Love in The Time of Narcissism

Arguably, love is the highest sentiment the human spirit is capable of. In essence, it is selfless, generous, liberating, sublime. It purges one of all that holds one down to the mundane and earthy. Kahlil Gibran famously writes:

“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”

The contemporary world is characterized by the ascendancy of materialism that has banished the spiritual and hence objectified, commercialized and marketized some of the most sublime values. The sacred sentiment of love has not been spared from being grotesquely tainted by it- so that we have it ‘expressed’ in expensive, stark-red balloons, roses, chocolates on sale all over shops in Pakistan. The local florist explained to an appalled me that the reason why the flowers were so shockingly costly was on account of something called ‘Vanteen Day.’

The hyped up, almost frenzied festivities on Valentine’s Day depict this cult of hedonistic Narcissism that has gripped us in its monstrous clutches. This makes our deepest and most sacred, private sentiment be expressed with a loud, bawdy exhibitionism that denigrates its sublimity and reduces it to a hollow shell painted in gaudy hues. This overzealous celebration of carnal passion symbolizes the perversion of the sacred that is an inevitable result of materialism.

We are taught to express and exhibit passion to satiate our own selfish lusts- spend enough to ‘prove’ our love, fall in love with ‘love’ romanticized by the popular media; to breathlessly pursue romantic love, chase it, possess it, flaunt it and gloat over it lecherously.
In a recent video released by a Pakistani band known for its mock-satiric music, the chorus goes, ‘Sub Paisey ki game hai’ (It is all a game of money). The circus on Valentine’s Day is driven by imperatives of the capitalistic marketplace ordering us to ‘shop till you drop’ to ‘prove’ you love ‘enough.’ This ‘commodification’ of love exploits a basic human emotion in order to make big business. In the process, love is reduced to chocolate bars, rosebuds, balloons- or diamond rings and designer dresses- according to income bracket, social class and of course, taste.

In a class discussion when I mentioned to my students how Valentines Day goes against the spirit and ethos of Islam, a student candidly retorted, ‘But it does not harm anyone’. Certainly it does not, at a fleeting look. However, deep within, when we partake of it, we concede that love is a ‘thing’ to be flaunted and bought with money, not made out of real, lived experience of sharing, giving, forbearing, forgiving, growing, treading life’s jagged paths together with a hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on. We negate the fact that love is made and found and relished everyday through little things you cannot buy with money; garnered painstakingly through smiles and tears and wounds and fears. In the process of celebrating this ‘harmless’ festivity, we actually condone the cruel, horrible things that go on outside the gates of girls’ colleges in the city, and inside young lonely hearts. I remember how in my college days girls used to talk of the surprise gifts from ‘secret’ or ‘known’ admirers and the less ‘fortunate’ ones shrank into themselves with shame and a haunting sense of loneliness and inferiority- often in physical terms. I found it heinous. The balloons and red-shirted urchins rampaging the streets and marketplaces tell me it is far worse for young people today.

Mark Vernon writes in his remarkable article, ‘Is Romantic Love a Bad Thing?’:

“I suspect that the desire for a peak experience of love has eclipsed the fact that love is primarily about others. The romantic myth would have us fall in love with love, paradoxically not with another. This twisted love whispers that it does not much matter who you fall for, only that you fall in love.

There is a spiritual dimension to this romantic addiction too. The philosopher Simon May has proposed that while many have given up on God in the West, we still long for the unconditional love that God used to offer.

But godless, we seek instead unconditional love from our fellow humans. We make them gods, and of course they fail us. And then love turns to hate. It’s a desire that, because of the excess, destroys love.”

“Ibrahim A.S- seeking spiritual fulfilment and coming to rest in the embrace of the Divine- had declared, “I love not that which fades away.” (The Noble Quran).

Selfless love that heals and gives and forgives arises out of this complete self-surrender encountering and recognizing the Perfect, Absolute Truth. This is why the festivals of Islam include compulsory charity and sharing of joy with the less privileged.

Modesty, said the Prophet (PBUH) is the distinguishing trait of Islam. Modesty implies revulsion towards exhibitionism and obscenity; it implies protection of the private, it implies dignity, humility, quietude, sincerity, purity. It is the crowning glory of a believer. The uproarious celebration of Valentine’s Day betrays the essence of modesty. It is a mindless aping of a culture entrenched in the Overblown but Minimal Self.

EPILOGUE:
The age demanded an image
Of its accelerated grimace,
Something for the modern stage,
The “age demanded” chiefly a mould in plaster,
Made with no loss of time,
‘All things are a flowing’,
Sage Heracleitus says;
But a tawdry cheapness
Shall outlast our days.
Decreed in the market place.
(Ezra Pound: Hugh Selwyn Mauberley)

KASHMIR: Sinking Into Oblivion, Rising From The Ashes

The jarring reports on human rights abuse in Kashmir- notably, of rape used as a weapon against an occupied people- have failed to elicit a response from the United Nations. When pressed for comments over a report on the presence of thousands of unmarked graves, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon apologized that he had ‘no comments for now.’ This is not just the UN lacking teeth; it is the UN being reduced to virtual dysfunction_ that is, irrelevance to global context altogether. With emboldened contraventions of its Charter by the most powerful states of the world as well as the much larger role and unrestrained power enjoyed by regional strategic organizations like NATO, the UN, like its predecessor, grows pathetically feeble and ineffectual. Nobody lost a lot of sleep over the contents of these reports, and no uncomfortable questions were asked of anyone either.

The failure of human rights abuse in the world’s conflict zones and occupied regions to arouse significant concern shows how violence in the world’s conflict zones has become routinized in our collective consciousness. The world’s collective conscience is desensitized to human rights violations in places that routinely experience them. This silence implies a tacit sanction of occupation and its accompanying practices and doles out licenses to kill for trigger-happy men in uniform that help to maintain an arbitrary hold on suffering populations. We accept the brutality that is the work of human hands and the expression of men’s lust for control, dominance, power as an indelible destiny that some of the unfortunate ones among mankind have to live with. And life goes on.

Mirza Waheed, a Kashmiri journalist and author of the novel ‘The Collaborator’ writes:

“Brutalized people are made to behave normally as an acquiescent citizenry… The Indian State wants the world to believe that Kashmir is an integral part of India, and hence speaks often in the language of conquest. Dehumanized conflict management impinges upon the lives of ordinary people. This is a system that allows the executor to live in comfortable moral ambiguity, and wants the victim to renounce all claims to asserting his identity. This is what violence, torture, brutality are meant to do_ to reduce a person, a mind, a collection of minds to a spiritless body; the complete destruction of the will of the victim, which ensures a people are kept in submission and slavery…”

While it is possible to understand and even perhaps empathize with victims whose interminable suffering kills their hope and gradually renders them numb and insensate to the blatant injustice that happens around them, this cannot so easily be condoned in the case of those who are distanced from conflict and watch it as third persons on television screens. The 60-odd years of the reign of terror in the Occupied Valley , the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, the illegal detentions, disappearances and the Draconian laws to justify these and give cover to perpetrators; and most importantly the state’s refusal to bring violators to book are a damning sentence on Indian state policy on Kashmir. This is important particularly, given Indian aspirations to regional dominance and permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council. These blood-drenched statistics signify an irredeemable loss of India’s ‘high moral ground’ as an aspirant to global power and prestige. It all adds up to a grotesque illustration of and a powerful indictment on the state of the world’s collective conscience and our failure to apply ethics to international affairs.

The Kashmiri is doomed to suffer as long as ‘War on Terror’ realpolitik holds hostage universal ethics, human rights, justice and common decency. In the post-9/11 global dynamics, India has closely allied its Kashmir policy with the larger anti-terror narrative of the U.S by selling Kashmir as a classic case of ‘Islamic militancy’ and ‘cross border terrorism’ against a Secular-Democracy, garnering the world’s sympathy and deflecting attention from its own dirty tactics. A world dumbed down by a media governed by corporate interests and powerful lobbies readily swallows the narrative, and Kashmir sinks deeper into oblivion.

The U.S has chosen to bury its head in the sand regarding Kashmir. This exposes the meaninglessness of its rhetoric of democracy, self-determination, freedom, human rights etc, and the sheer hypocrisy of its claim to higher moral ground. The global recession that has hit the U.S economy hard accentuates the importance of the Indian market for the U.S, underscoring the need for stronger bilateral ties. Keeping mum on Kashmir serves everyone’s interests_ or, the interests of everyone that matters.

Pakistan on the other hand, caught miserably as it is between a rock and a very hard place, has very noticeably loosened its hold onto Kashmir, with its focus shifted to its Western border and the bloody, nationwide fallout of its blundering into the north-western tribal areas. The War on Terror has concentrated itself in Pakistani territory, with Pakistan desperately trying to play up to its ‘most allied ally’ status while an increasingly suspicious, imperious United States threatens to ‘go it alone’ as the trust deficit gapes wider.

Kashmir is the tragic casualty in the new alignment and dynamics in the subcontinent. Amnesia is imposed on Kashmir by India with tacit approval from the U.S, and pathetic, inaudible whimpers of discontent from a hapless Pakistan.

However, in a way, this new state of affairs comes with opportunity. Kashmir has previously been caught between a ceaseless tug of war between India and Pakistan with a terrible national egotism and ideologically loaded stances defining the narrative. With Pakistan loosening its grasp, the indigenous, home-grown Kashmiri narrative acquires greater authenticity. Kashmir emerges as an indigenous, independent struggle for freedom and self-determination springing out of its saffron fields_ regardless of Indian intransigence, Pakistani ambivalence and American caprice.

Allegations by India of the Kashmir struggle being sustained by Pakistan have defined the Indian position on Kashmir and have been used to justify its highhandedness and its relentless militarism in the region. The theory loses ground as Kashmir emerges boldly as an independent movement of its own and on its own, in the face of Pakistan’s diminishing influence and national distraction.

It is this new, emergent trend that the occupier is frightened of and tries to eradicate through desperate measures: mass arrests, custodial murders, cover ups of evidence of diabolical deliberation behind all these. As India aspires to regional dominance and a permanent UNSC seat, it naturally has to be conscious of keeping up an image befitting of the world’s largest secular democracy that it goes about as. This requires gagging the voices from Kashmir and hushing up the noise made by human rights groups; it involves burying corpses in unmarked mass graves in the thick of the night, and whitewashing the blood stains. India’s desperate strategy to crush the bolder, genuine Kashmiri counter narrative is to create victims or potential victims out of all, using constant fear of the arbitrary occupier that creates a sense of helplessness destroying aspirations, hopes, courage; killing the resisting spirit and the will to act in defence. This impels the cycle of violence to continue endlessly and indefinitely, with little moral qualms given India’s powerful media and its global influence.

However, the false, dishonest, morally bankrupt narrative must be defeated by the Kashmiris through their stronger, deeper, genuine counter narrative that goes beyond Indo-Pakistan conventional wrangling, beyond shifty and capricious interests of Someone Else, beyond cosmetic face-lifts by oppressor nations aspiring to global power, beyond spineless leaders and dysfunctional organizations:

“For me, what gives hope is the rise of more and more young people articulating their own narrative, their own experiences, their own policies…” (Mirza Waheed)

An Instructive Absurdity

Much has been written about the Theatre of the Absurd in Islamabad on the Ides of January. I wouldn’t dignify it with comment on the agenda, the proceedings, the success or the lack of it. But I am interested in examining how it could have happened, with the support of the many thousands who braved the cold and the rain and stood their ground. Hope is a great thing. What drove the many to Islamabad in the face of security threats under the grey skies was hope. But what makes it ironic and poignant is how unworthy was that which they pinned their dreams and expectations to.

But when deprivation, helplessness, desperation beat hope up to a frenzied furore, and when you add to this the ignorance and gullibility of the average Pakistani, you have what you saw in Islamabad: men women and children risking all to lend strength to a controversial cult figure ensconced in his well-furnished mobile cabin crying hoarse about justice while the devotees that had made his absurd drama happen shivered in the cold in the open, aware of the ever-present fragile security situation in this country.

While the parallel with how the Lal Masjid crisis was brutally dealt with brings out the merits of democracy- any democracy, even as bad as this one- there are other lessons to be learnt. With crowds cheering to the sensational rhetoric emerging from the Hallowed Container, I wondered why the many far less controversial veteran Islamic scholars that have lived and died in this country, could never manage to call the shots or muster up a following as large or as willing to brave the billows to rally to their leader’s call. Yeats wrote: ‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.’

There are lessons to be learnt by Islamically inclined leaders and organizations. Qadri’s inclusive appeal, his embrace of diversity and reaching out to minority groups and sects has been clearly articulated. In the wake of 9/11, his masterstroke was in managing to emerge as one of the few voices from this part of the world categorically rejecting extremism and the Taliban’s misuse of religion to justify violence. The voluminous treatises on tolerance in Islam, virtues of non violence and the fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombings was an instant hit for the very fact that it was presented from this part of the world by a beard-sporting individual in religious headgear, when others of the kind busied themselves criticising US policies solely and exclusively, deflecting criticism away from the malaise within. The international acclaim and support he has garnered is something to speak of.

One can compare this to the fact that many religious groups and individuals had in this time produced article after article and delivered sermon after sermon almost entirely focused on refuting deviant innovative practices among other sects, democracy as a kufr-based system and the media as a vicious propaganda-machine. Islamic institutions produced work on the intricacies of theology, the curse of nationalism and the need for ruling by Islam, all in a language and manner that relates little to the average Pakistani Muslim. When the nation was beset with challenges to its very integrity and survival at the hands of those operating in the name of Islam, Islamic scholars busied themselves in traditional theological discourse, occasionally issuing fiery critique of American policy and the Zionist and secular lobby. Few voices rose to reject the rise of extremist religiosity that took up violence against non combatants and had the audacity to sanctify it in the name of Islam.

Few voices reached out to the public confused between the extremist and the secular-liberal discourse, seeking a satisfying, middling narrative. Few addressed with precision and clarity the problems of the mass-man. Few addressed growing concerns in the rest of the world about violence in the name of Islam on the rise in this part of the world. It is a fundamental principle of conventional morality that self-criticism is nobler. By failing to rise to the occasion, they have reduced themselves to utter irrelevance, ceding ground to ambitious opportunists wearing the ravishing guise of religiosity like Qadri in a nation peopled by the religiously sentimental semi-educated and illiterate.

And this brings us to the most vital point- in the final analysis, the grandiose Theatre of the Absurd in Islamabad highlights like never before the fact that the greatest challenge we confront is the ignorance and lack of awareness among the common man- and this threatens to make a mockery of our still nascent democracy. It reduces a nation of 180 million to slogan-chanting, gullible, hero-worshipping rabble taken in with whoever can play the Promised Messiah best. And as long as we do not take on this enemy within, demagogues and those practised in the art of publicity-seeking theatrics will continue to claim attention they do not merit- by the sheer numbers of their ignorant, juvenile, emotionally charged and intellectually naive fan-following.

Of Gotham City And Pakistan

I was watching the movie Batman Begins a few days ago, and one of the things in it that really perked my interest was the state-of-affairs of Gotham City. It was a city shown in shambles; a place where corruption had infiltrated the very infrastructure of the city. A city overrun by criminals, and no system of law and order. ‘Create enough hunger, and the society can be easily bought’. Even the people unwilling to resort to criminal acts were forced to do so just to survive. And the good people, who yearn for justice in the society, their hands were tied because they were encircled by corrupt people everywhere and there is no one to support them.

Why did it perk my interest? Well, because of the fact that the state-of-affairs in Pakistan are really not very different from Gotham City. The same corruption, criminal activities being carried out openly aggravated by complete absence of justice makes the poor, poorer and the rich, richer.

Of course, while drawing an analogy between reality and fiction, some things just do not add up. The most obvious one in this case would be: where is our Batman?

‘Where‘ might not be a suitable question to ask at the moment. A more pressing question would be, what does the ‘Batman’ in this context even refer to? To answer this question, I would ask you to recall the Batman movies (the Christopher Nolan trilogy in particular). The people believe in Batman. They have stored all their hopes in this one masked man, that as long as he is around, Gotham is safe and they can safely hope for a better future. In short, Batman is a symbol of hope for the people of Gotham City.

Coming back to the Batman of Pakistan, I think the above paragraph answers our question. We do not need a masked man running around under the cover of darkness beating up criminals to a pulp, for that would not solve our problems; we need a symbol of hope.

And thus crops up another question: do we even have one?

From a certain perspective, a lot of people would answer that question with a positive response. Hope is a must; it’s necessary if we are to get through these tough times. Usually these are the ever-optimistic people who are always saying things like “we’ll get through this, “one must always stay positive”, “do not lose hope people”, “sab theek ho jaye ga” etc.

For such people, I have a question: what exactly are you instilling your belief(s) in, that gives you such hope? Or what are you advising us to believe in and gain hope from? The people of Gotham City had Batman; who or what do we have?

People will react to that question in different manners. Some people will attribute their hopes to the government and the many political parties engaged in a never-ending warfare to wrest the throne from one another’s hands and trying to bring it into their hands. They may store their hopes in the current government, PTI leader Imran Khan, or the relatively new Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri or some other person/party; that is their business. Some people see hope in the Army. Others have given up on the government and all political parties and have instead resorted to putting their faith into the public uniting, or the youth of the nation and so on. Some people have given up on the country altogether and are concentrating on getting out of Pakistan, ready to resort to any way possible. And then there are the dejected pessimists who have given up hope altogether and continue about their ways, oblivious of the matters going on in their country, convinced that all is lost now.

Whatever your symbol of hope may be i.e. your Batman, it has to be a legitimate one. For the present state-of-affairs of our country have worsened far beyond the point of merely sitting around and hoping for a miracle. And here arises the complex problem, the reason why our nation is not progressing at all, and everytime we seem to be the brink of a revolution, it all crumbles down; it is our inability to cope with difference of opinion.

We all have our different ‘Batmen’, which sounds fine, but is actually not. The concept of ‘I have my opinion, you have yours, let’s leave it at that’ simply does not exist in our people. No, we tend to force our opinions down their throats and remain on their case until they see the error of their thoughts and the wisdom in ours. And these arguments are not carried out in a peaceful and proper manner, as they should, but rather heatedly with abuses spewing from both sides, and a sense of righteousness and extreme loyalty to the side we support accompanying the involved parties. These arguments may be carried out on some social network; where all it takes for things to turn ugly is some aggressive loud-mouth to make a rash statement, and then all that follows is merely a matter of feeding the fire; or in person; where fists can take over words in a matter of seconds. Take the latter scenario to a higher level, and you see people being kidnapped or gunned down for merely disagreeing with someone.

And this is precisely the attitude standing in the way of ‘unity’. According to our ideology, people cannot have different Batmans and the idea of one Batman reigning supreme over all others is simply unacceptable, and does get protested against ferociously. Our country is caught up in a circular loop, a paradigm. And sadly, this lack of difference of opinion does not exist simply where Batmen are concerned, but other matters as well (consider killings on the basis of ethnic, sectarian and lingual backgrounds and terminating their right to live? Bravo!).

And as long as this paradigm remains, shall I be one of those dejected pessimists who sees hope only in getting out of this country and settling somewhere else? For how can we hope for any progress under such circumstances?

To sum it all up: We as a nation have become so hostile in our opinions, goals, hopes and pretty much everything else. Add to that our absolute lack of tolerance for the existence of difference of opinion and we have the current situation: where the word ‘nation’ can no longer be used to describe us. We are a myriad of sects, tribes, peoples living in an enclosed boundary set by the British Empire right before they left. We live in Pakistan but we are not Pakistanis…

What Does It Mean To Be Religious?

 

We all seem to have an image. An image of what a God-fearing and religious person looks like. That image may be founded on our experience with those whom we consider to be “religious” or at times based on what we imagine a pious person to be, created upon our reading from a particular book, novel or after having watched a video.

The fact of the matter is that despite of what we imagine and consider being a God-fearing person, there are, there will be and have always been some really outstanding and amazing God conscious people in almost every nook and corner of our planet. But, the most pious people on the planet do not go around boasting of how good they are, nor do they look down arrogantly upon others. It is their sincerity of work, humbleness in their achievements, and trust in God which really makes them superior to those who claim to be sincere, humble, and trust worthy yet act otherwise. It is however, strange that on a more general opinion, people assume that the more pious a person becomes, the less cheerful he gets and the more arrogant he appears to be. One should realize that a truly pious Muslim is the one who is more caring for his/her parents, takes good care of his/her neighbour, kind in treating the ones younger than him/her and respectful towards his/her elders. If this was not the kind of pious person you had in mind then you should know, that the person you have had a bad experience with and whom you thought was religious was in fact not a God-conscious person, at least not yet!

As an inspiration for all Muslims and even all non-Muslims, let us learn from the impeccable characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was once recorded to have said:

“None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” [Recorded in the Book Saheeh Bukhari]

Similarly, on another occasion the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said:

“He is not one of us who does not show tenderness to the young and who does not show respect to the elder.” [Recorded in the book Tirmidhi]

Allah says in the Qur’an: ““O people, surely we have created you from a male and female, and made you tribes and families that you might know one another. Indeed, the noblest of you with Allah is he who is best in conduct.” [Qur’an, 49:13]

And there are many more verses and sayings of the Prophet (pbuh) that prove the same point. Hence, a significant amount of Islamic literature deals with improving one’s character and dealings with not just other human beings but also with animals. The Prophet (Peace be upon him), told his companions of a woman who would be sent to Hell for having locked up a cat; not feeding it, nor even releasing it, so that it could feed itself. [Narrated by Abdullah bin ‘Umar (R.A.), Recorded in Saheeh Bukhari] Therefore, improving one’s good manners and characters is a possible sign of him trying to be more pious. However, Islam is not just about good manners. It’s about perfecting one’s prayer, removing any possible chance of showing off, standing up and speaking out against injustice, giving money to the needy and the under-privileged, in short, being closer to the creator of the universe, and doing all that one can to maintain and improve upon that closeness.

However, one important point of consideration is to make one’s intentions pure. One should not study so that other humans can praise him for his vastness in knowledge, not to give in charity so that others can praise him for his generosity and not to fight against injustice so that others can call him brave. As a matter of fact, such people shall be in loss on the Day of Judgment due to their misappropriate intentions. One should only do good deeds so that the Creator of the universe will reward him for that. This is precisely what it means to be good. To do good sincerely and with full devotion keeping in mind that the creator of the universe is well aware of his intentions and hence should be sincere and diligent in doing good deeds is indeed a success in itself. This is exactly why; the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) were world renowned for their incredible character and amazing patience. They did not do good deeds so that other human beings could praise them, but, because they wanted to thank God in any way they could. They did not do good deeds so that people would reward them with medals or prizes but because they wanted to be rewarded by God in this life and the life hereafter.

It was due to this blend of sincerity combined with devotion, patience, and authentic knowledge of the commands of the prophet (peace be upon him) and of God, which made Muslims unparalleled and outstanding. And, unless and until we adopt this amazing yet simple recipe for success in this life and the hereafter, we would still remain lost in the same mess where we find ourselves today.

Toxic Effects of Inferiority Complex (III)

In South Africa there are two million whites against almost thirteen million native people, and it has never occurred to a single black to consider himself superior to a member of the white minority.– Frantz Fanon

The feeling of inferiority of the colonized is the correlative to the European’s feeling of superiority. Let us have the courage to say it outright: It is the racist who creates his inferior.– Frantz Fanon

(First quote of Fanon really shook our spines to the core. This thought has never occurred to us! We must confess. Ask yourself. The second one is a ‘proven’ psychological fact.)

There’s an undeniable existence of self-hatred, self-pity and total disregard for our Way (cultural and above all religious) present in many of us, especially those dazzled by all things ‘western’. Another term for this disease is Occidentosis. Speaking of which Jalal Al-i Ahmed writes in his famous Occidentosis: A Plague from West:

“Under [occidentosis] we are like strangers to ourselves, in our food and dress, our homes, our manners, our publications, and, most dangerous, our culture. We try to educate ourselves in the European style and strive to solve every problem as the Europeans would.”

Jalal has comprehensively summarized negative effects of westernization in various aspects of our individual and collectives lives which we’ll attempt to examine as following.

Aftershocks: 150+ Years of Psychic Downfall

1. Psychological Illness. Inferiority Complex is a psychological problem, to begin with. It’s a disorder arising from the conflict between the desire to be noticed and the fear of being humiliated, characterized by aggressiveness or withdrawal into oneself. It engenders the survival of distinct value systems and identities.

It could be learned through observation, or a subject could be induced with it (we recommend self-examination first). It’s a deadly weapon in the hands of a skillful occupier or one fed with superiority complex; even a suicidal technique that subjugated societies/individuals may like to impose on itself, sometimes. It can destroy glorious sanctities, making us un-objective and profane. British used this weapon quite exceedingly and successfully, who else can come to our mind? And, they had totally studied the types of it too; Frantz Fanon documents in his book Black Skin, White Masks. Wherever they needed to use force to inject it, they didn’t hesitate; like their colleague Frenchmen operating ruthlessly in Africa. Blacks were played with on the terms of their appearance. But, in Asia, they relentlessly used mind control tactics, along with coercion, to crush South Asians.

Due to that long historical process, loyalty and admiration of westerners is deeply embedded in many minds. Utter one critical word about the excesses of westerners and it will severely provoke west-worshiping extremists. One of their knee-jerk reactions is: “How dare you criticize them? Look at yourself,” they’ll remind you with contempt. “West might have its share of evils, but we’ve no right to criticize them.” “Who gave you the right to deny us our right of criticism?” we might ask humbly (only in English though). It only shows the shallowness and poverty of Brown Sahibs, who do not stop complaining about their not being taken seriously anymore. Have they taken the down-trodden, poor, “backward” natives more or less seriously than discarded western ideologies or its new imported gadgets & fashions?

2. Linguistic Prejudice. We South Asians have not given up our obsession with that foreign language and culture yet, let alone respond to deeper intellectual challenges of that godless civilization. Had English language been given due attention – no matter how little compared to our languages and culture – we would not have felt a need to talk about it. But, imagine the pain an Urdu-medium child in Punjab has to go through when he misspells an English word (phonetically) in front of insecure urban dwellers. Is this not Satan’s work in man’s garb? It’s remarkable, how a few of us armed with useless knowledge of this language and western manners can abuse, yield and ridicule our own brethren, and yet get away with it!

For instance, a private TV channel went after Members of Punjab Assembly (MPAs), questioning their mastery of English. Is being good at English a requirement to lead a Punjabi province? They ridiculed and harassed whoever said, a) they’d rather reply in Urdu, or, b) couldn’t speak well like a parrot.  Their assumption was: s/he who can flawlessly speak English is truly knowledgeable, and capable of maintaining peace and prosperity in Pakistan. This is obviously false, yet we all in some degree accept this subconsciously, and feel embraced when we find ourselves or our leaders bad at it. Take the example of Hussain Haqqani, one of the proficient practitioners of English, who has authored books in it. Journalist Woodward reported him equating Pakistan to a prostitute and calling us “rug sellers,” to Amerikanos. Haqqani’s job was to trade Pakistan’s resources and sovereignty for a few dollars.

Recall how much we laugh at someone named Meera – sadly. Calling McDonald as M-C-Donald is creativity, not dumbness, in a society that cannot spell correctly and fully a complex sentence in their national language.

2. Rise of Mono-culturalism. Culture is defined by collective customs, habits, styles, dresses and attitudes of people in geographical, ethnic and/or national context. Diversity is the spice of life; and Allah created these differences to let us celebrate our identities and see beauty in various forms. Monoculture of modern west destroys this diversity and beauty of forms. Moreover, the real problem is the difference between monoculture of west and native cultures: it’s that of quantity and quality. Appearances and cleverness are two hallmarks of modern man, while their inside is really dark, noted Allama Iqbal. Ours, including all native Oriental and Occidental cultures, is based on quality and content.

The outward awe of western power produces an unintelligent admiration for their culture. Consequently, it produces a psychopathic hatred of local cultural forms and manifestation. Salman Rushdie is a prime example of this self-hatred. Initially, due to deep-seated inferiority complex, he used to ridicule his family, culture and country to vent frustrations. In an article on Rushdie Affair, Dr A. Zaman writes:

“Rushdie has a tremendous hatred for Muslims … Desperate for acceptance into English society in his youth, he was denied it because of his race and culture. A common response to this childhood trauma is intense hatred for one’s own race/culture/religion.”

Imran Khan has comprehensively shown how the fake-elite class disregards its mother tongue and culture, in his book Pakistan: A Personal History. In an article published on this very site, Selective Islam, he also shows how colonial experience destroyed a sense of pride in one’s own culture and religion in English-speaking class. Leaders are most important people in a society, because people imitate them. In this light, our leaders are not ours because they totally copy occupiers from the west, for no greater good or reason. This realization transformed Imran Khan into a proud desi, which is visible from his priorities and habits; although he admires deeper aspects of western civilization, like that of rule of law, justice, etc.

The bottom-line is that we have to differentiate between real enemies and real friends. Appearances shouldn’t matter. If an illiterate, uncultured villager is patriotic, then he’s far better than a snobbish, inferiority complex-ridden, west-worshipping PhD or high ranking general. How can they act in our best interest, when their worldview, likes and dislikes only mirror that of their masters?

4. Spiritual disease. In short, inferiority complex – which shouldn’t be reduced to being a linguistic or cultural issue – is not just a psychological disorder, but primarily is a spiritual disease. Psychology might suggest solutions which can boost self-confidence or self-esteem. However, its side effects can be more severe; it might induce too much narcissism and egoism, two of the leading ailments of the modern man.

This inferiority complex made us do absurd things. We threw away our priceless culture, knowledge, our (spiritual) attire just to please our masters; our modernized fellows would even question the very existence of these treasures. This stopped us from freeing ourselves from the falsehood, idols that reside in our hearts. Idols of power and technology are what we worship today. Our tongues do not tire of taking One God’s name yet Lat and Manat reside and perpetuate in our hearts.

Iqbal says: “The fetters are not on feet, but on the heart and soul; this is indeed a very intriguing situation.”

5. Intellectual Regress. Most importantly, inferiority complex continues to cause most damage when it comes to thinking independently and Islamically. This causes a lot of friction to the project of Islamization of knowledge. (We’ve been amazed how many times leading Islamic thinkers have pointed out that a sense of inferiority vis-à-vis west led many educated Muslims to surrender wholeheartedly (or apologetically) to western modes of thinking and action – so much so that adjective modernized/westernized has to be supplied when speaking of such Muslims.)

Late 19th century and early 20th century, the intellectual response to west by Muslim “intelligentsia” was at best apologetic and defensive towards modernity. Re-interpretation of Islam by our so-called reformists was shaped Western ideas, because they could not think independently. Here, we also witness this disease of IC and occidentiosis. Dr Basit Koshul in a survey of encounter of modernity with Islam writes:

“[Early westernized Muslims] totally disregarded any reference to an Islamic framework in the course of their interaction with Western thought. Of more pressing concern to us are the attempts consciously designed to keep Islamic teachings meaningful in the face of the western onslaught. It will be shown in the following analysis that even this “religious” response to the Western challenge has been profoundly shaped by Western ideas.”

Dr Burhan Ahmed Faruqi in his Minhaaj-ul-Quran (not to be confused with that religious organization), argues: colonial invasion and setup created two classes of mind-set with distinct world-views: a Traditional Islamic mindset that traced its roots to divine revelation of Islam; and a modernized mindset trained in modern educational systems, which felt more at home with all things with western. Modernized Muslims ascended to the ranks of power and ruled Muslims masses with aspirations to westernize their countries in totality. Traditional Islam and its political elite lost its sway with the replacement of Shariah Law with Roman or English or French law and government systems; although cultural aspects of Muslim societies continued to survive, albeit with constant losing battles with the monoculture of West. Leadership was transferred to modernized-Muslims who were completely hopeless of Quran as a source of minhaaj, a way of solving problems both at individual and societal levels. With their utter hopelessness in Qur’anic worldview, modernized Muslims looked up to knowledge produced by human capacity as a way of solving all of their problems.

The point we’re trying to make is this: Muslims have lost confidence in their own intellectual tradition because a) they do no ‘think enough and clearly’ from Islamic point view; b) reason why they don’t think Islamically, it’s because they’re hopeless of Qur’an as a source or guide to our challenges, as per Dr Burhan. (It’s our belief (through experience) that if enough thought is given to Islamic thought, and things are seen from Islamic point of view, one’s belief in the authenticity of Islamic tradition would reach the point of certitude, if not divorced from spiritual practices.)

5.b. Misadventures in Social Sciences. Summarizing his paper on Origin of Social Sciecnes in West, Dr Zaman writes:

“On the whole, Muslims have accepted Western claims that both social sciences and physical sciences are equally fact and logic based, and “positive” descriptions of reality. In fact, Western formulations of social sciences hide ethical and social commitments to secular views which conflict the Islamic views. Widespread acceptance by Muslims of these false claims to factuality and objectivity has prevented the development of genuine Islamic alternatives, and has been a serious obstacle to progress in the project of ‘Islamization of Knowledge’.”

5.c. Way of thinking. Inferiority complex vis-à-vis west has given rise to pre-Islamic jahili ways of thinking. This also includes tribalism (or nationalism). But above all we have more or less stopped looking at things the way our Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him) taught us to do. We’ll explain that by a simple example. Once, a wealthy and powerful person went by. Prophet asked his companions about what they thought of him. They replied he was a very successful, wealthy and powerful person. He had prestige and honour among people such that if he asked someone in marriage for his offspring, no one would refuse. Then, a very poor and weak Muslim went by. Prophet asked them their thoughts about this poor fellow. Everybody said that this guy was not worth a dime. He was nobody in people’s eyes. Then, Prophet taught them to reverse their thinking. That poor guy was an extremely pious Muslim who prayed tahajjudd and all. Prophet taught them that the pious Muslims, albeit poor, was more honorable and worthy of respect than someone merely possessing worldly power, wealth and prestige.

Because we no more value Taqwa, devotion and love for God, we end up being hopeless of Islamic piety. This also explains our love for dunya and worldly prestige.

5.d. Educational Myopia. As we have already noted in our previous two articles that colonial education produced westernized minds with un-Muslim character and mind. Apart from that, colonial education harmed our creativity as well. Dr Farid A. Malik, a professor, notes that colonial education produced pen-pushers (bureaucracy) and trigger-pushers (army). Punjab perhaps had largest share of these ‘hollow men’. Atiyab notes in her paper that colonial education promoted on rote-learning, whereas in previous times this was not the case.

Our education is based upon Qur’an, which teaches through nature and history. History is an important basis of humanity, and a dynamic which is continuously shaping future, affecting and is affected by each of our choices. It is very often scoffed upon by European thought. The relation to past which is very important for collective growth is always ignored in modern thought and Western education, certainly in economics. On the other hands, European thought also turn history into historicism; latter argues that all sources of morality and knowledge must be derived from history and not theory or a text. Islam begins with a foundational text (Qur’an) and then asks people to intellect through the revelation.

5.e. Blunders in Human Psychology. Technically speaking, our accepting Freud and Jung’s psychological ideas universally as ‘scientific’ results in total displacement of religion from humanities. A problem with the latter is: It separates thought from intuition which is a dangerous phenomenon in human history. Thought without intuition is ripped off of its solemnity, innocence and positive creativity. Thought tucked into the vast wings of intuition works miracles. It becomes infinite and transit human experience into something humane. Anti-spiritual forces are blind to their own limitations, yet they so vehemently deny what lies beyond them.

7. Delusions of Racial Inferiority. We might like it or not but there’s an aspect of racial inferiority too. We often feel it vis-à-vis Nordics (Northern & Atlantic Europeans). Unfortunately, we did not come across enough literature examining this reality (or its non-existence). If you know such works, please share references or online sources. But, it is through observation we can confirm it.

In Europe, Darwinism and (flawed) racial intelligence tests try to uphold colonial dogma: all humans are equal, but races are better than others. We might add: yes, some nations are better in some areas than others, but it’s a matter of history and Divine Grace (or is ‘accidental’, to a skeptic). Africans didn’t produce Taj Mahal or Mozarts, but they produced saints, and in the eyes of the Absolute this is most important, argued Frithjof Schuon.

There is inequality in the world, but it’s like diversity which has undeniable unity to it. Study of genetics shows how similar humans are in an archetypical sense, which means that we collectively are one, but potentials are inherent in all, but are distribute by forces of history and free will. Free will exists, because there is a criterion of superiority: piety. There cannot be two criteria, unless one divorces knowledge from sacred (as Qur’an says, Are those who know equal to those who don’t?).

Hence, at racial level, only history matters. Nordics were notorious for being barbaric, least likely to be cultured, notes G. H. Estabrooks in his paper That Question of Racial Inferiority. We should ponder on this, and also on the fact that no single race or nation has monopoly over human productions and achievements.

Many scholars have shown the poverty of Europeans’ self-declaration of civility and superiority over others. It’s a self-delusion of the rich, at best. Let’s talk at a very practical level: ‘it’s a simple observation that if you teach a kid from remotest areas of the world, he will learn making computers and all the technology in no time’. Today, western technical and social science universities are dominated by people from corners of the globe, and not just by one race. Only a simpleton today would still believe in the falsehood of absolute superiority of certain races over the other. Pakistanis are famous in North America for saving lives (as doctors) and producing fancy toys (as engineers), for instance. Geniuses in poor countries are being wasted. In a recent global IQ test survey, Pakistanis were ranked 4th for their intelligence in the world, despite lacking all required resources. Not that we ever doubted the extraordinary abilities of our countrymen, but it’s good to see racists rising above their prejudices.

Those who become something are imported by West, leaving their homelands in that vicious circle of deprivation and poverty – for which only the fleeing natives are to be blamed.

Conclusion

There’s no conclusion to it, unless our article changes us and our reader to any extent. But, we’d like to close this part with an advice from a French-English Muslim thinker, Sidi Hassan Charles Gai Eaton:

“Muslims in general … have an ambivalent attitude to the West. On the one hand there is bitterness and resentment induced by the history of colonialism and now by the brute fact of Western hegemony; on the other hand there are feelings of admiration and envy. And yet admiration … should be tempered by caution. No race, no people, no human group can be good at everything. It is therefore always a question of priorities. If we can only be successful in a few aspects of this life, a choice has to be made.” (Source: Roots of Western Culture.)

This article is co-authored by Hira Shamim

Links to Part I and Part II

Why Algerian Kidnappers Demanded Release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui?

THE only thing that surprised me when I heard that the Algerian kidnappers had called for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui was that it hadn’t happened sooner.

Don’t get me wrong, as a former hostage myself, there is no way I condone the actions of what has unfolded in a remote corner of the Algerian desert.

And my heart goes out to the families of those who have lost loved ones in the unfolding drama at the In Amenas gas plant siege said to have been masterminded by Mohktar Belmokhtar. The infamous one-eyed Algerian militant apparently with ties to Al Qaida, has claimed responsibility for launching Wednesday’s attack.

It also goes without saying there is no way the kidnappers, whether politically or criminally motivated, can be justified in their actions.

But an injustice is an injustice and as the only western journalist to have specifically gone to Afghanistan to investigate the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, I have to say her plight has become a cause célèbre around the Muslim world.

And I have an uncomfortable feeling that more and more westerners will be kidnapped as their captors demand the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a woman I once called the most wronged in the world.

So just who is Dr Aafia Siddiqui and why is a group of North Africans calling for her release?

Well it’s very easy to get emotional about a wronged Muslim woman caught up in the War on Terror but I am not basing my case on emotion just some simple cold, hard facts and forensic evidence  or lack of it, but more of that and her bizarre story later.

Her family will certainly not be pleased that a group of Algerian terrorists have called for her release because it will give a perception in some quarters that Dr Aafia must be an Islamic extremist. It’s a narrative pushed by US intelligence although it has to be said in her trial the opening statement of the prosecutor stated quite clearly that she was not al-Qaida nor a terrorist sympathiser.

The case of the mother-of-three is well known in every household in Pakistan from the most religious to the most secular the majority of which have been demanding her repatriation for years. Now she is known as the Daughter of the Nation although her story has travelled well beyond Pakistan’s borders.

Thousands of Muslim children have been named after her because of all that she has come to symbolise. Everything that she represents stems from the injustices created by America’s War on Terror … the kidnaps, renditions, torture, rape and waterboarding.

The brilliant academic, a neuro-scientist, educated in top US universities, is tonight languishing in a Texan jail serving an 86 year sentence after being found guilty of trying to kill American soldiers.

The fact they shot her at close range and nearly killed her is often overlooked.

To their eternal shame, the US soldiers serving in Afghanistan claimed in court under oath that the diminutive, fragile academic leapt at them from behind a prison cell curtain, snatching one of their guns to shoot and kill them. It was a fabricated story that any defence lawyer worth his or her salt would have ripped apart at the seams.

The scenario painted in court was incredulous and more importantly, the evidence non existent – no gunshot residue on her hands or clothes, no bullets from the discharged gun, no fingerprints belonging to Dr Aafia on the gun … other vital evidence removed by US military from the scene went missing before the trial. Come on, we’ve all seen episodes of CSI – the science doesn’t lie.

After being patched up in a medical wing in Bagram, she was then renditioned to America to stand trial for an alleged crime committed in Afghanistan. Flouting the Vienna and Geneva Conventions, she wasn’t given consular access until the day she made her first court appearance.

The trial was held in New York, a stone’s throw from where the Twin Towers once stood making it impossible not to invoke the memories of that horrific day on September 11 which for some forever turned Muslims into Public Enemy Number One.

A lack lustre legal team forced on Dr Aafia by the US authorities failed to sway the jury of her innocence, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that she could not have snatched a soldier’s gun let alone pull the trigger.

I went into the cell in Ghazni a few weeks after the shooting in July 2008 and discovered that the soldiers had panicked and sprayed the room with bullets as they struggled to flee. The evidence is there on film shot during my visit and handed over to the defence team.

The prosecutors could not believe a western journalist had travelled to this part of Afghanistan and obtained compelling witness and visual evidence. Soon after that vital forensic evidence including spent bullets that had been gouged out of a wall in the cell, went missing.

Seeing Dr Aafia emerge unshackled and unhooded from behind a curtain caused blind panic among the young soldiers who had been briefed by the FBI they were going to arrest one of the most dangerous women in the world.

I interviewed eyewitnesses, senior Afghan police officers and one after another told me their account of what happened. Yet the only Afghan brought to court to give testimony against her was the FBI’s translator who now has a green card and lives in New York with his family.

What the jury was not told is that Dr Aafia, and her three children, all aged under five at the time, had been kidnapped from a street near their home in Karachi and disappeared from 2003.

The FBI put out a story at the time that she had in fact gone on a jihad to Afghanistan – it was a ludicrous tale without foundation and, as every mother of young children knows, a journey to the local corner shop with toddlers is a monumental challenge so heading off to fight in Afghanistan with a pram, pushchair and toddler in hand is simply inconceivable. The FBI narrative was destroyed by Boston-based Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a lawyer hired by the Siddiqui family when Dr Aafia first disappeared.

The missing years of the academic’s life reveal a story which is now known to virtually everyone in the Muslim world where she is widely regarded as a victim of George W Bush’s War on Terror.

As she tried to tell the jury how she was held in secret prisons, with no legal representation, cut off from the outside world since 2003 where brutal interrogation techniques were used to break her down, she was silenced by the judge who said he was only interested in the cell shooting incident.

Judge Richard Berman, a modest little man with much to be modest about, insisted he was not interested in the missing years; it had no relevance to the case he insisted.

She testified that after completing her doctorate studies she taught in a school, and that her interest was in cultivating the capabilities of dyslexic and other special needs children. She emerged as a humanity-loving nurturer and educator, the gentle yet resolute seeker for truth and justice.

As the evidence continued we learned that she didn’t know where her three children were – it was sensational content for those who knew the real story. She talked of her dread and fear of being handed back to the Americans when she was arrested in Ghazni and was held by police.

Terrified that yet another secret prison was waiting for her she revealed how she peeked through the curtain divider into the part of the room where Afghans and Americans were talking, and how when a startled American soldier noticed her, he jumped up and yelled that the prisoner was loose, and shot her in the stomach. She described how she was also shot in the side by a second person. She also described how after falling back onto the bed in the room, she was violently thrown to the floor and lost consciousness. This ties in exactly with what I was told by the counter terrorism police chief I interviewed in Afghanistan back in the autumn of 2008 – I remember him laughing as he told me how the US soldiers panicked, shot randomly in the air as they stampeded out of the room in a blind panic.

Of course there’s no way a bunch of soldiers are going to admit they lost it, but according to those I interviewed for my film In search of Prisoner 650 in Afghanistan that’s exactly what happened.

Two of her missing children have since been found and reunited with their extended family in Karachi. It is still not clear where the children were held when they were snatched from a street in Karachi but there’s no disguising their American accents … possibly picked up from their jailers.

So why did the FBI want to speak to Dr Aafia in the first place and why did they portray her as a dangerous terrorist on the run? if she was the person they painted why wasn’t she charged with terrorism offences and why was the prosecutor at pains to point out that she was not Al Qaida?

One person who might hold the key is Dr Aafia’s ex-husband who has resisted attempts to be interviewed by me. He was going through a very combative and bitter divorce in the months before she disappeared. He first came to the attention of the FBI in 2002 when he was living in America but what he told them that would lead them to suspect his ex-wife of wrongdoing is anyone’s guess.

Who snatched Dr Aafia and her children? I don’t know, but I have also tracked down several ex-Bagram detainees who told me they saw Dr Aafia being held in Bagram in 2005 and gave a positive identity of her by photographs before her kidnap and after her arrest in Ghazni.

The bottom line is Dr Aafia Siddiqui should not be in prison and as long as this injustice continues she will become a rallying call for anyone who wants to pick a fight with America.

Acknowledging the injustice and returning Dr Aafia to her home in Pakistan will not stop extremists from causing terror, but it might make the lives of US citizens a lot safer if this wrong is put to right.

Historical Roots of Inferiority Complex (II)

Colonial Invasion & State Structures. Loss of self-confidence in Muslims is justifiably related to defeats on the battlegrounds at the hands of west. But a military defeat is not enough to enslave hearts and minds, as it can be an impetus for revenge. Today Muslims are envious of West’s power, which proves the fact that the real challenge of west is not of materialism, but of intellectualism (which modernity certainly lacks in the true sense of the world).

However, what happened after the first phase of colonial invasion? How did colonials succeed in subduing large populations in vast areas? We’ve partial answers.

Realizing the danger that native “monkeys” might overrun them by sheer numbers, colonizers had to play the games of perceptions and mind control. They had to look big and strong. Few in numbers, they developed railway and laid communication systems to travel fast over the huge mass of land to subdue any possible mutiny, which did take place and successfully crushed. But the physical assets won’t do the job if the natives were enthusiastic and confident of their victory. Hence, that spirit of rebellion was decimated, and fear and inferiority complex were placed like time bombs beneath our (un)conscious. Self-confidence was shattered when Muslims’d see Tipu Sultan’s majestic dress being worn by peons of whites. Healthy, buildup, young officers constantly replaced older ones to give the illusion that all whites are brave and strong and can’t be messed with. These are just few of countless examples of this social-engineering.

We’ve to contextualize heroic things we attribute our colonial masters. Colonialism was about dispossession. In a paper on this very topic, Cole Harris summarizes colonists’ grand strategy of dispossession as following:

“The initial ability to dispossess rested primarily on physical power and the supporting infrastructure of the state; the momentum to dispossess derived from the interest of capital in profit and of settlers in forging new livelihoods; the legitimation of and moral justification for dispossession lay in a cultural discourse that located civilization and savagery and identified the land uses associated with each; and the management of dispossession rested with a set of disciplinary technologies of which maps, numbers, law, and the geography of resettlement itself were the most important…” (‘How Did Colonialism Dispossess? Comments from an Edge of Empire’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 94, No. 1 (Mar., 2004), abstract)

Hence, administrative and other infrastructures, and all the technologies were means to loot and pillage, although in a more civilized or face-saving way.

Education: Colonists’ Most Favorite Vehicle (MFV)

While military and political subjugation of colonists broke the spirits of many, colonial education convinced many that modern West’s ventures in barbarism were for our own benefit. When defeat induced fears of a mightier foe, the education changed the victim’s heart. As Akbar Abadi said: ‘An easterner would cut off the head of the foe; a westerner would change his heart’. British justified their rule to their own people on the pretext of ‘civilizing’ natives. This was different from what was happening to Blacks in Africa. This comparison will make things more clear.

Blacks were made colonizers on the basis of their color. They were led to believe that their skin color reflects that of sin, ugliness. Black lies are unforgivable, white lies are ignored. They don’t have any right to exist. Be white or disappear was the attitude of their colonizers. Blacks even had dreams of being white. They craved for white color at any cost.

Our minds were made slaves. Our color is not such a problem to them. Our culture, religion, and thought endangered their existence. They worked to snatch our inheritance, our ilm from us. That is why they used education. They changed minds.

Economic-historian Atiyab Sultan writes that in the beginning of 19th century, colonization became more ‘pedagogic’ in India. Previously, Britishers were consolidating militarily and administratively. It was time to tend to education, which was primarily used to create a special kind of class of natives, loyal to them.

Liberals and utilitarians advocated ‘civilizing’ natives in the “universal image” of modern western man. There were 3 distinct groups in British parliament who lobbied for their own educational programs (with unmistakable similarities): Evangelicals, utilitarians, and uiberals. Evangelicals like Charles Grant believed Indians to be ‘race of men lamentably degenerate and base’; liberals like Macaulay fancied, “A single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia”; and utilitarians like JS Mills considered Indian stock of knowledge to be ‘obscure and worthless’ (perhaps he did so without digesting a page of Indian literature). On the contrary, Dr Asad Zaman argues, “A single chapter on sacrifice in a book like Fazail e Amaal that teaches man to go against his nafs, is worth the whole literature of modern West.” Only Orientalists, Atiyab mentions, argued that colonial educational system in India should be according to indigenous sources and be taught according to indigenous views.

In a way summing up the educational policy, which was fiercely debated in English parliament, Atiyab further writes:

“Education was also a chief instrument in the creation of a colonial subject that would be a loyal and willing consumer of British knowledge and produce. Macaulay voiced this concern thus: ‘Indians should not be too ignorant or too poor to value and buy English manufactures’ (Basu 58.)  In a larger sense, the loyal subjects were needed for the calm preservation of empire, echoing the imperial policy of cultivating supportive local elites …”

It becomes clear that their educational institutions served colonists needs, not ours. This reminds of what Iqbal called the “un-Muslim character” colonial education produced. Also, that system was unfair to the masses as it sent few to higher service, leaving the rest impoverished. We should also add that this created an anti-native character in Indians at large, to which Hindus responded very well, boycotting foreign goods.

Triumph of Materialism. Hamza Yusuf (HY) notes that the colonists saw the global and historical link Muslims maintained due to their religious Tradition. Muslims had many global learning centers which played vital role in this regard and maintained some kind of visible unity (although the underlying unity of Ummah is still undeniable and, in fact, crucial to the venture of Islam). In order to destroy that unity among Muslims, colonists sought to destroy this ‘historical link’. And as per HY, they did so by injecting inferiority complex in Muslims regarding their lack of material progress. “It’s all documented how they did this,” he emphasizes. For instance, they’d compare paper to pre-modern tablet, which Muslims used for instruction. “Using a tablet is backward. Now we’ve paper!” This notion of backwardness is still on the lips of 75-80% (if not 100%) of Muslims, especially the educated class.

Eurocentrism. The roots of civilizational inferiority complex may also lie in the venom called euro-centrism, especially for uncritical bookish minds. These are more less two central tenets of this mythological, racist & historicist thesis: All civilizations must develop along the lines of West to achieve the idols of indefinite economic progress, civility and “enlightenment”; and that Europe is at the center of world stage, and that all other civilizations are mere supporting pillars, resource fields to it. But western civilization not the end of civilizations, argues Rene Guenon:

“So long as western people imagine that there only exists a single type of humanity, that there is only one ‘civilization’, at different stages of development, no mutual understanding will be possible. The truth is that there are many civilizations, developing along very different lines, and that, among these, that of the modern West is strangely exceptional, as some of its characteristics show.”

Further Guenon scrutinizes the true nature of this highly over-rated civilization, which dominates the world materially so far (we would concede to the objection that even its material dominance is soon to be surpassed):

“The civilization of the modern West appears in history a veritable anomaly: among all those which are known to us more or less completely, this civilization is the only one which has developed along purely material lines and this monstrous development, whose beginning coincides with the so-called Renaissance, has been accompanied, as indeed it was fated to be, with a corresponding intellectual regress; we say corresponding and not equivalent, because here are two orders of things between which there can be no common measure. This regress has reached such a point that the Westerners of today no longer know what pure intellect is; in fact they do not even suspect that anything of the kind can exist…”

Post-Pakistan: Continuation. Leadership produced by the British took over the country after the partition. They molded state policies and institutions in the image of their departed masters, more or less. Discussion of continuation of such structures is not relevant here. What’s important is that the inferiority complex of native Brown Sahibs’ turned into superiority complex that caused much harm.

After 1947 we witnessed exploitation of our Bengali brothers, which was at once racial and materialistic. It wasn’t religious extremism that separated two brothers, but the absence of spiritual training of the governing “elites”, in bureaucracy, politicians and army. We’ve accounts of how West Pakistani elites treated Bengalis as lower level race. Our false-elite was certainly a clone of their masters.

(In the next part, we’ll talk about in detail possible harmful effects of this complex in various aspects of our individual and national life.)

This article has been co-authored by Hira Shamim.

Proceed to the final part

..Link to Part I

Inferiority Complex And The Disease Known as Civilization (I)

I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear,

inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement.

—Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le Colonialisme

The independence movements in colonies and protectorates came into being, not through a return to indigenous values on the part of those concerned, but through the absorption of occidental ideas and ideologies, liberal or revolutionary … the process of modernization – a euphemism for Westernization – far from being halted by the withdrawal, was in fact accelerated. The enthusiasm of the new rulers for everything ‘modern’ was not restrained, as had been the enthusiasm of their former masters, by any element of self-doubt.

—Gai Eaton, Islam and the Destiny of Man

The celebrated Algerian psychologist freedom fighter of blacks, Franz Fanon, saw only two parties in the battle between the colonialists and colonized: white and black. We, the brown, had pretty benign colonizers, who did not like to butcher millions or harass indiscriminately 24/7. We have no idea about the mass murdering of Central Asian Muslims and Africans by imperial powers of 19th/20th century. Our colonization was far less brutal and far more subtle, which left us unsettled, undiscovered, and even unwelcomed in both clubs, of whites and blacks. Our body was not tortured as much as we’re brainwashed and deluded through education and social-engineering by the “generous” colonizers.

J Sartre, a philosopher, writes in preface to Fanon’s famous work Wretched of the Earth (hope it reminds you of our “elite” elders):

“In the colonies the truth stood naked, but the citizens of the mother country [of colonists] preferred it with clothes on: the native [colonized subject] had to love them, something in the way mothers are loved. The European élite undertook to manufacture a native élite. They picked out promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of western culture, they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth. After a short stay in the mother country they were sent home, whitewashed. These walking lies had nothing left to say to their brothers; they only echoed.” (Brackets ours)

We post-colonial, brown Muslims (like our colonial parents) lack self-confidence at many levels. This loss of confidence – in our culture, essence and the way of Islam – haunts us in intellectual and practical matters. Many of us pay lip-service to Islam and carry on with it; many choose to ‘reform’ Islam to be ‘compatible’ with an aggressive West, which declared its independence from Heavens few centuries back (although we mistakenly hail that to be ‘enlightenment’ from heavens). Some of us are just indifferent to the unavoidable contradictions between Islamic teachings and modern thought and its practice. We might not like these realities. Truth, however, is not concerned with likeness or dis-likeness of this or that person or society, or even a generation. Truth is above sentimentality and fashions of minds that keep changing with every cycle of moon.

Despite the loss of confidence (and a Center), we’ve not stopped calling ourselves Muslims, so far. But, thanks to our modern education we certainly are not that homo Islamicus of the glorious past (a) who’d not be dazzled by materialism of any kind, (b) who’d serve knowledge (not for money’s sake), and, (c) integrate influences from diverse sources from his own civilization’s viewpoint. His world-view was based on Qur’an and sunnah (as amply clear from the writings of great theological and philosophical scholars of past). He would ‘think enough, think clearly’ and think rightly. More importantly, he’d think Islamically. They were the people of izzat, or respect, and were imitated (who’re Indians imitating when they wore turbans?).

The shocking encounter of colonialism in 19th/20th century seemingly paralyzed the body and mind of ummah. Dr Muzaffar Iqbal argues that our defense mechanisms failed because we’re too little prepared, and responded too late to the sea changes that were going to change our world, perhaps forever. Europeans were notorious for being barbaric, always engaged in sectarian (or else) warfare – nothing compared to what we can do today with all the weapons of mass destruction. Being over-confident, Ottomans didn’t pay much attention to the reports on rising power of the Nordics, i.e., Westerners. What now? According to a medical-religious scholar, we’re in a post-traumatic stress from the psychological trauma of the invasion of the ‘unclean West’. Perhaps it was a medicine of our arrogance. Recovery process has not been what Qur’an envisages for us. (‘We do not change the condition of people…’) A young Muslim is perplexed, dazzled and confused by the power and wealth of West, and the condition of his own civilization, when confronting statistics on poverty, injustice, corruption, treachery and all sorts of such evils in Muslim lands. Likewise, we have more questions than answers to trouble you with (which is exactly what we hope to achieve here).

Ibn-e-Khuldun distinguishes between are two classes of people or nations: the free people/leaders and the followers. Those in chains of slavery (or followership) imitate all easy acts of the leaders. In a bid to feel superior, they’d imitate leader’s dress, learn his language, adopt his manners, and take a dog for an evening walk with them in the park (just like the boss). However, the difficult acts are truly difficult to follow for them; the actions that make a leader what he is are not for followers to focus their attention on. Followers are just too busy being ‘at the receiving end of waves’ to be proactive enough to fight back. Consequently, two remain where they are. Imitators lack seriousness and content, but remain up-to-date with changing fashions of leading nations. (‘Oh, did you watch that movie, XYZ?’)

This is not to suggest at all that we should thoughtlessly start photo-copying westerners. It is precisely this mentality of blind-following we are arguing against, besides pointing out that we only follow what’s on easy-to-do-list. On the contrary, what’s really hard for us is to respond forcefully to western modernity’s challenges – intellectual, political, cultural, military, etc.

Our laziness and contentment with the works our forefathers pushed us into deep slumber of ignorance. West happily took advantage from this situation and injected us further with its own disease of materialism. It was the last straw and we went down tumbling in the abyss of inferiority complex. What’s superficial and relative seemed to us important and absolute. West made us believe that without machine man was destined to stay in primitive age. In the race of machines, spirit was left far behind and thus world saw the decline of humanity. We in our naivety followed blindly the ‘matter’, when indeed we were needed to have mind over matter. This complimentary work of mind over matter has always been going on till 16th century. Before that, world was in much better and proper shape (with the exception of some areas). Truth like intelligence is complex.

In a quest to control us – afraid of our religious rationality or perhaps completely oblivious of it – they started alienating us from our own language, modes of education, culture, science, philosophy, etc. We became timid, fearful to act on our own teachings, sent down to us from Divine. This is what we’ll try to explore and elaborate in next article.

In next part we will also try explaining historical process that gave birth to inferiority complex (although not exhaustively); will describe various illnesses and harmful effects of this disease in various fields of knowledge and action; also, we’ll show that this is as much a Pakistani’s problems as it is of an Iranian, Egyptian, Indian, and others who’re ‘brainwashed with modernism’. In the final part of this series we’ll talk about possible remedies (which would require more input from you, actually).

 

This article is written jointly by Muhammad Umer Toor and Hira Shamim

Proceed to Part II

My Journey to Islam and Reaction of My Family

Lauren Booth, broadcaster and journalist, is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, who converted to Islam in 2010. Here below is her journey to Islam and the heart-warming reaction of her family in this translated version of a recent interview:

I thank Allah for giving me the chance to spend a month with the greatest Muslims alive in this Ummah today.
At the end of Ramadan, I went to a family home in Rafa one of the poorest refugee camps in the poorest areas, of the over populated city in the entire world. I had iftar with a family there who had about 16 mats, which were used at night to sleep on. In the middle of this tent area the mother places the meal if she has any for her children to eat.
This lady greeted me at the door and it was as if she was welcoming me to the Taj Mahal not a hellhole in the Gaza strip. ”Sallam alaykum!” she says with a smile that lights up the whole area. I asked her: “What is it like in Rafa at Ramadan with very little food?” She said: ‘Alhamdulillah!’ with such joy I couldn’t help but smile. And as I sat there on the floor of this home eating what little leaves that they had; a bit of hummus, a pita bread that was our Iftar.
I got angry … really angry! I thought what is this God That makes hungry people even hungrier? What is this God Who creates a fast for the poorest of the oppressed people in the world. So, I turned to this sister and I said: “With all due respect I want to ask you, why does your God starve you in Ramadan? Why do you fast in Ramadan…sister, just explain to me?” This lady who never owned a handbag, whose children didn’t have, never had shoes. Whose children I was sitting with didn’t have pen or paper to do any drawings, she said to me: “Sister we fast in Ramadan to remember the poor.” And a key went to my heart and unlocked it.

But of course Islam wasn’t for me that was for somebody else so I put the thought of how great Islam was to one side and said so what I like the Palestinian people but it has nothing to do with Islam.
Then last year in Ramadan again I went to Iran as a journalist and I visited a mosque there, it’s the Bibi Fatima Mosque and I made wadu because I knew how to do it and I put on a shadur and I made a simple prayer: Allah … and I used the word Allah. “Allah, don’t give me anything. I have everything. Thank you for this journey, but Allah, don’t forget the people of Palestine.” Then I sat down in this busy mosque with women feeding their children, pilgrims coming and going; but when I sat down, this immense feeling of peace came over me. Peace and tranquility that I never knew before, such a calm that the tension in my heart went. There was no sound in my head for the first time in my life as an adult … just deep, deep joy and calm. I sat there for a long time in this place of calm knowing that somewhere in the universe everything is like this. Over the course of that evening women kept coming over to me holding me by the shoulders and saying: “I love you.” At one point a child came over and held my hand and just said in Farsi (Persian): “I love you.” I said to my friend Nadia, “Is this what it is like in the mosque?” She said, “Not really. I think something is happening.”

I slept that night on the floor of the mosque with a lot of other pilgrims and the next morning, Fajr sounded and I was inside the mosque and I prayed Fajr. Then I came outside and had a cup of chai and the sun was coming up and I had one very specific thought. “O, no… not Islam, please not Islam.”

I just want to say that a couple of strange things happened to me after that. I took the plane back to London from Tehran. As the plane was coming into London the pilot said: “Thank you for flying Tehran airways we’ll be in London in 20 minutes.” And at that point every Iranian Muslim woman took off the hijab and made out like she was from Sex in the City even showing some cleavage. I thought great. Thank goodness, my hands wouldn’t take off the hijab. My hands wouldn’t take off the hijab and I thought I was having a nervous break down.

Seven days later I said my Shahada in a London mosque and it was time for me to return to the Qur’an. This time I opened the Qur’an, and Surah Al-Fatiha (the opening chapter) look like saying to me: ‘Hello Sarah where have you been, welcome to the religion of peace, joy and tranquility,’ and I couldn’t put it down. Someone once told me — and I feel much like that before Islam — I had given up on God but God never gave up on me. Alhamdulillah.

The question everyone wants to know is how did your family or children react. My two daughters who are very practical and are aged 8 and 10. They came to me with three questions:

Mummy when you’re a Muslim will you still be mummy?

I said: When I am a Muslim you know what, I will be a better mummy, they said: “Horrayyy!”

Mummy will you drink alcohol?

I said: When I am a Muslim I will never drink alcohol again and they said “Horrayyy!”

When you’re a Muslim will you show your chest?

I said why would you ask such a question? They said when you come to the school and your chest is showing we are embarrassed and we hate it and we want you to stop it.
I said: When I am a Muslim I will cover all this area and to which they said:

“We love Islam.”

It was that easy. When you look at those 3 questions the basic female womanhood is summarized in those 3 questions from the purity of children.

Question no. 1. Will you be the center of our household? Can we rely on you as a mother to be there for us rather than putting your work, your colleagues/friendships or the bar in front of us?
Question no. 2. Will you remain in the limits that Allah has described for all of us in behavior?
Question no. 3. Will you be a modest dignified woman in Islam?

Alhamdulillah that is all I have to say. What I have learnt this year in being a Muslim is this, when you have problems don’t tell to your friends or family …if you can read the Qur’an every night or read 10 min. everyday your Imaan is much, much higher. If you live in a non-Muslim country those of us who do it can go very low very quickly, you must read the Qur’an.
If those who are not on the path of Islam if they come to Islam like me; or, if you’re a Muslim … you are on the path as well, so make sure that you don’t miss those signs in everyday life. All praise is to Allah (Almighty).

Courtesy: Islamic Bulletin