Muslim world stuck in backwardness

By Shamshad Ahmad Khan


ANTI-AMERICANISM is today a universal phenomenon reflecting the general reaction to US might and power, to its self-righteousness, and current international conduct including the blatant use of force in Iraq and elsewhere, and to its role in the growth of anti-Islam sentiment in the West. Ironically, most of these policies have brought no dividends to the US itself. It stands totally isolated in the comity of nations.

There is also a feeling all over the world that the US is not a steadfast and reliable friend and that over the decades, US neglect and self-serving exploitation of its friends and allies had contributed to most current problems in different pats of the world, including our own region.

Washington’s overbearing global conduct has for years been the subject of debate and discussion in academic and diplomatic circles. The world at large, foes and friends alike, including a very large number of Americans and Europeans, see very little consistency between America’s values and ideals and its actual practices in the world.

At a Harvard conference in 1997, scholars from all over the world agreed that “the elites of countries comprising at least two-thirds of the world’s people, Chinese, Russians, Indians, Muslims and Africans, see the United States as the single greatest threat to their societies.” They look at America not only as a “unilateralist superpower” but also as a menace to their integrity, autonomy, prosperity, and freedom of action.

This perception, articulated by a prominent American columnist David E. Sanger in his article “All Pumped Up and Nowhere to Go” in the New York Times (July 2000), viewed the US as an arrogant superpower which is “intrusive, interventionist, exploitative, unilateralist, hegemonic, hypocritical, and applying double standards,” engaging in what is now labelled as “financial imperialism” and “intellectual colonialism” with a foreign policy driven overwhelmingly by domestic politics.

But let us be fair. America has been doing only what it thought was in its interest. Instead of blaming America for all our problems and for everything that goes wrong in the world, we in the Muslim world need to do some soul-searching. We will not be fair to ourselves unless we accept that the ultimate responsibility for our problems rests with us alone. We have become addicted to living on others’ largesse and surviving on the crutches of external military, political and economic support.

No one can dispute that the Muslim world today is in a crisis. Representing one-fifth of humanity as well as of the global landmass and spread over 57 countries, possessing 70 per cent of the world’s energy resources and 40 per cent of the world’s raw materials, the Muslim community should have been a global giant, economically as well as politically. Rich in everything, but weak in all respects, it represents only five per cent of the world’s GDP, and is a non-consequential entity with no role in global decision-making.

Though some Muslim countries are sitting on the world’s largest oil and gas reserves, the majority of Muslim countries are among the poorest and most backward in the world. With the exception of very few, they are all bankrupt politically with no institutions other than authoritarian rule. They are averse to pluralistic democracy and are without an established tradition of systemic governance or institutional approach in their policies and priorities.

Whatever wealth they possess is being exploited by the West. The rulers of today’s Muslim world virtually without exception are at the mercy of the US for their political strength and survival, and are responsible for the current political, economic and military subservience of their countries to the West.

Poor and dispossessed Muslim nations emerging from the long colonial rule may have become sovereign states but are today without genuine political and economic independence. Their lands and resources remain under “protective military” control of their “masters” who are also the direct beneficiaries of their oil proceeds which are in western banks and fiduciaries.

The fact that the Muslim world is in disarray was acknowledged even by its heads of state and government in their declaration at the last OIC summit in Makkah. They stated that “we were today at an age of muddled concepts, misguided values, and pervasive ignorance.” Our own president, speaking on that occasion, was forthright enough to accept that the Muslim world’s literacy levels were “shamefully low” and its socio-economic development indicators were “dismal and distressing.”

Peace is the essence of Islam but woefully the Muslim nations have seen very little of it, especially after the Second World War. Conflict and violence are pervasive in the Muslim world. Some states have enthusiastically been engaged in proxy wars on behalf of others. Their territories are home to foreign military bases and their borders are “soft” with foreign forces moving in and out freely and carrying out their “operations” at will.

The tragedies in Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan represent the helplessness of the world’s Muslims. Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo and Haditha are examples of this pathetic situation. Ironically, there are more conscientious people in the West than in our own Muslim kingdoms, emirates, sultanates, sheikhdoms and one-man political dispensations.

Since 9/11, Islam itself is being demonised by its detractors with obsessive focus on the religion of individuals and groups accused of complicity or involvement in terrorist activities. Islam is being blamed for everything that goes wrong in any part of the world. With violence and extremism becoming anathema the Muslim freedom struggles of yesterday are now seen as the primary source of “militancy and terrorism.”

Global terrorism is being used to justify military occupations and to curb the legitimate freedom struggles of Muslim peoples. There is no prospect of long-festering Muslim issues coming to their just and final end. Palestine is tired and has almost given up. Iraq is still burning and suffering daily massacres that come to light only when the media uncovers them. Afghanistan has yet to breathe peace and is fighting what it sees as yet another “foreign occupation.” Kashmir is devastated and stands disillusioned with no hope of freedom with dignity.

The pillars of Muslim strength are being dismantled brick by brick. Pakistan, the major power of the Muslim world, is being weakened methodically by being kept engaged on multiple external as well as domestic fronts. It is the only Muslim country with an ongoing military operation against its own people in the name of the war on terror, and has been reduced to the “ground zero” in this global campaign.

Extremism, sectarianism and violence are not only weakening its roots but have also become its new identity in the comity of nations. Politically, Pakistan has never been in a more precarious situation. Even our close friends and allies are worried about our future.

Turkey, another Muslim country with reckonable military clout and strength, is living in an ivory tower pursuing the dream of EU membership. The last “pillar of strength” of the Muslim world, Iran, is next in line, and because of its fresh “revolutionary” zeal in pursuit of its nuclear goals is in the firing range. The Muslim world could not be more vulnerable and more complacent.

Their main vulnerability lies in their “worldview” circumscribed by their self-limiting notions and “doomsday” predictions, and their inability to reshape their destiny as genuinely independent, moderate, progressive and forward-looking societies. Some of them have even allowed themselves to become the “hotbed” of religious extremism and militancy, and are paying a heavy a price in terms of violence and social disarray.

The Muslim world’s socio-economic backwardness, its institutional bankruptcy, its political and intellectual aridity, its deficiency in knowledge, education and science and technology, its aversion to modernity and modernisation, and its growing servility to the West are all dreary phenomena that cannot be blamed on the people who play no role whatsoever in the decision-making process. Nor should we blame the West or the US for our crises and failures.

Woefully, the situation today can be likened to the tragic story of Medusa, an ill-piloted French naval ship in the 19th century that ran aground because of its captain’s blunders and his dependence on others for navigational guidance, leaving behind a sordid tale of helplessness, death and desperation. The Medusa wreck is still out there, lying stuck on the Arguin bank of the West African coast, and isn’t going anywhere. The Muslim world today is in no better shape.

Things will not change unless the Muslim world fixes its fundamentals and puts its house in order. It must take control of its own destiny through unity and cohesion within its ranks. Its wealth and resources should be used to build its own strength and for its own well-being. The key to reshaping the destiny of the Muslim world lies in revamping the existing governmental mind-sets and rationalisation of national priorities, and in opting for peace and democracy, and for “good and accountable” governance rooted in the will of the people.

The writer is a former foreign secretary.