Beyond Survival

Between the 7th and 11th centuries, the Muslims had conquered most of the world and developed a diverse and intellectually vibrant civilization, learning from older sources of knowledge, such as Greek and Persian, and initiating and contributing in many fields of science, particularly mathematics and astronomy, philosophy and logic. Many of their treatises were translated into Latin and provided the basis for proliferation of knowledge in the West as it emerged from its “Dark Ages”.

As Muslims lost wars with the Christians between the 11th and 17th centuries, followed by the fall of the Moghul dynasty when the East India Company of Britain conquered the sub-continent in the 17th and 18th centuries and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, Muslims faced a continuum of intellectual, spiritual and technological impoverishment. Movements calling for rational interpretation of the Quran were crushed; the unified paradigm of one Ummah was replaced with multiple groupings of sects and nationals and in-fighting became the norm.

Even if 9/11 had not occurred, wholesale Islamophobia would have found other excuses.

The West reduced the influence of the church in public matters and focused on technological development, individual freedom and industrialization while the Muslims fought to survive within their narrow spheres that grew increasingly inward-looking. They resisted new developments, eying them with mistrust and often rejecting them as “western agendas”. Universal moral values, spelled out in the Quran and later elaborated and absorbed by the West were disregarded and relegated to the background as politics and greed for power took over. Muslim governments thrived on corruption and oppression of their people. Education, social justice and freedom of thought were brutally repressed. Muslims equated democratic processes and secularity to irreligiousness and directed hatred towards non-Muslims and women who were considered to be the cause of sexual waywardness.

As Khalid Abu el Fadel puts it, resistance to the West was taken to such extremes that analytical and critical thought and engagement with the rich Islamic heritage was replaced with dogma and a siege mentality that resulted “in a rabid form of patriarchy… engaging in symbolic displays of power that are systematically degrading of women.” Over a long period of time, literalist, anti-women and oppressive interpretations of the Quran and teachings of the Prophet (PBUH) led to crimes against humanity in the name of Islam by marginal groups and defensiveness and apathy by the larger Muslim population.

Much of this decay of intellect and spirit in the Muslim world has also been a result of the destruction wreaked upon Muslim countries by colonial powers. Not only did colonialists rob the colonies of their material wealth and created deep poverty from which they are yet to emerge, they also destroyed Islamic institutions. The democratic principle laid out in the Quran was not allowed to flourish as dictators and despots were aided and abetted through arms and funds and internal strife was supported. The hypocrisy of the West was very evident. It accused Muslim nations of their poor human rights violations record and helped the same governments sow fear and discord among their citizenry. There is clear evidence that groups such as the Al Qaeda, Taliban and Daesh have been created by Western interests. The only real wealth Muslims can lay claim to, on which the West is dependent, is oil. Muslims are still dependent on technology and scientific developments of the West.

The anti-Muslim attitudes are primarily built upon an “us” vs. “them” view. The “us” is all good and civilized; the “them” is crude and lowly, to be subservient at best. According to Fadel, during the earlier centuries of Muslim enlightenment, Islam was viewed by the West with fear, respect and envy. Today, the vilification and alleged bigotry of the Muslims is due to the latter’s socio-political situation which is considered to be at the bottom of the world’s hierarchy.