The other Imen*

  Since the Renaissance, Westerners have not been aware that what they call "Western civilization" has survived so long thanks to a version of Islam. A faith-less one (as it’s a matter of thought and scientific heritage) but still a copy with a touch of Islam.

That was the outcome of the translation into Latin first then into their regional languages of the colossal philosophical and scientific work of Islamic scholars of the Middle-Ages such as Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rochd ( Averroes) and so on and so forth.

And that was neither imitation nor plagiarism on their part .That was a law of history and change.
And now our Salafis don't know..
The mass media don't know..
The elite does not really want to make it clear that we need to "go" and fetch our Islam- paradoxically though it may seem- not only in the books of the ancient thinkers but also from within the West: from the works of Newton, Darwin (I mean it..), H. Spencer, Kierkegaard, R.W. Emerson, A. Camus etc., and from the modern films and arts.

And this is not going to be imitation or plagiarism it’ll be a re-re-reapplication of the same law of history and change.

Actually, we had been led to think that Islam has nothing to do with progress whatsoever; but it has to do with decadence which is as untrue as a “hoax”.
The West had most likely forced themselves into the same belief before re-transmitting this fallacy to the poor thinkers that our predecessors still were.

Only in this perspective can we realize how they and we have fabricated (or been compelled to fabricate ) the Salafi" way of being"!!!
Only in this perspective can we comprehend how we have been forced to import the Salafi product as we import apparel and niceties!!!

Only in this perspective can we explain why more and more Moslem citizens we come across every day are getting dogmatized under the label "clash of civilizations" .They're driving luxurious cars; they're handling the latest inventions etc. but sticking to one thing: the contents of modern songs and of modern films and of modern books is satanic craft!!!

I am afraid this can never be true.
Our view of Islam needs to be corrected.
Our address to Westerners needs updating:"You Westerners, whose civilization embeds a good many features of Islam. We have nothing after you. We just want to come to you in a bid to recover Islam in its historical glamour. Whether you get to love Islam, like us, it’s your own business. However, we, on our part, want to juggle being humane and rationalist as you are and being Moslem as we are supposed to be."

Mohamed Hammar 

15 August 2008

* Belief