Distributions need to be understood

Submitted by Amit Srivastava (India), May 13, 2013 at 10:48

The biggest mistake for both the sides; Islam and the West, would be to look for differences among Moslems as purely adherence towards Koran, Shariah and Haddith. The fact is that all societies have distributions, including the Western ones. With economic integrations and population increase along with immigration these distributions are going to be wider and steeper.

The same is true for Moslem dominated Islamic societies. Sure, there has to reasons behind distributions and differences and for Moslems those could be their commitment towards Islamic texts as well. But understanding everything about Moslems without taking into account the distributions and pretending as if those are absent in other societies may lead to wrong conclusions.

The fact is changing Moslems' mindsets is possible only with the help of Mecca, Saudi Arabia and Iran and nobody should have doubt about the fact that they are not going to be forthcoming in any near future. But the circumstances: definite end of fossil fuel may compel them to think differently.

The most important change in Islamic societies that the West would like to see should be in their economic beliefs. The West should hope that consumerism flourishes in Islamic societies and they strive towards that end. It is true that mere path towards consumerism will not decrease the fundamentalism and radicalism and some political conformity is required. But even the US has limitations in controlling the psychology of the people, more so, when consumerism pushes consciousness towards more conflict in view of it spurting nationalism.

The biggest destabilizing factor in Islamic societies is the belief in Imam Mahdi; a prophesied redeemer of the Islam who would lead the Moslems towards the Day of Judgment after establishing Islamic Caliphate the world over. It is an impossibility but what can be done about it? To be practical the arrival of Imam Mahdi would be declared by Mecca and until it declares so, Moslems should wait and live a peaceful life.

The idea is to create stakes among Moslems and to make them understand the importance of those stakes. It requires localization of products among other things, like, developing Islamic internet where Islamic values about veils and segregation and adult supervision etc are kept intact. There is only one world and that is observable to everybody. All should live in this real world.

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