Seeking Security Through Subjugation - How Should The Muslim World Shape Its Response!
By
Prof. M. A. Sofi, New Age Islam
21 May 2021
How
Should The Muslims, Whether Those In Palestine, India Or Elsewhere, Deal With
This Aggressive Campaign Of Hatred, Intolerance And Violence Being Targeted
Against Them?
Main
Points:
1. Brazen display of arrogance and the
disproportionate use of firepower in the asymmetric war .
2. The dream of the Greater Israel as part of
that mission dictates their actions i
3. It’s sad how Muslims have been taught to
remain indifferent to the possibility of empowerment
4. Muslims have no option but to change their
ways and their attitude towards religion and modern education where they lag
far behind the Jews
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Before
elaborating on the theme of this article, it should help to put into
perspective certain facts that ought to be weighed in while attempting an
unbiased appraisal of the Jewish community and its conduct vis a vis its
neighbours in the region and the world at large. For all we know, the world
owes a great deal to the Jewish community in terms of the ground breaking
contributions it has rendered in the sphere of education, science and
scholarship over the past one thousand years. It’s a fact that those professing
research in science and in other disciplines in the universities and
institutions around the world happen to have been largely influenced in varying
degrees by the contributions made by the Jews in the knowledge sector ranging
from the humanities, linguistics, law, economics and social sciences to basic
sciences and technology. In my own small way surrounding my professional life,
I have learnt a great deal from them through their scientific work and also
during face to face interactions as well as otherwise. With the benefit of
knowing some of them rather reasonably well, it’s reassuring that during my
interactions I have rarely come across those of them who would seem to be
supportive or even apologetic of the Israeli ruling establishment, especially
involving what appears to be the latter’s sustained policy of brutality and
repression against the Palestinians. All the same, that does not take away from
their complicity in the crimes against humanity if it had been for those of
them who had voted their blood thirsty politicians to power.
With that
in mind, how does one make sense of this brazen display of arrogance and the
disproportionate use of firepower in the asymmetric war that the mighty Zionist
state has launched against the hapless, toothless Palestinians in the tiny Gaza
strip of Palestine where they are being massacred in their hundreds or
otherwise forced to live in clusters of ghettos by the ‘Zionist state of
Israel’. The straightforward answer lies in what Nimer Sultany says in his essay
that has appeared in the Guardian today:
“As the Palestinian death toll continues to
rise, commentators lament the shattering of coexistence inside Israel between
Palestinian and Jewish citizens. Yet in my experience as a Palestinian citizen
in Israel, no such coexistence existed in the first place. Coexistence implies
a background of equality, freedom and mutual respect. In the context of
Israel’s rule over us, however, coexistence is a fiction that conceals a
reality of separate and unequal lives”.
So what
should the Muslim world do before it meets its moment of reckoning when it may
be gobbled up by the self-same cannibals whose track record in the occupied
land of Palestine should leave no one in doubt regarding the ‘big plot’ they
are planning? The dream of the Greater
Israel as part of that mission dictates their actions including the series of
massive attacks that it has been launching on the beleaguered, unarmed
Palestinians ever since its birth in 1948. Apart from the disunity that defines
the contemporary Muslim world and the resulting spinelessness that renders it
incapable of stopping the Zionists in their tracks, it’s the abysmally low
level of education that has led to such debilitating disempowerment of the
Muslims around the world that they have ceased to matter and be counted. That
explains the predicament and the reasons for the misery and indignity being
visited upon them in different parts of the world, particularly in Palestine,
India and elsewhere and with such impunity and without compunction? It’s sad
how Muslims have been taught to remain indifferent to the possibility of
empowerment that would accrue from striving to achieve excellence in modern
education and science. Not that excellence in education alone would have
provided a bulwark against the tyranny being inflicted upon them, but the fact
remains that even a reasonable level of achievement in education would have led
the community to a parity of sorts with other communities in terms of the
political power, as also the military muscle while ensuring that the intensity
and scale of aggression against them would have been far less asymmetric than
what is on display in the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine.
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An equally
important reason for such a poor state of education among Muslims has been
their approach towards the religion of Islam where a blind, diehard allegiance
to the religious rituals is being equated with religiosity and looked upon as
the sole motivation for living their lives, without the need to strive in other
human endeavours that would empower them to deal with the challenges of modern
life in a meaningful way. Come to think of it, how is it that such a
commonplace occurrence as the clockwork punctuality that accompanies the
calling out of Azan and offering of five-time prayers in the mosques stop right
there within the four walls of the mosque and are not allowed to translate into
action outside the confines of the mosque! The steadfastness and careful
attention to detail, as it were, in our collective disregard and contempt for
sticking to time while living our quotidian lives involving social gatherings,
meetings, classroom teaching or even keeping appointments is intriguing and
begs answers. One is at a loss to understand the reasons that go in shaping an
attitude where the need for sticking to time and keeping promises is perceived
to be of peripheral importance rather than being allowed to extrapolate to
other spheres of our daily lives. That should serve to explain why Muslims
betray such crass indifference towards the need for maintaining high moral and
ethical standards that Islam requires its followers to maintain in their
private and public lives. How sad that for the most part, religious practice is
seen essentially as part of a people's culture that is approached merely as the
sum total of a set of rituals and supposed to be performed with care and due
diligence in the (false) hope of attaining to salvation.
The
question that begs answers is this: how should the Muslims, whether those in
Palestine, India or elsewhere, deal with this aggressive campaign of hatred,
intolerance and violence being targeted against them? Though there are no easy
answers available to devise strategies that may be adopted to ward off or at
least to put paid to the possibility of brutal repression against them, what is
clear is that certain old habits of the Muslim mind have to be set aside which
are long overdue for a complete overhaul, and with immediate effect in the hope
of ending the misery. These include the need for the Muslim community to unite
under one banner without letting their allegiance to a particular school of
thought in Islam dictate terms for to the detriment of the larger goal of
unity. Here, it's important to bear in mind that a willingness to entertain
delusions of grandeur involving one's individual faith or ideology has been a
singular reason for the decimation of that ideology or creed including of those
individuals or institutions that had espoused that creed or ideology in the
first place. It’s this supremacist view of things involving faith and culture
that acts as a great spoiler of efforts for peace and unity within the
community.
In the
light of what has been said above, the greatest catalyst for change would come
from nowhere as forcefully as in the case of the Jews, it has come from
education in which they have carved a niche for themselves and in a manner that
no other community in the world would boast of superiority over or even of
reasonable parity with them in a meaningful way. In that respect, Muslims
happen to figure nowhere. Thus in order to be counted and taken seriously,
Muslims have no option but to change their ways and their attitude towards
religion and modern education where they lag far behind the Jews and even other
religious communities. The urgent need obviously is for Muslims leaving no
stone unturned in the pursuit of education at all levels including in cutting
edge research with a single-minded focus on the will to achieve excellence at
the highest level. Rather than remain fixated on the 'other-worldliness' which
sadly is being read as the main thrust of Islam and which has led to large
sections of the Muslim community remaining trapped in a state of mental ennui
and life denying inertia, there is a case for waking up to the need for a fresh
reappraisal and a deep understanding of the Quran which is replete with copious
exhortations upon Muslims to learn, reflect and ponder upon the life and the
universe around us. That's a tacit and an emphatic invitation for its followers
to learn and master all branches of knowledge: languages, history, philosophy,
science, mathematics, technology, medicine and what have you. Contrary to what
most of our ‘Islamic scholars’ would have us believe, the acquisition of
knowledge is not only that which deals with the 'other worldliness' or which
derives solely from the scriptures, Ahadees and Fiqh etc., it is equally
important to acquire and excel in the knowledge of the world in which we live
and of the cosmos that our world happens to be a part of. More so, in the light
of the challenges posed by the demands of the contemporary world which have
long since necessitated such a paradigmatic shift of outlook, but sadly ignored
from its consciousness by the Muslims.
The main
takeaway from the above discussion is that while empowerment through education
is indeed a potent and an enabling tool for progress, prosperity and
emancipation, it can also be abused, in the hands of the tyrant and the
perverse, as a weapon of mass destruction to impoverish and immiserate the
individual, destroy and destabilise the societies and subjugate and suppress
the weak and the dispossessed as is testified by how the State of Israel has
chosen to conduct itself throughout its history. On the other hand, one also
learns that in view of how religion is approached, understood and practiced in
the world of today, there is a strong case for restricting it exclusively to be
a personal matter and to be followed in letter and spirit at home and in our
daily lives with an eye on the spiritual growth of the self. Come to think of
it, the human experience of the past several millennia shows that the
use/abuse/ role of religion as a determinant of the state policies has run out
its course in the world of today which stands riven by religious hatred,
dissention and intolerance like never before. Let religion be accorded its
place where it naturally belongs – as an important agency to shape and reform
our personal/social lives without extrapolating its extension to the affairs of
the State, a scenario that, as we have learnt of late, is fraught!
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Prof. M.
A. Sofi) is currently NBHM Visiting Professor at JK Institute of Mathematical
Sciences, Srinagar He previously taught at AMU, Aligarh, Central University of
Kashmir, Srinagar and University of Kashmir, Srinagar Did Master’s from AMU,
Aligarh (1978) and Ph. D Mathematics at IIT Kanpur(1982) Presently living in
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism