Posted on 12/24/2001 11:36:48 AM PST by Byron_the_Aussie
Moving beyond the stereotype of Islam is essential to stem a century of decline, writes Tanveer Ahmed.
There has been much coverage about the dinner parties of our "elite" and our "chattering classes", but the thoughts and debates of Muslim households are coming to light only recently. Theirs is a voice that has been sparingly heard, and often poorly articulated by their cleric representatives.
America is searching its soul and has found flags to wave and soundtracks to sing. Any shreds of self-doubt have soon turned to apple-pie triumphalism. Their confidence is simultaneously awe-inspiring and frightening.
Surely there has never been a nation more assured of mastering its own destiny.
The Islamic world, too, is searching, and its findings are far less solid. In Sydney I have visited Muslim families for whom the anger and despair at events unfolding around them are emotions rarely aired in wider Australian society.
For these people, as with Muslims around the world, they believed their future was pre-destined, and worldly matters were of lesser significance. But now, tinged with their anger, is a despair that they could have sunk so low, that Muslims are so poorly equipped to engage in the modern arts of ideological warfare.
While there were victories of propaganda during the war, in the realm of "the image" and "the word", Islam has had difficulty competing.
The Muslim cleric appeals to Western viewers for understanding, but his drooping beard and Arab accent only confirm that he is foreign, representing everything that they are not. Meanwhile the Israeli representative speaks in a fluent American accent, reaching his target audience instantly.
Then there are the images of the veil. "Beneath the Veil" or "Lifting the Veil" beam the covers of prominent magazines. It has acquired an even greater symbolism in the Western media. It is the last bastion of Orientalism, the last acceptable form of racism.
As we mourn the deaths of Americans and Israelis, we are presented with full dossiers of the victims' lives, their loves and their hopes for the future. Muslims are still represented in hordes, stripped of their humanity.
The word "fundamentalism", originally coined to denote breakaway Protestant sects, taints any meaningful discussion about the Islamic faith. The notion of a terrorist has always had considerable racial overtones. But now, as the word becomes increasingly meaningless, it is seemingly interchangeable with the word "Muslim".
Alas, here was the great chance to educate the world about this great religion. Instead, the task is being left to Oprah.
There can be no question that it has been a century of decline for Islam - from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of Israel, the defeat in the Six Day War, to the final cataclysmic acts of despair, in New York and in Jerusalem. Its resources have been pillaged, its leaders are impotent and the people powerless, or too apathetic, to influence them. Surely it must be asked: has Islamic civilisation ever reached a lower point?
Around the Muslim dinner table, the shame and despair have, of course, not entirely quelled the anger. There is still anger that debate where it matters, in the US, has been utterly superficial, lacking any historical context.
There is anger that the deaths of thousands of Afghans barely match the death of one American. There is anger at the feeling that Muslims will become second-class citizens, alienated from the multicultural state.
But blame and accusations will serve us little in this dark hour. Our anger and distress must fuel an activism and participation.
We must fight and engage with the more sophisticated weapons of modern society. Those of media and politics. Those of public relations and community engagement. Those of educated debate and rational discourse. For then we may hope to influence government policy, both in the West and in our homelands.
If one thing has been blatantly obvious throughout the endless banter on cable television, it is that Muslims in the West are poorly organised and have little voice in their adopted Western communities.
It is engagement and not distance that strengthen any minorities' position within the wider society and this time of year, as people of many religions celebrate, is when their voices should be raised.
We have just celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid and tomorrow is Christmas - what more suitable time for our communities to come to know each other better.
We must acknowledge that destinies can be made and are not determined.
Our failure to do so will mean our voices remain muffled, and the multicultural state threatened.
Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a hospital resident medical officer.
It most certainly does, lying is acceptable, commendable, sometimes required when dealing with non -Moslems.
What? No anger that Saudi Muslims Chechen Muslims and Pakistani Muslims were travelling to Afghanistan to kill Afghani Muslims that did not meet the political or religious requirements of Al Qaeda and the Pakistani supported Taliban?
My feelings exactly. Is it reflective of a low-point for Islam that it's the fastest growing faith in my country as well as several others? Seems like more victicrat whining to me...
>It most certainly does, lying is acceptable, commendable, sometimes required when dealing with non -Moslems.
Arthurus,
Supply us with the Koranic Chapter 'n Verse on that tidbit! If true, THAT should be continuous BREAKING NEWS throughout the West in order to gain a perspective on just what we're up against.
>It most certainly does, lying is acceptable, commendable, sometimes required when dealing with non -Moslems.
Arthurus,
Supply us with the Koranic Chapter 'n Verse on that tidbit! If true, THAT should be continuous BREAKING NEWS throughout the West in order to gain a perspective on just what we're up against.
Over the centuries the West has conquered their lands several times but they were never able to get past Spain and Italy in their attempts to conquer Europe.
Deep down...
This is just my simple opinion...
But deep down...I think they have an inferiority complex that focuses on Jews and Caucasians[who by default tend to be Christians].
Their bitterness is towards the races themselves but it is masked behind a cloak of religious zeal.
Islam was "invented" for Arabs in order to counter the Jewish race's inheritance rights.
Mix in Alexander the great, Napolean, British and French colonialism, the United States, the former U.S.S.R. and Christian support for Jews and you get a cloud of dust that covers over a foundational Arab inferiority and self-esteem problem that manifests itself like any other form of wimpdom....
...racism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.