Believe it or not, there is a flip side to western civilization. Lets take a quick tour. Being leading civilization,
west has the onus to accept responsibility for its blunders as well. Progress in west
has caused more harm than benefit to humanity. The world has already paid a
huge price for west’s blunders. Islamic civilization was the leading civilization
of the world before west. Muslim academics, scientists and philosophers in 8th
to 10th Century took all forms of human knowledge to newer heights.
From knowledge power houses of Muslim Iraq and Spain, Arabic manuscripts of all
disciplines were transported to Western Europe particularly present day France.
This is not a blame, they had every right to do so. Those manuscripts were
further translated in to local languages, hence revival of learning came to
pass also called Renaissance. The highlight of Muslim civilization was that it
did greater service than harm to humanity. However, since 14th
Century, based on research, development and intellectual ascendency, western
civilization became the leading civilization of the world.
The evilest gift of west to
humanity has been democracy. With advent of democracy by the end of 18th
Century during French Revolution, humanity saw a new form of government which
apparently meant government of the people, for the people and by the people
(Rousseau). However, after just eleven years of French Revolution, democracy
took the first blow in its infant years when Napoleon introduced his form of
dictatorial democracy. It is important to understand what had changed by
introduction of democracy? Entire population of a country became embroiled in
affairs of state through levee en masse. One man became one vote which became
one musket for war. Nationalism was born. Nationalism is less about love for
nation or native land and more about hatred for anything outside the nation. Tribal
mentality was back in business which meant everyone from tribe was a friend and
anyone from outside the tribe was an enemy. Limited war of standing armies transformed
in to wars of nations. War aims changed from limited to total culminating in
two horrific world wars.
Technology, which was doing
wondrous progress during Industrial Revolution, became equally lethal with
inventions like gun powder. Japanese were the worst affected at the hands of technological
advancements when US dropped atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Newer
inventions are getting lethal by the day. Today, there are enough stockpiles of
arsenal around the world to blow the world apart in a jiffy.
Christianity was
contaminated over a period of time with multiple versions of bible and
countless church followings. Catholics and protestant divide was not due to
religious belief but sectarian hegemony, social space and economic gains. No
wonder, over a period of time religion was sidelined and finally evicted from
affairs of life. It became a personal affair and it had nothing to do with
politics, economy, sociology and morality. False belief system of Christianity has
been restricted to Sunday Church services only. Inspired from leading
civilization, few moderate Muslims have tried their hard to take a leaf from
fate of Christianity and impose it on Islam as well. No doubt, Islam also took
a leave of absence in last thousand years. It failed to keep pace with rapid
human progress over time. Now, the humanity has learned the ways of sense
perception. Humans are conditioned to believe what they can see or touch.
Hence, belief of unseen became a thing of past. So much so, now Muslims, on
issue of Islam are either illusive or defensive at best. With the invention of
terrorism, past couple of generations even feel ashamed to be Muslims notwithstanding
the fact that twenty odd thousand deviants do not completely represent 1.6 billion
Muslims around the globe. Again, the rise of western civilization not only intentionally
yet successfully relegated religion to back burner in its own society but it also
put enough doubts about Islam in the minds of its followers to view religion as
an impediment to progress.
Materialism, the mother of
all evils is the basis of today’s godless progressive civilization. Creation
from a particle and creation ex nihilo is the difference between us and them. What
began with nothing will end in nothing but what began with something will
remain in some material shape and form. And then the difference grows wide. The
materialist relies on his material means, knowledge and skills. This reminds me
the story of the man of two gardens in Al Kahf. Reliance of material means is a
fallacy and entire world has been swept by the storm of materialism courtesy
western civilization’s materialistic lead.
Capitalism is another gruesome
gift of current civilization. The
difference between rich and poor in west is huge but it is staggering when
measured against poverty in Africa and other slums of the world. This gap is
growing by the minute. In a bizarre way western civilization denies access to resources
to rest of the world and then shows fake magnanimity to aid the poor. They
ensure that poor nations transform in to beggars through tiny aid programs. Then
those van guards of capitalism like IMF and World Bank who ensure weaker
nations never come out of their strangle hold. Consumerism is in built evil of
capitalism. Spend what you earn because a rich man basking on a Bahamas beach
needs to get richer. Entire world is being enslaved by brand consciousness.
Greatest evil of current
civilization is media. Humanity was never so badly deceived by religious
biases, demagoguery or even sorcery as much as by the craftiness of media. From
movies to sitcoms, from cartoons to reality shows, from news to documentaries,
from intellectual debates to religious channels; media is the greatest lie of
our time. It is all about patronizing masses against handsome amount of money
from ‘donors’ and advertisers. This is where capitalism, consumerism and media
all become one evil entity.
Finally, the easy access to
information through internet has made knowledge a redundant commodity.
Information is not a substitute of knowledge. Today, entire world relies on
quick info responses of search engines. The worst part is that they believe it
to be true. The values have further plummeted. Virtual socializing is no substitute
for real life socializing. What a pity, a smart handset gets greater attention
and time than most precious relations in the world. Friends share obscene
content on whatsapp because on other mediums everyone else can see that crap. Kids
get introduced to pornography way before their days. Talking of morality is no
less than a joke. Most pointless and stupid videos get the most number of hits.
This really gives a measure of where humanity is heading with all this
progress.
Bad news for my religion
weary liberal Muslims is that clash of civilizations by Huttington concluded
that godless west has only one threat i.e. re-emergence of Islam any time soon.
So, your detachment and self-proclaimed denial of Islam will not do you any
long term good. Islam is here to stay, Insha Allah. And, I know few liberal
minds must regard this as rambling of a lunatic but world was not changed by bread
winning status quo lovers but change savvy lunatics.
This is already too much for
a Friday blog entry. The topic merits writing of a book because few aspects
need a lot of elaboration but time is always a fleeting commodity.
May Allah be our Guide.
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