WAKE UP MUSLIMS, WAKE UP

The biggest tragedy with Muslims is that people look upon us assuming that Islam is Muslims because we practice that religion. When a crazy Christian does something terrible, everyone knows it is the actions of a mad man because they have some knowledge of the core beliefs and ethics of Christianity.
When a mad Muslim does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Islam, not because they hate us, but because they have never been told by a Muslim what the teachings of Islam are. Western media, while producing vile programs on Islam, airs material of the highest quality with a high level of accuracy to scare world into believing that Muslims are insane. It’s expected of it to do mean things against Muslims. But then conspiracy or not, let us face it, chips are down, that we’re largely to blame ourselves for the terrible backlash against Muslim world. If the machinations have been going against us for so long, the question arises, where is our media? Where are our leaders and spokespersons? Where are our scholars? Where are our literary figures? The truth is we don’t have any. The upshot is that instead of looking inward and asking painful questions such as why we don’t have such things and such people, we take the simple way out by blaming others for our problems.
Zealots---reactionary or radical extremists---always plague upon Islam. They view the world in melodramatic, black and white, good and evil terms. They are good and anyone who opposes them is evil. They ‘excommunicate’ him, he who fails to share their interpretations of the Quran/Hadith. They denounce him as an unbeliever for any criticism directed at them. As theologically sound understanding of Islam is hijacked by a discourse of anger and the rhetoric of rage, the zealots use pulpits to leave the hapless lot feeling bitter and spiteful.
Gradual deterioration in the moral-spiritual fibre of Muslim societies, as a result of extremism in regard to ritualism and legalism, is symptomatic of Muslims growing very particular about prayers and reciting Quran, Hadith and Darood, growing beard, wearing skullcap but least caring about Haqooq-ul-ibaad kind of dealings like courtesy, decency, politeness, honesty, halal and haram, sin and virtue, care, sacrifice, tolerance, selflessness, compassion etc. Whether ‘Ameen’, for example, should be said aloud, has had Islamic guidance, kind of trivialised, to replace primary focus on the basics that help people develop proper attitude, perspective, behaviour, God-consciousness, honesty, trustworthiness, human empathy, fairness, kindness, and freedom. We seem to rear doubts in that God is the power behind all power; that He gives dominion to those He pleases and He takes it away from whom He pleases.
Dogmatism, blind traditionalism and lack of problem-solving attitude have made Islam a hostage. To top it off the so-called ultra-modern and conservative Muslim types damage Islam more than any other with their narrow interpretations of Islam; one lot to please their western masters, and the other to protect their own status and position in society by their lack of regard for knowledge, and for its right to be disseminated and understood widely, instead of becoming the scholars. While one type accepts Western values totally, the other interprets Islam narrowly and opposes any effort to change their plight. "Modernists" and "conservatives" act from ignorance and dogmatism, and entice enemies into attacking Islam. The likes of the Turkish military are ever eager to join the West by banning Islam altogether. Followers of Taliban kind of ideologies provide the ammunition, our enemies keenly long for.
Our overall condition as Muslims is a testament of our collective inner state. We make it a point to say our prayers five times, ostensibly to seek God's forgiveness for sins we commit----some can be seen crying and shedding tears from their eyes. We go ostentatious to rid off sins (perform Hajj/Umra, Khatam-Sharief etc). Commission of sins and seeking a wash off is merely a way of our life…..we won’t hesitate to get Muslim brethren vapourised. While with all the respect we do parrot Quranic verses but the feeling does not encourage a space in us for critical thought, creative reinterpretation and original thinking. The benefits of the modernisation and materialistic world are quite attractive.
Islam and illiteracy and lack of education are incompatible. That we have lived so long tolerating such lapse is unconscionable. Education enhances people's skills and broadens horizon of knowledge, understanding and capability. In bettering the Christians' fortunes, science played an important role. It brought them wealth, power and prestige. Using their newly acquired muscle, the Christians became a dominant force of the world. As if religiosity and exploratory interest carry inverse relationship, technological changes seem to have grown into our pet aversion. We are just too happy and comfortable with everything as they are. It is ironic that we shun innovation. People hate us for our easy-peasy laid back attitude.
While others progress Muslims remain laggards, characterized by a series of ‘F’ word; failed, frozen, flexible & flourishing. With few exceptions, Muslim rulers think their people have been created for their service, and to justify their rule, "species of scholars" have been created to issue fatwas on the permissibility of killing whoever is bold enough to point out the rulers’ injustices. In Chechnya, some "religious Chechen Muslims" are even more eager than the Russians for Chechnya to be part of the Russian Federation; in Kashmir, a section of Muslim leaders is sucked into the argument that Islam is the cause of our backwardness, and that the ‘master’s’ only intention is to help ‘Ghareeb Kashmiri Muslims’.
The abundance of resources can be bad for a country’s economy and politics. Wherever governments can raise most of revenues by simply drilling a hole in the ground rather than tapping their people’s energy, creativity, and entrepreneurship, freedom tends to be curtailed, education underfunded and human development retarded. Muslim governments invariably busy themselves into illegally amassing and stashing away wealth, building sky-scrapers and huge masjids instead of avoiding depending on the West both for the products we learnt from them to want and for those things that once we produced ourselves. Imagine 171 international patents that Arabs produced during 1980-1999; compared to 16,328 patents produced by South Korea during the period (Hewlett Packard registers on the average 11 new patents a day). During the past 105 years 14 million Jews won 180 Nobel prizes whilst 1.5 billion Muslims contributed only 4 Nobel winners. Muslim World has 500 universities compared to 5,758 universities in the USA and 8,407 in India.
On the world stage we are victims. We already look bad to the outside world. Realistically speaking, our principle enemy is we ourselves. The situation today is similar to a thousand years ago, when crusaders conquered Jerusalem to establish powerful states in the heart of Palestine. A revival by Nurudin Zengi and Saladin lifted Muslims from a morass then. In an age of despair, Muslim world have no such heroes on the horizon now, who would steer us to advanced intellectual developments to turn us as super achievers. Instead of looking at the west to see only the openness that makes it in our eyes decadent and promiscuous (producing Britney Spears and Lady Gaga), let us see (and acquire) the openness—the freedom of thought and inquiry ---that made west powerful, and produce Bill Gates like wizards. World does not trust us. Without trust there is no way to have supply chains involving tens of thousands people who never meet. Minus trust open societies are expected to raise walls and dig moats instead. We, the billion and half Muslims, need come out of the dilemma whether or not we remain forever in the rear of human technical advance. We’ve got to educate children without any compromise on it. All we need is to identify and explore ourselves. Our victory is with knowledge, creativity, and literacy. Let us wake up... It's not too late!