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The
Triumph of the East? Who are the real winners? A response
by Sh. Riyad Nadwi to Anthony Browne's Article in the
Spectator.
On
reading Mr Anthony Browne's article 'The Triumph
of the East' in the Spectator, I thought the numerous
contradictions and clichéd composition was unworthy
of a response. However, after seeing Mr Browne try to
defend himself on the BBC Newsnight programme (5th August
2004) by regurgitating chunks of his article, I decided
that a brief clarification on a few crucial points was
necessary after all. This article, which has numerous
similarities to Daniel Pipes's (1990) article
'The Muslims are Coming! The Muslims are Coming!'
is centred around a single theme that Muslims are out
to conquer the world through immigration and proselytising,
and the West should put a stop to both by reversing
the tide through a twenty-first century anti-Muslim
pogrom.
Fear
of Proselytising
From
a Christian and Muslim perspective, the answer to a
question of whether one should proselytise is quite
clear, but for people like Anthony Browne and Daniel
Pipes, the concept appears somewhat difficult to grasp.
Followers of Islam and Christianity believe in the truth
of their faith and see it as their responsibility to
share their faith with others. Hence, Christians and
Muslims feel encouraged to proselytise on the basis
of a simple logic; if one has something they believe
is good, they should not be selfish with it.
Sharing one's faith with fellow human beings is part
of religious kindness and generosity, unless of course
one does not consider others worthy of one's faith for
racial or other reasons. Proselytising in Judaism is
discouraged.
The
crucial question about proselytising is whether those
who are being invited have the right to reject. In Islam,
the right to reject is guaranteed in the words of God.
He says in the Quran 'there is no compulsion in
religion'
. Therefore, people are free to accept or reject Islam
when it is presented to them. Mr Browne et al fail to
see the contradiction in their claim that Islam is a
vile and dangerous religion whilst at the same time
emphasising the fact that thousands of freedom loving
Westerners are adopting it as their faith. Muslim migrants
in the West do not wield swords to bring people into
Islam, nor are they in control of the large sections
of the mass media through which people are constantly
brainwashed with 'spin' and misinformation. Coming
to Islam is a choice people make out of their own free
will. So why is this being made into a problem now?
False
statistics
The
statistical claims Mr Browne includes to prove that
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West are
highly misleading and at best questionable if one restricts
analysis to the traditional meaning of the term 'religion'.
When one looks at the bigger picture, one finds that
Western society is not defined only by organised religion
but by an array of competing belief systems, of which
Islamic belief only accounts for a miniscule proportion.
The whole idea that Islam is the fastest growing belief
system in the West is a fallacy created and promoted
by people with an agenda. For every one Westerner that
accepts Islam, the Muslim community loses ten followers
to agnosticism. As a community, we are struggling to
keep the next generation in the faith. The statistics
of drift are undoubtedly alarming, and every week I
receive several letters and telephone calls from distraught
parents asking for help and advice in bringing their
sons or daughters back to faith. I am sure that my experience
in this is not unique.
Taking
over the world
The
Muslim world has been under an iron grip of military
domination for decades. Muslims are persecuted in some
Muslim countries for practicing their faith and seventy
percent of the world's refugees are Muslims. Despite
this, we are being warned that Islam is about to take
over the world. If Mr Browne were, as he would like
us to believe, a competent journalist, he would acknowledge
the fact that rhetoric in the Middle East is a two way
street. Living in the shadow of Israeli oppression and
witnessing its ability to dupe the major nations of
the world into supporting it's plunder of Palestinian
land day after day understandably causes emotions to
boil over into rhetoric. For millions of Muslims, the
utterance of strong words is the only source of comfort
in which they can indulge. In reality, if we want to
know who is conquering whom, one should ask Palestinian
children, "who is taking over their world?"
In all likelihood, they will point to the Israeli tanks
poised above the rubble that was once their home. In
his selective survey of plans for conquering the world,
Mr Browne, for the sake of objective and balanced journalism,
could have highlighted the impact of a notable list
of pro-Israel neo-conservative projects on the Muslim world. An appropriate
example would be Professor Paul Eidelberg ,
a professor of political science, president and co-founder
of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy in the
Middle East as well as the president of the Yamin Israel
Party. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of
the Ariel Center for Policy Research and of the Editorial
Board of one of Israel's premier journal, Nativ, to
which he is a frequent contributor. Professor Eidelberg
argues for a Hebraic world in his policy paper entitled
"The Clash of two Decadent Civilizations, towards
an Hebraic Alternative"
The executive summary reads:
'Part
I discusses the decadence of Islamic civilization. Part
II discusses the decadence of Western civilization.
Part III discusses the basis of Hebraic civilization,
showing how it transcends East and West. Part I portrays
Islam's decline as rooted in hate. Part II reveals the
West's decline as rooted in indifference. Part III reveals
Hebraic civilization as rooted in Hesed - kindness.
What is called the "West" today is not equivalent
to Western civilization. The latter has been eroded
and emasculated by multiculturalism and feminism. The
Great Books of Western civilization no longer set the
tone of higher education in the West. The quest for
the True, the Good, and the Beautiful have been replaced
by relativism. Pop culture is the result. Spread abroad,
it threatens Islam. In reacting to this threat by means
of suicide bombers, Islam reveals itself not only as
a religion driven by hate, but a religion that has exhausted
its original creativity. Islamic absolutism, like Western
relativism, ends in nihilism. It is in the clash between
Western relativism and Islamic absolutism that we are
to understand the world-historical necessity of Hebraic
civilization, whose restoration awaits the establishment
of a New Israel'
Although
I have serious reservations about the authenticity of
the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Professor Eidelberg
is as authoritative as you can get. Far from being the
emotional statement of a religious scholar under trying
circumstances who has no position or say in government,
Professor Eidelberg is an influential player in Israeli
politics. Given his view that a Hebraic civilisation
will raise from the ashes of a clash between the West
and Islam, should we not then speculate on reasons for
the recent quality meltdown in global intelligence reports?
Perhaps more tellingly, one should question Mr Browne's
intention in cherry picking from millions of lectures
and hundreds of thousands of Imams' statements that
could be misused to intensify a clash of civilisations.
The
wider context should be clear. Mr Browne should consider
the implications of his shabby journalism and the possibility
that he could be accused of being a cog in a pro-Israel
strategy designed to dupe the West into a proxy war
against Islam on multiple fronts for the benefit of
Israel, a campaign that fears that if Muslims continue
to develop strong and active communities in the West,
support for unjust Israeli policies could dwindle.
Shaikh Riyad Nadwi M.A., Ph.D.
Oxford, UK
6th August 2004
[1]
Pipes,
D., (1990) The Muslims are coming! The Muslims are Coming,
National Review.
[2]
Al-Quran.
Surah Al-Baqarah (2) verse 256.
[3]
For further reading see "Project
for The New American Century" www.newamericancentury.org/
[4]
He (Ph.D. University of Chicago),
is the author of many books including The Philosophy
of the American Constitution, A Discourse on Statesmanship,
Beyond the Secular Mind, and Judaic Man. Professor Eidelberg,
who lives in Jerusalem,
[5]
Policy Paper published by the Ariel
Center for Policy Research (ACPR). http://www.acpr.org.il/
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