The Decline of the West, published in 1918 by Oswald Spengler, German philosopher, lists the reasons that he believes it would lead to the collapse of Western civilization. When you look through the first pages of the book, you would come across philosopher’s description of the aging of the European city as a civilization lost its compass and spirit and drowned in triviality and violence. That makes me wondering,
Does the philosopher describe his civilization at the beginning of the 20thcentury or my civilization at the beginning of the 21st century?
Isn’t the description applicable to the contemporary Islamic world?
But first, what is civilization?
Civilization
A social system helps people to increase their cultural production, consisting of four elements; economic resources, political systems, moral traditions, and science and art modernization. It begins when disturbance and concerns end, because if people are safe from fear, they would be motived to be ambitious and creative, and then natural incentives would encourage them to understand life and its prosperity.
Civilization is, foremost, based on scientific and technical art research. The scientific aspect is the technological innovations and sociology, and the artistic aspect is the architectural arts, sculptures and some arts that contribute to the advancement. If we focused our research on the greatest civilizations in the world, such as the Roman civilization, we would find that they had great scientists and artists; Art and science are integral elements that build any civilization.
The Decline of Islamic Civilization
I’m witnessing a sick, barely-breathing Islamic civilization. The whole world sees the symptoms of the disease on its face, while Muslims denying any responsibility, blaming the whole world but themselves, fleeing from their present reality to the caves of the past, and dreaming of invading the world again. I have no idea how! Maybe with swords, horses and green flags!
People must face the fall of their civilization, history and heritage that collapsed and crashed into modernity. no civilization lasts forever, it’s fall is a foregone conclusion. Civilization is like a flower, sprouts, blooms and then withers as any living organism that passes through the cycle of life from birth to youth and aging. These are the stages of any civilization, ending with the Ottoman Empire. The finale stage of civilization is characterized by the recession in all areas of life, where people lose their awareness of history, intellectual chaos prevails, science sinks, true art disappears, and tacky poor entertainment prevails.
Consumption Civilization
People care about nothing but food and fun! It’s a miserable situation, in which people becomes speaking animals. consumption culture and violations of the laws of nature are spread, leading to a significant increase in desertification and environmental and climatic problems. Consumption and entertainment have become our main concern, a football game has become more significant than the extinction of the identity of Syrians and slicing of the body of Iraq. We import Western products, cannot live without them and deny the minds that produced them, those minds that were liberated and searched, reviewed, calculated and criticized itself and its history. “Criticism is the best building tool human mind has ever known,” said German philosopher, Immanuel.
Alleged Knowledge of Absolute Truth
What we see today is, precisely, a conflict between modernity and heritage, a moribund Islamic culture, which is no longer able to provide true, logical and convincing answers to the urgent questions of the era. Alleged knowledge of absolute truth has led to insularity and rejection of the opposed. We are in a state of confusion and intellectual tension that led to schizophrenia, despair, violence, extremism, terrorism, self-glorification, and hatred of others. Nothing satisfies the dummy as much as the talk of the magnificence, glory and pleasant past. a state of dead cultural hidden behind fake religiosity.
Religion Traders and Country Corruption
I am really tired of old men dreaming of wars in which only youth dies, promising them paradise, but what they actually give is a hell on earth. Islam’s good manners have disappeared in the hearts and consciences and are only shown in beards, slogans and various media. Clerics have become like fashionistas on social media and marketing advertisements, being hypocritical, hesitating, changing, change and turning against the religion to please the rulers. Here we are witnessing change in Saudi Arabia for instance. we see fatwas of the past that led to the killing, arrest, exile, punishment, flogging, and cutting off human hands as punishment for acts they saw as infidelity, are acceptable today by Sheikhs and the ruler, and even encourage it. What about the millions of people who are victims of your intransigence ans suffered from your mistakes and your religious trade?
We are surrounded by a group of clerics constantly chanting that the world is invaluable, yet they put their hands on everything they can reach. Corruption has become the public principles. Media is misleading. Schools teach ignorance. Selective law punishes the weak. Officials do not combat crime because they are busy doing it. These are clear signs of the intellectual fall of the Islamic, Arab world, and foreshadows an economic fall in line with the poor consumption of wealth when an alternative of oil is found, it’s just matter of time. I am sure that historians will, after a hundred years, write that oil did nothing to the Arabs and Muslims but accelerating their destruction.
You are the best nation produced for mankind!
Unfortunately, and ironically, Muslims believe that they’re the best nation morally, intellectually and culturally and the best nation produced for mankind, although statistics states that they are behind all nations in all areas, thanks to the theory of conspiracy, the basis of the failure of the Islamic nation. Who lives on the bottom, normally believes that anything falls from the top is targeting him.
The Sinking of The Ship of Islamic World
Compare the contemporary Islamic world with the “Titanic” liner before sinking, you would find great similarity between them, which is what Hamed Abdel-Samad mentioned in his book, The Downfall of the Islamic World. Islam’s ship stands alone in a cold ocean and does not know how to survive. Third class passengers sleep in their cabins, having no idea about the coming disaster. The rich try to escape with the few lifeboats while making a profit out of the disaster. The clerics repeat the same tales and slogans and demand patience from people. As the so-called repairers remind me of the musicians on the ship who kept on playing until the ship sank, even though they had realized that no one was listening to them at all.
End the Collapse and Disaster Rectification
The dream is not even close to the bitter reality. There are two laws that governs the nature since the beginning of the world; flexibility and diversity. Anyone violates these laws ends up in annihilation. If Islamic world keeps disobeying the two laws for so long, it will end up in a harsh prophecy that I dare not to say. Islamic world should let go of underdevelopment and fundamentalism and adopt development, enlightenment and secularism, otherwise the nation would be lost, the countries would lose control of the nation, the nation would lose control of itself, chaos and violence would prevail, the law of the jungle would rule and result would be people fleeing to Europe — the infidel which everyone hates, however, dreams of, everyone despises, however, cannot live without)!
My intent here is not to insult Islam, but I am trying to deal with a sick entity called the Islamic, Arab world from an analytical critical point of view. The sick could not be cured by ignoring the disease and denying it, but by facing it with drugs and realizing where the disease comes from. The recognition of the disease is the half the treatment. Any talk of reform, while keeping the old system of knowledge, is only an inscription on water.
A Message to The Islamic, Arab World
Do not let beards and fake images fool you, ninety per cent of cleric are mindless. They taught your children that anyone disagree with them in civilization, race, religion and sect are infidels, idolaters and sinners. The definitions must be reformulated in the minds of Muslim societies. Silence is not wisdom. Virtue is not coercion. sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong is not an advice. Freedom is not nudity. Religion is not all about infidel fatwas (formal legal opinion). You are also accountable for what you did not say when you should have.
I hope new trees will grow one day from the burned roots. Civilizations come and go like a sandcastle built from beach sands by children, but the sea will remain and its waves will continue to come and go, whether there are castles on the beach or not.
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