26 April 2010 By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja April 22, (Pal Telegraph- By Mahboob A. Khawaja)
“It was under the influence of Arabian and Moorish
revival of culture and not in the fifteenth century,
that the real Renaissance took place. Spain not Italy,
was the cradle of the rebirth of Europe…It is highly
probable that but for the Arabs modern European
civilization would never have arisen at all; it is
absolutely certain that but for them, it would not
have assumed that character which has enabled it to
transcend all previous phases of evolution. For
although there is not a single aspect of European
growth in which the decisive influence of Islamic
culture is not traceable, nowhere is it so clear and
momentous as in the genesis of that power which
constitutes the paramount distinctive force of the
modern world and the supreme source of its victory.”
Robert Briffault (The Making of Humanity). AbdulHameed AbuSulayman (The
Crisis of Muslim Mind) Historically, to the Arabs mind, the originality of
thoughts and knowledge-based discoveries viewed
history as living movement and consequently, they were
most gifted and proactive people to establish Islam as
a successful system for human change and development
leading to progressive Islamic civilization that
transcended its contributions to the European
Renaissance and Industrial emancipation. But coming to
the mid 20th and 21st centuries,
the Arabs under the influence of transitory oil
exporting economy compromised the objectivity with
neo-colonial supported authoritarianism and Islam is
living in conscious denial except symbolic rituals to
pray and be counted to be as Muslim at birth time and
death roll call. The contemporary history is devoid of
those historical references and exhibits blank pages
without any mention of Arab-Muslim leaders
representing the interests of Islam and of the
contemporary Muslim Ummah. They have all on this
God-given planet except Islam as system of life and
proactive visionary leadership to deal with the
present and articulate a conducive future for the
Arab-Muslim world encompassing intellectual security
and credible political standing in global affairs. To
the Arabs and Muslims in general, this is the singular
most tests of intellectual foresight and political
wisdom.
Leaders Create Leaders - Arabs had the
Knowledge-based Pioneering Civilization Arabs were the pioneer in knowledge, change and
human development. The Holy Qura’an focuses on
“change” as an essential precept for societal
development and collective emancipation of the masses.
“Allah does not change the conditions of people unless
first they change themselves.” The Al-Qura’an defines
the principal obligation to all the believers. Once
the Arabs ignored Islam in policies and practices and
opted for the petro-dollar illusion of the economic
prosperity, they shifted the wealth of knowledge and
experiences for exclusive materialism what over the
centuries was developed by the Islamic civilization
for human change and development. The concept of
“change” was built-in the consensus-based advisory and
consultation of the Islamic policy making process. For
almost 1000 years, the Arabs leaders enjoyed global
credibility when their decisions were outcome of the
Islamic system of public consensus. Could the Arab
leadership THINKING be changed and reformed to
reconnect with the needs and aspirations of the Muslim
citizens of the contemporary world? The 21st
century effective leadership demands wisdom of the art
of ingenuity, tactfulness and equally important,
transformational leadership to make the difference in
highly competitive social and politically dominated
norms of global challenging leadership. The
comprehensive phenomenon includes knowledge-based
proactive vision, effective strategic communication,
listening and learning, self-confidence and be able to
articulate a visionary picture of the future for the
best of the people. The leadership consciously knows
being the responsible leader - a self recognition
credibility factor that appears missing across the
Arab-Muslim world. The challenges of time and
contending forces of history that produce genuine
leaders do encounter the real world problem to manage
or to solve them. Leaders create leaders. For long, the Arabs
leadership presence is missing on the Western
political radar screen because they are passive,
subservient to the Western masters, and do not THINK
nor have the moral and intellectual capacity to come
up with any credible challenge that should define
their specific standing and draw attention to their
role and vitality in the complex changing politics of
the 21st century. The US history seems to
have produced new leaders in their struggle for
nation-making and nation-building. The resulting
leaders knew well their strengths and weaknesses and
of the people around them who made it happened. Not
so, in the Arabian arena, leaders are born out of
inherited system and show complete disregard to the
legitimacy principle of being informed leadership. To
the Western leadership, criterion qualities are known,
acclaimed and achieved. What have the petro-dollar
rich Arabs or Muslims leaders accomplished in the
contemporary world? One factor appears prominent that
the contemporary Arab leaders have effectively
dismantled the traditional “Deewan” institution of
public consultation and consensus-making and instead
opted for the Western opinion oriented paid foreign
advisory to manage the political governance. They
continue to live in isolated palaces away from the
public interactive inputs. Most palaces are manned by
foreign security establishments with direct linkage to
their national policy interests. President Saddam
Hussein had 15 or so palaces built for his overlapping
interests, now all are occupied by the US and British
occupying forces in Iraq.
History is not dormant but a Living
Movement The oil exporting rich Arab leaders see history as
fixed and abstract artifacts, not a living force to
determine the future. Islam viewed history as a living
and continuous movement forbearing real inevitable
development for the collective good of the humanity.
Ibn-e Khaldun, the pioneer Islamic thinker conceived
the process of change enshrined in the progressive
Islamic civilization for almost 800 years. Allama
Mohammad Iqbal, the poet and philosopher of the Esat,
further the concept of change by envisaging human
progress through the concept of self-actualization (“Khudi”).
Today the masses and the leaders alike are ignorant of
their own glorious history. If the contemporary
Arab-Muslim leaders were open to listening and
learning to consciously accepting the advice of Muslim
scholars, they can reform themselves and are capable
of navigational change. There are countless problems
but nobody cares to discuss the issues of primary
interests to the Muslims across the globe. To the
Arabs, it is a progressive age of catastrophically
times requiring courageous thinking and honest
reflection on the real world. Arabs and Muslims became
prisoners in their own time and habitats by discarding
Islam as a comprehensive system of human happiness and
success.
The US Model of Collapsed Imperialism and the
Followers Arab Leaders Caroline Myss (“Dark Times Require Transcendent
Responses”, OpenEd. com: 04/17/2010), an expert in
medical intuitive, human motivation and well being
clarifies “Our nation was founded by political
mystics”, the profound psychological, moral and
political problems of contemporary America. It could
well be implied to the Muslim world quite rationally.
Caroline Myss explains the imperatives of the American
tragedy: “This is the most historically profound time to be
alive. Predicaments don't have solutions. They shape us.
One dialogues with a predicament. People at the top
are from an old world and believe in an… Where do the Arabs and Muslims stand today in
search of a promising future? If the Islamic world was
looking for credible success in worldly affairs, it
could not have come out of nowhere except Islam as a
system of life. Dr. AbdulHameed AbuSulayman (Crisis of
the Muslim Mind) reflects on the essence of Islamic
factor: “The basis of Muslim strength and ability,
as well as creativity stems from faith in the face of
obstacles and challenges and in determination to
discover and use the appropriate means in accordance
with the laws of nature…the early generations of
Muslims understood this and the result was that they
were successful.” After the 9/11 events, the Western mythologists
have carved up distinctive political scenarios and
clichés to dwell on fear-mongering amongst the Western
masses and biased news media propaganda against the
Muslims and Islamic civilization. The Arab-Muslim
leadership has ignored the relevance and importance of
these developments culminating into a culture of
conflict-making and conflict-keeping in the Western
cultural and political environment. The new vigorously
propagated myth of “Islamic terrorism” was manifested
by the Western elite to harm Muslims and Islam as a
system of life. This singular challenge affecting all
affairs of the Muslim world was never taken up by any
Arab-Muslim leader, government or religious scholars.
Likewise, the issue was subsided by various
paper-based Islamic organizations currently functional
and claiming to be the guardian of the Arab-Islamic
interests. The religious scholars lost sight of the
political affairs affecting the interest of the Muslim
Ummah. Leaders tend to bribe the religious scholars to
remain neutral or silent on issues of primary
concerns. The proactive THINKING and intellectual
collapse is evident in all of the Arab-Muslim affairs.
The US-Israeli Strategic Interests Survive on the
Challenge of Animosity Reflect on the freedom of Palestine and
establishment of an independent state of Palestine as
the major issue in the Arab world. For more than half
a century millions of Palestinians have been displaced
by force from their homes and the Arabs leaders are
preoccupied in action-reaction games without any
originality of thoughts and purpose to deal with the
Palestine solution. Israeli and American policy
strategists enjoy the mastery of innovative war games
that cannot be seen or measured by conventional
standards. Both need and survive on self-manufactured
continued challenge of perpetuated animosity at home
and abroad. They will develop a no-win situation war
game theory, agree to disagree, providing substantial
space for preemptive action to do the act and will
facilitate no opportunity to the perceived enemy to
maneuver for action even in extreme desperation. On
Palestine, both parties have smart rules operated
games to be conducted. If the Arab leaders are viewed
of any relevance in a given global context to “milk
the cow” (John Perkins, Confession of an Economic
Hitman), the oil exporting Arab leaders would be
engaged and they love to be seen doing something for
the beleaguered Palestinians and it would be a stage
act and nothing more. The US-Israelis will indulge in
peace talks, gain the ground for desired results and
camouflage another problem to divert the attention
from the original issue and optimistically, achieve
the aim without making any resolution of the actual
problem at discussion. The Arab leadership lacking
proactive and intelligentsia and scholarly advice and
orientation, will have no chance to make any move for
a balancing act to reverse the gains of the
American-Israeli joint ventures. Peace talks are on
record for more than half a century, but not in action
and implementation. The innovative war game goes on
for several decades with clear victimization of the
Palestinians people and the Arab interests. The Arab
leadership enjoys history of failure on all the fronts
of the modern innovative warfare; Israeli leaders with
established institutions and excellence in world wide
networking have not lost any major conflict making
games. They falsify the history to show the Arabs as
the enemies of the Jews. Whereas, history has its own
factual language that Jews were religiously persecuted
by the Europeans, not by the Arabs. Throughout the
history, Arabs had given protection, security and
equal opportunities to the Jews to live happily and in
peace. Holocaust happened in Europe, not in the Arab
world. Alan Hart (Zionism: The Real Enemy of Jews,
2010), shares analytical perspectives- the two focal
themes of the argument: One is why Western support of Israel
right-or-wrong has made the whole Arab and wider
Muslim world an explosion of anger and humiliation
waiting for its time to happen. The other is how
Israel, the child of Zionism, became its own worst
enemy and a threat not only to the peace of the region
and the world, but also to the best interests of Jews
everywhere and the moral integrity of Judaism itself. In 1973, Anwar Sadat was poised to challenge the
Israeli-American strategic hegemony; they saw the
military challenge coming and rushed to negotiate
peace and security arrangements with Egypt. Could the
time and opportunities lost by the ignorant and
egoistic leaders be regained? There are plausible and
workable solutions for the Palestinian issue but the
Arab leaders are not open to listening and learning
and appear allergic to the role and value of Islamic
consultation and scholarly advice. There are many
competent Muslim scholars and experts in global
security and conflict resolution to offer advice,
guidance and help but those in charge of the affairs
practice naïve scenarios and obsolete methods and end
up in continued failure.
Arab Leaders Need Re-organization of Thinking and
Actions for Conflict Resolution and Peace Is the Arab leadership looking for political
solutions from the US or the West European nations?
How could the nations who are part of the problem,
could be part of solution? Could the indifference
towards the real world problems particularly the
freedom of Palestine and the Arab-Israeli relations
are seen as abstract issues occurring in the history
making process? After almost 60 years of wait and see
attitude, what the Arabs leaders have accomplished in
securing a safe homeland for the people of Palestine?
Amongst many pertinent factors, Israelis have the
upper hand because they have learned to know the Arabs
and their culture and develop scenarios which are
helpful to their cause for survival and integration in
the predominantly Arab civilization of the Middle
East. The Arab leadership is handicapped and
intellectually indifferent not to have known the
Israelis and their varied cultural identities coming
out of the European persecution for ages. The Arabs failed to know and understand the reasons
for Jewish animosity. There are linguistic and
cultural barriers not to know the enemy. If there were
institutionalized approaches to have knowledge and
understanding of the enemy, would it not have been
more useful for the Arabs to deal with the political
animosity and discover workable alternatives and
possible solutions? To fight the enemy, you must KNOW
the enemy. Israelis know the Arab psychology and
political culture; the Arabs have reaction but no
evidence-based knowledge of the Israelis thinking and
strategic priorities. Imagine, if there were direct
social and cultural communications between the Arabs
and Israelis, would today’s hopeless situation be not
different and more open to possible human and
political remedies? The prevalent Arab approach
negates the principles of Islam. Islam sees Christians
and Jews as People of Book and part of the Islamic
faith- the progeny of Prophet Abraham. Islamic history
provides ample evidence of social and religious
interactions with Jews in the Arab world. Prophet
Mohammad (peace be upon him), when migrated to Madina,
he concluded agreement with the Jews and identified
them as part of the Muslim Ummah. The Muslim continued
social and commercial relations with the Jews and
Christians and invited them to the divine message of
Islam. How could the Arab and Muslim thinkers and
leaders ignore the salient features of the Islamic
history and open mindedness to invite the humanity
towards collective goodness? Where is the balancing
strategic act? Could neutrality and indifference be a
workable strategy in conflict management? The Arab-Muslim world is not open to public
discussion and consensus-building. Authoritarianism
has forbidden the open human interactive communication
and thinking for change, the process being the
cornerstone of Islamic governance. Pretension found
ample room to characterize leaders in the Arab-Muslim
societies. The leadership cannot buy the much needed
moral and intellectual potentials, qualities and
abilities to formulate a durable personality. The
dogma of failed leadership lingers on for several
generations. There is no failing of the absent genius
but it is the uneducated and egoistic leadership that
has let down the masses in their quest for change and
human development with the relationship of Islam.
Conscientious and informed Arab masses do think, they
have no leadership to represent their interests and
priorities. The illusion of petro-dollar prosperity is
used to buy people and support and silence the reason
for critical analysis of the Arab political affairs.
The end of European colonialism did not pave ways for
the beginning of evidence-based Islamic values as the
system of responsible political governance. The
political governance enjoins hierarchical and
authoritarian structures of the draconian age found as
unsuitable to human needs and genius in this age. The
Western industrialized nations have made great strides
in institutionalizing the phenomena of change and
development and its characteristics embedded in the
modern leadership. The democratic process has opened
up new vistas of human educational and intellectual
pursuits as was the case with the progressive Islamic
civilization during the 8th to 16 centuries
in Al-Andalusia (Spain).
The US Not a Role Model but Produced Degenerated
Politics Caroline Myss attempts to look critically at the
contemporary America and its degenerated politics: “Our educational system is completely collapsing. All the great learnings that develop a person's
moral conscience, inner skills, capacity for
discernment, to appreciate the arts, to refine
themselves as a human being-- are gone. These are the
thinking arts. Technology is the money art. We've
removed the thinking, refinement arts. We've replaced
them with superstitious, evangelical crap-- ...
racist, filled with fear. with superstars-- Palin,
Limbaugh, Beck. They have to have the courage to
pierce through the bullies and take the consequences
of bad media. Some of them have to be willing to go
down in their career for the sake of the whole.”
The Arab Leaders Looking for Proactive Visionary
Leadership Successful modern leaders maintain strong profile
in effective and responsible public communication.
Being open to listening and learning without agreeing
or disagreeing, public can reach the heart and minds
of the political powerhouse. In Islamic governance, an
ordinary folk can knock the door of the Caliph or Imam
without fear of any retribution. It was guaranteed
that ordinary citizens could question the Caliph and
Ameer on official policies and practices. Today,
leaders escape the reality and hide behind large solid
walls of palaces protected by foreign mercenaries and
security agents and unreachable by the common
citizens. Voices of reason and honesty are dubbed as
“extremism” and “terrorism” and imprisoned by egoistic
dictators. Reasoning was one of the most precious
values in the Islamic system of governance, yet this
precept lives in denials across the Islamic societies. When Islam was the point of reference in the
governance, Muslim leaders were responsible, wise and
knew the art of visionary leadership in the changing
fortunes of time and history making. The leaders were
always conscious of their strength and weakness and
very able to listening and learning and making things
happened for the people they governed. The best
examples are found in the life of the Prophet of Islam
(peace be upon him). Habab bin Munzir and Saad bin
Moaz, the two ordinary companions of the Prophet
Mohammad (peace be upon him), offered strategic
advice to the Prophet at the battlefields of Badr and
Khyber, and he gladly accepted and implemented without
being conscious that he knew more or that he was the
Messenger of Allah. Are the contemporary Arabs leaders
more knowledgeable and capable to live up to the
challenges of the complex 21st century
leadership? Most have not seen the light of Islamic
knowledge and wisdom except being aware of the
Machiavelli’s The Prince. How do you make them
understand of the concerns and priorities of the
Muslim Ummah? The Kings, Prince and Presidents live in
palaces, and not with people. They are overwhelmingly
egoistic with power and mostly abhorrent to Muslim
scholars and avoid interactive communication with able
and educated members of the Muslim societies. They
wish to remain in a roller coaster ball game
encircling the society without any positive attributes
for change and reformation and diagnosis of their own
sickness. In scientific terms, the prolonged sickness
had worst impact on the mental and physical health of
the nation. Caroline Myss takes up the argument: “Always in the history of humanity there has been
horribleness-- nightmares and waking up, nightmares
and waking up. We have to find a higher way of
looking at this or you're going to be consumed by the
negativity. I have learned to see things through
grace, because I have to. At the end of the day... you
can't reason with a crisis, a catastrophy or
disease.” Caroline Myss explains a rational point, how to
reason the unreason in such stingy and unhealthy
political notions and practices undertaken by the
political elite: “as a nation our sacred contract was one of
becoming one of the most visionary nations ever born
with a constitution crafted to protect the rights of
the human spirit. If the Arabs and other so called self-styled Muslim
leaders were keen to change the dormant moral and
political clichés of the past and reform the
institutionalized norms of authoritarianism, Muslim
thinkers and scholars should welcome the opportunities
to offer advice and expertise collaboration to open up
new vistas of change and development, thus, returning
to the originality of Islam as a way of successful
governance. While being part of the problem, if the
leaders continue to search for sustainable political
solutions, the problem is in their thinking and their
mind, not with the Muslim Ummah. History is not
resurrection but fosters change and calls for new
challenges to be dealt with. The verdict of history is
that those who reject change and pretend to be dealing
with the future are sorted out as worn out entities,
burden on human conscience and part of the junk
history. Would the besieged Arab-Muslim leaders dare
to break the impasse and look for change and
reformation of their own mindset and outlook for the
future? Would they come out of the hollow laughter
political aquarium and utilize the available resources
of the Muslim scholars and experts in global peace,
security and conflict management? Otherwise, if they
cannot deal with present, how could they be a hope for
future with a difference? A century earlier, Robert Briffault (The Making of
Humanity), made a candid observation which amicably
represents the contemporary global affairs: “The men who have most injured and
oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned
against it, were according to their standards and
their conscience, good men; what was bad in them, what
wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and
progress, was not at all their intentions, in their
purpose, in their personal character, but in their
opinions.” Islam is living and flexible to accommodate and
deal with the changing human affairs and challenges of
all the time to help articulate peace and honor for
the Muslim Ummah. The criterion requirements are
clearly defined and known to the Arab-Muslim elite
involved in policy making. After a prolonged history
of indifference and indecision, If the contemporary
Arab-Muslim leadership is serous and sincere to making
a Navigational Change to reconnect themselves with
Islam and live up to the hopes of the Muslim Ummah,
undoubtedly, Allah’s promise will come to rescue them
and help them to facilitate a promising future of
honor, peace and security: “Allah has promised to those Among you who believe and work for
righteous deeds, that He Will, of a surety, grant them In the land, inheritance (Of Power), as He granted it To those before them; that He will establish in authority Their religion-the one Which He has chosen for them; And that He will change (Their state), after the fear In which they (lived) to one Of security and peace.” (Verse 55: Al-Noor, Al-Qura’an. Translation
by Abdullah Yusuf Ali). (Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global
security, peace and conflict resolution with keen
interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and
civilizations, and author of several publications
including: "Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and
Conflict Resolution", University Press of America; How
America Lost the War in Iraq and Afghanistan and
Mujahideen Won; To America and Canada with Reason, VDM
Publishers, 2009; “President Obama – War is War, Not
Peace”, 2009; and “Is President Obama Remaking
America?” “The Arab Time Capsule- Once You Were the
Leaders of Islamic Civilization.” Comments are
welcome at:
kmahboob@yahoo.com) Comments 💬 التعليقات |