December 07, 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, K.F.C., 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)
