployed and unhappy young men and women within the next decade. Most would be illiterate and poor and ready for the next Jihadist action.
So, let’s summaries what we have found out today. Every 1 in 5 people on the face of the world is a Muslim. 1.4 billion Muslims that contribute a hefty number to the illiterate of the world. We are by far the most illiterate, backward religion on earth. We lack education – quality education and knowledge. Muslims are blind consumers of Western technology. We produce little or no technology and not industrial. Our women are illiterate or uneducated and the future looks bleaker with the popularization of radicalism – calling for women to stay home, produce children and make food. Our favorite oil rich nations have nothing except oil, no investment in Science and Technology and nothing much to do after the oil runs out. Basically, it looks like the Muslim way of life, our tradition and our culture is in crisis – the crisis of modernization that the West had quite painfully taken the good part of last millennium to overcome.
From personal experiences in grade school I can say that we were trained by our influential Islamic mentors not to question religion – specifically those teachings that don’t seem to make any kind of sense. It is not a surprising fact that many of the world’s elite physicists and biologists are either closet atheists or speak passionately against religion because of the violence we see today. Do they know something we don’t? Our Islamic mentors were right. As we learn more and more about the world and the universe– at least how we Muslims apply it to our life, our country and everyone around us – religion seems useless except at a very personal level. Kiyevi kiyevihen kaafaru vane.
Education, literacy and knowledge, over the many decades and centuries, appears to have become a threat to traditional Muslim way of life. We secretly look up to the failed Arabs for our salvation and then realize that they too are in the same boat. Urbanisation, modernization and science and technology are threatening the very fabric of Islamic society. The application of religion at the state level and enforcing strict barbaric medieval-era laws (like those that exist in the Shariah law) have stagnated and completely stopped our capacity to be creative and modern. The invention and intervention of radicalism has erased the sense of self and wiped all traces of nature-given personality from us. We seem to be fighting an internal battle between religious ideology and inevitable globalization. Maybe, if given enough time, we will join the ranks of great civilizations that have passed into extinction like the Greeks and the Romans.
So those who fight in the name of religion against the enemies of God are fighting because their very existence depends on eliminating this influx of modernization - which threatens to wipe traditional religion. And by doing that they are truly propelling themselves closer to extinction – helped by the armies of unemployed, the useless, the loitering, the boredom-stricken, the sexually frustrated and the illiterate Muslims worldwide, who think someone else is responsible for the state of their world.
The way forward lies not just in educating ourselves but arming ourselves with the power to question religion and those that rule over us. It is our only way out of this rampant backwardness that plague our world. But tackling illiteracy and shaking 1.4 billion Muslims out of their holy daydream is impossible within a short period of time. So we are going a marching down, down to the ghettos - but we are not going down without a fight!
Let’s wait for the next bomb.
Amin | October 6, 2007 8:00 AM
I am impressed with your detailed research and synthesis. And I have to agree that your conclusion, as hard as it is to digest (for me as a believer in Allah and Mohamed), is quite to the point and true. However, it is depressing and we need to change the status quo. As far as a I know Islam promotes “here” and “after”. But for some reason, Islamic scholars or the Islamic leaders (more so the radicals or fundamentalists) focus predominantly in the “after”.
simplesimon | October 6, 2007 10:09 AM
Quite a lot of ‘perhapses’ later, what I can infer from your laborious article is that countries with Muslim Populations are under-developed because their theistic beliefs hinder them from making progress. You seem to fail to identify other important factors[i] such as the political histories involving illegal invasions, colonization, plundering and political manipulation that have marred (and is still the case in several instances) the Middle-East. When comparing the productivity of Universities the number of Nobel Prize winners and other contributions the developed western countries have made to the progress of humanity, do you not have at least the decency to point out how unwarranted such benchmarks are?
While you make an excellent argument for Muslims to re-think their way of life and reconcile with the progress the Western thinkers have made, you have yet to incorporate some sense of relative clarity before you can sprinkle your article with sarcasm (towards the end). There is no point in pursuing an argument with just enough citations and statistical figures to prove what seems to be an acute Eurocentric view of how a civilization should evolve.
You go on to say that we should ‘arm ourselves with the power to question religion and those that rule over us’. I think this has been attempted in countries like Saudi Arabia. Every time progressive-thinkers in the Islamic world attempt to appeal to their leaders and their Nations, they are bogged down by the rulers who are financed, supported and armed by the United States and the Israeli Lobby (not by means science fiction or conspiracy-candy, mind you). When it comes to Saudi Arabia, the United States’ foreign policy is muted towards the blatancy with which Human Rights are violated and how terrorism is encouraged in Middle-Eastern countries with which the US has 'special relationships'. Does it not strike you why?
They have everything to gain by looking away and ensuring that the Muslims’ lines are kept wide asunder, their leaders powerful, self-serving tyrants.
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@amin: really? detailed research and synthesis? lol. All i see is a lot of misconstrued and misplaced quotes and statistics whose correlative significance is as solid as gas. After reading it, i feel that the conclusion was arrived at forcibly. Or could it be that simon is after all a closeted Muslim Basher?
Mohamed Hilmy | October 6, 2007 11:09 AM
It is false and completely wrong for anyone to say that Quran and Hadhith as the source of these extremist beliefs. It is the bigoted interpretations of selected texts that are used to justify unjust and barbaric behaviour.
Your research shows us the symptons of the problems. But we still need to look back to search for the causes.
After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistani Madrasahs were supported by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence communities who wanted to send holy warriors against the occupying Soviets. Hence the CIA and the Pakistan govt. helped Osam Bin Laden and his Alqaeda to build up, for their selfish reasons. It has now backfired on them.
You have cited the figures for illiteracy and unemployment in the current Muslim world and its poor record in contributing to scientific and technological development. I agree to the current dismal state of affairs. But we must remember that between 8th century to the 13th century, Islamic world produced engineers, scholars that contributed enormously to the arts, economics, industry, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, and technology, both by preserving and building upon earlier traditions and by adding countless inventions and innovations of their own. Scientific, economic, intellectual and technological achievements blossomed during the Islamic Golden Age.
I did not say this becoz we should be content on living on past glory. Quite to the contrary, Muslims need to do much more to improve their lives and contribute in the global development as they had done in the past and as they have proved the capacity to do so. I'm assuming that for some unexplained reason the Muslims have not been growing dumb over the ages up to now. Unfortunately most Muslim countries are too busy maintaining their kingdoms or playing petty politics of divide and rule in order to remain in power. The vast majority of the people are forced to get on living day to day. Take Saudi Arabia. They are the richest country in the Arabian gulf and if money can solve problems they shouldn't have any. But by some estimates 20 per cent of their youth mostly educated are unemployed. There are no jobs in the feudal system for them. So can we say they are loitering around in the malls becoz they are lazy or is there more to it than that?
Frozen Solid | October 6, 2007 11:44 AM
what your trying to say here is, Muslims are illiterate thus can be mind washed easily therefore leading to terror.
Simon | October 6, 2007 1:33 PM
simplesimon,
Please know that I am NOT a closeted Muslim basher. Please don't insult me with such baseless insinuations. Know that I am very much out in the open and admit that I am a true hot-blooded Muslim basher. You won't get one sympathetic or apologetic bone in me towards Muslims. That includes us Maldivians. Now, if you or anyone don't like that, by way of me being the Muslim basher that I am, I couldn't care less. The way I see it, Muslims need to face up to the truth instead of brushing it under the carpet (or musalla). That really is the honest truth.
The truth is the truth. One other problem we Muslims have is that we like to blame our sorry state of an existence on other countries, the Israeli lobby, our leaders and whoever else that we can poke a stick at. Does the Israeli lobby have direct influence on the 150 million Muslims in India? Does the US and the West have something against the Muslims of Indonesia? We Muslims wholehearted believe that the Arab states are our champions of the faith and anything that happens to them is reflected on all the 1.4 billion Muslims. So we are constantly feeling sorry for ourselves because of Arab mentality. It's as if the Arab world is the whole Muslim world. It is most definitely NOT.
The truth of the matter still remains why we are unable to break away from the confines of our ghetto mentality and paltry existence and confront the forces within us and not deal with the plight of some barbaric Arab nation somewhere. The west has got it all wrong. The Arab Muslims don't want democracy at all. The Arabs culture is such that it doesn't want freedom in the same way that democracy tries to offer. And we have bought into that. Ever wonder why we keep asking ourselves "but who is capable enough to run Maldives except Maumoon?" - for he is the Arab educated, Arab speaking "intellectual", the messenger, the caliph and demigod almost, in our midst. What nonsense!
So anyway, there is a reason why the Al Qaida et. al. lead by bin Laden would love to establish a Theocracy. True, in the glory days of the Islamic Golden age there was much that was contributed in all fronts of knowledge. Those golden years of Islam under the caliphate seem too enticing. But the world is not running on looking back at days gone by (as Hilmy said) or religious beliefs anymore.
Muslims need to wake up and face up to the fact that there is no Islamic civilisation (that can be rebuilt, rejuvenated or reestablished) anymore and move on.
sharianeedsreform | October 6, 2007 2:55 PM
'simplesimon': it's time we stopped the blame game on the west and think about what is wrong with us and what we now can do.
for instance, why was the western world in the first place able to colonize these countries? simply, we were 'colonizable'! the road to backwardness was already taken. a critical islamic history will show the factors that led to this road; one significant factor of them is believing the Qur'an and Sunna were everything there were to know! (they think that Qur'an has, for example, even the theory of Big Bang, that is in a verse about thunder!). one outcome of such belief was perhaps the closing of the door of ijithihad.
islamic fundamentalism is a reaction -- or a proposed 'solution' -- to the failure of muslims to modernize successfully, and it is the product of the reflexive re-traditionalization under the perceived threat of western dominance. that is, the solution muslims thought was Sharia - implementing 'pure', 'unadulterated Sharia'. we now know that is no solution. that brings us something like a Taliban Afghanistan...
are you thinking that the West will benefit only when there is autocratic outdated governing systems in the Muslim countries? is that because they can only have trade and business under autocracies? is that because al-Qaeda and the Muslim masses will love them for supporting tyrants?
while no doubt the west has been hypocratic in their so-called 'spreading' of democracy and support tyrannies, why don't we ask the question why the muslim masses have failed to use the 'power of the powerless'? wasn't the Iranian mass able to Islamicize Iran in 1979 while the US did every it could to block that?
why has hassan al banna or sayyid qutb been able to have great success in spreading muslim brotherhood ideology? why has al-qaeda been so successful in spreading their ideology? why have not the so-called Muslim reformists been able to have such success? the truth of the matter is that there had been no serious movements by muslim reformists to even theoretically successfully reform sharia so that it can endorse democratic and liberal values without some schizophrenia.
i accept that the muslim governments are to take a great deal of the blame. blame is on them, but responsibility lies on us all.
what we need now is a way out of this. if that is so, it seems we are only left with our 'power'.
simon is correct to say that education, for example, in the sciences alone is not enough. this is obvious when you consider that high profile terrorists have been educated in engineering and other sciences. we need to question and totally overhaul our religious beliefs.
i don't know the sarcasm there. sarcasm or not, it is time we did overhauled Islamic sharia.
the so-called postmodernists just keep on bashing the West and the Enlightenment, and try on to relativize everything..there is no doubt this only gives a boost to the fundamentalists in their thinking that fundamentalism is as valid as democratic values.
while the Euro-centric route to modernity need not be taken, democratic values are arguably the only possible way free and equal humans can socially co-operate with fair terms.
df | October 6, 2007 7:48 PM
"It is believed that women who are literate are more cautious about bearing many children regardless of whether they are RELIGIOUS OR NOT."
Not right there my friend. Look in to the suburbs in Sydney in Australia and you will find that the educated, literate, "modern" Muslim women driving with them 5 to sometimes 10 children. Mind you .. a noticeable number of these women are educated and work in professional jobs.
illiteracy cannot be blamed. It is the ideology that is to be blamed.
On the other hand how do you define literacy these days?
This question is very valid to ask in todays circumstances and due to the nature and vibe of your article.
Stranger | October 6, 2007 11:41 PM
It is not a problem of being a Muslim but it is a problem of not being a Muslim.
Simon | October 7, 2007 2:23 AM
Amin,
The thing is it didn't take a lot of time to research the subject enough to make my point. It took me about an hour to research on the 'net and about 2 hours to write. That means if someone were to take a serious stab at researching there will be some shocking figures one can find.
All readers,
This is not thesis. It is not a dissertation. It is a blog post on my blog where I express my biased, sarcastic view of the world and the people in it.
df,
To explore an ideology one needs literacy, don't you agree? The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drafted the following definition of literacy: "Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society."
jaa | October 7, 2007 3:21 AM
Good article Simon. Sadly, it is going to take a LOT of work, not just mere fringe blog posts to bring any change at all. Need to get articles like your post translated and published for the public. The Maldivian public is bombarded by literally dozens of articles, news and tv/radio programmes that assert the exact opposite of what you've said... Sigh.
ahmed adam | October 7, 2007 3:55 AM
Hey Stranger, there are over 6251236 billion people on this planet. and most are not Muslims. today all world conflicts can be attributed to the terrosit, murderous tendencies of muslims:
1. the terrorist state of Palestine that has been killing innocent israelis and trying to occupy Jewish land
2. pakistan (muslim men having sex with small boys)
3. afhgniastan (same as above plus bloody murder)
4. iraq
5. iran
6. north korea
7. thailand
m waheed | October 7, 2007 4:14 AM
Simon, good article. You have highlighted an important issue which has forced anonymous 'simplesimons' to emerge with a counter argument. If only they would do it without being provoked the label 'Muslim' might still retain some fashionableness. But alas, for all we can see Muslims as a community are becoming more discordant amongst ourselves (including the 300,000 population Maldives, not to mention the middle eastern countries who seem to be at war with each other perpetually.
Simpleimon has exhibited his awareness of how history has impacted in global politics and how the west still retains political influence among the developing world which also include most of the Muslim countries despite their wealth of oil riches. But that's no reason to wallow in self indulgences or self pity. Only by ridding ourselves of the many superstitions with which most religions - including Islam - are dense with can we gain any sense of autonomy and begin to make ourselves dignified once again....
In a purely Maldivian context, I feel we should really take religion from the pedestal on which we have kept it for too long and begin reinterpreting it in the light of the realities of the modern world. After all when the Rannamari was finally scared by verses of the Holy Book recited by Barbari, didn't the king just issue a royal decree ordering all men and women in the country to leave 2000 years of religious belief in favor of the newly found one? Only because it suited the realities of the day. We should not hesitate to question this... especially when we are wrangling about democracy and other such ideas that have utterly convinced us of their higher value.
Being Muslim is just one layer of being human. Let's not forget that!
Adam | October 7, 2007 5:54 AM
You were born into a world in which the Television Set in front of you was your best teacher. It was either that or the reality of your pathetic existence in a third world country.
And to enable you to reconcile what you see around you and those amongst which you were brought up being defined with,and to come to terms with your shame and even guilt for not being of the 'white'race you did a simple math.Your 'wider' view of the world through the TV set and the world wide web, told you that the reason why third world countries and why Moslem's are so pathetic/inferior is because they believe in a God. And because they didn't follow the 'euro-centric' formula to 'success'.
As proof you present figures and statistics from the likes of 'western' think-tanks and NGOs and world bodies such as the IMF/World Bank etc, who are more than eager to whitewash and look past the history of colonial subjugation and thousands of years of plundering of 'third' world nations natural resources & their dignity. Their economic policies to this day are in fact designed to keep these countries locked in a never ending cycle of poverty-destitution-'fundamentalism'; they proclaim their desire to rid the world of poverty and still claim debt rights from 3rd world countries, in the range of 800billion dollars/year from Africa alone! Examples are innumerable; from the sun-burnt cocoa farmer in Brazil to the scarred juvenile hands in an Indian matchstick factory(all of whom will 'sell' their primary product to the multinational conglomerate at a 'reasonable' price, only for the finished product to be sold to the 'globalised third world' at shamelessly high prices. and mind you if the cocoa farmer in Brazil dares to make his own chocolate and sell it to the 'west' he will have to overcome an impenetrable barrier of taxations).
The deathly grip of international corporations on world governments and 3rd world nations are the cornerstone of todays 'globalised' world. The most recent example of this is the apparent helplessness of the 'UN'and the International community in the face of state sponsored terrorism and oppression of the Burmese people by its 60yr old military dictatorship. And why? Why is it that the regional powers, China and India, are unable to intervene beside the occasional photo-op in front of the media? Both are Burma's largest trading partners! Burma is rich in natural gas & oil and has multi-billion dollar deals with these countries including US corporations.
And you think it's all about Islam & religion. What else could it be? It's all you hear and know!
The fact that you think so proves the saying that corporate media is the nexus of the neo-captalistic/neo-imperialistic industrial machine that runs on the backs of the helpless billions, who live for the few healthy, FREE supremacists.
The current state of affairs has hardly anything to do with religion. And extremism and fundamentalism borne of 'Islam' is nothing compared to state/corporate sponsored terrorism; all you see and hear is media reports on bomb-blasts in one or the other middle-eastern countries. Did you know that since 1986 more than 80,000 civilians have been killed in Kashmir by Indian security forces? Have you heard of the Gujarat massacres in 2003 in which 3000 Moslem's were burnt alive/gang-raped/killed systematically under the blessing of the Modi government?(who is still in power & none have since been held accountable) Do you see any 'shock & awe' bombings raids on Delhi by the 'liberators'? Do you hear of Hindu extremists in the Indian armed forces slaughtering kashmiris? The exact counterpart to Kashmir is Palestine! Do you see, as Robert Mugabe has said,any calls by 'us' for a Nuremberg trial to exact retribution for all the injustices, all the millions who were slaughtered and enslaved by colonial powers? Do you see the shameless bias of UNSC resolutions and the absolute helplessness of the UN in the face of the powers that be? Have you heard what Churchill said of the Palestinians and their inalienable right to exist in their OWN land?? IS it that you value the blood of a jew above that of a Palestinians as Galloway had asked?
Do you now see what the 'root cause 'is now?? Are you at all surprised that there aren't enough suicide bombers? You think if there wasn't a scripture, they wouldn't fight such absolute injustice? When 'superior-super-duper nations relentlessly bomb sovereign nations and lay siege both militarily & economically, that isn't carnage in your eyes? when American made bombs and bullets rip through a helpless Palestinians flesh, then its Israel 'exercising its right to defend itself' in your opinion! When the father of that slain child decides to detonate himself at an Israeli check-post, then you blame the 'scriptures', and if we do not condemn this 'terrorism' then we are labeled anti-semetites! and you think 'arabs' are barbaric..
Oh how 'they' sneer at your comprehensive grasp of the current state of affairs in the world...
The fact that you so easily dismiss the sufferance of your people- Moslems & the third world in general as inconsequential in the scheme of all that is happening, that you dismiss the significance of the 'Israeli lobby'(good that you've heard of it at least!), of corporate media and multinational corporations(and why Jim Carey had recently pleaded that the UN needs to rise above the specter of Corporations and become a U-N!)- all goes to show that you are a man on a mission.Your all-pervading-all encompassing theory is that we be pathetic and lowly because we are God-fearing and follow vain ideologies and outdated scriptures, while the west are superior because they are not enslaved by such old-age dogmas.
And whatever you write, the conclusion is no different. What you do not see of course, (you wouldn't know it if it came and hit you in the face!because that's not why you 'randomly reflect') is that even in the 'west'it is a select few who enjoy a hegemony over its masses; while NY,LA,DC,London,Frankfurt,Paris are it's eternal beacons,the majority are CATTLE(like the Christian belt in the mid-US) who are kept 'happy' and intoxicated on limitless 'freedoms' while they, corporate powers, design wars and place therein controls that ensure that civil strife and famine persist in the rest of the world.There is no state sponsored terrorism in Turkey or India or Saudi Arabia, but in Palestine and syria and Iran there is! Bah!
You say "move on", and you think the suffering of the majority of the world, including the blatant exploitation of the middle east through electronic ,economic and military means for it's abundant oil wealth and the slaughter of Palestinians and its denial of basic 'human rights'for the security of an illegitimate state and the slaying of a faith and a civilization that spawned the seeds, in fact, for the enlightened world that today is, can be as easily dismissed as insignificant compared to 'Islamic terrorism',as you think it is, as the root cause of all evil!
Your inability to comprehend why people need to pray five times a day to a 'God' we cannot see or feel or hears us, compels you to find the avenues to vent your frustration, even if it be upon the altars of a 'freedom' which is stained with the blood of billions of innocents, by those very hypocrites who proclaim to have produced and provided that 'freedom'! And inadvertently voicing your support to an 'American way of life'(which Rumsfeld had said must be upheld;him & his buddies pet project, The Project-for-The- New-American-Century closely echo your euro/anglo-centric formula) which is Not sustainable, except at the expense of the rest of the world!
Religion/Islam is not THE issue here. It is NOT THE ROOT CAUSE!!!!!!!!
That you've been made to believe shows how well you've been primed. But then you are nothing more than anything you didn't want to be.
You dismiss it all as easily as you switch off the TV.
In 'your opinion' Islamdheen is what is wrong with the world, not people like you.
Dr.Freex
sharianeedsreform | October 7, 2007 1:07 PM
Dr.Freex or Adam
It is also ‘good that you've heard of […] at least! some ‘Western’ terms such as ‘Eurocentrism’ and ‘Western’ critiques of globalization and neo-liberalism, perhaps from a ‘Western’ university or a ‘Western’-educated person, also about the ‘Western’ critique of ‘Israeli lobby’. But unfortunately you also have learnt from the ‘West’ to make straw-man arguments. When I read Simon’s blog entry I didn’t draw the conclusion that he meant the state of the third word and Muslim’s inferiority can be explained by mere belief in a god! Besides, if that were so, the US would be no better developed than these countries.
The root cause can be disputed, and many, if not all, of the current Middle East problems can have their immediate causes in 19th and the 20th centuries.
But this fact remains: the Islamists do resort to terrorism because of their ideology. When someone says their ideology is the 'cause', I don't think anyone is meaning it necessarily is as a 'sufficient' cause of their terrorism. It is probably a cause in the sense of say Mackie's ‘INUS conditions' -- that is, as ‘cause’, which is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for an event; instead, it is often a necessary but insufficient part of a condition which is itself not necessary but sufficient for the event. Likewise, while the poverty and backwardness that remain in the Muslim countries can partly be explained by the factors Simon has outlines. Again the traditional religion or the re-traditionalized Islamist ideology alone may not be sufficient explanations. Some reasons may have to do with the factors to do with the outside world, which you have pointed out.
Even if one concedes your point of Western nuisance for the sorry affairs we face, the way forward lies within us. Changes, reformation, need to happen within us. We need to question how Islam was made a political ideology by ‘us’ while the Prophet was not even buried. We need to question why ‘we’ had schisms within ‘us’. We need to question ‘our’ idealized history in which we believed there were pious caliphs. We need to question why there was a fall of the ‘Golden Age of Islam’ within ‘us’. We need to question why ‘they’ developed, while ‘we’ did not in the first place. We need to question why ‘their’ thinkers have come up with great scientific discoveries while ‘our’ thinkers in ‘our’ universities have not. We need to question how an Ottoman Empire was created within ‘us’. We need to question, how the Empire crumbled and declined because of ‘us’. We need to question the declarations and secret exchange of letters that ‘our’ Muslim leaders had with the ‘infidel’ ‘West’. We need to question why ‘we’ failed in every Arab/Israeli war, while ‘they’ won. We need to question what ‘our’ leaders did to really secure a Palestinian state in the Six Days War. We need to question why ‘our’ governments have been doing to assist the Palestinian people, and Palestinian refugees in ‘our’ lands. We need to question why ‘we’ had to resort to a civil war in Afghanistan in the aftermath of US proxy-war there, and why ‘we’ had to come up with a brutal political system. We need to question why the ‘our’ dominant political alternative to ‘our’ dictatorships is this brutal ideology. We need to question why ‘we’ are fighting each other in Iraq. We need to question why ‘we’ do not have toleration. We need to question why ‘we’ persecute women and non-Muslims. We need to question why ‘we’ kill apostates. We need to question what ‘we’ can do to have a more fair distribution of the petrodollars. We need to question what ‘we’ can do to reform ‘our’ autocratic political systems. We need to question why ‘we’ love the Saudi Royal family, which allegedly love the West by allegedly sacrificing ‘our’ interests. You can go on endlessly…
In short, we must question why the most powerful political alternative that we have today to both the ‘Western’ hegemony and ‘our’ dictatorships is nothing but a death-cult ideology.
For a start, a total reformation of Islam needs to be carried out to successfully reconcile with democracy and liberal values if we want the latter without some schizophrenia. This reformation will only happen within Muslims, by reading a critical history Islam, by abandoning the idealized history that we read from the dominant Muslim schools and universities in Muslim countries. So, the road to democracy lies in the reformation of Islam. But, none is saying democracy is the way for economic modernity. If that was so, East Asian autocracies would not be developed. But we don’t want that, we also want a system in which everyone is free and equal having fair terms of social cooperation. This need not be categorized just Eurocentric and therefore abandoned. As An-Naim has said human rationality and experience have shown such a system will realize the just society Qur’an asks Muslims to have.
The Western societies are not paragons of just societies. To be sure, they have huge injustices and problems and legitimation cirises. The Western democracies are nothing close to the ideal. The Western leaders are not saints but often can be bastards. But, while only a ‘select few’ exert the ‘hegemonic’ ‘discourse’ on these societies, the fact that our situation is far more miserable cannot be denied. Like brutal leaders such as Ahmedinejad and Hugo Chavez we keep on bashing the brutal governments and policies of the West. The Western policies and governments can be oppressive and brutal. But such facts do not change our state of affairs. Mere critiques of the West do not help, we need to have critiques within us and seek solutions within us. West is BAD! The West is HEGEMONIC! Israel is ILLEGITIMATE! They DO NOT WANT PEACE!
If the West is the enemy, by definition they won’t change our affairs for us.
ali | October 7, 2007 4:15 PM
To be a muslim you are being very blind. You are of an uncivilised lot. You are just being stupid. Everything you see tells you to let it go. What the fu*# is wrong with you. The whole world needs to go secular.
Just one question...
Am I effectively using my thought faculties if i were to agree with you and your likes whole-heartedly, simon?
ahmed adam | October 7, 2007 4:33 PM
sharianeedsreform, dr.freex, simplesimon:
what's with the long-winded bullshit? you're using Taqiyya (islamic word for deception.. it earns Sawab when used to deceive "infidels") to deceive us. everything is clear. muslims the world over are terrorizing people for no apparent reason but a craziness inspired by their religion. we must wake up and teach our children that all the Goods in the world are produced by the west. the iPhone, the paper on which the Koran is printed, the Internet through which Jaahils like Osama spread their terrorist message, czech porn films, medicine, paracetemol, penisilin. what does the Muslim world produce in return? TERROR, DATES and camel urine. what use is that?
Simon | October 7, 2007 4:59 PM
Adam Adam Adam (dr. Frex),
You really are something else eh? What do you want me to say? That I am an atheist and everyone else sucks? Even if I said that it doesn't make any difference to the state of the Muslim world (NOT the third world mind you). The reason why I say the Muslim world is in a deplorable state is NOT because they believe in a God. It is because of backward ideologies.
I present figures and stats from western think-tanks precisely because they 'think' and they record these things. Muslims are too busy writing blog post comments that prove beyond doubt what is exactly wrong with their world. (That was cheap eh?)
You have made the mistake of equating ALL "Muslims" to the thirdworld. I do no care about a farmer in Brazil or the destitute child in hard labour in India. I do not talk about the third world although I agree a huge percentage of Muslims ARE in the thirdworld. But many of the oil rich Arab nations are in the OIC as well. But we don't see a distribution of their wealth to these thirdworld Muslims do we?
BTW, here is proof (once again from the western think tanks) that you just come up with an argument just for the heck of it. Brazil has a well developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing and service sectors. It's economy outweights that of all other south american countries. It's GDP is $1.6 trillion...compared with the collective $1.8trillion of the OIC. Their exports are more ($137 bil) compared to imports ($91.4 bil).
Man, these are facts. Not some conspiracy to create disinformation by the west as you and all ignorant Muslims think. Your line of thinking IS precisely the problem with the Muslim world.
The case of Burma and the inaction of China and India...what is going on in your head, Adam? I don't care about these things. Of course I know what you're saying..that the UN is a useless bag of rotten potatoes. But hey so? Boohoo. What has that got with empowering Muslims with knowledge and breaking from the shackles of the religious state and the bloody tyrants who rule over Muslims? Has Burma and UN or whatever else got anything to do with outdated islamic ideologies that tie us down? No.
Adam, your mind can only focus on the atrocities commited against Muslims. This is one of the problems that I identify with Muslims of today. They somehow think they are in such a sorry state of affairs because of plunderings and marauding armies of the west years, decades and centuries ago. They think they are sooooo special, eh?
Did you ever hear about the Nanking massacres? Upto and over 300,000 chinese were maimed, raped and killed by the Japanese imperial army. Do you even know about the Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman empire? An estimated 500,000 to 1 million were murdered. You must have heard about the US bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Are the chinese hellbent on takig revenge? Are the Armenians scheming against the turks? Are the japanese having a secret plan to bomb US? No, they moved on. The chinese moved on, the japanese moved on...the world needs to move on.
You only see, with your Muslim filter lens obviously, what you want to see. In the case of the Gujrat, the Muslims burnt 58 hindus in a train...this lead to the Gujrat massacres. I see something you don't see here, Adam. I see religion being a poison to our existence. And you somehow manage to blur the difference between God and organised religion.
The difference between you and me, Adam, is that I am selfish and I want what is best for my country and people. You onthe other hand THINK you have the best interests at heart but your insterests lie with the Arabs. I don't care whether millions of Muslims are murdered in Iraq (by Iraqis and Americans alike). I don't care about these Palestinians. Basically, my friend, I do not care about Arabs. We can live without them and believe in God but we need get out arab installed religious ideologies erased or revised.
Jim carey said what? I've not seen such useless buillshit ever on a comment before.
Yes I am a man on a mission. that mission is clear to me (maybe not u). We muslims need to fix ourselves and move on. We need to educate ourselves and stop creating hating in our hearts (scriptures help a lot in doing that don't u think?).
Don't talk about denial of human righs to the Arabs man. Who are they?? I'm sick of hearing this from Maldivians and other non arab muslims.
Adam, the worlds 2 billion Christians don't pray 5 times a day. And yet are they frustrated? It is only Muslims like you who think it has some magical power. Perhaps the 5 times is not enough for Muslims. So many of them seem so frustrated. Including you. Maybe it should be more like 50 prayers. Then we'll see how good Muslims are. How they suddenly start thinking about their personal lives and their country instead of foolishly worrying about some Palestianian.
I will stand firmly in my belief that religion and Arab culture that Islam brings is the culprit here. I am not saying God. But religion, specifically organised religion that have put incapable, selfish and sexually frustrated clerics and Mullahs who we don't question in power. They need to be put where they belong - along with soothsayers, palmists and mystics.
Adam, please don't distort what I say. I did not say what is wrong with the "WORLD" is islaamdheen. It is what is wrong with Muslims.
And you have demonstrated this ever so clearly.
"Do you now see what the 'root cause 'is now?? Are you at all surprised that there aren't enough suicide bombers?"
Man, I can almost feel the tremors as the other hundred or so gullible and ignorant Muslims reading your comment vigorously nod their heads to it.
People like you with comments like that need to be monitored. Very closely.
ahmed adam | October 7, 2007 5:48 PM
The state of Muslims like Dr.Freex (?) is best summed up by Samuel Huntington's quote in Clash of Civilizations:
"the world's billion or so Muslims are 'convinced of the superiority of their culture, and obsessed with the inferiority of their power'"
starting from grade 1 to 12 Maldivians are fed bullshit about the glory of Islam, the defeat of infidels 5 days a week for 12 years. we ridicule people for worshiping stones and we laugh at them.. when we ourselves run around the Black Stone and push murder to kiss the thing.
the muslim bitterness, their longing for that idealized past is fed by the fact that they can produce nothing as they continue to consume all goods from the infidels. the only solution for them appears to be to destroy everything, kill infidels and start anew with the Koran, camel bone and camel urine.
we can only pity these mindless fanatics. perhaps we will soon find a cure that can help them out of their sorry state.
Dr.Freex | October 7, 2007 7:28 PM
Simon,
It's good that you've somewhat toned down on your anti-religious rhetoric; you are mentioning God on a more lighter tone I see...You have associated yourselves with us I see, talking as it were from amongst us, instead of staying at a distance and reciting statistics to us.
Yes I AGREE VERY MUCH with 'sharianeedsreform' and even your view that their is a serious need to reflect on ourselves and to review the negative effect of clergy on Islam; how they have come to be what the pundits are to the hindu's, divine intercessors who have taken up on themselves the task of disposing of all matters Islam. That they have given themselves a God-given authority to define what is Islam and what is not, is disturbing to me as well! Those who know me well, know how against the Islamic Orthodoxy I am(Don't be surprised if I was labeled 'bordering on heresy' by Dr.Abdul Majeed, who happens to be an Uncle)
So NO,I do not dispute the fact that we too are to blame for the sorry state we, muslims, find ourselves in! At no point was I disputing this;
MY POINT was that Islamic Extremism(which is very real!)is NOT THE ROOT cause.
And when world leaders talk of combating extremism and terror at home and abroad, they conveniently ignore what it is that drives this evil. It is the economic policies of these nations, of the pillaging of third world nations rights and the exploitation of their natural resources that produces the suicide-bomber, who then goes to receive the blessing of the clergy who immediately stamp such acts in direct violation of the teachings of Islam.
When a young man in Gaza who never had the opportunity to go to school, who is unemployed, who has lost family at the hands of American made bullets, I'm saying don't be surprised if he has few anti-west sentiments. When he is told to move on and go back to his 'concentration camp', I see injustice; and I care(not only because he is a Moslem, but because he too is a HUMAN BEING).
And when I see a press conference between Condi and Olmert, smiling through their teeth, telling us we must root out this 'terrorism', then it boils my blood. And, when people such as you DISMISS this reality as insignificant in the cycle of violence that plaques west Asia and in turn provides the fertile ground for the orthodoxy to bellow war cries, it boils my blood.
You choose to conveniently skip the rate limiting step in the equation and put the spotlight on your favorite topic. And like Dubya man you expect us to take at face value when he says "they hate us because of our freedom"; "we are a peaceful nation" blah blah.
Also yes I have heard of the ottoman slaughter etc; it was me who pointed the irony why Turkey and Saudi Arabia and India are not held accountable, while Iran/Syria are, wasn't it?
No I wasn't asking for a Nuremberg trial for us; that was a rhetorical question! Also I wanted to convey the point that the advanced developed world you see on the west were built on our backs(the third world); maybe if today they would send white slaves and let us suck their natural resources we too could make some stride.
The reason why you quoting the 'think tanks' boiled my blood was because you so easily dismiss the cycle which produced those figures, and immediately associate it with religion!
sharianeedsreform has made excellent points- I had never disputed them, even when simon was supposedly trying to make them.
I think simon if you think i need to be monitored closely, it shows how well defined the term 'freedom' and 'tolerance' is.
Also that you declare yourselves a citizen of our country with sincere wishes for us all AND then declare me a traitor, I find most disturbing. Let me say I consider myself a citizen of the world, and I therefore care about what happens anywhere; be it in Brazil or Burma(that you failed to see the point I was trying to make with burma tells me how hung you are on what ever is being fed to you)
Yes I'm aware of the magic IMF/WB recommended reforms taking place in Brazil; I'm sure you must be aware of the economic collapse of neighboring argentina and the grind Venezuela is facing because they dared to to be independent for a change.
When you say I don't care about this or that people, but I care about only us, you fail to see where you have gone wrong. What happens to any other human being, happens to us all.
I accept Islam as is being defined by certain elements of the orthodoxy, dictating a doctrine of carnage and xenophobia, needs reform. I do not accept that Islamic terrorism is the mother of all evils or that it is Islam that is inherently suicidal, so to speak.
If we want to talk reform, lets talk reform; Just don't speak from a podium in the states or europe, as if their hands are not drip with our blood, as if they do not have a hand in the design of the chaos this side of the world lives in everyday.
And if you don't want to pray five times a day then it's fine, just don't point fingers at those who do and say this is what is wrong with us today.
ahmed adam | October 7, 2007 9:25 PM
using Taqiyyaa Dr.Freex has dropped another load of complete shit. Dr. Freex, we know how Jihadists work. you can't fool us. Allah will send terrosits like you to the very depths of Hell. We will laugh at you from Paradise, you Islamic Terrorist.
Dr.Freex | October 7, 2007 9:31 PM
heheh it matters not to me how you label me, as long as you you still have it in you to proclaim God's name!...Then it's something.
Cheers