The Muslim monopoly

By
Mehreen Omer
-
31
172

The world has moved on, it’s time the Muslims do too

Drunk in the nostalgia for the Islamic golden age, Muslims today find solace reminiscing about the past. It seems perhaps to be the only comfort for the ills that befall them today; an antidote for “the poison that the cunning West has inflicted them with”. The Islamic golden age has conceitedly become the knock-out punch in store against the Islamophobic debaters. The Muslim world cannot be criticised, for it had once ruled the world.

After all, which infidel can deny the influential role the work of the Muslims played in the European Renaissance? But almost every other Muslim denies the equally significant role the work of the Persians, Greeks & Indians played in the much romanticised Muslim renaissance. The frustrated Muslim today vociferously tries to make the non-Muslims understand that the West does not have a monopoly over science but forgets to accept himself that when the Muslims were at the peak of their scientific and cultural progress it was in large part due to cooperation with people of other faiths.

If it is not sheer arrogance to postulate that all good is a Muslim creation, then it is not blasphemous either to say that the Muslims in fact created nothing of their own. They drew upon the knowledge that was already existent, and only improvised. One of the reasons why the Muslims have largely failed to embrace modernity today is that they feel that their monopoly over knowledge and development is being challenged. Many of them desire the Caliphate system; a heavenly world without any pain and suffering. Would they feel insulted to know that the secular order, that the Muslims are so vehemently trying to oppose, already has many clauses that are a confirmation of the justice that Muslims say only can belong to an ‘Islamic’ social and legal order? If the Muslims do have a monopoly over anything right now, it is a denial of their shared heritage with people of other faiths and customs. The Jewish golden age happened in tandem with the Islamic golden age; the Muslims benefitted from Jewish scientists just like the Jews benefitted from Muslim scientists.

The biggest tragedy that the Muslims face today is not the ignorance of their history, but an unforgivable longing for it. Unfortunately for the nostalgists, the Islamic golden age was not a utopian affair where unconditional justice prevailed and serenity diffused through all holes. However, that is a subject of another discussion. The Muslims today are too busy with winning debates with their infidel counterparts over who’s the daddy. The world has moved on, but the Muslims seem to be lost in retrograde. Just like an intense lover who can’t get over his perfidious beloved, the Muslim world is not coming to terms with why its green fields have turned yellow. Maybe because the Muslims forgot to water them!

Sadly, the manifestations of such a screwed thinking are evident in what is happening in many Muslim countries today. The Pakistani government through PEMRA banned the YouTube for failing to remove a video demeaning the Prophet (pbuh) of Islam. The government was too clever to ban only the video and decided instead to ban the entire platform. Millions of Pakistanis lost access to the educational content over YouTube as well, and that too in a country where e-learning already recently picked up pace to rectify the education apartheid. YouTube became a satanic platform overnight, because the Muslims have a monopoly over good and the infidels just can’t do anything but bad. Facebook is the devil’s ploy too; all Muslims should immediately switch to the halal social network called ‘Millat Facebook’.

And here comes the blame game. Just like the Pakistan Studies textbooks are full of hate material against the Indians in general and Hindus in particular, the Islamic Studies curriculum too idealises Islamic history without acknowledging the faults and injustices of its many Muslim rulers. Many of the sectarian conflicts and the fundamentalist anarchy that affect the Muslim body politic today are actually rooted in the past. An impartial study of Islamic history is indispensable for solving the problems that the Muslim world encounters today. Tariq Ramadan in his book ‘The Quest for Meaning’ talks about the shared universal – values and principles no one faith has a monopoly over. The travesty of history where in reality all civilisations have shared with and contributed to each other’s growth, has led to the polarisation of the world we see today. The infamous ‘Clash of Civilisations’ rhetoric dominates the discussion between the Muslims and the non-Muslims. Neither party is willing to recognise just how much it owes to the other. It seems more appropriate to call it then a ‘Clash of Egos’ rather than a clash of civilisations.

A Muslim tourist to Spain is more interested in bragging about the likes of Alhambra and Cordoba during the time of the Umayyad Caliphate, than he is in actually learning more about them. And a non-Muslim tourist to a developing Muslim country is more interested in the infrastructure development and market liberalisation the West has showered the indigenous and primeval communities with, than he is in actually learning more about their culture and traditions.

But even amongst the Islamophopic humdrum rhetoric in the media, many non-Muslim authors have striven hard to produce works of great length about Islamic science and arts and its contribution to the world today. But there seems to be much reluctance on part of the Muslim world to create a similar work of sorts appreciating the contribution of the people of other faiths to the world we so dearly love.

Muslims don’t have monopoly over success. It’s time they realised it. Living in the past won’t solve the problems of the present, and neither would it make the future any promising. History bears testimony to the fact that the only way civilisations progress is by sharing the contributions of its many nations and communities. The Muslims also did not progress singlehandedly. They were great once, but so was the rest of the world once. But the rest of the world has moved on, it’s time the Muslims do too. The Muslim monopoly never existed, let alone being broken.

 

The writer is a status quo critic by habit and a marketing scientist by profession. She tweets @mehreen_omer

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31 COMMENTS

  1. What exactly are the inventions by Muslims ? Can anyone list them ? I know Islam is militant which believes in invading, conquering and destroying other faiths and beliefs, as anything other than Islam is 'kufar'. But what exactly are inventions made by Muslims ?

    • Forget about inventions may be all the inventions are from hindues. Tell me one thing in last 200 years of known history how many wars are started by Muslim Country. WW1, WW2, Vietnam war, Russian invasion of afganistan, Iraq war, current invasion of afganistan by US. 3500 Muslims killed by moodi. was also done by Muslims. Problem is Keep on beating drum this way lies became truth.

  2. "Just like the Pakistan Studies textbooks are full of hate material against the Indians in general and Hindus in particular".
    I have been to School and college and university which Pakistan studies book you are referring to which is against Indians and hindues. I have never seen such books in any school.
    Yes if you go to RSS schools which I am sure you have gone to you will find a lot of Material about love and peace.

  4. All those (so called muslims)cursing west here would be willing to sell their mothers to ge usa visa i am pretty sure

  5. It is fortuneteller that Muslims have developed an ostrich mentality and see no good elsewhere.Actually they are harming their cause,ideology and what they stood for,Their acts even if it is by a few can only bring discredit to the whole religion and the world has become wary of the race and who suffers,it is the good and innocent who wish to get by with their daily lives.and for all the criticism of the West as satanic it is well known that the majority are dying to immigrate to the land of Satanic West.In a recent article it was pointed out that for all the massive amounts spent in the Gulf nations for development hardly any libraries are opened so that people can gain knowledge.this is unlike in the west where even in a small town one can have access to books and libraries.

  7. Very sensible column. I agree that many Muslims have a one-side and myopic look on history. The right to dissent is significant smaller than in the West, where history is taught and researched more objectively.

  8. One of the most innocent community in the world are muslims because if u look back in history The USA attacked many Muslim countries because of Israel. America wnts to protect Israel, Israeli army robed Palestinian lands in some years, they killed thousand of Muslims !

    the countries specially USA, India, nd Israel have decided to bring a war against Muslims and they are already started it indirectly and some where directly ! its gona be world war 3 against muslims…

  9. An interesting and not unusual viewpoint, however, I disagree. Islam may have had a golden age, but that was only a glimmer of what is to follow.
    The world has changed dramatically in the last 50 or 60 years and is struggling to accept this. It seems to me, at least, that the ability to question cultural values against a societal background is invaluable. The issues being raised here are only evidence that those hard questions are being asked more openly in the Islamic world than else where.

  11. Well you have gone a little far from what your point was. You tried to bring forth a very reasonable argument, but you supported them with pointless paragraphs, if not falsified statements otherwise.
    Which material are you talking about in Pakistan studies or Islamic studies ? I never came across any hatred speech?
    Khilafat may not be a right choice at the moment but having few clauses for justice/equality does not mean a system which should be adapted. Is it?
    If you could have just stick to your actual Problem statement that would have been much better.!
    Regards:
    Irfan A. Muddassir

  14. I failed to grasp what the writer is advocating in her article. This article tries to deal with too many ills, too fast making it sound like mere blabber. What is she criticising ? Islamic egos? Muslim narrowmindedness, our government's botched policies ?
    What is the main argument of this article ? Meh

  15. Muslim in particular are going through very tough times. They are being labelled as terrorists and being treated as lowely infidels. In such times why should we not lift their spirit and talk about how we have once ruled the world with honor and justice so that once again we start taking pride in our religion, start believing more in our religion. i donot deny some of the truth contained in this article but i detest the spirit in which you have written it.. i have read your articles about narcissm and hate speech and i was impressed but this is sheer disapoinment

    • I live in Pakistan, I can safely assume Muslims here I have found most illiterate and without any manners what so ever.there are no ethics, principles, honor, security to life and property, and when people die we say will of Allah, If it is so than let Taliban kill as many as they want on a daily basis, since it is the will of
      Allah, we can not do anything about it, let us destroy ourselves. world will become a lot more happier

  16. I think the premise of Ms.Mehreen's argument is wrong. As Muslims,people think that Muslims too have made contribution towards Human progress ,they don't demand that other recognize that Muslims alone can do good for the world. She assumes that Muslims are jealous of Non-Muslim world's achievements,may be some jingoists among Muslims are,but a vast majority of them aren't. you instead find most Muslims striving to get themselves educated and contribute in ways they can with whatever little resources they have ,to the progress of the world. Muslims are being wrongly projected as cry babies in this article. We are not jealous of anyone. Yes we are aware that we have fallen back in a lot of areas and many are striving to catch up with others in many areas. That said,its also true that some Muslims find an easy escape route in blaming colonialism and foreign interference in many of our countries for our ills and thats despicable.However that shouldn't lead the author to conclude that Colonialism and foreign political meddlings for vested interests don't have any negative impacts on the target nations and societies.

  17. certain issues you highlighted are pertinent but lets understand that there are some things which are not true at all
    1. I never heard or studied a pakistan studies book where hindus are shown as scum or whatever you are trying to prove here, secondly, infact many books even talk about some of them in a good fashion for instance Buddah etc, (interfaith, multicultural etc)
    2. If our books try their best to glorify MUSLIMS scientists, leaders etc its perfectly fine, because even if you cast this out or replace it with their faults etc it will only add to their misery of standing nowhere in the world, it gives them a sense of association with their religion which isnt a bad thing at all as all non-muslim scientists are mentioned aptly in our science books!

    Nevertheless a good article 🙂

  18. well,the issues raised are, no doubt, valid, but biased too, and somewhat exaggerated ,like text books!. surely, this was a criticism, and that is what we are now fond of doing. whenever there is a task of an individual muslim, we blame the whole muslim world, and islam for thats , forgetting that every individual is responsible for his or her action, and not all the people of that community. if we claim to be critic, we should be neutral to both sides of the picture, otherwise biased views are just an emotional expression, which does not appeal to reason.

  20. You the author and the commentators here may wish to take a look at the book KHITAB-E-NAU available for free on-line in digital and audio format at http://www.sprat.in [Communications] arguing a case for deep introspection and aggressive reforms within the Muslim community.

  23. It seems everybody is better off than muslims. As so much progress is available all around them, it should be possible for them to develop, but they find it hard even to borrow and copy.

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