Are Muslims on the way to unshackle themselves from Arab Islamic imperialism? Well, there are positive signs...
Why Muslims are backward?
The Muslim supremacists babble day and night that Islam is the true, the best and most progressive religion on earth. So, the question naturally arises:
1. If Islam is so good, then why Muslims not so good (they excel in criminality and corruption anywhere), and
2. Why Muslims as a community are so backward in every walk of life?
Many honest Muslims, H Nisar for example, try to find a plausible reply to this question.[1] To deceptive Islamists, like Dr. Zakir Naik, it is simply propaganda by the media, particularly Western media.[2] In reality, Islamic countries are run by unscrupulous politicians, under overbearing influence of Islam and religious clerics. In the first part of this article, Islamic clerics do not consider secular education a priority. Within society, discourage non-Islamic education, particularly for girl. Most importantly, Islamic Allah -- who made illiterate Muhammad, which He boasts in the Quran -- discourages Muslims against being too inquisitive, thus, from critical inquiry. His intention is to keep Muslims in the darkness of ignorance and stuck to a 7th-century civilization.
Modern education, particularly science and technology, creates critical inquiry, which is dangerous for Islam, as enlightened Muslims are likely to question the dogmas of the Koran and Sunnah, which would spell the doom of Islam. So, Muslims have no recourse other than believing and accepting what the vicious mullahs dictate: study the Quran and hadith only in madrasas and pray and fast, and wait for the day of last judgment (qiamah) and enter Allah's paradise -- a divine whorehouse.
A few examples would be sufficient to prove how education is neglected in Islamic or Arab countries. There are 57 member-countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities; i.e. one university for every three million Muslims.[3] The United States has 5,758 universities[4] and India has 8,407.[5] In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an 'Academic Ranking of the World's Universities; and not surprisingly, not one university from the Muslim-majority states was in the top 500. This clearly tells us of the state of education in Islamic countries. And as a result, only three Nobel Prizes have gone to Muslims, a community of about 1.4 billion (other than the bogus Peace Prizes) over the past 105 years, while approximately 14 million Jews have won 180 Nobel Prizes during the same period.[6]
Severe dearth of creativity in the Muslim world
To narrate how Islam ruins the creativity of man, I have to repeat what I have said in my earlier articles. January, 2006, renowned film star Farooque Shaikh told a panel discussion, “Emerging India and Development of Muslims” in Bangalore, organized by Muslim bodies: “Muslims need to introspect as to why their situation has hit the present nadir and should give up blaming others for their dismal educational standard”. He added that, after analyzing the Muslim community, he has come to the conclusion that …religious discrimination, gender bias and other issues are plaguing them. On economic backwardness of the community, he said: “People in the South (India) are lucky that their social and economic conditions are somewhat better than Muslims in the North. Take a trip to the remote regions in the North and the living conditions of the Muslims there are appalling. The ritualistic zakat doled out by the rich towards the poor is not enough to elevate the pathetic living standards of the Muslims”.[7]
On the role Indian Muslims have to play in the emerging new India, Mr. Sadaqat Peeran, chairman of the Al-Ameen Education Society, said: “If Muslims had to be equal partners in emerging India, they had to break the shackle of poverty and illiteracy. English should be introduced in all Urdu schools, if we want to be equipped to face the challenges of this competitive world”. Maqbool Ahmed Siraj, secretary of the Talent Promotion Trust, said: “The Muslim situation is very bleak all over the world. There is no encouragement and incentive for innovation and creativity in the Muslim world”. Siraj lamented over the low level of economic activity of the Muslim world, and said: “The entire gross domestic product of the Muslim world is just half of what France produces every year” [ref. 7]. To be noted: “total GDP of all the Muslim Arab countries, including their oil wealth, is less than the GDP of Spain, a small player among the leading industrialized kuffar countries.
Wasim Sajjad, President of the Islamabad based Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (CONSTECH), said in press conference in 1998 that OIC countries belonging, considering their share of world population, should have 4 million scientists and engineers; but they had only 200,000, merely 5% of the expected figure. He also pointed out that Muslims countries of 1.3 billion population, nearly 32% of the global total, but scientific research papers they publish is negligible, below 1% of world’s total. At the same time, they have little contribution in the high tech-areas like computer software and information technology. Mr. Sajjad, lamenting the dearth of creativity and poor performance of the Muslims in modern science and technology, complained Islamic countries, given their share of the population, should spend $ 4.7 million a year on higher education and research, but they spend as low as $ 130,000 per Year.
In India and elsewhere, Muslims are, as a community, most backward; they top the list in adult illiteracy, infant mortality and poverty. Mr. Hisamul Islam Siddiqi, the president of the Delhi based Indian Islamic Council, addressed a seminar on ‘Islamic Heritage: Indian Dimension’ in Delhi in 2000, saying that nearly 36% of Indian Muslims were urban and almost all of them were slum-dwellers, living below the poverty line. The Mumbai-based Rahat Welfare Trust, to describe the widespread darkness of ignorance and illiteracy amongst Muslims, said: “This darkness makes a mockery of our freedom. … It is only the light of education that can banish this darkness created by ignorance”. Sadatulla Khan, the editor of Islamic Voice, a Bangalore-based monthly, lamenting the lack of creativity and intellectual stagnation in the Muslim community, wrote in an editorial, entitled ‘Intellectual Stagnation and Its Remedy’, writes: “Both individually and collectively, Muslims are victims of intellectual stagnation for the past several centuries and are painfully lagging behind in the race of civilization.”
The picture is not different in the Arab world, where people, where people not so poor but backward in every walk of life. 22 Islamic countries belong to the Arab League. Most of these countries are richly endowed with natural resources like natural oil and gas. So, people are not faced with endemic poverty. Moreover, they shook off their foreign bondage, colonial or neo-colonial legacy, quite a long ago. So the question naturally arises: What went wrong? What makes them so stuck behind time?
In 2001, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) appointed an inquiry committee consisting of Arab intellectuals and scholars that submitted its report, entitled “Arab Human Development Report 2002". Nader Fergani, an Egyptian scholar and chief author of the report, and his associates meticulously analyzed Arab world’s strength as well as its failings.
‘Human Development Index’ (HDI) includes life-expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate, school enrolment as well as per capita income. ‘Alternative Human Development Index’ (AHDI) uses drops income per head from HDI, but includes additional aspects like freedom of speech and similar fundamental rights enjoyed by the people, use of Internet, emissions of carbon dioxide and so on. The Arab countries score poorly on both the indices -- lower than almost all other countries in the world.
The UNDP appointed investigators identified three major shortcomings. One in five Arabs lives on less than $2 a day, and in past 20 years, their per capita income increased at the low rate of 0.5%, lower than anywhere in the world except the sub-Saharan Islamic countries. At this rate, the report laments, a nation would take 140 years to double its per capita income, while many countries set such a target in less than a decade.
Lack of freedom, says the report, is the root cause of many evils in the Arab world, such as extremely autocratic governments, holding of bogus elections, confusion between executive and judiciary and constraints on the media and civil society. “This lack of personal freedom leads to patriarchal, intolerant, and in many cases, suffocating social environments”, the report asserts. The great wave of democratization that has opened up so much of the world over past two decades seems to have left the Arab world untouched. “Sometimes democracy is offered as a concession, not as a right. Transfer of power through ballot box is not a common phenomenon in the Arab world”, says the report. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are extremely limited and no Arab country has a genuinely free media. “Civil societies in the Arab world are shackled and the NGOs are hobbled by legal and administrative obstacles”, the report continues.
It should be mentioned that the Arabs spend 5% of their GDP for education and that money does not seem to be well spent. Quality of education is pitiably low and there is a severe mismatch between of the labor market and the educational curricula. Nearly 10 million children have no schooling at all and “for this poor education system, Arabs are falling further behind in scientific as well as in technological studies and research”, the report says. “Investment in research and development is less than one-seventh of the world average. Only 0.6 per cent Arabs uses the Internet and 1.2 per cent Arabs have personal computers. All these add to the severe dearth of creativity”, says the report.
Gender apartheid is a major reason for backwardness
The Arab world is known for not treating its womenfolk as full citizens and this suppression of women is another vital reason that makes the Arab world backward. The report rightly considers it as an awful waste. “How can a community prosper if it stifles half of its production potential”, the report asks. More than 50% of Arab women still cannot read and write. Their participation in social, economic and political fields is negligible in comparison to women in other parts of the world.
Mr. Clovis Maksoud, an Egyptian scholar involved in preparing the report, blamed no historical event like Western imperialism, devastation caused by the Second World War, or any other outside intervention for the present backwardness of the Arab world, and the Islamic world at large. He indirectly raised his finger to the creed of Islam itself for the said backwardness of the Arab world. “The most delicate issue of all, again carefully skirted by the authors of the report, is the part Islam plays in delaying and impeding the Arab world’s advance towards every receding renaissance that its intellectuals crave”, says a British commentator. Most of the experts on Middle East and Arab world are convinced that “pervasive Islamisation of the society has played havoc and is entirely responsible for stifling constructive Arab thought and progress.”
“From the schooldays onwards, Arabs are instructed that they should not defy tradition (laid down by Allah through Koran and Hadith) that they should respect the authority (of Allah) and truth should be sought in the text (i.e. Koran and Hadith) and not in experience”, says the British commentator. “The role of thought (among Muslims) is to explain and transmit (what has been ordained by Allah in Koran and Hadith) and not to search or question (those religious dogmas)”, says a Syrian intellectual.
There is no doubt that such tenets are holding sway and impeding creative thought, innovation and progress in the Muslim world. Even an educated Muslim has to believe in Prophet Muhammad’s journey to heaven (meraj), and his splitting of the moon into two halves. Each and every Muslim, whether educated or not, has to believe in the Koranic version of creation that says that Allah has created this world from nothingness within six days, the human race began its journey from a single pair of man and woman, namely Adam (derived from Sanskrit adim) and Hawa and Prophet Muhammad was the 90th descendant of Adam, which leads to the conclusion that Allah created this world only 4,141 years ago (considering 30 years to be the gap between two successive generations).
At the same time, they are not permitted to make a rational estimate of Prophet Muhammad, and his life and deeds. They are permitted to praise him for everything he did, without passing any critical remark. He should always be projected as an apostle of peace by concealing his terribly cruel deeds like massacring the Jews of Beni Koraiza and Beni Nadir clan and indiscriminate killings of Arab infidels organizing 82 raids and military campaigns during his ten years’ stay at Medina. Every Muslims has to discover divinity in his marrying 12 (22 according to Shi’as) wives in his declining years, including his marrying Ayesha at the age of 52, when Ayesha was child of 6, and his marrying Zainab, the wife of his adopted son Zeid. What a terrible insult to one’s intellect! What a colossal intellectual slavery!
All the above mentioned comments and opinions of the scholars who prepared the ‘Arab Human Report 2002’ leads one to conclude that, as a community, Muslims around the world are deprived of their right to free thinking and are intellectually enslaved by the creed of Islam. Or, more pointedly, they are a community of shackled people enslaved by the Koran. Can a community of slaves ever prosper? Only time can tell who liberates them from this slavery and how? So, to progress in civilization, the first and foremost task for the Muslims is to abandon Islam and thus to liberate them from the shackles of Arab religious imperialism.[8]
Ray of hope
Previously, I was fully convinced that the Muslims, including the younger generation, are so thoroughly brain washed that it is impossible for them to launch a mass protest against Islam; and in any eventuality, they will try to seek a solution within the framework of Islam. But a few incidents have made me optimistic. Firstly, when my article “Is Egypt going to be Another Iran?” was posted in FFI, a reader nicknamed Abdulla, an Egyptian ex-Muslim, commented: “It is Iran which is going to be another Egypt. Islam is being defeated in Iran and we’ll soon find Iran the Great Country it used to be before many thugs from Dictators to Mullas took power.” This comment led me to believe that the dream of poet Ferdowsi is going to materialize in Iran in near future.
He also said; “As for Egypt, it is now setting an example to be followed by many other countries in the region, perhaps in the world. Now that the people have said their word and succeeded to overthrow a ruthless dictator, they will never allow any Islamic (or for that matter non-Islamic) beast dictate his reign over 80 million Egyptians.” This comment raised a great hope in my heart while I, like many others, was more or less convinced that a fundamentalist Islamic organization, like Muslim Brotherhood is destined to rule Egypt, as the Islamist rogue Ayatullah Khomeini captured political power in Iran in 1979.
Regarding the future of Egypt, he commented, “Egyptian youth is more and more exposed to western values through the internet (I intend to promote FFI in Egypt’s cyber world as much as I will be able to). Such youth is becoming more enlightened than their older fellow Egyptians, and have come to see the truth about Islam and it’s evilness. They also are fed up from this cult which kidnapped the minds of the older generations, and brought their country backwards. .. Muslims Brothers are realizing how UNPOPULAR they have become, and therefore they are trying to disguise in the garb of a moderate and soft political party in order to regain some sympathy. Methinks they will fail big time, and Islam will be a shame on their forefronts. …Egypt’s Christian population is estimated between 12 to 13 Million. Those good and patriotic Egyptians, will NEVER forget their voting duties to ensure that no Islamist regime ever reaches power.” I salute this reader and expect his analysis come true and Muslim Brotherhood fails to gain political power in Egypt.
To cheer me up, he wrote, “To the author of this article, I say do not worry. And it is not an exaggeration to say, my dear Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari, that millions and millions of Egyptians (like yours truly) are quitting Islam today. It is also a fact that they are doing so in secret. I just hope that one day, there will be enough guts and boldness for all those Ex-Muslims to declare their apostasy in Public. We’re still not there, but sooner than we expect, this day is coming.” If the predictions of this learned reader comes true, no one will be happier than me in the world.[9]
The second inspiration I have received from a report that says that “Young Iraqis are losing their faith in religion (of Islam)” by Sabrina Tavernise, appeared in the New York Times on March 3, 2008.[10] The report says, “After almost five years of war, many young Iraqis, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith(of Islam) that they preach. In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.” A discontent youth has been reported to have said, "I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. Says, "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."
A 19-year-old boy called Atheer, coming from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: "The religious men are liars. Young people don't believe them. Guys of my age are not interested in religion anymore." In short, young Iraqis are becoming tired of constant violence, religious killings and bloodshed. Many believe that, these young souls are finding nationalism, not religion, as a unifying ideology. But religious extremists are being admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world. “It is far from clear whether the shift means a wholesale turn away from religion. A tremendous piety still predominates in the private lives of young Iraqis, and religious leaders, despite the increased skepticism, still wield tremendous power. Measuring religiousness furthermore, is a tricky business in Iraq, where access to cities and towns that are far from Baghdad is limited”, the report says.
At the same time, “Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided”, say the worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. The attendance is vastly smaller than that had in 2004 or 2005. Such patterns, if lasting, “could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq”. … It's painful to admit, but it's the reality. People have lost too much. "When they behead someone, they say 'Allah Akbar,' they read Koranic verse," said a moderate Shiite sheik from Baghdad. “So Islam is a failure, not only in the students' minds, but also in the communit," says a cleric.
"After 2003, you couldn't put your foot into the Husseiniya, it was so crowded with worshipers," said Sayeed Sabah, a Shiite religious leader from Baghdad, referring to a Shiite place of prayer. A professor at Baghdad University's School of Law, says, "They have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them. As a result, thousands of young generation Muslims are leaving Islam in Iraq and Iran.”[11],[12]
Testimony of Mosab Hassan Yousef
The third inspiration I have received from the video interviews of Mosab Hassan. Mosab Hassan Yousef (33), son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding leader of Hamas, who spent many years in Israeli prisons. From 1997 to 2007, Yousef worked undercover for Israel's internal security service Shin Bet that considered him the most valuable source within the Hamas leadership.
“The information Yousef supplied prevented dozens of suicide attacks and the assassination of Israelis, and exposed numerous terrorist groups. Yousef has since converted to Christianity and moved to California, in the United States. In March 2010, he published his autobiography, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices.”[13]
According to Yousef, when he was growing up he wanted to be a fighter because that was expected of Arab children in the West Bank. He was first arrested when he was ten, during the First Intifada, for throwing rocks at Israeli settlers. He was further arrested repeatedly by the Israelis and jailed many times. He became an important part of the Hamas organization.
“Yousef was held by Shin Bet agents in 1996. He claims that while in prison, he became appalled as he compared the Shin Bet's interrogation methods to how imprisoned Hamas operatives tortured suspected collaborators. He decided to accept a Shin Bet approach to become an informant. Since his release from prison in 1997, Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname the "Green Prince".
Mosab Hassan said, “From outside, it seems that Islam is expanding. But in reality, Islam is collapsing from inside.”[14] Recently an Egyptian-German political scientist and historian, Hamas Abdel-Samad, in a television interview said that Islam is going to suffer an imminent collapse.
Report by M A Khan, editor of Islam-watch.org
The final inspiration I have received from the article “Progress in the Battle against Islam: 'Islamic Jihad' in Bangla”, by the learned author and the editor of the renowned website Islam-watch.org, M A Khan recently informed us that his celebrated work “Islamic Jihad” has been publish in Bengali translation in Dhaka.
While he is apprehensive about the upsurge in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen and other countries, which may go in the Iranian way, and he wrote: “The surge of popular revolutions in the Middle East points to a gloomy, even frightening, prospect”, he nonetheless was confident to write: “Yet our battle against Islam is quietly scoring points, one at a time. … It's been a satisfying progress in our battle against Islam—given our limited resources and inputs. Our voices have started penetrating into the Islamic heartlands. And as I tour the internet, I can see a deluge of ex-Muslims from all over the world queuing up to join the Atheist/Skeptic club. A true revolution for the liberation of men and women in the Muslim world will start with Enlightenment about Islam amongst Muslims, and it's looking a real and near-future possibility. What we need is patience and perseverance to keep our battle going.”
He further writes, “Amidst this gloomy prospect, I have some good news for you too:
1. A publisher in Bangladesh has translated and published my book, Islam Jihad, in Bangla.
2. The same publisher has also published a few more titles in Bangla with translated articles from islam-watch.org and faithfreedom.org (contain articles of our authors Ali Sina, M. A. Khan, Alamgir Hussain, Mohammad Asghar, Ayesha Ahmed, Mumin Salih, Tanvir Kami et al.). I'm including a few cover-images of books, sent by the publisher, which our Bengali readers may be interested in.”
The incident reflects that the Muslims of Bangladesh have started questioning Islam. The new generation of Muslims have started identifying Islam as a false religion and a handicap to their progress; many of them have started abandoning Islam. If the trend continues for considerable period of time, Islam -- the barbaric cult, would disappear in due course in time. Let's hope: that day would come sooner. On that day, 1.5 billion Muslims would become free of the fetters Muhammad evil cult, a violent and imperialist creed, and would returned to their ancestral culture.
[1] H Nisar: Why Muslims Are So Backward (Video) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMP-1kmVNc
[2] Why are Muslims so Backward? (video) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa-CoYyWQ0c
[3] http://www.dur.ac.uk/daniel.newman/courseAR1.html
[4] http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/alpha/
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_India
[6] Why Are Muslims So Backward? -http://ibrahim-sheme.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-are-muslims-so-backward.html
[7] Islamic Voice: February, 2006
[8] R Brahmachari, World Community of Muslims: Shackled People Enslaved by the Koran.
[9] http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/political-islam/is-egypt-going-to-be-another-iran/
[10] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/world/africa/03iht-youth.4.10662930.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
[11] Thousands Leaving Islam in Iraq http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXGlGcT6Gq4
[12] Thousands Leaving Islam in Iran http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfUFKvz4Yko
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosab_Hassan_Yousef
[14] [14] Hamas founders family: Islam is collapsing and will be gone in 10 years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQjk1YUq94; Son of Hamas leader says Islam is Collapsing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkzg0ePpRGc (part 1 to part 6)
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