May
25, 2007
Akbar Ahmad’s Book on Current
Challenges to Muslim Societies
The eminent anthropologist and Islamic scholar,
Dr. Akbar S. Ahmad, has just published his insightful
work on the current challenges to Muslim societies
emanating from the onslaught of globalization on
their tribal structures, the emergence of a clash
of civilizations, and the war on terror following
the tragedy of 9/11 that has already claimed several
hundred thousand lives.
His in-depth study of the factors giving rise to
these issues is what adds to the intellectual weight
and quality of his work.
To have a clear comprehension of the situation on
the ground, he set out last year at the head of
a team of one Muslim and two non-Muslim dedicated
American college students and visited India, Pakistan,
Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The team visited colleges, universities, religious
institutions, met relevant academics, attended seminars
and numerous informal discussions. They supplied
copies of a provocative questionnaire to high school
and college students to seek their true feelings
on a variety of topics. Their replies and the notes
taken by members of the team during interviews served
largely as the basic raw material.
The erudition of the author, his experience as a
senior administrator in Pakistan particularly in
the currently turbulent tribal belt of the country,
his academic life at Cambridge, Princeton, and other
universities and, above all, the subtlety of his
intellect have added considerable significance to
the common patterns identified by him in the challenges
to various Muslim societies and their responses
to them.
The juggernaut of globalization poses the biggest
challenge. Technological innovations, for instance
satellite communications, Internet, worldwide TV
networks and mobile phones, have shrunk and flattened
the world. Trade and commerce have taken full advantage
of this. Blue jeans, T-shirts, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald
restaurants are everywhere.
For a clearer comprehension of this late 20th century
phenomenon and the crisis it has caused in Muslim
societies, Dr. Ahmed has divided Muslim societies
into three categories. Using South Asian terms,
he calls them, (1) Deobandi. (2) Ajmeri, and (3)
Aligarh. Deobandis (alumni of the seminary at Deoband,
in northern India, who follow Ibn Taymiyya of the
14th century and Abdul Wahab of the18th century)
are tradionalists who want to actively defend Islam
and recreate the purity of early Muslim society.
The followers of Deoband model are referred to as
jihadists, radical Islamists, extremists and even
as ‘Isamofacists’ by the West. The Ajmeris
are the mystics (Sufis) who reach out to other faiths
and lay emphasis on spiritual attainments through
intense worship and esoteric practices. Followers
of the Aligarh model try for equilibrium between
the spiritual and the worldly – between the
pull of the market and of the mosque.
The tidal wave of globalization, writes, Dr. Ahmed,
has swept over the world with economic and financial
might, fomenting anger, greed, and ignorance -the
three poisons mentioned by Buddha. While it is in
direct conflict with the Deobandis, it is abhorred
by the Sufis of Ajmer model too for being too materialistic
and consumption oriented. Only the followers of
the Aigarh model have reached for its fruits. But
only the super efficient and the outstanding among
them could benefit from it.
Almost all Muslim societies, from Somalia to Afghanistan,
are based on tribal structures. Globalization has
flattened the world and removed national and tribal
boundaries. It has therefore come in direct clash
with the Muslim societies who fear that its pressure
on them is meant to colonize them and do away with
their beliefs. They fear that unless they safeguard
vehemently their traditional values, they may soon
be swept away by the tidal way of globalization.
The Ajmer and Aligarh model do not buttress the
tribal structures. Their anger over the steamrolling
effect of Globalization has pushed them into the
lap of Deobandis -the traditionalists.
The author has a better understanding of tribal
societies since he has served as the Political Agent
in the tribal belt of Pakistan which is these days
seething with conflict and crisis. The US military
industrial complex keeps expanding the reach of
globalization for the benefit of the few –US
military establishment, corporations, politicians
(neo-conservatives) and the media. The neo-cons,
sometimes also called the dark knights of globalization,
have also blurred the distinction between the Muslim
extremists and the religion itself. Paul Wolfowitz,
the architect of the war on Iraq appointed by the
Bush administration as World Bank chief where he
is currently embattled by accusations of favoritism
for his girl friend, had gone to the extent of calling
Muslims worshippers of death and not life, worshippers
of the devil and not God. Cheney contended that
Muslims only respond to force. And, the US media
has been painting the Muslim world as a monolith
on a crazed jihad against the West.
The gap between reality and its caricature promoted
by the Western media poses the greatest challenge
to people of goodwill on both sides of the fence.
Hezbollah and Hamas, are lumped with Al-Qaeda as
terrorist organizations. The reality is that their
popularity is the outcome of their social and economic
activities for the well being of their respective
communities. Killing and destroying them would hardly
win the hearts of their beneficiaries. This has
been no less a folly than the ill-informed Muslim
leaders presenting the fictitious Protocols of Zions
as the reality on which all activities of Israel
are allegedly based.
Dr. Ahmed’s comments on the clash of civilizations
portray the depth of his thought. The desire for
wealth and overblown consumerism, he contends, constitute
the driving force behind globalization. It encourages
self-centeredness in the pursuit of financial goals
and pleasures, thus destroying the capacity to empathize
with others. Traditional societies, which are mainly
community centered, see the world in a different
light, regarding excessive concern with self as
both an aberration and a sign of social breakdown.
America’s strong sense of individualism stokes
the fires of globalization.
“Many Americans live in a bubble consisting
of the office, the supermarket, and their sections
of town, where they are forced to engage with people
who are different from them ethnically, religiously
or economically…. Thus Americans tend to have
a narrower vision of the world than one might expect
from the sole superpower.” Children grow in
loneliness, as both parents have to work full time.
Children spend time in front of the TV or playing
video games and absorb the moral values they dish
out –anger, violence, self-interest, thirst
for instant gratification etc.
As for the Muslim countries, globalization has widened
the cleavage between the rich and the poor and the
tension between the two has increased in the same
proportion. In all under-developed countries, for
instance, the first casualty during any public agitation
and rally is the motorcar –the symbol of affluence.
Compassion, understanding and dialogues are badly
needed to help remove the civilizational conflicts.
Unfortunately no outstanding, farsighted and self-less
leader was present to lead the US after 9/11. The
great anger felt after that catastrophic day, writes
Dr. Ahmed, has not abated and continues to cloud
the judgment of US leaders and citizens. As a result,
the institutions, so valued by many societies today,
of democracy, human rights, and civil liberties,
are endangered and weakened. To compromise the American
Founding Fathers’ high ideals on the pretext
of war is to betray not only their vision but also
the future of the Union.
By any standard, Dr. Ahmad’s book is a valuable
addition to the literature on a very important chapter
of the history in the making. (arifhussaini@hotmail.com
May 16, 2007)
