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Can a Value System Supposedly Primitive Pose a Threat to West?
Reem Al-Faisal, Arab News
As the West enters the twilight hours of its civilization it demonstrates a desperate desire to recapture the glories of a past when the world meant the West and the only value system was that dictated by Western powers. According to this way of thinking, modern history started at the Renaissance and Western sciences were the sum of all knowledge.
America, of course, is the most glaring example of this Western malaise as manifested by its refusal to abide by international pacts and agreements or by its savage assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, let us not forget the horror film the world has been forced to watch of torture and abuse of the so-called terrorists in American gulags spread across the planet.
However, Europe also shows signs of stress given the hysteria with which it views the Muslim world. Europe feels both fear and a sort of wounded indignation toward the Muslims. On the one hand it is trying to force the Muslims to abandon Islam as a universal value system claiming it is nothing more than a primitive and archaic religion incapable of dealing with the complex issues of the modern way of life; on the other it feels threatened by this very same culture which it regards beneath its own. One sees and hears an irrational logic in the West today where for some reason it thinks that Islam will overwhelm it and wipe out its own civilization, yet simultaneously it regards it as primitive. So, we get behavior like France deciding that a few hundred Muslim girls wearing their veil to school are a threat to the identity of secular France and might well destroy the French way of life. Then we witness the caricatures in Denmark insulting the Prophet (peace be upon him) and its reproduction in many European newspapers and magazines. There are also books and articles and films and shows made by Westerners depicting Islam as a savage and primitive religion that should be fought and uprooted from this world. If Muslims want to live by their own value system where is the threat in that to the West?
For too long the world has lived with one dominant culture imposing its view on everyone else, where all human experience, be it negative or positive, was seen through Western eyes only. However, recent developments show it is no longer the case. In other parts of the world where people who until recently could never control their own destiny or the fate of their nations a new sense of independence and defiance is evident. Like in Palestine where the people voted into power the Hamas party by an astounding majority.
People might say Israel is not Western; however I say Israel has nothing Jewish about it but its name. Zionism is nothing but an offspring of the Western civilization and since its inception it has been nurtured and protected by its parents, the West. In the days of the Cold War the Soviet Union and America could always agree on one thing and that was the necessity of the continued existence of the Israeli entity, and every other Western power, be it near or far, helped and abetted the crimes of the Zionist nation and still does it to this very day. Israelis themselves see their country as an outpost of Western civilization amid a sea of savages who need to be trained and broken in like wild animals. The tragedy of the Jews is that to survive the European carnage they turned into a copy of what they themselves suffered bitterly from a racist, colonizer. Or that was the only option given them by Western powers and those Jews who believed in the superiority of their race over the Arabs. However the biggest losers in all this will be the Jews who have always had a safe haven in the Muslim world throughout their long persecution in Europe.
Look back on the short and bloody history of the Israeli nation and ask yourselves who have been the greatest beneficiaries of its creation?
The answer is a few Jews who would never have been allowed to become leaders in their community were it not for the existence of Israel and the great markets of arms in the West. All the rest have lost bitterly. The Palestinians their lands, the Arabs their youth and wealth spent on never-ending wars for the past 50 years and the Jews in Israel who end up living in nothing more than a heavily fortified ghetto. Meanwhile, the rest of the Jews in the world are either held for ransom by Israel and forced to support it blindly through money and effort or held accountable by others for Israels criminal behavior. So, in sum, the creation of Israel only benefited those who trade in blood and carnage; they have surely made handsome gains in the past 50 years.
Though we are witnessing the end of a world system which has dominated this planet for over two centuries one should expect a bitter resistance from the West to their slow but inevitable decline. As human beings most of us have difficulty accepting our mortality and many of us never do even to the last minute. The West cant for the moment come to grips with the fact that they occupy this planet with other individuals who have a different set of values which are as true as theirs. Muslims are not the only ones who feel the intrusive and high-handed behavior of the West. We see examples of this kind of attitude all around the world from Latin America to Africa and Asia.
However the West should be careful for they might be mighty but they are no longer the only kid on the block. The block is getting mighty crowded and we the rest of humanity no longer accept their dictates nor do we regard our civilization as any less.
Reem Al-Faisal is a Saudi photographer. She is based in Jeddah.
For the Saudi princess Reem Al Faisal, photography is a means of honouring God's presence. With THE HAJJ she reports on the pilgrimage to Mecca which every Moslem must undertake once in his life. But Reem Al Faisal - herself a Muslim - does not confine herself to recording religious expressions. With her photographs she wants to also reveal the divine in man and nature. Thus she sees the presence of light as one of the many manifestations of God in everyday life.
Reem Al Faisal (b. New York, 1968) is a grand-daughter of the Saudi king Feisal. She has shown in France, Egypt, China and Korea, and was the first artist from a Gulf state to show in Palestine. She is active as a writer and is an strong opponent of all forms of imperialism, including the war in Iraq.
If Muslims want to live by their own value system where is the threat in that to the West?
Guess she hasnt heard the call to Kill all the Infidels yet.
