Reply to Olie

Submitted by Fazal Habib Curmally (Pakistan), Mar 26, 2008 at 00:47

Dear Olie,

Greetings,

Perhaps there may be some truth or experiences you may have had, in what you say. I am a Muslim and a very proud one.

Historically and in some cases hysterically, Muslims have been defensive about Islam because of what happened after a clear cut timeline that began with the Battle of Lepanto when the European navies defeated the Turkish navy. In the Mediterranean Sea. This permitted colonialism and in most cases, it has been the Muslims who got the stick. This created a distortion because Muslims preferred in most cases to return to religion with a greater fervour instead of facing the fact that we had lost to superior technology.

To this very day, the Muslims may have natural resources aplenty but we cannot exploit them. The case in hand is Iran and its Nuclear power program. The West has made a conscious effort to deny the rest of the world nuclear power despite the NPT. So we are somehow, either all fools or terrorists or somehow incapable of using the technology we have acquired. Perhaps had the West abided with the spirit of the NPT. I am very confident that Iran would not have understood nuclear technology the way it has or the way Pakistan has. The reason for this is having to adapt to this technology has given us a better insight into its workings. We have asked questions and found answers to the questions for ourselves. This is progress and can lead to spin offs and therefore technological progress. The world today works on Information, technology and money.

The Muslims have have some wealth and some technology but we haven't been able to put it together because it is always available in most cases from outside for a cost. But this usage of money has prevented us from progressing tecnologically and we are still on the defensive, but not to the extent we were 100 years ago.

Being on the defensive has not permitted to acquire what may be the best aspects of western culture. Drinking coca-cola or wearing jeans or talking about T.S. Eliot, or Shakespeare, Byron or Shelley or western philosophers is not enough. It is one aspect of culture and not the entire complex that goes to make Western culture. We have not bothered to study the western work ethic. This is why the Muslims have not adjusted to western values per se. We find similar values structures in Islam.

Today, the Muslim society works on the basis that the family is the structure of society and family comes first. In the west these ties have been weakened and there is a tendency to see each member of the family as an economic unit in itself. We believe that the measure of a man is the laws of God, the secular West sees man made laws as the measure of man. This is why there are many things secular society permits but a Muslim society does not.

There are differences but there are similarities also. We Muslims do not necessarily agree quite a few things or westen values. perhaps it could be that the West is arrogant because of its history and sees all Muslims as terrorists whereas Muslims see the west as the biggest terrorist ever because of our colonial and post colonial experiences. Take for example the invasion of Iraq or for that matter the creation of Israel. Most Muslims feel that if the West wanted to salve their conscience over how they treated the Jews, then they should have given them a piece of their territory. However, the Jews are human beings and they have rights and why shouldn't they have their own homeland? And we can go on and on.

But where do we come together? This is in the process of being defined by the Muslims at least. This is why the OIC came to symbolise what the Muslims are about. We won the crusades in Palestine but lost later. Are the Muslims trying to win again or are we trying to find peace for ourselves without the constant bombardment of how terrible we are? Thnk about it.

With Regards.

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