True Doubts

Others distinguish religion from faith(spirituality). The former being an organized set of beliefs that have origins to some kind of spirituality while the latter is more of wonder and awe to the bounty of nature and life. Many people argue that not only religion has evolved into a dogmatic doctrine that clashes with the free thinking nature of Homo sapiens but also raped faith from its original simple concept of simple wonder and inquiry about the nature of things.

Appreciation of life and its wonders is directly linked to the rise of Homo sapiens conscientiousness in the past at a time when they decided to leave their caves and conquer the world with their evolved intelligence. Hence, the rise of organized religion though has its root to spirituality it has forsaken the original Homo sapiens sense of mysticism and simple enquiry into nature.

TBC

The basic definition of spirituality (religion) according to the Compact Oxford Reference Dictionary, using the typical academic traditions, spirituality refers to the non-physical … and the definition of religion is the belief and worship of a deity. The two terms, spirituality and religion, are, in my opinion, two sides of same coin. Furthermore, it could be argued that, religious experiences and spirituality are an extension of the physical body experiences. There is plenty of evidence that suggest that, the outwardly experiences are simply one of the many manifestations of the brain:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

Does religion/spirituality matter even if it is a simple case  of a mind experience that we know and can controle?

TBC

Once upon a time, years, years, years to come..
A green, no brown, umm white perhaps blue planet was cherishing life. Earth as it was known by some stupid rather pathetic creatures living on it. Life on earth was perhaps not much different then light it self. Not really clear if it was particle or wave, or rather both. It also has a range of these wave or life forms around. One specific life form though, which looked like monkeys but more stupid then frogs thought existence was based on light blessings. Things that get blessed by light exist, otherwise they don’t. They are dark, feared and mostly ignored.

These creatures on earth were happy, unhappy, reasonable, stupid, alive, dead .. etc
You get the drift, in other words for every thesis you describe them to be, there is an antithesis that imposes it self upon these creatures for the sole purpose of teaching them. They can’t learn otherwise. You pitty them sometime.

That is why these creatures identifying themselves as humans, think that they only have two sexes. Male & Female, and if you are reading this in one of their languages, English for example, you can’t help but notice that these two words, male & female, indicate that one is a subset or inferior to the other.And you can imagine what would happen if another sex existed or tried to exist, much like light you see, it will be incomprehensible, disgusting, out of the ordinary and defying the laws of physics. Wave form or particle, wave form or particle. Only if human or let us say life on earth could understand that light is an illusion. Stupid humans, perhaps poor humans chose to evolve around light.. Pitty!

This split in human mentality in their life on earth led to the invention of the black and white TV, that is what a human would call it, though to an observer its a grey scale most of the time, apart from some boring cartoon animation that emit noise and incomprehensible sound waves known to human as sound affects. Since light or rather life, travels very fast, human then improved their 2 dimensional TV to incorporate colour mimicking life. Eventually this led to a 3D projection of life forms. Human were so impressed by such technologies and inventions which provided breakthrough in their lives. Little they knew, that this however was the first time in the history of life on earth where things blessed by light were feared, at least by most humen. They thought that they were competing with GOD and light blessings were to be respected, not generated nor manipulated. People like Master Baith Dicksun strongly opposed such technologies and was urging his followers to evolve into light beings so they could serve their master, the sun it seems. To them GOD their master was the source of light.

The fear is so real and intense,  my spinal cord shivers. I sweat when in fact it’s cold. Just the thought of it gives my entire body a shiver… My body is in a constant sate of conflict… I shiver, yet I sweat… I can not do it…I can not do it. May be I should not do it.

Why do I need to go through this any way? But I need to over come my fears. Millions of people all over the world enjoy it without a second thought. I need to overcome my fears. I need to overcome decades of conditioning.

How can I?… I will subject myself to a state of numbness. Yes that is the plan. A numb body and a numb mind can do things out of the ordinary.

I am less sober. Now is the time. I attempt it. My fear is so intense, so intense, I can hear my heart beat… Boom Boom Boom… I am going to have a heart attack. I can not breath…it is very difficult. The stars are falling from the sky, red lights, red lights every where… My body is inside out. I will become sick….

Like the first lights of a morning… Quite and tranquil. Energy in waiting. To be released. I am sober again.

Following my previous exposition, the current Arabic/Islamic socio-political status quo can be linked to the socio-economic past and present conditions. The Arab/Islamic Empire evolved into some kind of a dogmatic state influenced heavily by theocracy. In the post-prophet era, specifically, during the famous four (Abu Bakr, Aumar, Outhman, and Ali) the unresolved issue of the heir to the throne turned the young and growing empire, that was ruled from Medina, into a power struggle between three main groups. The first group was AlMuhajereen group (the group that migrated from Makah to Medina). The second group consisted of the original inhabitant of Medina (AlAnsar), and a third group that came from further a field, mainly from Yemen and Southern Lavern region. There were some other groups, non-Muslims, like the Jews and Christians, and Zoroastrians. The latter groups had little political power and their political power base in Medina was largely eroded during the prophet life. The power struggle between the main three groups turned into the Quran, the holy script, and Sunnah for legitimacy and guidance. Therefore, those who could translate the holy scripts and sunnah became important and very influential. Such development in the early history of Islam had two major impacts:

• Continuous political struggle and instability, despite the fast growth of the empire.
• Intellectual stagnation among the waring clans aspiring to a “golden age” and claiming legitimacy to the throne.

In short, the rise of Islamic theocracy is one of the major impediments to democracy and free society in the Arabic/Islamic nations.

Further on,  the current Islamic/Arabic socio-politics can be linked to the traditional dependence between the authorities and their beneficiaries. Scientists, artisans, poets did not or could not make a decent living by marketing to the mass, instead, they organized their talents around authorities. Unlike for example, Western Europe, Charles Dickens, needed to sell his novel to the mass to make a living. Shakespeare, found it very difficult to make a living in England. He had to write plays that attracted the mass to make a living. Poor Van Gogh, not only did he chop his ear off he had to live in poverty for the rest of his life despite his genius. The need to appeal to the mass and depend on their approval is, in my opinion, on the fundamental differences between the Islamic societies and West Europeans. There was a mutual interest between people of influence and the mass hence, reforms evolved and empowered people in general. In the Islamic/Arabic world that did not happen. For example, Almutanbi had no reason to appeal to people for lively hood, all he needed was to praise the Amir to secure his lively hood. Therefore, there was no dependence between people in general and the influential figures in the society.

Last but not least, looking at the current political economy literature, oil and petrodollar in many developing countries and especially in the Islamic world is closely associated with antidemocratic and suppressive governments. Oil has enabled governments to have more control by the means of bribing the citizens to keep them quite hence and creating dependence on the sate for livelihood and strengthening the security system to suppress any dissent. Further more, oil and the petrodollar produced two conflicting ideologies. One is Alqa’da and the other one is Dubai, hence you have the status quo in the current Islamic World. One that aspire to “the Golden age of Islam” where the Harems are for Mans pleasure and cover up and stay in a secluded place in the house….have nothing or very little to do with the rest of the world. On the other hand, you have another competing ideology that wants to open up for more money and business, like Dubai, and care less about anything else. In a society that has not evolved into any kind of public debate on issues of interest and collective decision making, conflicts and instability arise.

In the last post we talked about the self identity crisis and we made the claim that the crisis is the result of loss of direction after the collapse of the Othman Islamic Empire in part and in part because of the rise of nation’s states following independence from Western colonialism. What is interesting to me is, when India became independent from the British rule, a secular democratic system was established and has proved to be one of the world largest democracies despite the multi religious and ethnic identities of the Indian sub-content. Currently, the prime Minster of India is a Sikh, and the president is a Muslim, and the ruling party is a Hindu. Yet despite independence from British and Western colonization in the Arabic world and the rise of the nation states, none of the newly created sates is democratic. In all of the 22 member countries of the Arab league none of them is democratic, even Lebanon.

The question then, why democracy did not develop in the Arab/Muslim countries/nations?

Warning, for those who subscribe to the true doubts email list, the following is a repetition.

I am sympathetic to the idea that the current Islamic world and Arab world in particular (i.e. violence, terrorism, lack of democracy and freedom of thinking) is partially linked to the past. In a way I am arguing that it is not possible to separate what is happening now from the legacy of history. I know this is in a way an argument for the conspiracy theory, etc. But it is not entirely so. I will explain. First, I do not think that there was a master plan by European countries to colonize the Arab nations… but as we all know from the history of huwomen … you conquer one and then two and … till you become an empire. Second, the post-colonial autocratic rule that came about was not the legacy of Western powers; it was more of a continuation of past Arabic traditional style of rule. I hope that clarify the difference between the conspiracy theory and my own thinking.

The link between the past and conspiracy theory is that Western domination contributed further to the decline of the Islamic world. The question that could be asked then, when did the decline start?

When Arabs and Muslims colonized the world, right after the death of the prophet, they were more concerned about how much more gold and silver Bait Almal is going to make. They interfered little with the status quo of the nations they have colonized and that allowed them to rule a big empire in a very short period of time. So in a state where people are able to move freely, trade, learn … and so on and so forth economic development takes place and the general living standards improve along with science and art. The empire did not want or could not interfere with each and every little thing that was happening as long as Bait Almal was getting its share of bounty. Political reform and populace participation in decision making did not take place. In a large system that is quite open ended, political power struggle is bound to happen and once that takes place the decline process starts. To have some kind of sustainability you need institutional reforms and such reforms takes place once the mass participates in the decision making process. In the Islamic world that did not happen. Further, colonization and arise of states contributed further to the decline. People were no longer free to move and trade was restricted between boundaries. Hence, we have the current war-lords of the Islamic world.

If you happened to be an Arab/Muslim in this century or the past century you are most likely to be going under some kind of self identity crisis. Anwar Saddat of Egypt, said that he is a an Egyptian Phero in response to the criticism and boycott he received from Arab/Muslim countries, after signing a peace treaty with Israel in Washington in 1979. Iranians call themselves, Persians, and Turks call the Othman Islamic empire, a Turkish empire. Arab Islamists, such as Bin Ladens, are self proud proclaimed Muslims. They do not recognize ethnicity. In fact they reject ethnicity and instead huwomen are either Muslims or Kaffirs “infidels”.

Faced with the collapse of the Othman Islamic empire and the creation of nation states after world war II and now the Challenge of Globalization, Arab/Muslims were confused about the direction of the future. What is the best possible route that they can choose from? Well, that is if they have much choice. Communism, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, capitalism, Nationalism, that is Arab nationalism, Islamism, dictatorsim, …and may be Democracim… some where in the back yard. Actually, the list is quite numerous but Arab/Muslim nations did not exercise the right to choose. If they did, they would be democratic countries but they are any thing but democratic.

Any way, the Arab/Muslim nations have gone through two major stages so far. The first stage was the rise of Arab nationalism blended with socialism. It was a very popular movement that called for the end of Western colonialism. Also, it aspired for some type of Pan-Arab state that will bring victory and glory to its people. The Arab world will be the centre of civilization again, like its “glorious golden past”, that was the vision back then any way. The nationalist, socialist ideas resulted into people like the illusionist Gamal Abdu Nasser of Egypt, the dictator Haffad AlAssad of Syria, the mad man of Libya Gaddafi. In 1971, Qadhafi, Sadat, and Assad simultaneously announced the formation of a federation of Libya, Egypt, and Syria. Such union proved to be of little value and no sense. The October 1973 Arab-Israeli war drifted the three countries apart and the union proved to be infertile. Ayatollah Kumauni Islamic Revolution in1979, made the ideals of “Islamic golden age” much closer to the hearts of Ummah, hence the second stage. The fall of the Soviet union1991 intensified those beliefs. So you had Islamic scholars claiming that “the fall of the atheist USSR will be followed by the fall of the capitalist system” and the world will seek solution from the true religion of GOD, Islam.

TBC

Globalization and the opening up of world markets lead into two kinds of pressures:

1. Nations compete viciously to secure market access and induce current and potential buyers to consume more of their products
2. An increase in the demand for natural resources, especially energy.

The United States muddle in the Middle East and its consequent invasion of Iraq was not only to secure oil supplies but also the realization of S. Huntington policy prescription; to exploit the region in order to maintain Western supremacy and control over the world and a counter attack on the ever increasing economic power of the sleeping Dragon, China, the Confucius sphere of influence and its possible alliance with the energy rich Middle East quote “ to exploit differences and conflicts among Confucian and Islamic state”

Domestically, the rulers, kings, emirs and sheiks are taking extreme measures in the pretext of national security to crack down any form of opposition. Such measures include the close cooperation between the interior and information Ministries in the Arab league, a rarity in the Arab League, including close corporation with the CIA and Western Intelligence system. So a “high profile” terrorist will be interrogated an tourtered by CIA in one of the Arabic capitals and then sent to Gountanamo bay to wait for his trial…Other measures include; the destruction of civil society. For example in some countries it takes up to six years to approve professional associations. In some countries any form of protest is illegal. Political parties are banned altogether.

So what do the Arab nations do? Welcome to the self identity crisis.

TBC

What globalization entails is the ability to compete internationally, openness and transparency, and good governance. However, while nations mobilize intellectuals and thinkers to face the challenges of globalization and the international changing environment, the Arab/Islamic nations are trapped by dictatorships, hierarch and papacy that discusses on live TV how women should wash and cleanse after menstruation at a time when bombs were being dropped on the poor nation of Afghanistan and the war was being cooked for Iraq. Indeed, the brain wash by the local forces and the local environment and the censorship has been so successful, Arab/Islamic nations blame everything on conspiracy and the outside world.

So it is no wonder that while many developing nations experience strong economic growth and create job opportunities for their nations, the Arab world is experiencing a growing unemployment and economic slow down. According to World Bank Middle East & North Africa, including the rich members of OPEC, GDP growth rate between 2000 and 2006 was comparable to that Sub-Saharan Africa, among the poorest of nations. In fact, the average growth rate of Middle East & North Africa during the period was 1% lower than the average growth rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Globalization did not result in more openness and transparency, and good governance in the Arab world to the contrary, as the mass became suspicious and weary of Western involvement in the region (and for good reasons) and mistrustful of its own government’s intentions (who trust dictatorships?) looked for answers from within. Welcome to the self identity crisis.

TBC