Muslim Rage is About Politics, Not Religion

Miss Mimi
By Miss Mimi

This is a bit long - 4 pages - but a really interesting read for those of you interested in slogging through it (Fatimah I think you'll really like this).

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/30/husain-haqqani-muslim-r...

Here's the last page though, as it sums up the gist of the article nicely.
*******************************************************
Even strategically pro-Western rulers find it convenient to perpetuate the Ummah’s narrative of Islam being under siege and Muslims being the targets of an insidious global conspiracy. Morale is kept up by bogus stories of miracles, such as the destruction of the theater that showed a blasphemous movie, or the one claiming that Neil Armstrong converted to Islam after hearing the call to prayer while he was on the moon. (He didn’t.) It is rare to find mention of hard negative facts in the general discourse within the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which collectively account for approximately one fifth of the world’s population but only 7 percent of global output.

The economic dysfunction in the 22 Arab countries, several of them blessed with oil reserves, highlights how Muslim scholars and politicians have failed to understand and explain the waning power of the Ummah to their people. The Arab countries had a combined GDP of $1.9 trillion in 2010, compared with the European Union’s GDP of $17.5 trillion. Spain alone produced $1.43 trillion in GDP, without the benefit of natural resources such as oil and gas. The wealth of Western nations comes from manufacturing and innovation, neither of which has found much favor in Muslim-majority countries.

A real debate among Muslims about their decline might identify why the Ottoman and Mughal empires refused to accept the printing press for more than two and a half centuries after Johannes Guttenberg invented movable type. It might also explain why Muslims failed to embrace the Industrial Revolution, modern banking, insurance, and the joint stock company, even after these had emerged in Europe. Instead, most of the discussion focuses on real or perceived historic injustice. “We are weak because we were colonized,” Muslims tend to say, instead of recognizing that Muslim lands were colonized because they had become weak.

The “knowledge deficit” mentioned in the Arab Development Report of 2002 continues to worsen. Roughly half the world’s illiterate adults are found among Muslims, and two thirds of that number are women. Greece, with a population of 11 million, translates more books from other languages than the entire Arab world, which has a cumulative population of 360 million. Since the 9th century, when the Abbasid rulers of Baghdad patronized learning and built a huge library for its time, only 100,000 books have been translated from other languages into Arabic. The same number of books are translated from other languages into Spanish every year.

A thousand years ago, Muslims led the world in the field of science and mathematics. Today they are noticeably absent from any list of recent inventors and innovators in science and technology. Since 1901, only two Muslims have won a Nobel Prize in the sciences, and one of them (Pakistan’s Dr. Abdus Salam, Physics, 1979) is not deemed a Muslim in his home country because of his association with the Ahmadiyya sect. Not coincidentally, only a handful of Muslim-majority countries fulfill the criteria for freedom set by the independent group Freedom House. Even the “Arab Spring” seems unlikely to change that harsh reality.

Decline, weakness, impotence, and helplessness are the words repeated most frequently in the speeches and writings of today’s Muslim leaders. All four are conditions that feed outrage—the response of people lacking real power to change their circumstances. Ironically that response is cultivated by leaders who could channel their people’s energy toward real solutions. Instead of orchestrating hate on the pretext of even the most insignificant provocation, Muslim leaders could extend literacy, expand education, and make their nations’ economies more competitive. But as in Western democracies, the politics of wedge issues is always easier to pursue. Rising Islamophobia in Europe and North America helps Islamists keep things on the boil. “Us versus them” is always a useful distraction from “us versus our problems.”

By anonymous• 4 Oct 2012 09:27
anonymous

just as some other people are proud of being "peaceful and civilized"

By Miss Mimi• 4 Oct 2012 08:45
Miss Mimi

They're the living embodiment of the what the article is talking about adey. ;)

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 22:26
anonymous

God speaks Arabic as per the Koran

By adey• 3 Oct 2012 19:22
adey

rather well. From the article:

"Muslims have made practically no serious effort to understand the causes and remedies of their decline over the past 300 years. Outrage and resentment—and the conspiracy theories that inform them—are poor substitutes for comprehending why Islam’s lost glory has proved so difficult to resurrect........

The outrage industry ensures that Muslims continue to blame others for their condition, raging over their impotence instead of focusing on economic, political, and social issues."

And here you guys are, arguing over the Jews!

By RAJK• 3 Oct 2012 18:25
RAJK

God belongs to no religion. Be a human being with common sense to help the world and yourself.

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 18:03
anonymous

Oh I get it now, the Palestinians always lived there since man left Africa and their land was robbed by Jews from other places. Strange all those old Jewish ruins and temples on that land that seems to predate Arab populations. probably put there by Jews so they could steal the land. Bit crafty those people.

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 17:03
Rating: 4/5
anonymous

Zionist Immigration:

Between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000 Jews immigrated to the south-western area of Syria, then a province of the Ottoman Empire. The majority, belonging to the Hovevei Zion and Bilu movements, came from the Russian Empire with a smaller number arriving from Yemen. Many established agricultural communities. Among the towns that these individuals established are Petah Tikva (already in 1878), Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pina, and Zikhron Ya'aqov. In 1882, the Yemenite Jews settled in an Arab suburb of Jerusalem called Silwan located south-east of the walls of the Old City on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.

Between 1904 and 1914, 40,000 Jews immigrated mainly from Russia to south-western Syria following pogroms and outbreaks of anti-semitism in that country. This group, greatly influenced by socialist ideals, established the first kibbutz, Degania, in 1909 and formed self-defense organizations, such as Hashomer, to counter increasing Arab hostility and to help Jews to protect their communities from Arab bandits. The suburb of Jaffa, Ahuzat Bayit, established at this time, grew into the city of Tel Aviv. During this period, some of the underpinnings of an independent nation-state arose: The national language Hebrew was revived; newspapers and literature written in Hebrew published; political parties and workers organizations were established.

Between 1919 and 1923, 40,000 Jews, mainly from the Russian Empire arrived in the wake of World War I, the British conquest of Palestine; the establishment of the Mandate, and the Balfour Declaration. Many of these were pioneers, known as halutzim, trained in agriculture and capable of establishing self-sustaining economies. In spite of immigration quotas established by the British administration, the population of Jews reached 90,000 by the end of this period. The Jezreel Valley and the Hefer Plain marshes were drained and converted to agricultural use. Additional national institutions arose: The Histadrut (General Labor Federation); an elected assembly; national council; and the Haganah, the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces.

Between 1924 and 1929, 82,000 Jews arrived, many as a result of anti-semitism in Poland and Hungary. The immigration quotas of the United States kept Jews out. This group contained many middle-class families that moved to the growing towns, establishing small businesses and light industry. Of these approximately 23,000 left the country.

Between 1929 and 1939, with the rise of Nazism in Germany, a new wave of 250,000 immigrants arrived; the majority of these, 174,000, arrived between 1933 and 1936, after which increasing restrictions on immigration by the British made immigration clandestine and illegal, called Aliyah Bet. The Fifth Aliyah was again driven mostly from Eastern Europe as well as professionals, doctors, lawyers and professors, from Germany. Refugee artists introduced Bauhaus (the White City of Tel Aviv has the highest concentration of Bauhaus architecture in the world) and founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra. With the completion of the port at Haifa and its oil refineries, significant industry was added to the predominantly agricultural economy. The Jewish population reached 450,000 by 1940.

At the same time, tensions between Arabs and Jews grew during this period, leading to a series of Arab riots against the Jews in 1929 that left many dead and resulted in the depopulation of the Jewish community in Hebron. This was followed by more violence during the "Great Uprising" of 1936–1939. In response to the ever increasing tension between the Arabic and Jewish communities married with the various commitments the British faced at the dawn of World War II, the British issued the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 people for five years. This served to create a relatively peaceful eight years in Palestine while, tragically, "The Holocaust unfolded" in Europe.

Shortly after their rise to power, the Nazis negotiated the Ha'avara or "Transfer" Agreement with the Jewish Agency under which 50,000 German Jews and $100 million of their assets would be moved to Palestine.

Illegal immigration (1933–1948):

The British government limited Jewish immigration to Palestine with quotas, and following the rise of Nazism to power in Germany, illegal immigration to Palestine commenced. The illegal immigration was known as Aliyah Bet ("secondary immigration"), or Ha'apalah, and was organized by the Mossad Le'aliyah Bet, as well as by the Irgun. Immigration was done mainly by sea, and to a lesser extent overland through Iraq and Syria. During World War II and the years that followed until independence, Aliyah Bet became the main form of Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Following the war, Berihah ("flight"), an organization of former partisans and ghetto fighters was primarily responsible for smuggling Jews from Poland and Eastern Europe to the Italian ports from which they traveled to Palestine. Despite British efforts to curb the illegal immigration, during the 14 years of its operation, 110,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine. In 1945 reports of the Holocaust with its 6 million Jewish dead, caused many Jews in Palestine to turn openly against the British Mandate, and illegal immigration escalated rapidly as many Holocaust survivors joined the Aliyah.

This is all from wikipedia (not that I fully trust this website):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 3 Oct 2012 16:59
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

browse whatreallyhappened dotcom

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 3 Oct 2012 16:58
Rating: 2/5
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

check the map of Palestine ealier and 2012 u wil know who robbed whom

By edifis• 3 Oct 2012 16:57
Rating: 3/5
edifis

This article is very aladeen! I think we should all take it in an aladeen manner and not make a big aladeen about it! But I do not aladeen with one fact in the article! Whoever says there are no inventors among the muslims haven't met Nuclear Nadal!

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 16:47
anonymous

You make it sound like they were aliens that decided to steal arab lands but aren't they really early muslims.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 3 Oct 2012 16:46
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

visit and ask them i will pay for the ticket

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 16:40
anonymous

Oh, so where did the jews come from originally? I'm confused.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 3 Oct 2012 16:36
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

no when Jewish conquered Palestinian land

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 16:27
anonymous

Is the holocaust when the arabs conquered the jewish lands?

By anonymous• 3 Oct 2012 14:15
anonymous

Once this word is mentioned, I can't help but think of the BIGGEST manipulation in the history of mankind.

They call it, the............"holocaust"

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 16:57
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

ok highness as u say

By nomerci• 2 Oct 2012 16:56
nomerci

Babu, this you must ask the people, not me.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 16:52
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

nomerci why dont ppl learn from u and be merciful

By nomerci• 2 Oct 2012 16:48
nomerci

Ah...rubbish! Let's just blame somebody/something...and voila...all is in order again! :)

By FathimaH• 2 Oct 2012 14:03
FathimaH

Any human being who keeps themselves bereft of knowledge and awareness, doesn't use their intellect, and instead prefers blind following and gives into their emotions, is always at risk of being manipulated and misguided one way or another. May you and I not be of them!

By painther• 2 Oct 2012 13:31
painther

FA, my friend, when CIA landed from sky :D, conspired (as you say) and lured some innocent men on a wrong path, then- (a) what the right & wise men were doing then? (b) were those men so meek to get lured by CIA or anybody else ?

By FlyingAce• 2 Oct 2012 13:24
FlyingAce

Now the point is, Taliban was made by whom? Ofcourse the CIA, Funded by Whom, the CIA & other intelligence agencies...

By painther• 2 Oct 2012 13:22
painther

DK, lets boycott Husain Haqqani, already (in)famous for the memogate.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 13:18
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

DK after mozaismyhero ql was looking for replacement

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 13:16
anonymous

new thread targetting islam and muslims and mimi is well experienced in these kind of religious discussions

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 13:09
anonymous

"...WE will always be then easily manipulated .."

We? Well, try it, Fatimah.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 13:05
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

again discussions on god , all religious discussions to be made in religious teaching group , by the way marco which god r u talking abt u have to be specific

By MarcoNandoz-01• 2 Oct 2012 13:02
MarcoNandoz-01

God Doesn't Have a Religion

By FathimaH• 2 Oct 2012 13:02
FathimaH

Have already voiced their concern about the killing ambassador. According to them, it appears certain villainous individuals may have been actually targeting him for awhile, and used the protests as an ideal masquerade. Thus it seems then that real motive behind igniting these rages and protests may have very well been actually about politics and power, and not religion. And the emotional unknowing mobs were made scapegoats by these culpable and cunning groups.

Think about it, the movie was made a long time back, and no one was aware of it when all of a sudden it appears dubbed in Arabic and/or with Arabic subtitles, and circulated among the Muslim countries, and of course other Asian countries too. Who did this? And why so many months later?

Of course these are all theories but what remains certain is at the end of the day we must remember that as long as we remain in the dark about what our faith truly commands us with, specially in times of strife, we will always be then easily manipulated by enemies posing as our saviors!

By Miss Mimi• 2 Oct 2012 13:01
Miss Mimi

Oh definitely AboBaaboo, I don't think there's a religious group who hasn't been manipulated in this way!

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 12:57
Rating: 2/5
anonymous

If it wasn't for muslim rage, the American flag produces would have no business. Don't encourage unemployment in the flag and effigy making business, it's vital to the world economy now.

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 12:50
anonymous

Rage for religious or political reasons, is not limited to Muslims. It also includes Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists...etc...etc...etc

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 12:48
anonymous

need to read "Stones on a chessboard" by William Guy Carr.

Very enlightening and eye-opening book.

It will help you understand how this game of religion-politics is run, and who control the strings

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 12:44
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

i wld really appreciate to see u post articles based on other religions i mean politics n other than daily what happen in UAE updates

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 12:40
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

Politics and Culture then n the content is more on religion

By alien_guest• 2 Oct 2012 12:39
alien_guest

Well there are religious peole who do their best to spread the word of God and try their best to show people the right way in life which we all must appreciate.

On the flip side there are some idiotic Nutters out there who interpret the religious book in the wrong way and make things up, thereby misguiding the people specially impressionable young minds. Those people should be put behind bars....

By britexpat• 2 Oct 2012 12:39
Rating: 3/5
britexpat

I would agree with most of it. “Us versus them” is always a useful distraction from “us versus our problems.”

However, external forces use this to their advantage also.

By FathimaH• 2 Oct 2012 12:38
Rating: 3/5
FathimaH

Or do you know me?!! Like it? I love it...the guy couldn't have said it better, may Allah bless him.

The followers of Islam, which being a religion where gaining knowledge is commanded by God Himself even before speech and action, should rightfully be intelligent, informed and well rounded. sadly though this is certainly not the case with many Muslims and those who claim Islam to be their faith.

Many among The Muslim Ummah today are certainly lacking in knowledge and wisdom, which has made them thus give into their emotions and be lead astray, even by individuals with vested interests.

It's time we all wake up and take stock of our actions before it's too late! As our Prophet said "all going astray is in the hell fire" and for us this should itself be a blatant warning!

Oh and bdw..my dearest innocent mom forwarded me the same text. I honestly didn't know whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, or cry at the ignorance of those circulating this text!

By Miss Mimi• 2 Oct 2012 12:38
Miss Mimi

It's not about religion BG, it's about politics.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 12:36
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

i will read i promise its on religion i wld b interested if posted in religious teaching group

By Miss Mimi• 2 Oct 2012 12:34
Miss Mimi

DK, without a doubt most of the people who comment won't have read all 4 pages.

Fatimah glad you liked it! I was personally fascinated to find out that these types of protests have been going on in this region since the beginning of the last century. I also like how he pointed out that in spite of the protests, all of these books and movies are still in circulation. :)

I'm always impressed with how the Gulf countries are really trying to push education and develop "knowledge economies" as they say, yet, they try to avoid looking at their history and search for reasons why they were never able to develop these economies on their own before. It sometimes strikes me that they are shooting themselves int the foot.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 12:20
Rating: 2/5
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

Jews claim that they are "the chosen people" - they decide (any god here)

Christians claim that their "Jesus is the son of God" - if jesus is son of God who is God ??

and who was the next God after Jesus ( series shld continue)

And Muslims claim that their religions is "the one and only"

You decide whom you want to believe.

By painther• 2 Oct 2012 12:20
painther

AB, growth is not erasing my line with eraser but making another longer line, parallel to mine :)

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 12:15
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

its all about religion 20 bucks to post in appropriate section

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 12:10
Rating: 4/5
anonymous

contributes in an essential magnitude to the prevailance of ignorance, corruption and poverty of the Arab & Muslim countries.

Painther, trust me that once the west sees a "non-friendly, 3rd world country" taking the right path in educating its people and building a strong foundation for development, they will start moving all forces against it in order to destroy it. Iraq is the best example.

Baburao-Ganpatr,

Jews claim that they are "the chosen people"

Christians claim that their "Jesus is the son of God"

And Muslims claim that their religions is "the one and oly"

You decide whom you want to believe.

I belive that 99% of the troubles in the middle east comes from the existance of Zionists in the land of Palestine, and the continuous American support to this regime.

Once the USA is forced to stop its support to this regime, and once the Zionists who refuse to go back to the countries they came from, are thrown in the sea, then only peace will prevail. This is the simple truth

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 12:10
anonymous

Miss Mimi 10 bucks say even someone commenting on this thread hasn't read this ;)

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 12:05
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

by the way to be posted in " Religious Teaching Group "

By Miss Mimi• 2 Oct 2012 12:02
Miss Mimi

Agree DarkKnight, sadly the people being used by these political parties will probably never read this!

By anonymous• 2 Oct 2012 11:53
anonymous

Haqqani gets it absolutely right.

By Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte• 2 Oct 2012 11:50
Rating: 4/5
Baburao-Ganpatrao-Apte

Muslims and Islam always in demand ( the one and only religion )

By painther• 2 Oct 2012 11:46
Rating: 2/5
painther

knowledge (truly objective) is the key to progress,

when knowledge is equal among all, Innovation is the key to progress,

but definition of ‘progress’ is highly subjective, that’s what I understand.

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