We are living in a world that shaped by Western values of democracy, secularism, capitalism, human rights, the nation state and so on. It is seen as the latest point that human kind have reached. So, if you don't agree with these values in any part of the world, you need to be civilized. Because, you are simply in a much lower level.
As Muslims living in the West, this is the atmosphere that we are living in. As the fish in the sea doesn't know the water but it is vital and there, so are these values to our daily lives. These values effect us as Muslims and how we think. In this regard not only west for example Turkey is not so different. Turkey is a mostly Muslim living country but it is not an Islamic country. Still, western values rule over there.
I was with a group of young Muslims and the most of them said like Islam backs democracy, Islam backs human rights and etc. It was surprising to me (since these values are not innocent but rather dirty). It seem to me that whatever is the product of western thinking and adventure, we will find a support for it from Islam. Because, it is so comfortable to abide and compromise. Because, to say otherwise will require intellectual work and courage.
And that holy 'human rights' doesn't include Muslims at many times.
But there are non-Muslims are doing it, such as Arundathi Roy. A quote from her "Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes, available to be used and abused at will. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market means they are on sale to the highest bidder, she said. I believe we wouldn't have a courage to say such a thing. Because, we have to convince white man that we are not subhuman. We have to prove that we are not terrorists.
I was watching to TV an evangelical christian lady who loves to bash Islam. She once clearly stated that she is 'Christian and then American'. She is not firstly American and secondly Christian. I believe any Muslim would find it very hard to say so in the US. Because, the trend is to prove that we are American. ( I am not saying this must be the answer of all Muslims but, what I wanna state is the level of our freedom of speech)
There is a constant flow of ideas, values, methods from the West to the Muslim countries but the opposite never or rarely happens. But, you know what, we export delicious food. Middle eastern food is popular in the west and unfortunately that seems to be all that we can offer. As an important note here is that the world didn't collapse on only Muslims, the disasters happened on non-muslim cultures like in far east Asia, and Africa as well.
We can look back to Islamic history and achievements to get self confidence. It can be okay that way. But, we can not look back to feel better and count the achievements of the past that earlier Muslims did. We are not them and we can not brag about their success to feel better. In this way it turns to an opium for us and can only make us drowsy.
I believe that collectively we are tend to go with emotions rather than intellect. This is partially understandable because the problems that Muslims of today are facing are huge and hard to deal with. As an example, the Youtube video counts for the injustice of Gitmo is so little compared to the one about ex-Gitmo guard converted to Islam. We want to feel good. So our attention is at where we can feel a bit better.
We Muslims must make our own mind rather than being convinced by others. Nobody should be able to tell us to read Jalaladdin Rumi but not Sayyid Qutb or vice versa.
Being responsible must be a core value for all of us. And if we feel responsible then we can become active for good. To do Islamic work, I believe we must not imitate one another. We must not do the same thing that other Muslims do. We must try to address another challenge or problem. This would require us to be aware of the things going on and woke. We must have an open eye.
We must follow whoever does good. We must have an open ear for the good, In universities. Churches, Mosques, community centers. We should help and participate whoever is doing good.
We must follow the key figures of today, Muslim leaders, intellectuals, and people of other belief and ideologies.
I want to get benefit from muslims around for their knowledge and ideas and understandings. We should talk to each others and add to each others. We all have different backgrounds. experiences and interests. The problems of today is so much bigger than one alim (scholar), or one activist or one Muslim leader can handle. Therefore, we must all be active and involved.
The below is a big jihadist lady that I respect . If the best jihad is to say “A word of truth in front of a tyrannical ruler.” She is exemplary.
