|
23 May 2013
By Mahboob A. Khawaja,
PhD
On April 22, most nations
want to celebrate the Earth Day, but this symbolic
celebration is fraught with perpetuated ignorance
about the Planet Earth and its life-giving and life-maintaining
role, value of Human Life, the origin of Man and
Humanity and the purpose of life in relation to the
earth and the greater Universe, most often obsessed
with inhuman political indoctrination of basic human
percepts. Many leaders of divided consciousness and
perverted ego hold annual war celebrations as if wars
were a product of human happiness and prosperity.
Likewise, the Earth Day is fast losing its essence and
purpose when there is too much planned killings and
destruction of mankind in progress in the name of
democracy and freedom. "These are the times that
try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine
in Common Sense - the clarion manifesto for the
independence of America. Joseph Lewis (at the
dedication of the Thomas Paine statue in Paris,
January 29th, 1948), narrates that
"a little more than half a century ago, the great
Robert G. Ingersoll predicted, at the conclusion of
his eloquent tribute to Thomas Paine, that "a few more
years, a few more brave men, a few more rays of
light," and mankind would venerate his memory. The few
years have passed. The brave men have appeared, the
light has broken through, and today is proof that
mankind is beginning to pay homage to him who said,
"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as
they are without regard to place or person. My country
is the world; and my religion is to do good……this
statue is to be both a symbol and a beacon, a symbol
of the eternal principles of justice and humanity of
which Thomas Paine was so preeminently a
representative, and a beacon to guide mankind in the
solution of the problems that menace their peace and
happiness." The
global academia and intellectuals must initiate
critical insights, what went wrong with the human
thinking and global system of modern states and
governance. Man (both male and female) is the chief
creation of God on Earth with defined purpose of life,
role and accountability. But the systems of States do
not consider the exclusive material and spiritual
domains of life for systematic order, development of
laws, justice and human relationship to Earth and the
splendid Universe. It is rudimentary and often without
any sense of rational perspectives to look at Man,
nature and value of moral, material and spiritual
factors to maintain a comprehensive perspective of
life. It has been done before in human experience.
During the eight centuries (700-1500) highly
prosperous and successful era of Muslim civilization
in al-Andulus (Spain), Islam was the moving force to
establish sustainable relations between man and the
universe to articulate change, human progress and
contributions towards modern human civilization. But
with the oil discovery and the delusional aims of
social and economic prosperity, Arabs lost the
originality of thinking power based of knowledge and
wisdom derived from the Al-Qura'an to maintain
normalcy and progress in human endeavors. Despite
enormous petro wealth kept in Western banks and used
for inhuman exploitative purposes, Arab leaders and
countries have no influential place of REASON and
stability in the global political affairs. Generation
after generations, Arabs have been defeated and
submerged into other entities by the Western masters.
So-called liberal democracy had no listing of Arabs
and Muslims as suitable creatures for progressive
role-play in international community. Humanity in the
West shrinked from intelligence to stupidity, whereas,
Charles Darwin (Origin of the Species), was uplifted
and honored, man ("insaan") was degraded from all the
possible entries of making the human civilization.
Whereas, Islam focused on the man ("insaan") as the
primary object of change and progressive development.
Alexis Carrel (Man the Unknown, 1936) appears to
affirm the Islamic perspective on human development:
"Certain forms of modern life lead directly to
degeneration….in the poor as well the rich, leisure
engenders degeneration. Cinemas, concerts, radios,
automobiles and athletics are no substitute for
intelligent work. We are far from having solved this
momentous problem of idleness created by prosperity,
modern machinery or unemployment. By imposing leisure
upon man, scientific civilization has brought him
great misfortune. We are incapable of fighting the
consequences of indolence and irresponsibility as
cancer and mental diseases……after all the purpose of
civilization is not the progress of science and
machines, but the progress of man." The
Arabs, once pioneer of knowledge-based advanced
civilization lasting for eight centuries - the longest
period in human history, are the victims of a
delusional oil-pumping economic prosperity imported as
marriage of convenience forged between the tribal Arab
rulers and the Western industrialized world - more so,
the USA and Britain. Throughout the 20th
century and well into the 21st century, the
oil richness failed to deal with emerging social,
moral, intellectual and political problems. Instead
with militarization of the region, increasing
bloodbaths depicts a havoc political spectrum. Living
without ROOTS and REASON. Islam enriched the Arabs to
become global leaders of a progressive civilization,
but the oil enhanced prosperity transformed them into
‘camel jockeys' and object of hallow laughters after
dinner jokes across the Western culture. Money cannot
buy wisdom, honor and human integrity. The bogus "war
on terrorism" could not have happened if the Arab
leaders - the frontline bogyman of the US Empire had
rational mind, intellectual capacity and integrity to
challenge the most irrational and cruel act in human
history. If the Arab leaders had any knowledge,
understanding and sense of responsibility of the
future and of the devastating short and long terms
impacts of this bogus war, they should have challenged
the American policy or sought advice from Muslim
intellectuals and scholars to assess the crisis
situation for reasonable alternatives. Throughout the oil
exporting Arab world, the contemporary rulers have
turned out to be complacent in the US –Israeli
strategic plans for the future of the Middle East.
Most rulers appear to be missing the essential human
conscience – the hub of Islamic characteristics of
human beings to see the unfolding political and
economic realities on the ground. None of the leaders
have ever come out to represent the public conscience
on the issue of Palestine and the establishment of an
independent homeland for the people of Palestine. With
the exception of Egypt under President Morsi, the Arab
world is devoid of critical THINKING, reasoning and
proactive leadership or leadership of any kind to make
the presence felt in the global political arena. The NY Times reported
(May 29, 2012) that President Obama maintains a ‘kill
list' and personally reviews it to issue the strike
order, when and where. Michael Hampton "Do American
Approve Mass Murder" (Information Clearing House:
6/14/2012). notes that "The reality, widely reported
worldwide but rarely in U.S. media, is that all too
often these strikes kill innocent civilians in
addition to, or even instead of, the intended
targets." The Boston marathon
bomb blasts this week and killing of the three
innocent people and injuries to approximately 176,
again innocent people, the US news media went out of
norms to depict the tragedy in dramatic superficial
settings and blame game. Even on the first day of bomb
blasts and without any evidence, it speculated "Middle
Eastern connection" "al-Qaeda" link envisaged and
readily available from the Israeli news reporting.
Crime against humanity in America is a crime
everywhere else if something of this havoc proportion
is done to the innocent victims. A week prior to the
Boston tragedy, US led NATO killed 11 innocent
children and tow women in Eastern Afghanistan. The
children were of 1 year to 8 years of age. Across the
Western world only the BBC showed their pictures,
silent lined up bloody bodies and nothing else. None
of the American networks even mentioned about this
inhuman crime, pursued under the Obama's presidency
and "Kill List." Killing of the other innocent
civilians in other lands is a business as usual. How
strange, the world's only superpower cannot see the
mirror of its own crimes? Did Obama shed any tears for
the 11 innocent Afghan kids murdered by his air force
in Afghanistan? Or were those Afghan infants not of
the same ethnicity or not human beings of the same
class to deserve due mourning by all concerned?
Undoubtedly, America needs rethinking about its own
role and actions across the globe unless it waits to
see the end-game - what happened to all the empires
claiming to be post powerful on the earth? Do American
public care about the on-going massacres of civilians
in other lands? Michael Hampton ("Do American Approve
Mass Murder" ICH- 6/14/2012), observes:
"So we come full circle.
Only a minority of people show any concern over
Obama's killing of innocent people abroad in the name
of the war on terror (oops, we aren't supposed to say
that anymore). Perhaps the people who approve of the
drone strikes simply don't know. Or perhaps, like Rep.
Peter King (R-N.Y.), they don't care. "I am not
concerned," he said." We live in one Planet
Earth. What happens in America or in the remote
jungles of Botswana and or the rugged mountains of
Afghanistan or the bloody streets of Damascus, Baghdad
and Fulligah, it is vital to global interests and
cannot be ignored because American tv networks do not
portray it. According to the Divine revelations, the
Earth keeps record of all the human activities. The
Earth is a living entity, not dead. What happened to
countless previous powerful Empires and civilizations?
To all concerned, their artifacts and deadly remains
do tell the real story. Most were destroyed by natural
causes but the Earth remains in tact, not by the
legislative power of any States of the UN membership
but certainly by the Will of God. It operates and
maintains balanced life for all regardless of
ethnicity, color, creed, religions and nationalism.
Should we not care how we live, utilize and draw
lifelong gains from the Earth? We the humans NEED to
reflect on our thinking and behaviors how do we relate
to Earth? It is an indivisible comprehensive
relationship. The answer should help us to balance our
life. America and some of the
oil producing Arab rulers are collaborating in
warmongering. They are unaware of short-long terms
consequences of warmongering to societal thinking,
behaviors and sustainability. America is in a grip of
crises, one after another as legal and political
repercussions of the continued wars against Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan. The war mentality has not
changed under Obama's presidency and much intended
political stunt "Yes We Can." America is bankrupt in
moral, financial, political and intellectual domains.
Over the centuries what was evolved and built by its
historical thinkers, philosophers and political
leaders, has been undermined and destroyed by George
W. Bush and Barrack Obama just in a decade. Paul Craig
Roberts ("Truth is Offensive", ICH: 4/2/2013) provides
a unique insight to American political psyche, not
previously explained by other contemporary
intellectuals: "Most Americans go
along with unaccountable murder, torture, and
detention without evidence, which proclaims their
gullibility to the entire world. There has never in
history been a population as unaware as Americans. The
world is amazed that an insouciant people became, if
only for a short time, a superpower. The world needs
intelligence and leadership in order to avoid
catastrophe, but America can provide neither
intelligence nor leadership. America is a lost land
where nuclear weapons are in the hands of those who
are concerned only with their own power. Washington is
the enemy of the entire world and encompasses the
largest concentration of evil on the planet. Are the contemporary
Arab dictators the reason for decadence of the Muslim
people and culture? Surely, when common folks live in
hues and cries, they fail to think positively of any
vital spectrum of life. Was the petrodollar a
conspiracy ("fitna") to disconnect the Arab people
with the Islamic civilization? Ironically, how the
few tribal leaders could have managed the time and
history on their own unless large segments of the
masses were complacent in making the tragedy? The
contemporary global affairs warrant intelligent and
competent leadership not kings, not military dictators
or fatty and dull prince occupying splendid palaces
away from the people. Leaders manage the crisis when
facts of life warrant change and adaptability to the
future. Often crisis unite people of reason but not
the Arab rulers. Notwithstanding the requisites of
reason and honesty, many Arab rulers are collaborating
with the US-Israel warmongering against Iran. Time
will tell how some of the Arab leaders deserve the
wrath of God for supporting the global warlords. There
are no Arab public institutions of THINKING and no
leaders to lead. One wonders, why the earth never felt
any weight of the oil pumping Arab leaders. All the monsters of
history could be traced amongst absolute rulers. They
look at masses with insane satisfaction and wicked
temperaments as if they are somewhere from another
planet to ruler another species - the egoistic cult
turns into kind of cancer that consumes their mindset,
body and will power. Arab authoritarian leaders are
not open to reason or listening and learning until
they are forcibly phased out as happened to so many in
recent months. In view of the unstoppable cycle of
political killings and daily bloodbaths in so many
Arab states - Syria, Iraq, Yemen and spill-over to
other oil producing Arab nations - and reactionary
militancy against the authoritarian rule and
dismantling of the socio-economic infrastructures -
is the Arab world coming to its own end because of the
sadistic authoritarian rulers? The Arab leaders and
the masses live and breathe in conflicting time zones
being unable to see the rationality of people-oriented
Islamic governance, the worst is yet to come,
surrender to foreign forces as there are no leaders to
think of the future or the Arab armies to defend the
people. Once in history, Arabs had moral superiority
with the relations of Islam, not any more. When
difficult problems erupt, intelligent and competent
leaders are always conscious and open to listening to
voices of reason for change and reformation. This
helps all to manage a navigational change and to solve
the problems. Borrowed weapons and corrupt and failed
rulers do not have the capacity to extend moral or
intellectual security to the Arab masses. Most oil
pumping Arab countries are merely satellite of the US
Empire.
Professor James Petras ("Networks of Empire and
Realignments of World Power", Dissident Voice,
1/3/2011), explains how the Imperial Networks plan
broad scheme of subjugation of the Arab authoritarian
rulers to impose its dictates: "Empire-building
is essentially a process of penetrating a country or
region, establishing a privileged position and
retaining control in order to secure (1) lucrative
resources, markets and cheap labor (2) establish a
military platform to expand into adjoining countries
and regions (3) military bases to establish a
chock-hold over strategic road or waterways to deny or
limit access of competitors or adversaries (4)
intelligence and clandestine operations against
adversaries and competitors. ….In
either private or state economic and/or military led
penetration, in furtherance of empire-building, the
strategic purpose is to exploit the special economic
and geopolitical features of the targeted country to
create empire-centered networks. …..In the genocidal
wars in the Middle East, anti-terrorism and
anti-Islamic ideology is central…….The unity of
purpose of European and US imperial regimes allowed
for the peaceful joint takeover of the wealth of the
new regions by private monopolies……Imperial
Sequences: From War for Exploitation to Exploitation
for War…." (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 the latest: Global Peace and Conflict
Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New
Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany-May, 2012) |
Add Comments