The Three Problems Of The Modern World
The world today is divided between those who see Westernization as a problem - and those who see Islam as the threat. Islam also sees Zionism as the other major problem.
To my mind these are two sides of the same coin. Nobody sees Buddhism or Hindusim as the same threat as Westernization or Islam. The 3 desert religions account for half the world - yet seem to account for a greater proportion of modern problems than the number of people following the ‘desert bloc’ culture.
Two Elephants In The Room
Most analysis fail to detect (or is it mislead) the role of slavery and colonies - the twin-elephants in the room. For instance, this nearly 20-page analysis about Westernization and Modernization, mentions slave once and colonialism (related words included) twice. The very basis of post-medieval West has been slavery and colonialism. Western propaganda has made slavery, an invisible factor in their ‘success.’ And they are on the half way mark, on the erasure in popular memory, about the use of colonies for Western enrichment. For instance, a ‘respected’ commentator, Kishore Mahbubani, fatuously, talks about the seven pillars of Western success - without once mentioning slavery and colonialism.
On the other hand, there are those who allege, that Westernization has progressed the world. Take Theodore Von Laue’s essay (author of The World Revolution Of Westernization) which is inspired “by a humane and compassionate vision which most academic studies lack. Indeed, his study was motivated by his concern about contemporary sectarian strife, interstate conflicts, ecological disasters, superpower rivalry, and anti Western movements mired in nostalgia and resentment”.
Slavery, Gold and Loot
It is the support of slavery and loot by the ‘desert bloc’ that is the root of the problem. For loot and slavery to ‘flourish’, looters and enslavers must share ‘common’ factors - like physical look, same religion, same or similar language, geography, etc. Hence, the importance of ‘assimilation’.
Respect For The Individual
While the West talks about the respect for the individual, facts are otherwise.
Members of the Catholic Church note with anxiety (and so does the its replacement, The State) that “the continued insistence that Hispanics will soon pass through the assimilationist melting pot and be American like us is not only false, but also harmful for our Hispanic sisters and brothers, and thus for the church”.
Another study to measure ‘assimilation’ notes “Mexican immigrants are assimilating more slowly than Italian immigrants did at the turn of the last century”. Similarly, expatriate populations in the Middle East have to live with disrespect and intolerance of non-Islamic religions.
Unlike the Indian social system, where differences are respected and encouraged, the French position (quoted above), paraphrases the thinking of the ‘desert bloc’. It is this expectation that “immigrants were supposed to blend harmoniously into society and not exist in separate communities” that makes Westernization and Islamic Fundamentalism a problem for the rest of the world.
Across The World
From China, Li Changchun, a high chief in the Chinese Communist Party ideologue “has been sounding the alarm against alleged “Westernization and splittism” attempts by capitalistic demons. At a symposium to study the theories of Deng Xiaoping, the deceased paramount CCP leader, he called upon all communist comrades to
strengthen the Marxist convictions, “Guard against foreign hostile machinations to Westernize and split China“
In Russia, “The West, the Western Europe, and the United States have been perceived to represent wrong and dangerous forces and values, a danger and threat to Russia, Russian people its religion, values and politics, and good life in general”. (from the book The Enemy with a Thousand Faces: The Tradition of the Other in Western Political and History By Vilho Harle).
A report from Russia informs Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who oversees external relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, in a nationally televised sermon in 2005, said the reformers of the 1990s did not understand “that reform does not mean Westernization.”
In Pakistan, people feel that “In the name of development, a huge amount of Westernisation will take place, leading to the erosion of Islamic values and coming into existence of a new class of citizens”.
From Africa, The Cape Times, confirms that “African tradiitons have been corrupted over many years by the influence of Western values, with its emphasis on materialism. The corruption is particularly marked in the urban areas of South Africa, where there has also been a breakdown of the family as the vehicle of traditional values.Mike Muendane, author of I am an African, said the corruption of African culture started a very long time ago. “We were told our cultures were inferior to Western cultures and we made the mistake of accepting that,” he said. With the Western cultures came the spirit of materialism and Africans lost their spirituality in the process.He said African children were being subjected to Westernisation. “We must claim back our children,” Muendane said”.
Researchers fear for languages using the same “standards applied to bird and mammal populations, professor Bill Sutherland of the University of East Anglia in England examined the threat to the world’s 6,800 languages. His findings - nearly 1,700 languages are either endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable - reported in the May 15 edition of the science journal, Nature. About 27 percent of the world’s languages are threatened, compared to about 9 percent of the bird population, his study shows. The foundation attributes the decline and total disappearance of some languages to urbanization, Westernization and the growth of global communications, which “diminish the self-sufficiency of small and traditional communities.”
On The Other Side
The Cato Institute, a US think tank, announces that indeed, “a new specter is haunting America, one that some Americans consider more sinister than Marxism-Leninism,” according to Douglas E. Streusand. “That specter is Islam.” The rise of political Islam in North Africa, especially the recent electoral strength of anti-liberal Islamic fundamentalist groups in Algeria; the birth of several independent Moslem republics in Central Asia whose political orientation is unclear; and the regional and international ties fostered by Islamic governments in Iran and Sudan are all producing, as Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland put it, an “urge to identify Islam as an inherently anti-democratic force that is America’s new global enemy now that the Cold War is over.”
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger feels, today it is “radical Islam that threatens the already brittle state structure via a fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran as the basis of a universal political organization. Jihadist Islam rejects national sovereignty based on secular state models; it seeks to extend its reach to wherever significant populations profess the Muslim faith”.
In another report, Kissinger calls for a concurrent US-Russia policy for “countering Islamic Fundamentalism the united states and russia have a common interest in countering islamic fundamentalism and should attempt to pursue concurrent policies, former secretary of state henry kissinger has said. “the challenge of islamic fundamentalism is probably the dominant russian concern. russia’s leaders perceive afghanistan’s taliban and to a lesser extent iran and pakistan as threats to the newly independent states of uzbekistan, azerbaijan, kazakhstan, tajikistan and turkmenistan, formerly soviet republics, kissinger said. “furthermore, moscow fears that militant ideologies could stimulate irredentism in russia’s southern muslim provinces,” kissinger wrote in an article in the washington post . he said america had its own “concerns about the spread of fundamentalism towards saudi arabia, pakistan and the middle east.” “an effort should be made,” kissinger suggested in the article, “to achieve concurrent or at least compatible policies with russia on the middle east, including central asia, afghanistan, iran and, at least as far as russia is concerned, the balkans.” he, however, said there were clear limits beyond which neither country may be able to go. america cannot, in the name of opposition to islamic fundamentalism, acquiesce to russia’s methods for suppressing the upheavals in chechnya. nor can it be indifferent should islamic fundamentalism become a pretext to force the newly independent states of central asia buckle under russian strategic domination, he said” (sic).
On Islam in Russia, The New York Times (in 2001) reported the ‘rise in Islamic fundamentalism has concerned Russian officials, many of whom are wary of any religion that is not Russian Orthodoxy. The ongoing battle in Chechnya, whose rebels increasingly identify with Muslim extremists, has fueled anti-Islamic attitudes. Much of the concern has focused on the influence, in Chechnya and beyond, of money and ideology from Islamic countries”.
In Europe, Islamic fundamentalism is being dealt with differently the “French consensus was symbolised by the 80 per cent public support for the head-scarf ban, which started with little trouble in September. While many Muslims felt stigmatised, the Government took comfort from the approval of the ban … The left wing, which long shunned criticism of Islam as the stock-in-trade of Jean-Marie le Pen, the far-Right leader, now denounces the “totalitarian”, anti-feminist, antisemitic doctrines of the fundamentalists. Jacques Julliard, a leading left-wing commentator, said the Left’s longstanding tolerance had been used as “an agent for the penetration of Islamic intolerance” … The debate … now acknowledges failure of its (France) “republican” approach to integration whereby immigrants were supposed to blend harmoniously into society and not exist in separate communities” (ellipsis and bold letters mine).
Across South East Asia, it is reported “on 18 January 2007, the Philippines military killed 9 members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group after a fierce gun fight. This came two days after the Philippines elite Army Special Forces killed Jaenal Antel Sali, one of the top five Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the United States for a series of high-profile terrorist acts. Earlier in January, Army Scout Ranger soldiers killed BinangSali, head of the Abu Sayyaf- Urban Terrorist Group. Elsewhere, Indonesia has also stepped up anti-terror actions in Poso in Sulawesi, a place where militants have gained a foothold. The anti-terror squad raided a militant stronghold killing 9 suspected militants in a gun-battle and arresting 18 suspects. A large haul of bombs and weapons were also found in the hideout and seized”.
From North Africa, come reports about how ”The Governments keep close watch on all radical fundamentalists,” the diplomat said. ”The authorities first try and influence and control by providing money to the mosques and getting the leaders on their side. If that doesn’t work, they crack down.”
The Demonization Of Islam
The complaint of “Westoxication” is a powerful expression by the non- West of its ambivalence towards modernity, and the urgent need to build a long-term separation of Westernization from modernization. The reshaping of the West as transcendental evil — “the West as Satanic Empire”
One Western, (of course), commentary states that Islamic Fundamentalism has “coincided with the demise of the colonial era, the retreat from empire, the liberation and independence of a host of former colonial states, the emergence of a world system centred on the United Nations, and more recently, the end of the cold war and the disappearance of the bipolar world of East and West”.
Of course, the writer seems to imply, (in the neo-con manner) that if the world had continued with colonies, and if 80% of the world was forced to be backward, these problems would not have occurred. This seems to be the logical corollary to this observation. Also, this commentary, does not recognize how the retreat from the empire left previously peaceful populations at each others throats. For instance, India and Pakistan, the entire Middle East, the fragile disequilibrium in Africa.
Thus, the world needs to understand that the root of the problem and also the solution is movement away from the civilizational values of the desert bloc - based on slavery and loot.
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