June 08, 2007

Will & Skill

The defining attribute of the 21st century are the tensions which connect the West with the Muslim world. These tensions have both local and global dimensions.
Globally, there is a glaring exclusion of Muslim entities from power centers and decision-making organs. For example, in the United Nations Security Council, there is not a single Muslim nation which has the power to cast a veto despite the 1.5 billion Muslims.
Then there is Europe. Turkey, despite assiduously following the prescribed path of “moderation”, has little to no chance of getting into the European Union. This is a quick glimpse of some of the issues between Islam and the West.
It is a reflection not only of Western machinations but also of Muslim weakness. That weakness has so far been denied by consolatory references to the number of Muslim states, size of population, and scale of economic resources. A small beginning would be a self-admission of weakness with a view to curbing it. The existing approach, in effect, leaves the community isolated, targeted, tarnished, marginalized, and scapegoated. It needs to be reconsidered.
Alongside issues between Islam and the West, is the parallel issue of Muslims in the West. Here, for the large part, the Muslim youth is well-educated, fluent in English, and computer-literate. They are constantly chatting on the Internet, sending e-mails and text messages; but where it matters, in the battle of ideas, they are simply not in the arena.
A cursory glance at the Letters to the Editor pages of newspapers reveals a glaring gap in Muslim names. It means that Muslims are not present in the conversation, impacting on their current state and future position. E-mailing a letter to the editors of newspapers is a small step, contributing to the mobilized effort to rectify the imbalanced and distorted coverage.
The constant refrain is of education, education, and education as an all-purpose one-size-fits-all solution to the problem. There may be a point missing here. The issue, perhaps, may be not just one of education, but of articulation. This could partially explain why Muslims are grossly under-represented in the policy-shaping professions of law, media, academia, and the creative arts.
It is not just a question of competence, but of confidence. This limitation may not be an issue of limitation of resources but, perhaps more accurately, it may be one of limitation of determination. This is what Allama Iqbal had so presciently identified as a question of Khudi.
In their enthusiasm to knock so-called Muslim extremism, many in the West overlook some hard rocks of reality. The concept of clash of civilizations did not emerge out of a madrassa in Multan. The concept of ‘dialogue of civilizations’ emerged out of Tehran from former Iranian President Khatemi. The term ‘clash of civilizations’ was first coined by Professor Bernard Lewis at Princeton University and later popularized by Professor Samuel Huntington at Harvard University. It goes to show that minds that are well-schooled in the ‘enlightened’ West may still be steeped in prejudice.
The obsessive focus on technology in the West may be at the expense of investment in human relations. If so, it could be a price too high.
The sportsman of the 21st century, Muhammad Ali, told his daughter Laila Ali that, to fight against the odds, one needs will and skill. This is a message for Muslims to remember.