Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Let it Not Change into an Open Clash of Civilizations

(The article below was also published in The Saudi Gazette, an esteemed English Daily of Saudi Arabia on 26, September 2012)

Clash of the Civilizations never stopped and as long as the communities in the East, particularly the Muslims, are the target of the Western outrageous calumny and deceptive concept that the human creature at the North Western corner of the globe is being ‘supers’, it seems not go to its end. The first three centuries of the last millennium saw this clash on its high. And start of the current millennium, just after the end of the Cold War, cultural and religious identity of the Muslims again has become a discomfort for them. Actually it is the matter of the nature of two civilizations. Their cultural traits and traditions are in clash. What is good in the West is not necessary for the Muslims to take it as a good thing. Both have different values and ways of thinking. Sensitivity in case of the veneration of our Holy Prophet, be peace and blessings upon him, is no doubt much higher than anyone can imagine in the Western world.
They have the jinni of individual freedom, almost impossible now to get bottled again, a deity worshiped in the name of human rights. We, the Muslims, have serious reservations about unlimited freedoms. The concept of emancipations which has made the Western societies largely void of the value of respect, yes, respect of elders and even showing reverence to the Prophets and Heavenly Revealed Books is totally unacceptable for the Muslims. Freedom of expression has made insulting any of the Prophets a simple matter for them, while the same is immensely difficult for the Muslims to digest. Severest reaction on the blasphemous film made in America and sacrilegious cartoons in the magazines of different Western countries is enough to make the Western people know all the whys and wherefores of the rising flames of rage, not going to easily abate in the Muslim countries.
 But their concept of pre-eminence of their civilization allows them not to take the sensitivities of the others in consideration. In the post-colonial period America has taken hold of the steering wheel of the Western civilization. America crushed Germany and Japan who could challenge its supremacy and Soviet Union also collapsed after hostility of almost half century in the Cold War. War mongering and crusading natured Americans needed a new enemy to put in confrontation. Their academics and think tanks very mischievously chose Islam for this purpose. Former American president Richard Nixon remained not behind in suggesting Islam to take as the next target of the American power. Thus it was not strange for the world when, just after the tragic incident of 9/11 Gorge W. Bush declared war against Iraq and Afghanistan naming it ‘War on Terror’, the longest crusade going over a decade in the beginning of this millennium.
Desecration of the Holy Quran by Terry Jones, a Florida church poster and latest roguish movie insulting Prophet Muhammad, be peace and blessings upon him, by some Sam Bacile, are the part of the crusade on the intellectual front which is continuation of Medieval European literature heavily littered with this kind of filthy things. The more Islam gets acceptance in America and Europe, the more offensives of this sick nature are getting intensified at the media front.  
   The General Assembly of the UNO is in its session now, having the heads of the Muslim states or the governments to address there. Some, if not all, are sure to voice up against the mischievous acts going on in the name of freedom of expression in the Western countries harming the feelings of the Muslims and infuriating them. The UNO forum is must to redress the issue and define what actually the freedom of expression is. If the act of denying the holocausts is a punishable crime why not disrespecting the most beloved and honored personalities of the other faiths is regarded to be a retributive vendetta?  
If the matter is not set aright by the American and the European political leadership, the Muslims will be justified to deem it vexatious attempts to establish the Western cultural hegemony crushing the social and moral values of the other communities of the world, particularly of the Muslims, after having entire world bowed to its military and economic mightiness.  Muslim nature is greatly different from the others. The recent violent incidents causing the loss of the life of the American ambassador in Libya and damage of the buildings of the embassies in different Muslim countries has made it clear that the Muslims are not ready to easily accept the domination of the Western civilization.  They are already fed up of the wars waged by the Americans for their obscure goals. A rapidly rising phenomenon of making fuss, tension and rage is pushing the Muslim masses to the extremism easily made to resort to open violence. Militancy in different Muslim countries, particularly in Pakistan is nothing but a result of long period of war around them, which is actually not a war of them. If the situation is not controlled the clash may get worsened to the level where perhaps America may have to pay beyond its estimations.

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