I personally think that the reason why Muslims today are so backward is that we have a myopic world view. We adopt about boycotts without even wanting to discuss its pros and cons (minus the people who have so wonderfully contributed to this debate of course!).
We believe emails because it makes us feel good, nevermind that half the things people forward us turn out to be hoaxes (Note to self: blog about the conspiracy theories behind conspiracy theories...)
We too easily label each other's faith when faced with differences in opinions.
We can live without American franchises, but we can't live without our American credit cards.
We adopt a singular north in terms of our moral obligations, one that points to one direction, nevermind the Muslims elsewhere else, or even those in our own backyards.
We would rather isolate ourselves in our quest for piety, rather than run the risk of greater rewards through active participation in global mechanisms. Nevermind that our opinions were never tested, we know the 'truth' and that's good enough.
We mix what is our faith with what is our cultural norms. Nevermind that sometimes the latter goes against the former.
We know our forwarded emails to be true, and that's good enough for us. At least we save money on buying books or online news subscriptions. At least we save time on all that reading - after all, those emails must be true, so why waste time thinking about it further?
The Ummah today is like a child who closes her eyes, covers her ears with her hands and screams at the top of her voice so that she can't see what's happening around her, or hear what other people are telling her.
> We mix what is our faith with what is our
> cultural norms. Nevermind that sometimes the
> latter goes against the former.
There's nothing wrong with this. As a matter of fact, believing that there's only One True Faith, a Meta-Faith under all the Superstitions Of Past Years is horrifically childish in my eyes.
No, there's nothing wrong with mixing our faith with cultural norms. It's when we deny that we do so and insist that Our Way is the One True Way that things become terribly askew.
Posted by: T-Boy at 2004年05月30日 13:21agree with t-boy. but you know, i saw before twice, someone has a car sticker that says "islam is the only true way".
anything wrong with that? some people may say no, since the person is speaking for him/herself, but some people feel that that person is announcing it to everyone (being a car sticker). why tell people islam is the only true way? you religion, keep it to yourself, don't announce that only your religion is the only true way, only your religion will save.
Yes, T-Boy, you can mix Islam with cultural norms, as long as the cultural norm is consistent with Islamic principles. For instance, if your cultural dress is your birthday suit, then you can't go to the mosque in your birthday suit and pray, because that goes against the idea of aurat and modesty in Islam.
Posted by: Idlan at 2004年05月30日 15:05Those are all super true. The worst part is when they (the religious ones) treat whoever challenge the status quo as unfaithful, blasphemy etc and spread names around. To me there are clear rules in Islamic teaching but there are also many that we should continue to reinterpret as time goes.
One thing that bothers me is I have yet to find any articles in the media or the net written by a muslim back home that really condem any atrocities commited by muslims. typical statement are : Islam is against violence, or it is not Islamic to kill the innocent.
I'll say: I hate those muslims that commit crimes on innocent. Because their action hurt many other muslims in more ways than what I can think of.
Posted by: rhomer at 2004年05月30日 22:57
heres something interesting.. Easy to Use : What do Macs and Islam have in common?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/23/CMG8S5TM1B1.DTL
Posted by: faren at 2004年06月01日 10:29"The Ummah today is like a child who closes her eyes, covers her ears with her hands and screams at the top of her voice so that she can't see what's happening around her, or hear what other people are telling her."
How true it is - and it's not just confined to Muslims; certain Catholic and Hindu groups suffer from the same affliction. Organised religion has devolved into a martial code - cruel, rigid, unforgiving and smugly self-righteous.
Posted by: Giant Sotong at 2004年06月01日 13:34I think retreating back into a shell of some sort is the defensive reaction of believers of 'organised' religion to the lack of morality, decadence and hedonistic lifestyle championed by many today. They feel isolated and very defensive, trying hard to differentiate themselves from the world, because the world judges religion as something that is seen as anti-progress, backwardness and generally, not 'cool'.
On a personal basis I believe religion and progress can go hand in hand - because it's religion that balances the vagaries of the modern world with stability and security: at least for me.
I find it ironic that people who would prefer to live a more liberal lifestyle shout out loud for everyone to accept them as they are, but at the same time are unable to treat people who wish to live a religious life with the same degree of respect they themselves command from others.
Posted by: idlan at 2004年06月01日 23:14I get those forwarded e-mails all the time from certain people who are close to me. They range from the usual harmless chain letters (damn, I forgot to forward one of those to ten friends...no kisses for me tonight!). Others are not so benign. It's funny when people believe they'll get a free handphone or computer just by forwarding the email to more people, or that the superimposed picture of a guy on a motorcycle really is a ghost that prowls the LDP, but it's just plain scary when Islam is dragged into the equation. I won't even try to get into the socio-cultural factors involved in this. Suffice to say it's disturbing.
Idlan, I agree with the last point you made. Good stuff.
Najah, I really like your blog. It's one of the few that I check every day.
Cheers!
we are backward because we follow fabricated books called hadiths. these lies are attributed to the Prophet.
Posted by: Durian at 2004年06月07日 18:35One time I called up a radio station and requested a song for my girlfriend. But she wasn't listening and I felt really stupid because I said embarassingly lovey things to the DJ about our relationship.
The point of being in love is not to share it. It is refreshingly selfish.
Posted by: Tevin at 2004年07月01日 03:09