The easiest way to escape of one's failure is to blame the system. You will find crying faces everywhere that do not tire of complaining and blaming others for their failures. Politicians are famous of their escape reasoning. However listening to an intellectual using the same level of superficial reasoning is really astonishing.
In a dinner, we were debating the fall and rise of nations. I asked a Muslim professor who is teaching about the Middle East. He started blaming the West for the failures of the Muslim world. He was contradicting with his previous argument in which he blamed Mongol invasion of the Muslim world as the reason for fall of the Muslim world.
It was simply misinterpretation of the history. The Mongolian invasion and following Mongolian empire led globalization and to renaissance. European colonization led to democratization and creation of the nation states. Today's globalized world is the fruit of the all these developments.
Yes, Mongolian invasions, colonization, WWI, WWII, cold war, War on terror, all have destructive consequences. But no nation in the world has escaped war. Every single nation on the earth has faced invasions, destructions, economical, political and social crises. What about Germany and Japan who faced defeat and massive destruction in WWII? Are these two nations struggling among third world countries or among economical and technological powers of the world?
If Mongolian invasion was the cause of failure then what about China and India? Both China and India faced Mongolian invasions and were proud part of the Mongolian empire. If colonization is the cause of fall then what about the India, Singapore? What about Malaysia that is a Muslim country?
Some argue that most of the post colonial nation states are failures. I accept the fact but Israel is also a post colonial nation that was created. She has established herself as a successful nation, despite of the sensitivity, likes and dislikes related to this nation state?
Some of the nations succeeded to rise up again out of the destructions, invasions and colonization and others failed. Why? There should be some solid reasons that we have to look. Unless the causes of the illness are not diagnosed the blame game and complaining won’t solve the problems.
A lot of Muslim scholars have pointed out the causes but I would like to add my opinion. To me, the conscious participation of the masses in the affairs of the nation is key to success of a nation. When I say conscious, it means that people understand their role and have the ability to serve their roles. Both understanding and ability comes from a purpose education. The second way of the conscious participation of people is the spirit of the free thinking in the intellectuals and their willingness to lead their nations.
As it comes in Muslim world, the public education system was absent in the Muslim world during all Muslim kingdoms and caliphates and free thinking was oppressed especially after Al-Ghazali’s refutation of the philosophers (You can read it in Wikipedia under title of the “The Incoherence of the Philosophers,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incoherence_of_the_Philosophers ). The Al-Ghazali’s works and influences on kings led an end to free thinking in the Muslim world and the results were catastrophic as Muslim world went out of the list of nations who were contributing to Human knowledge. The misuse of Fatwa and killings of Muslim thinkers snatched the spirit of the conscious participation of the Muslim masses. It is the real fall of the Muslim world.
The only way to free Muslims from extremist is the revival of the free spirits that earlier Muslim scientists have whose contributions are the source of the pride for Muslims. This sense of pride needs translations. Muslims intellectuals need not to escape of the real weaknesses that historically there have inherited. They have a golden era and need to revive the same spirit, Reasoning and free thinking which the core of generation of knowledge is.
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