February
16, 2007
Counter-Message
During
the Cold War, a major part of the enterprise
was wrapped up in the monolithic idea
of fighting Communism around the world.
Today, it is wrapped up in fighting
global terrorism in the shape of “radical
Islam”. In his annual State of
the Union address before the US Congress
on January 23, President Bush cast it
as “the decisive ideological struggle
of our time.”
What this does potentially is to present
over 1 billion Muslims as one bogeyman.
This task has been made easier by the
incapacity and dysfunctionality within
the Muslim political culture to come
up with a counter-message. It is not
a question of wealth. It is an absence
of will. What is missing is a moral
vision.
Misinformation leads to miscommunication.
A cursory glance at Western media shows
the glaring lack of visible Muslim presence.
It translates into lack of voice in
the political conversation. This has
created a large void that is being filled
in by vested interests that have a huge
stake in distorting and defaming Islamic
teachings. This is also allowing the
foes of Islam to shape and dictate narratives
of the Muslim world. Consequently, discussions
are framed in the context of loaded
words like “terrorism,”
“extremism” and “fundamentalism.”
This is leading to the predominance
of a one-sided perception of Muslims
and their religious beliefs.
In the West, there are plenty of Muslim
youth who are computer literate, well-schooled,
and fluent in modern languages. Yet,
in areas that matter, they don’t
matter. These battles have to be fought.
They can no longer be avoided. But they
cannot be fought successfully with borrowed
brains in the shape of lobbyists. Allama
Iqbal had identified it as a matter
of khudi.
The non-stop attacks on Muslims inadvertently
may have had the positive impact of
pinpointing and highlighting Muslim
intellectual and moral failings.
There are two common mistakes made by
Muslims worldwide. First, the belief
that what is happening elsewhere does
not affect them. Second, there is a
lack of embarrassment in making a constant
public spectacle of infighting. They
may make distinctions among themselves.
But their enemies won’t.
While the Muslim political culture is
bogged down in non-issues, the key issues
of Muslim empowerment go unattended
and unaddressed.
Part of the problem is the defeatist,
cynical, and fault-finding elites who
are not uncomfortable in seeing Muslims
relegated to playing a second-class
role on the global stage. This stance
frustrates and infuriates many amongst
the Muslim youth who are left in the
lurch. Detached from their elders and
disconnected from mainstream society,
they are ripe for exploitation by those
skilled and crafty. It is a case of
double alienation.
While fingers are pointed at so-called
“Islamo-fascism”, America’s
homegrown fascists are flourishing in
the shape of right-wing Christian evangelists.
In this connection, a new book has come
out authored by Chris Hedges, Pulitzer
Prize-winning correspondent for the
New York Times, called “American
Fascists: The Christian Right and the
War on America.”
What needs to be done?
The West needs to reconsider its self-righteous
path and stop disrespecting and dehumanizing
Muslims. Period. The Muslim political
culture needs to review its existing
self-destructive priorities of seeking
revenge and pursuing riches. Most importantly,
the Muslim world needs to revive the
primacy of the salient Islamic values
of integrity and knowledge.
The reality is that occupiers have occupied
territory. The ground reality is that
they have not been able to subjugate
the resistance of the occupied people.
100 years ago, in his novel “Hadji
Murad”, the great Russian author
Leo Tolstoy paid a tribute to the indomitable
spirit of Chechen warriors battling
invading Russian troops.
The West must recognize that confrontation
does not work. And the Muslim elites
will have to realize, if they do not
by now, that capitulation does not work.
But the only question is whether it
will not be too late.
