oneworldtalk

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Saturday, 24 October 2009

An Islamic administration must be fair in all matters, says Dr M.

[Mahathir] said : said Islamic countries and Islam will only be respected if they were progressive, like in the Golden Age of Islam.

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The Golden Age of Islam began to decline when the religionists started to oppose the Rulers who they viewed as too ‘Secular’. The religionists wanted more Islamisation and less ‘infidel’ influence. In other words, if it came from the non-Muslims, it must be rejected as un-Islamic.

But after the religionists got their way and the doors to science, medicine, engineering, architecture, and whatnot were closed, the Golden Age of Islam ended and the Muslim world went into reverse while the West went through one period of ‘revolution’ after another until it came to where it is today.

No, this is not Islam’s fault. Islam is not to be blamed. Those to be blamed are the religionists who wanted to interpret Islam in a very narrow manner and close the Muslim world to what they viewed as un-Islamic influence. It was almost like China’s isolation policy where ‘time stood still’ for hundreds of years.

Thus ended the Golden Age of Islam and the Muslim world went into the Dark Age.

Mahathir did not quite say this of course. He would never dare say this, as would be the case for many Muslims. But let us call a spade a spade. While the West was in the Dark Age the Muslim world was in the Golden Age. And then the West and the Muslim world suddenly traded places.

Study history. See what it was like during the Golden Age. Then see what it was like during the subsequent Dark Age. Spot the difference. And the reason this was so will become as clear as daylight.

To sum up, the Muslims screwed up and got left behind. And the sad thing is the Muslims are still screwing up. But then the Muslims blame the Jews and Christians for their current woes. What they fail to see is that it was because of the Jewish and Christian population that Islam enjoyed its Golden Age. But of course the Islamic history books list down all the great minds of the Muslims of the Golden Age of Islam while conveniently leaving out the role of the Jews and Christians and even the Chinese.

Mahathir told only part of the story. But while he is not wrong in his views there is more he did not tell or did not dare tell. But what must be said must be said. I just hope the Muslims will realise that it was not the enemies of Islam who sent the Muslim nations back into the Dark Age but the Muslims themselves. The Muslims are that enemy.

There is no doubting the fact that Arabs and Muslims are sadly the most regressive people in the world, according to the Human Development Reports supervised by renowned Muslim and Arab scholars, and released by the UN and other similar reports. In other words, the term 'Muslim' has been linked, in the minds of the people of the world, with violence, terrorism, anarchy, chaos, disturbances, famine, poverty and backwardness. There are of course certain exceptions to this rule, but not many.

Even Pakistan , a nuclear power, is at risk of becoming a failed state, due to poverty, corruption, internal fighting and political mismanagement. And when it comes to Turkey , seen as an exception in the Muslim world, the secularists there consider themselves closer to the West than to the Muslim world. They also ascribe the progress achieved by their country in many fields to a secular approach, rather than the influence of Islam. I have heard top Turkish scholars, thinkers and politicians say that they prefer to be at the rearguard of the Western world than at the vanguard of the Muslim world.

It goes without saying that some Arab countries exist in a less developed state politically, let alone scientifically or technologically.

Why are those who are supposed to be 'the best of all peoples', as revealed in the Quran, lagging behind? Why are the supposedly infidel people of the world making great progress in various fields, while the 'faithful' are lagging behind everybody else?

Ironically enough, a huge percentage of the Chinese people, whose number is approaching 1.5 billion, are atheists. But these non-believers have achieved the highest development rate the world over - it reached 13 per cent at one stage. Add to this the fact that these atheists have 'invaded' almost every house in the world with their products. A high-ranking Chinese official once bragged that, "It is China and not the United States of America that is invading the world". He challenged the Americans to get their products into a quarter of the houses entered by Chinese products. The official also bragged that the Chinese have 'invaded' the US itself. "Aren't the American flags fluttering over the White House made in China ?" he asked.

Experts predict that, in the near future, half of the products that will be sold in the world will be made by the Chinese. Even the Ramadan lambs that are slaughtered by Muslims in Cairo and other Muslim and Arab countries are raised in China . The prayer mats used by faithful Muslims the world over are made by Chinese non-believers, who only believe in doing their jobs in a very sincere and faithful manner. It goes without saying that all the little presents, such as rosaries and Islamic handicrafts, that the pilgrims take home with them after the pilgrimage season are made in China .

It is true that a Muslim country such as Malaysia has made great progress technologically, but some argue that were it not for the Chinese minority in that country, the Malaysians would not have been able to achieve what they have.

And if we consider the second-most progressive country in the world, India , we find that the majority of the people there revere cows. But that has not prevented them from competing with America in the computer industry, to the extent that the famous American writer Thomas Friedman fears that Silicon Valley will one day relocate to India.

In other words, the most progressive people in the world are non-believers by Islamic standards whereas we, Muslims, ironically waste most of our time classifying the peoples of the world into believers and non-believers, and fighting among ourselves over who is more 'faithful'.

I wish we spent more time learning from the non-believers, who produce most of the products we buy. If we had, we would probably be less regressive.

This is by no means a call for atheism - God forbid - but a suggestion that we better ourselves, as our great religion instructs us to do. The great Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) called upon us to seek knowledge - even in China.

For whatever reasons, followers of the Abrahamic faith re the Book (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) do not allow freedom for their followers. Their dualistic approach i.e. you are either with me or against me, rings loud and clear and bloody....in North Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Religion should be kept out of politics and power. Secular administration should offer protection to all citizens without favouritism or discrimination based on beliefs or ethnicity.