nagasaki – My Bit for Change

After the World War II, while the US celebrated its emergence as a superpower in world politics and the American youth got busy in their Hollywood fantasies, Pizza huts, Mac Donald’s, Adidas, the Japanese youth went back quietly into their redevelopment. Canon, Casio, Citizen, Fujifilm, Fujitsu, Hitachi, JVC Kenwood, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Nikon, Nintendo, Olympus, Panasonic, Pioneer, Ricoh, Seiko Group, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Toshiba… These are the names of the giants in the industry world and most of them came up in past 60 years i.e. after Hiroshima- Nagasaki were atom-bombed; And mind well, Hiroshima- Nagasaki’s destruction was worse than Kabul and Baghdad’s devastation.

Japan is a small nation like Prophet David, peace be upon him, of Bani Israel. US is a giant like Goliath. Japan did not give up after the tragedy. In a span of twenty years Japan conquered the US. The entire American roads were run over by Suzuki, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda. The ears and the attention of millions of young Americans were puffed by Sony, Panasonic giving them Jazz and Pop. Americans saw their own country through the eyes of Nikon and other cameras made in Japan. Every shop, every mall, every technology read “Made In Japan“. Except that you were born American, the rest of your life was structured and governed by Japan. From washing machine to cars and mobiles, the Americans got addicted and obsessed by “Made in Japan“

This is making an entire nation submit to your “Technological Culture”. This is called an Economical Victory, a Cultural Victory, without any weapons. Like David throwing his sling and bringing down the Giant Goliath, Japan hurled many slings in the form of technology. The most wonderful part of this war is that Japan won America without defeating it.

Something similar also had happened to the ancient Baghdad after it was invaded and devastated by the Mongols. Ibn Kathir says in one day 60 thousands Muslims were butchered at the hands of Mongols. But in 1295 a Buddhist named Maḥmūd Ghāzān declared himself Muslim, compelling other Mongol notables to follow suit. His patronage of Islamic learning fostered such brilliant writers as Rashīd al-Dīn, the physician and scholar who authored one of the most famous Persian universal histories of all time. Even Genghis Khan’s grandson Berke converted to Islam. Don’t forget that Genghis Khan was the one who destroyed Baghdad.

In the history of mankind this is a unique landmark. An entire army including its kings, princes, nobles and warriors, after defeating, destroying and looting a nation, themselves adopted the faith, culture, festivals and the life style of the defeated army.

Baghdad and Kabul are once again invaded and devastated. But the sling that the Muslims possess is of better quality and promised to give better results during crises. It is more guaranteed than all the “Made in Japan” products put together. That sling is ISLAM. If the Baghdadis of 1220s can do it why can’t the Baghdadi’s of 2012? If the entire Mongols can convert to Islam, why can’t the entire American army? The Americans need Islam more than they need the Japanese cars and mobiles. Look at their lives. See their crime statistics; study their divorce rates and reasons, broken families, violence in the streets and campus. Jimmy Swaggert, the noted evangelist says that America has 25 Millions of drunkards and 25 millions of heavy drinkers and for me both are same. The issue of drugs is a real one too. Americans need Islam. This sling is more effective than any violent processions. The Qur’an itself suggests:

“Repel evil with that which is better and you will see the person with whom you had enmity will be your fast friend” (Surah Fussilat).

The phrase-“Give unto God what was God’s and to Caesar what were Caesar’s”- is such a charming phrase, full of all that is naïve, and based on wishful thinking.

Let me elaborate on secular grounds, using reason alone against the dogmatic principles associated with revelation, that there exists a very obvious contradiction in the statement, which is to say ‘what if God and Caesar disagree? Who to ‘give unto’ then?’

But let’s not concern the logical fallacies, or rather, intellectual dishonesties, secularists entail in their arguments. For now, we’ll bring to discussion the attitude they adopt in their desperate attempts to pin down all-things-religious.

And here comes the dilemma of our ‘pseudo-liberals’. You’ll never find them taking part in any real intellectual argument. They’ll never take your words as a basis of your argument but would rather first declare you “Mullahs”, “Ignorant”, “Religious Extremists” and so on. Then, they will simply take the stereotypes based on these words and try to throw false accusations on you.

It’s the easiest job to put your opponent in any given debate in his weakest position i.e. extremist and put words in the mouth of your opponent, based on awkward stereotypes and flawed assumptions. And by taking such childish measures they are in fact running away from any fruitful dialogue based on sound principles such as reason, empathy, honesty and maturity. Without these principles you are a child who, inattentive of what other people in the room are saying, is too busy talking to his imaginary friend. When told that there are secular extremists too, they simply deny any such thing. They simply say that only religious extremism exists as extremism belongs to the narrow minded which of course seculars can never be.

But I tend to differ.

After all, what would such liberals have to say on the secular fascism taking place on the streets of Karachi? All three political parties accused of violence in Karachi, namely the PPP, MQM, and ANP are secular parties working on purely secular motives. Alternative accounts would say that ethnic rivalries are the motives behind the everyday killings of ordinary citizens that we all have become accustomed to. But aren’t ethnic rivalries essentially secular in nature. So can we really back away now from admitting that ‘Secular Fascism and Terrorism’ does exist in our very metropolitan?

Secular fascism doesn’t only exist; it’s all over the place. It’s the rule, not the exception. For instance, look at the word fascism itself. Its roots are in a purely secular ideology that has nothing to do with religion. Those who upheld this ideology believed themselves superior to other nations on purely secular grounds. Certainly the killing of six million Jews had no religious motivation whatsoever.

Social Darwinism is another ideology that took refuge in what it considered “positive science”. It preoccupied the mind-set of the European colonizers and gave them moral justification for all their vicious acts. Of course, since they could “scientifically” say that they are a more advanced and evolved race, it was their duty to propagate their own race throughout the globe while colonizing, and in the process, plundering, looting, raping, subjugating and exterminating, whole civilizations. After all it was “a survival of the fittest” as Herbert Spencer would like it to be. But all was justified, secularly, as the “White Man’s Burden”, which made it so easy to forget the genocide of whole civilizations in America and Australia, and enslavement of millions of Africans.

But religion is always brought to the limelight on the accusation that so many bad acts are carried in the “name of religion”. But what about the horrifying acts carried out on the basis on secular things, like ‘democracy’, ‘liberation’, ‘civilisation’ and ‘justice’.

What about the most devastating wars the world has ever seen, the world wars? Were they not fought in the name of secularism? What about the cold war that frightened humanity with the unprecedented accumulation of weapons of mass destruction, scientific espionage, false polarization, and organized violence, even wars, in the third world.

What about the making of the nuclear bomb. Would any religion sanctify of the making of a weapon that could kill millions in an instant and ruin generations to come. And what about the bombarding of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; did they have religious motives, or secular ones?

The world is full of secular people and regimes involved in horrendous crimes against humanity.Unfortunately, in our own country we see an emerging secular “liberal” class that has some very strange tendencies.

For first, it excludes anyone with a different lifestyle and view-point, from being part of that class. If you do not detest and dislike everything associated with religion, if you do not think everything wrong with our country is because of religion; and most importantly if you do not make fun of religion and religious people then no matter how open-minded you are, you sir, cannot be a ‘liberal’.

Second, it’s the greatest supporter of US imperialism. If it’s the Raymond Davis issue, they’ll say ‘Well, he has ‘diplomatic immunity (whatever that is)’; if it’s Aafia Siddiqui, they’ll say ‘she is a terrorist and deserves every piece of brutality thrown at her’. If it is a drone attack on innocent civilians, they’ll say ‘we do not have the technology so we have no other option because, after all, our lifestyle is ‘threatened’.

And third, it side-lines all human right calls when it comes to religious people; the state murder of the female students of Jamia Hafsa was justified, with no room for sympathy whatsoever, because they were used as a ‘human shield’. (So the next time a person uses your daughter as a human shield to save him from the gun in your hand, you should kill both).

Such liberals are not liberals at all. They’re extremists. Full stop!!

Tag: nagasaki

The Sling that brought down Goliath