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Host..
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Dear visitors,
The session has just started. Please feel free to join us with your questions.
After the session has ended you will find the whole dialogue in the 'recent sessions' list.
Yours,
Islamonline Live Dialogue Editing Desk..
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| Name |
Iman
- Pakistan
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Would you please give us a brief introduction of the topic and what is a colonized mind?
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Salam Iman, and thank you for the question.
Colonization, as you know, is often formally seen as a period of
history when the European and American powers forcibly and physically
held colonies throughout what is now called the Third World, and from
which they drew fabulous wealth. This organized plunder by the Western
powers began with Spain, whose adventure in the Americas was ironically
funded by gold from the Islamic caliphate they had just destroyed.
Spanish colonial power soon gave way to other powers, so by the end of
the 19th century, most of the world was physically colonized by
Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Holland and America (which was a
British colony that itself became a colonizing power).
However, two world wars in the 20th century virtually destroyed
Europe and greatly weakened most of those colonial powers (except the
US, which was strengthened for a time), so throughout the 20th century
we see a wave "independence" movements, which is basically what we call
it when the colonial powers physically left. However, the systems the
colonizers put in place - health, education, science, technology, law -
insured that the formerly colonized peoples would not do anything very
different from what the colonizers intended in the first place: that
the Third World remain subordinate to the West. This condition of
continuing the policies and ways of life forced upon the Third World
under direct colonization is what is usually termed "mental
colonization." The title of this session, "decolonizing the mind," by
the way, is from a book by Ngugi Wa Thiongo, a Kenyan author who had
identified this problem in his own context, and worked hard to resolve
it.
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| Name |
md.
- Bangladesh
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| Profession |
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| Question |
How is decolonising the mind important from an Islamic perspective?
I think the timing is important.. you see the 'war on terror' is going
on in full swing..What can Muslims really do nowadays?
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Decolonizing
the mind is important for everyone who believes that colonization was
not in the best interests of the what is now called the Third World,
which includes the Muslim world. Of course, there are those who have no
complaints with British, or American, or other forms of colonialism, so
for them it is an incomprehensible idea to become "decolonized." This
is because one feature of colonization was to co-opt a local elite that
would take command of the situation in the guise of looking after the
interests of local people, but all they really ever did was look after
the interests of the colonizers, who continue, as they had in the past,
to plunder the resources of the Third World. To the extent that some
local Muslim elites benefit in this plunder, they will of course see no
reason to decolonize. But if you look around the world today, you find
a wave of decolonization that is asking tough questions of the West,
which had purported to bring "progress" and "civilization," but all
they ever brought was a system that would insure their own domination
over the resources of the Third World. Colonialism destroyed local
cultures, ways of life, and ways of knowing, including farming,
medicine, agriculture, and education, but peoples of the Third World
today are questioning what replaced their indigenous systems, and
finding ways to regain their own knowledge systems. In other words, I
am not promoting a new movement; I am describing what is already
happening in the world today.
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Hamdi
- Bahrain
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Is there any relation between colonization of the mind and mass media?
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Salam
Hamdi, good question. Sure, there is definitely a connection. As I have
been describing the colonized mind, it seems that it was just something
left over from the colonial era. That is only partly true, and your
question adds another dimension to this issue, which is somewhat more
complex. The media do two things: they perpetuate the kind of thinking
and inequities that ruled the world under colonialism, but they also
introduce new forms of colonialism, of sorts, that are less connected
to the original forms of colonialism, but are no less damaging.
For example, consumerism is a form of colonialism, since it
introduces an economic system that benefits global corporations, which
in many ways have become the agents of colonization today. This is not
new, however, as the case of India shows, which was colonized by the
British East India Company, an early corporation, and only later did
the British government, with its military, become more directly
involved. So to understand media and colonialism, you need to
understand how media today promotes consumerism and corporate power,
and how consumerism benefits, in many cases, the former colonial powers
by way of the corporations, and how it enjoins others to partake of
those benefits in a very limited and illusory way. There are several
ways to analyze this, and I can only hint at a few here. First, it is
an illusion to think that regional media like al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya
are any different than their Western counterparts like CNN and BBC.
Sure, they show more images of mangled Muslim bodies than the Western
media want to admit exist, but in the end, they are perpetuating a way
of seeing the world through television, a style of speaking and
discussing, a format, that is virtually identical to the Western media.
They only differ, once in a while on some selected content. Is this not
colonization? Is this not removing the possibility to relate
information in other ways? Are not the mass media replacing other forms
of communication? The mass media are part of what has been called the
"mental environment" (see www.adbusters.org for more on that), and to
the extent that this mental environment is being controlled and shaped
by a few forces that basically think the same way, at the expense of
others, it is colonization.
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| Name |
Russell
- United Kingdom
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| Profession |
Social Worker
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| Question |
Hi there!!!
This a term from out of the 1960's, a term many I think have
forgotten its meaning. Can you for the sake of everyone shows how
colonization of the mind shows itself to day? |
| Answer |
Thanks
Russell, that is a key question, although I have already addressed part
of it in earlier answers. There are some other points that I can
mention here, too, but let me say to everyone who is posting questions
that there is a long list and I only have two hands and am typing as
fast as I can, so please be patient and I will, `in sha'Allah, get to your questions as soon as I can.
It is true, as you say Russell, that the term decolonization came
about largely in the 1960s, which was a peak of the kind of
independence movements from colonialism that I had described earlier.
There are some classic books out of the period that, ironically, are
more relevant today as ever. I would highly recommend to read, or
re-read:
"The Colonizer and the Colonized," by Albert Memmi an Algerian
psychologist, who makes the argument that colonization destroys both
the colonizer and the colonized, and in the end is of little benefit to
both.
Jalal Al-e Ahmad's classic book "Occidentosis" describes what
can be seen today as a form of mental colonialism. He puts forth the
idea, in an Iranian context, that Third World peoples have been struck
with or infected by a disease that leads them to become infatuated with
the West at the expense of their own traditions
There are others, that I might mention later, and they all lay out
what we might call mental colonization, which, as I believe, is just as
relevant today, in the media age, as it was then. And, sadly, much of
what those books described thirty years ago, has not really been
improved; in some cases, it has gotten worse. If you are interested in
reading some of these works, but don't have access to the books
themselves, some excerpts are available online in the Multiversity
Group (groups.msn.com/multiversity).
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| Name |
Mahmood
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| Profession |
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| Question |
Dear Yusuf Progler,
In an environment poluted with toxic materials, every new idea may
be contaminated in a way. In such an environment how can we
differentiate and subsequently decolonize system parts (including the
mind itself). Also please how can we eliminate the major role which is
played by the language itself (English I mean).
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| Answer |
Before answering, let me just say that all the questions so far have
been very interesting and there is a lot to say about all of them. At
the moment, there is a back log. I am taking questions as they come,
and they are coming fast and furious, so please be patient, read the
other answers to ensure that your question has not already been
answered. I promise I will answer all the posted questions as soon as I
can.
Now, on to Mahmood's question. First off, good point. It is only an
illusion that we can treat one part of the problem and ignore the
others. That is why, above, I have tried to make connections between
mental and physical colonization and to show how media and corporations
are part of this issue as well.
But you add another key issue, that of language. We are all, at
least most of us, participating in this dialogue by way of what was
once a colonial language. However, English has also become a global
language, which means it has been coo-pted and influenced in different
ways and in different places (read the article in the Multiversity
Group about "Global English" for more on this point). But there is a
more subtle dimension to this, which is more difficult to deal with.
All languages encode reality in a particular way, by using metaphorical
and rhetorical structures to represent physical objects and life
experiences. To truly become decolonized, then, one would have to
learn, or re-learn, another language. This is what Ngugi Wa Thiongo,
the African author I noted earlier, recongnized many years ago. He
decided to stop writing in English, and to use the local African
language of his people, and he was involved in establishing schools in
Kenya that promoted local language and culture. The problem was the
Kenyan government, although "independent" from its former colonial
masters, say his movement as a threat to national hegemony, so he was
run out of the country. In any case, his story demonstrates two things:
First, there are people who recognize that language, in the end, is a key feature of colonialism and who decide to act on that, and
Second, that national governments, even independent ones, fear true decolonization.
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mulim
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| Question |
The only solution is to have an Islamic life so that all Muslims
can be united and migrate to Islamic countries. However, because Our
Islamic nations follow their enemies rulesthrough the passport system,
we can not be united.
You see All enemies of Islam can freely move to and from each
others countries without a visa. Why is that the Muslim rulers can't
understand this. How does Israel get Jews from all the over world into
Israel....We can think but who will take action and when just after we
leave our seat we are busy with our daily activities again
.................
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I
think I understand your point, but I am troubled by seeing Israel as a
model for uniting Muslims. There should certainly be another way. But
your point is valid, and sadly apparent today, as evidenced by most
governments of states in which Muslims now live are falling over
themselves to cater to the fickle whims of the US, surely a sign of
colonization.
But just because Muslims are trapped in those places with their
passports and all that, does not mean they cannot act. There are myriad
of ways to decolonize your mind, and I have already alluded to some in
previous posts, and I'll keep it mind as I go through the rest of the
questions.
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| Name |
Khawla
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| Profession |
Student
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| Question |
As-salamu `alaykum Dr. Yusuf.
I must say I liked your observations.
I wonder, what do you think prompted those Western countries
(Britian, America, etc.) to colonize in the first place? Surely, they
must have had something in their mind aside from greed and
discrimination.
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Salam Khawla, thanks for the question.
A key impetus for colonization has always been plunder, plain and
simple. However, to all those who participated in colonialism, it was
not necessarily the most personal reasons.
For Christian missionaries, colonialism offered access to
previously unavailable "heathens," thought to be ripe for the
"civilizing" mission of Western style Christianity.
For others, "adventure" (today known as "tourism") was a key
feature of the colonial goal. So, although greed and racism were always
there, and plunder was the end result, these other factors played an
important role, too.
And, in a historical context, there might be different reasons for different colonizers to act at different times.
It is a fault, perhaps, to talk of all this only in terms of
"colonization," which implies it is the same for all time and places,
but in reality we could un-pack colonialsm in different times and
places. Japan, for example, entered the colonial game late, and had a
somewhat different way of going about it (no less brutal, however). In
fact, Japan's competition in the colonial game was a key feature in
what was to become World War II, at least in East Asia. This,
therefore, is a question of history, and it is a great question that
deserves further investigation, and to which I will return at some
point.
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| Name |
Zahra
- Iran
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| Profession |
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| Question |
Historically the period of colonization ended many years ago, how
can we end the impressions of that period from the life of both the
colonized and the colonizers?
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| Answer |
Salam,
and thanks for the question Zahra. I'm glad you recognized the point
that colonization, as Memmi said years ago, was equally destructive to
both the colonizer and the colonized. I think the answer to getting out
of that has to come from local traditions.
The decolonization movement today, in many places, is a movement
toward the local. Of course, nothing can be completely local in the age
of globalization, which means that it is important to maintain
perspective. But a sure way to begin decolonization of body and mind,
is to think beyond the trap of national governments and national
liberation, and all that. The lessons of history have shown that once
physically liberated from the colonizers, the newly "independent"
states often just continue on the same line established by the
colonizers. This is what has been described by John Mohwak,a Native
American (Seneca) philosopher in terms of three degrees of subjecthood.
First, there are "good subjects," those who continue, without question, the ways of thinking and activing imposed by the colonizers.
Then, there are "bad subjects," those who seek physical
liberation from the colonial yoke, but who for the most part act in the
same way once they are in control, using the same sciences, economics,
educational systems, etc., as under colonialism. Most national
liberation movements fall into this category, the goal being just to
gain control, complain a little, but not really change anything.
Finally, Mohawk sees possiblities for become "non-subjects,"
which means finding ways to think and act outside the whole Western
way, outside colonialism, and these ways might even be incomprehensible
to the West, which he sees as a positive feature. The first evolves
around the West, while the third evolves evolution its own sphere.
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| Name |
Hwaa-matu
- Antigua and Barbuda
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| Profession |
Educator
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| Question |
As-salamu `alaykum Professor Yusuf. I was a community and
cultural activist during the 1970's and 1980's. It was a time when
everyone it seemed was aware of how colonialism affected our daily
lives, now most of those people do not even see that today or have
bcome passive, or do not see that many of the problems that we are
experiencing is becuase we no longer have any resistance to what is in
fact a colonization of the mind. Please, how does Islam help us in our
daily lives to overcome this difficulty?
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| Answer |
Thanks
for the focused question, Hwaa. Islam can be a way of life, not just a
religion, so within that way of life there are many features that can
become part of living the decolonized lifestyle. This should not,
however, be offered in a simple, da'wah oriented set of prescriptions, or only in terms of halah and haram,
as many Muslims, unfortunately, have done. Outside that context, Islam
has much to offer the decolonizing wayfarer. For example, look closely
at the way we eat, the clothes we wear, and the dwellings in which we
live. Seen in terms of halal and haram, they might be perfectly
acceptable. But how close are these foods and clothes and homes to the
overall way of life that Islam suggests for the believer? Beyond halal and haram,
what does it mean to be a Muslim in the world today? Does it mean
acclimatizing to what ever situation we find ourselves in, and pulling
out a few ahadith to justify that, or does it mean really
taking a hard look at things like modernity, civilization, and
progress, and interrogate these in terms of the over all system of
Islamic wisdom.
Now, this can be a tremendous project, which is why I recommend
food and clothes as ways to get started on the path toward
decolonization, since, as several interesting thinkers have show, what
we eat and how we dress does have an imapct on our physical as well as
mental being. (A good article on the connections between clothing,
colonization and spirituality is available in the Multiversity Group,
to which I have been referring people for further learning). I would
also suggest learning from the experiences of others who have tried to
decolonize, and also sharing the lessons you have learned in your
activities. Again, not as da'wah, but as a way to help Muslims themselves to understand the situation they are in and to link up with fellow travelers.
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| Name |
Mohammad
-
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| Profession |
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| Question |
Edward Sa`id's seminal work 'Orientalism' was no doubt a
significant contribution to heighten Third World scholarship vis-a-vis
the West. Since then, is there any significant work or movement in this
regard? We do not hear much after the Cold War like New World
Information and Communication Order(NWICO).
|
| Answer |
Mash`allah,
the dialogue time already nearly over, and still there are at least a
dozen more questions. I will stay as long as I can answering them.
I am happy, Mohammad, that you asked this question, and there are a
lot of works to recommend. Rather than listing them all here, I invite
you to join the Multiversity Group (groups.msn.com/multiversity), and
to also visit the website for the Multiworld Network (www.
multiworld.org), both of which are dedicated precisely to your
question.
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| Name |
Fatima
- United Arab Emirates
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| Profession |
Student
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| Question |
Salam! I am a student of Dr. Progler's and I am a huge fan of his views and teaching techniques.
So sir, how do you suggest to someone how they can go about
"decolonizing" their mind? I realize it's not an overnight process, but
how would someone start?
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Salam Fatima, nice to see you here, and thanks for the kind words.
I already addressed some of this question in other answers, but let
me reflect on it a little more here. It is, as you say, not an
overnight process, but there some things we can do right away, once you
understand the nature of the problem. So, let me state the problem as
succinctly as I can:
We are, all or most of us, thinking and acting in ways that are
destructive and often not even logical, but which continue to benefit a
small global elite. We have been denatured from our humanity, our
environment, our traditions, and our religions, in the name of
progress, civilization, globalization and a host of other euphemisms
for colonialism. It is in the interest of that elite for us to not
understand the nature of this problem. So, the first step is to learn
to recognize how colonialism is impacting your daily life. For example:
y
You can ask, "who benefits" from the acts in which you
participate. You can watch less TV, and tell more stories, you can eat
organic food, you can wear handmade clothes, you can get involve in
some sort of movement that is acting on behalf of the environment, or
the disenfranchized.
You can sit in from of a computer or stand in front of a
classroom for hours on end pleading with people to wake up from their
colonial slumber. There are too many things to do, and no one can do
them all, but pick any one, or come up with your own, and you can start
right away.
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| Name |
Nassir
- India
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| Profession |
Clerk
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| Question |
Thanks for your session.
How would we be able to keep our children's mind from becoming colonized? Is possible with the current education systems etc.?
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| Answer |
Thanks
for the question, Nassir. You have correctly identified a key feature
of the kind of colonization I have been describing in this session: education.
The short answer is to take your kids out of school as quick as you
can! I am not kidding, and there is a growing movement in India today
called the "School Walkouts." Check with the Multiversity Group for
news on that, and also visit the site for Shikshantar, an organization
in Rajasthan that is involved in this movement. The process of
"deschooling society," as Ivan Illich put it in his classic book of the
same name (which is available online if you search for it), is an
essential feature in recovering our humanity, from those who have
stolen it, who are the same people who continue to steal our resources.
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| Name |
sulaiman
- Nigeria
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| Profession |
civil servant
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| Question |
Why are Muslims reluctant to be counted as Muslims in today's world?
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Interesting
point, Sulaiman. I am not sure if all Muslims feel this way, but I can
certainly detect the tension with being a Muslim in the world today. I
think part of this is the result of colonization, that we have lost
confidence, we have become uncertain of ourselves, even ashamed of who
we are, with constant bombardment telling us we are backwards,
respressive, violent and a host of other accusations. But who is making
these accusations. No one in the history of humanity has been more
backwards, repressive and especially violent than those who are telling
us what to do today, the proponents of Western civilization and
modernity. How many people did they kill in their world wars last
century? 100 million? 200 million? I think they ought to look at
themselves before they accuse Muslims of anything.
But your question is important, though not easy to answer. So then
let me leave this as an open question, for reflection, and hope that
you will all think about it more.
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| Name |
Fatima
- United States
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| Profession |
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| Question |
I think the first step towards decolonizing the mind is to know a
colonized mind. Would you please explain the characteristics of a
colonized mind? How many people in modern world are infected?
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| Answer |
Thanks
Fatima, I have described this in early answers, so please check those.
In the interest of time, which is running out, and because there are
still many more questions waiting, I will not say much more on that
topic here. However, to put it simply, a colonized mind is one that
thinks what is in the best interest of the greedy elite running the
world today is actually in the best interest of everyone. The easiest
way to find this is to ask the simple question, "who benefits" of even
the most ordinary activities. We can take a lesson from other people
who have already recognized this problem. You are in the US, where
there are examples, such as some Native American peoples (Haudenosaunee
to name one group), ask the question, "How will my actions today impact
those seven generations from now?" That seems like a useful way to open
up our minds to decolonization.
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| Name |
md.
- Bangladesh
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| Profession |
|
| Question |
Thank you for replying my eariler question and it is nice to see
that you are looking at things from a global and humanistic
perspective. You have mentioned about indigenous knowledge and educaton
systems. But how can the developing countries fight against MNCs. this
is ver important. For instance Homeopathy or Alternative Medicine can
cure very complicated diseases like heart disease, blood pressure and
even cancer. But I have read in one book that heart surgery is a global
business where billion of dollars are invested, so it is very unlikely
that corporate interests would support any alternative medicine, which
is cheap and easy as their business will be affected. So what can the
global citizens do in this regard?
|
| Answer |
Corporate
interests will support whatever makes them money, since that is what
they want. You are right, there is a global tourist industry today for
rich people to get bypass operations and other surgeries all over the
place, from Europe to the Persian Gulf. It is big business. That should
not involve us at all, except is useful to observe that the most
opulent people are often the most sick, in both mind and body. So, we
can practice or learn alternative medicine or homeopathy, or
traditional healing beyond the sway of global corporations, for now.
More important is protecting these traditions and medicines from things
like patenting, which has been studied very careful by many scholars in
the Third World (Vandana Shiva in India, to name one). You can learn
more about this by hooking up with the Third World Network in Malaysia
and the Consumer Association of Penang. Both have programs and
publications that I find useful, so look up their websites.
|
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| Name |
muslim
- India
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| Profession |
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| Question |
Why do Muslims give so much importance to the laws of the United
Nations when we have full complete laws from Allah, the Qur`an and the
Sunnah?
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| Answer |
Short
answer? Our minds are colonized. But in a global context, in a world
where not every is a Muslim, and where not all Muslims follow the
Sunnah, the UN and other transnational organizations continue to hold
out some prospect for global action, once they are liberated from the
clutches of the "security council," which act like (and often are)
former colonial powers.
|
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| Name |
muslim
- India
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| Profession |
|
| Question |
When will Muslims understand that the UN was created to Unite
enimies of Islam. Muslims never benefited from the UN. The UN benifited
with tricks used by enemies of Islam and Muslims.
|
| Answer |
True,
to an extent, though in the 1960s and 1970s the Third World almost
gained control of the UN. As I said before, in the absence of other
transnational entities through which to work, some still hold out some
hope for transnational actors, the UN being only one, though it is
seriously hampered by the USA and other colonial bullies.
|
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| Name |
Khalid
- South Africa
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| Profession |
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| Question |
As-salamu `alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuh dear respected brother! May we see Ramadhan together `in sha'Allah!
This issue is a most important one as most Muslims don't even
realize that their minds are "under occupation". This is evident in the
thinking and un-Islamic culture that is adopted by most. What
suggestions do you have for us to get this process of decolonization
underway? This is sorely needed here in South Africa.
Jazak Allahu Khayrun - Wa-salam
|
| Answer |
Salam
Khalid, I like the way you put it, ... our minds are "under
occupation." It's true, and I have mentioned several ways to decolonize
our minds in previous posts. What I would add here is that this problem
deserves constant vigilence, and needs to be thought about and acted
upon daily. From another perspective, less materialist oriented, we can
also decolonize our minds by focusing on the higher realities, those
that all religions teach, since the ultimate colonizer is the life of
this world itself.
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| Name |
Ali
- India
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| Profession |
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| Question |
I saw the questions and answers from this dialogue - a really
interesting topic. As you mentioned in your replies, usually they talk
about how colonization was against the interests of what is called the
'Third World'; but I think someone should talk about how the poison of
the colonizer's mind affects human societies causing so many wars and
murders in the world in the name of terrorism today.
|
| Answer |
Time's
up, I just noticed, so no more questions coming in, but I will hang out
for a while and answer five more, inviting you all to stay and read on,
and also thanking you all for your participation.
You bring up an interesting point `Ali, that of the violence in the
world systems today. We cannot limit this to the retail violence of the
"terrorists" and "insurgents" and other bit players and bystanders. The
real violence is done by the wholesale terrorists, who kill with
impunity hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. We should
all be troubled by the scale of killing in the past century, most of it
perpetuated in the name of civilization. We have just departed from
what I have called a "millennium of murder," the scale of violence and
our complicity in it is staggering when looking at the wider picture.
Because America is founded on violence (built on land stolen from
Native Americans and on the backs of African slaves, millions of whom
have died in the process), it is leading the gore-fest in the world
today. Americans even see violence as a form of entertainment,
screaming "awesome" as they dismember another Iraqi, much like Rambo
and other "heroes" have done in Hollywood.
I would suggest visiting the website for "Killology" to get more
about this very important timely topic, and for suggestions on how to
escape violence.
|
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| Name |
Tarek
- Egypt
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| Profession |
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| Question |
One of the problems we face in some Muslim countries is education.
An increasing number of young students are going for international
high school diplomas (whether British, American, French, ... ) for a
better education.
Do you think this trend is positive, or does it worsen the "colonization" mentality?
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| Answer |
In
my view, this contributes to colonization. I know it is hard to speak
against getting an "education," but the crucial point is "what kind of
education?" Answering that question is answering the bigger question,
indirectly, of "What kind of person do I want to be?" Some people want
to be Americans, or French, or whatever, so they choose education for
that. Fine, let them, but it may not be the best for everyone, and it
is certainly an illusion of colonialism that the schooling one gets in
the West is some how better. I think that is a lot of colonial baloney,
and urge everyone in the Third World to think long and hard about the
education they are pursuing. |
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| Name |
mona y.
-
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| Profession |
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| Question |
Thank you for this valuable seesion, you see in such a world
dominated by values constructed mainly by the mass media, how is it
possible to raize our kids with open minds, with decolonized minds ,
with a sense of judegement and their own identity ( cultural ,
religious, ethnic ) loyal , or is this just mission- impossible?
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| Answer |
Not mission impossible, though it may seem so.
Throughout this dialogue, I have mentioned people and places that
are working towards decolonization. Seek them out, and learn from each
other. School and TV, as sole sources of knowledge, are virtually
useless in this prospectus, though we all still use them because we
don't have any idea of something different. Well, guess what? We are
not going to find those alternatives in school and on TV, but they are
available and activities are going on all over the world today.
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| |
| Name |
Ross Kent
- Australia
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| Profession |
Student
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| Question |
How do we Muslims defend ourselves from being further colonized (in
mindset)? As we know, we are being colonized through our way of life
and the way we think. Not only that, the nafs and shaytan are becoming colonized in the Muslim community because of poor practicing deen. Is there any savior for Muslims at the End of Time?
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| Answer |
Big
question, Ross! I know there are a lot of "end of days" predictions
floating around today, but in historical perspective, people always
thought the current problems were portents to the end of the world. I'm
not sure, except in knowing that only Allah knows when that day will
come, or when the Awaited Savior will arrive.
Just because Western civilization has been exposed in all its
barbarity in Iraq and Palestine, by complicity or direct action, or
just because the American economy is faltering, or Americans are
realizing they are living in a miserable policed state, this does not
necessarily mean the end of the world for everyone else. I would
suggest looking outside the weird West and its spheres of influence,
and you will find hope in a variety of ways.
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| |
| Name |
mohamad zaki
- Malaysia
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| Profession |
student
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| Question |
As salamu `alaykum Professor.
i think, all the present 'Islamic governments' around the world
assist the western countries to colonize the mind of Muslim youth. They
allow excessive entertainments from the West to flood via TV, printed
media or in concerts. they have power, but intentionally they do not
prevent the hedonistic culture which has had cultivation in Islamic
communities whether in the Middle East, North Africa, Malaysia or
everywhere.
I`m so sad to see intimate relationships between opposite sex
(lovers) become so common in my country. The muslim youth are really in
trouble. They know everything about artists but ignore or lack
knowledge about Palestinian struggle so annoying!
Why do our government keep their eyes, ears and mouths shut? What should we do?
|
| Answer |
Salam
Mohamad, thanks for the comments and question. Let me first say thank
you to everyone for giving me the opportunity to reflect on and try to
answer your quetions. I hope you all found this useful, and I urge you
all to continue this kind of discussion any way you can.
To answer your questions, looking toward governments to solve our
problems is part of the problem, since most of the governments today
are part of the colonial system, either as good subjects or bad
subjects, as I noted earlier. The hope lies, then, with the
non-subjects, those people who are thinking and acting beyond the sway
of colonialism, modernism, globalism and all the systems invading our
lives. At the same time, governments wield some power, by way of
controlling the guns and money, to some extent, so we have to deal with
them one way or another. As to why some governments keep their mouths
shut when facing barbarities, I think that is a rhetorical question.
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