Page 2 of 2 SPEAKING FREELY How prosperity destroyed Arabic culture
By Mahboob A Khawaja
But in Egypt and some parts of the Middle East, people are getting organized and rising to the political atrocities which have been imposed on them by the sadistic rulers. It is obvious that the Arab world of today will not be the same for tomorrow. In Egypt, out of a terrible sense of helplessness, people have emerged with political imagination, courage and strength to challenge the authoritarian rulers on solid grounds and reasoning and attract global support and appreciation for their cause of peace and freedom from oppression.
There are more daunting challenges and opportunities ahead for concerned Arab-Muslim scholars and thinkers to grasp the
momentum and try to sort out feasible remedies and workable solutions. The role and tasks of the people dealing with change and management of development is painfully challenging and progressive over certain period of time. The societal problems are complex and there is no single pill to diagnose the cancerous sickness.
Professor Fouad Ajami said it right: "The problems of the Arab world are the result of self-inflicted wounds". If the one track rulers were open to listening and learning (vital traits of effective modern leadership), the current catastrophic wars against the Arab people - firing on demonstrators in streets, funeral processions and worshippers in Masjids, killings of innocent citizens and destruction of the social environment and political horrors could have been avoided. From Syria onward to many Arab lands, people are the victims of cruelty and planned brutality against the mankind.
The common Arab folks are cultured and civilized people with immense tolerance for diversity as the European and now American have capitalized their life, markets and governance. Historically, Arabs were leaders in progressive culture and development of human civilization, whereas, the West was in infancy learning from the Arab knowledge, explorations and scientific achievements.
They remained the single most contributors of 1,000 years of advanced civilization in Al-Andalusia (Spain). When the Arabs left Islam and stopped listening to voices of intellectual reasoning, they fell in disgrace. Money can not buy the honor and integrity lost because of the modern ignorance and arrogance of the neo-colonial Arab ruling elite.
If the Arab leaders could change and reform themselves and return to their originality of Islamic Thinking and behavior, they are the best people to invite towards goodness and forbid evil. Arabs exponents of peace do speak but are unable to reach the majority of the media controlled humanity. The Arab religious scholars have not played any significant role in changing the societal aims and priorities except seeing the light only in mosques, whereas the people live in darkness.
Their barricaded Islam is supplemented by matching regular salaries and making it non-active part of the distant history.
The question is how to encourage change and emerging new and challenging opportunities to undo the political and economic chaos and return to normalcy? It requires soul searching and foresight and strong commitment more than bringing a revolution to set the proper strategies and to initiate planned solid actions for the future. Do the Arabs have the proactive visionary leaders and competent people and institutions to deal with change and conflict management?
Some 25 years earlier while this author was teaching in the Arab world, took initiatives to share new ideas and foresights which were envisaged in articles published original in English and Arabic translation in the Muslim World League Journal, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, AlMujtama, Kuwait and other papers/magazines in Egypt and elsewhere.
The proactive thoughts essentially dealt with some of the political issues and tragedies encountering the Arab world today as I could see them coming while working in the Arab world. Strangely, nobody paid attention, not even the people who were supposed to be tracking the global developments affecting the interests of the Muslim Ummah.
In a nutshell, a reformative system of governance based on legislative body - Ummah Council (Parliament), comprised of the elected/chosen scholars-thinkers and professionals from the Islamic world to devise economic and political priorities for change and reformation of the neo-colonial governance by keeping intact the existing infrastructures and figureheads.
It also must involve encouraging and enlisting participation of new and educated generation to assume the leadership role in policy making, decision making, development of public institutions, banking, common currency, enhanced trades between the Muslim world and the Western nations, interactive relationships with the Western institutions and reassuring the Arab rulers of recognition and respect without revolution.
There must be a gradual phase-out and phase-in process of new governance for the future building - sustainable economic and political life of the Muslim Ummah as One People, One Nation existing in peace and harmony with the rest of the world and of course, without the authoritarian and despotic rulers.
Is this not what is desperately needed in the contemporary Arab world to avoid further bloodshed, innocent killings of people and devastation of the social and economic infrastructures built with oil revenues?
Imagine what would history say about the Arab rulers complacent in America's led bogus War on Terrorism - a crusade against Islam and about their leadership role model for the future generations to come? Take a moment and have a cool breathe and think if you can, of the on-going planned massacres and killings of innocent people, political horrors and physical injuries, intellectual and moral insult to Muslim conscience, and deaths and devastation these monsters have caused to the traditional and valued culture of the Arab people: How should the world view the Arab people, societies, Islam and their sense of moral values?
Were there no conscientious and intelligent folks, scholars and thinkers to think of the navigational change and challenge the absurdity of anti-Islamic authoritarianism? Was there nothing else other than handful of sadistic rulers, oil pumping and militarization as the culture and economy of the Arab people? These questions must be answered to the demands of history and future generations.
Devoid of knowledge and basic leadership traits, the rulers appear defiant and paranoid to encounter the voices of reason - organized and effective people's revolutionary movements for freedom and new leadership. President Obama dashed away all the optimism for rethinking and rebuilding Anew America - different than the perpetuated insanity of the Bush era, more akin to peace and co-existence with the rest of the global community in particular, the Arab-Muslim world.
It was a political myth that Obama used to get elected for the first time. Who is going to write the closing chapter of history of the bogus "war on terror?"
Is history going to wait for the cessation of the aggressive hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan? Would the American-led war achieve its agenda priorities or meet the same destiny as it happened to the Romans, German Nazis and the USSR Empires? Ostensibly, history will judge the nations and leaders by their actions, not by their claims.
In his farewell address President D Eisenhower, made the following foresight, political and intellectual priorities known to the people of America:
Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent, I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and lingering sadness of war - as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years... We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied, that those who denied the opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full ... That the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say.Please click hereif you are interested in contributing. Articles submitted for this section allow our readers to express their opinions and do not necessarily meet the same editorial standards of Asia Times Online's regular contributors.
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 his latest, Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking (Lambert Academic Publishing Germany, May 2012).
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