My friend Marc Manley responded to my recent post on the scourge of Secular Capitalist Islam for which I’m greatly honored. Its always nice to get critical feedback, whether in the form of comments on my blog, emails in my Inbox, or dedicated blog posts.
So I will respond to his response in kind – with a post of my own.
I will begin with a clarification, one that I feel is a bit unnecessary. I made overarching generalizations in my original post. I realize that. But it should have been clear that everything I stated is applicable to those cases where the ‘shoe fits’.
I am completely aware of the existence of American Muslims who are NOT giving in to the secular capitalistic way of life and are NOT willing to sacrifice any Islamic principles in the molding of their American Muslim identity. They have not deceived themselves into believing in the validity of the Secular Capitalist Islam that I spoke of so critically. They are not the target of my critique.
Did I really need to explicitly state that? I guess so.
Now, let me address the contentions of the good brother, beginning with his comparison of American Islam in its infancy to the growing pains that Muslims must have gone through in ‘traditional’ Muslim outlets such as Egypt, Morocco, or Pakistan.
“It is very easy and convenient to think of Egypt as a Muslim country now, but what was Egypt’s transition like, from a non-Muslim polity to a Muslim one? What struggles did Egypt have to go through to negotiate this transformation? Even to this day, there are folk holidays still in practice such as Shams an-Nasim.”
In my original post, I alluded to this point when I stated that “[American Islam] is NOT Islamic with simply an American twist, like what may be found in China or Indonesia or Africa – those instances of Islam were never born in such a hostile environment (to Islam in specific and religion in general), necessitating great conciliatory gestures from its followers”.
I am convinced that when Islam was introduced in the cases that I mentioned as well as Marc’s examples it was a completely different experience than what we are witnessing in America. The power politics were simply not the same, which makes the comparison between then and now as day and night.
Historically, Muslims never entered into a land except as victors. They never suffered from inferiority complexes. They rode into those lands with their heads high and their core values even higher. The indigenous non-Muslim masses were scrambling to adopt the ways of the Muslims in order to “jump on the bandwagon” of the winning side.
Need I ask, who is jumping on whose bandwagon nowadays?
And in those rare cases, where they were not the conquering force (e.g. Indonesia), they were not entering a hostile environment, where their beliefs were being demonized and their traditions were being belittled. Theirs was a pre-modern time where principled religious beliefs were celebrated and embraced, in stark contrast to the current-day atmosphere which finds an anti-religion secular worldview proudly boasted in America.
In such challenging circumstances, where not only Islam, but religion in general is under attack, how can American Islam be nurtured and allowed to blossom *on its own terms*? In such a charged environment, where American Muslims are told to choose a side, how can American Islam genuinely develop its own character? It is naïve to remove the political context from the equation when analyzing the introduction of Islam into new lands.
The other point that Marc brought up was the typical counter-argument presented whenever Muslims in America are criticized – “Well, look at the Muslims in [choose any Muslim country]. They’re even worse than us!”
Living here in Riyadh, I’ll be the first to admit that crass consumerism has hit the shores of Saudi Arabia in a disgusting way. And sadly, this is the case all over the Muslim world. Muslims are falling over each other to talk, walk, dress, and act like their Hollywood heroes. The ‘tradition’ of the West, as glorified in the media and the web, is being replicated all over the Muslim world.
But the key difference is that Muslims in these lands are not sacrificing their Islamic identity in pursuit of this hollow lifestyle. As repulsive as it may be to see Muslims opting for gaudy Bentleys and Guccis, jet-setting in Europe, and clubbing in Dubai, no one is attempting to incorporate these social mores into a new flavor of Islam.
And that is my greatest fear – an Islam that has taken such conciliatory steps in order to assimilate with its adopted culture that it has sacrificed core Islamic principles.
Yes, all the illnesses found in American Muslims are becoming apparent in Muslims around the world. But these other Muslims are not in the formative stage of their Islamic identity, this most critical stage in the development of a child, a people, or a civilization. These other Muslims have centuries of Islamic tradition to fall back on, when faced with a philosophical crisis. These other Muslims have Islamic institutions built on principles of truth, not compromise. These other Muslims never had to concern themselves with conflicting loyalties between their adopted nation and their deen.
What of the American Muslims?
WAW
5 days ago
24 comments:
Assalamu alaikum,
I can understand some of Brother Marc's points. Like there are Muslims in Muslim majority countries who live no differently from the secular capitalist Muslims in the West. And there are Muslims in the West who reject secular capitalist Islam (many of whom I've been fortunate enough to meet in NYC).
However I think the difference lies in how much more emphasis is placed upon Western Muslims to adopt the secular capitalist lifestyle at the expense of Islam than upon Muslims in Muslim majority countries. For example you have enough Muslims agitating for the lifting of the hijab ban in Turkey because the majority of the population, being Muslim, understands how intrinsic the practice of hijab is to Islam, even if they don't practice it themselves. In France is it possible for enough Muslims to rally against the hijab ban there? And even if there were enough Muslims calling against it, they would likely face opposition from a sizable number of nonMuslim French citizens telling them to either accept the ban or get out. Due to the nature of living as a minority group in the West, it's harder (though not impossible) for Muslims to overcome the overwhelming propaganda given towards supporting the secular capitalist lifestyle.
As'salamu Aleikum,
I do remember in my childhood how my mother had difficulty for many years with my grandmother to convince her what she practiced (I believe it was something to do with "Tawhid" ) all of her life and her ancestors was not Islamic, but rooted in culture. Alhamdullilah, by the Grace of Allah, that is not an issue anymore. Alhamdullilah also, that in Islam there are not many things to dispute over when it comes theological themes, and there is of course the famouse Hadith where our Beloeved Prophet (SAW) advice us to leave it if there is not agreement or something is not mentioned in the Qur'an. But since Mankind is weak, he tends to choose the easy path.
I don't believe we are discussing here that if someone reverts to Islam, he/she must abondon his culture, even if does not effect his practice of religion. If that was the case, then Chinese would not introduce the Arabs how to make papers or the Muslims would not translate the old Greek manuscripts, and Europe would still be in Dark age. In sum, in every cultures, there is something which can benefit the Muslim community as long it does not invalidate how we practice Islam.
Every day we still learn from nature that benefit mankind, why not human culture?
When it comes to "American Islam" or "Euro Islam" project, to be honest, I don't harbour any trust for the people who advocate this, but that does not mean these people are uneducated, in fact they can be more educated than the Imam sitting in Mekka. First, let us look the time period the Muslims have been in West. Compare to East, it is still in infant state. Let us also remember that Muslims in old days used to travel continent to continent to gain knowledge and there was shift of educational establishments (shows also Allah gives Knowledge Who He wants, and Islam is not rooted in one group or race); there was Baghdad, Cairo, West Africa, Central Asia, etc. Today, it is un-logical to claim that the West is ready to have own Islamic educational establishment, when the Muslims are un-present in the West, and invisible in the important decision markers. And the polical situation today makes even harder to confess people. (Read this comment, by SW, a political scientist, how hard it is to gain data because it does not fit into the ideology of the person who sponsors the school, SW ).
There is a website from a Catholic scholar E. Michael Jones and it is interesting to read his crusade in living Today's America, and same time being staunch believer. Some people claim he already lost the battle to American consumer society/Life style.
gess
PS, I 'll return another day.
Wa'aleikum Salaam,
Allah Alone Knows Best
I forgot to mention that I don't think anyone's advocating for Muslims in the West to migrate out of the West. The way I see it, there's more challenges to one's Deen when living in the West and so we have to be prepared to meet those challenges with a firm and correct understanding of Islam that does not cause us to falter and compromise with it while living in the West (whew run on sentence!)So if you live in the West without its ideology and unIslamic aspects of its culture affecting you then Alhamdulillah you're doing fine. And from personal experience I've met families who strive to do just that going over and above what's required just to raise their kids by Deen.
As-salaamu 'alaykum. I actually began by strongly disagreeing with many of the points in yours and Yursil's initial critique. As Marc pointed out, it was lacking nuance and scope. With this post, I find myself in general agreement, and even some points in strong agreement, especially issues of self-definition in modern nation states. Evangelical Christians have an almost identical problem, which explains things like Christian Heavy Metal music and the whole Christian entertainment thing in general. Muslims, before colonialism, never had to resort to using (and abusing) the word "Islamic" to describe their entertainment, souvenirs and literature. (If you ask me to, I can type out part of an essay by Sherman Jackson where I got this from.) This problem of Muslim self-definition in nation states doesn't apply to countries like Saudi, Persian Gulf countries etc. where such debates are absent because issues of identity are left to the people, not the state. A country like Malaysia, on the other hand, the question of the Muslim (and Malay) definition is influenced by the state, thus you will see such things like Islamic daycare centers, Islamic education, Islamic politics, etc. etc. (And I'm speaking from second hand experience here, having discussion with my Malay friends.)
In addition to all of this, I'd like to see the analysis that Neil Postman makes in his Amusing Ourselves to Death, which offers an epistemological analysis to things like Islamic or Christian entertainment in the U.S. I think his insights might bring us one step closer to possible solutions.
@ RCHOUDH: I forgot to mention that I don't think anyone's advocating for Muslims in the West to migrate out of the West.
You must have missed my comment at Yursil's blog, which is a little ironic because you commented on that post (#13) right after mine (#12).
@ Omar: A country like Malaysia, on the other hand, the question of the Muslim (and Malay) definition is influenced by the state, thus you will see such things like Islamic daycare centers, Islamic education, Islamic politics, etc.
Here, the national context is important. Even though Muslims make up 60% of the population, there are enough non-Muslims that such distinctions like an "Islamic daycare center" are necessary.
Salaam JDsg. Yeah, I realize those examples about Malaysia would be insufficient to explain my general point. A better example would've been the observation that some Indians and Chinese who convert to Islam in Malaysia are expected to adopt Malay culture along with Islam. Because the state and politics define a Muslim to be Malay, an Indian or Chinese convert are expected assimilate. Assimilation is a common debate in people who live in nation states. Not so in countries who are not involved with questions of definition, whether ethnicity or religious. I hope that that's a more accurate example about Malaysia. If not, then I need to find another example... somewhere.
AA-
@R, excellent point on the value of Muslim majority vs. Muslim minority and the inherent confidence to stand for their beliefs found in the latter. The Turkey vs. France example is very telling. How far will Muslims go to defend their beliefs, especially in hostile Western environments?
The commonly heard stance 'either except our way of life or get out' nicely sums up the challenge facing so many Muslims living in the West.
Oh and about the migrating out of the West, I'm a bit torn. I don't believe that its ideal for Muslims to stay there, but at the same time I realize how so many have no other options. But then again, Allah (swt) has stated in the Quran that He made the earth vast and expansive for those who are oppressed. Makes you wonder....
@Gess, interesting point on the center of Islamic knowledge, but I don't think anyone in the West is advocating that Muslims look to them as the new locus of knowledge.
And thanks for the link to the culturewars site... I'll look into it, IA-
@Omar, thank you for adding the point about pre-colonialism Muslims never having to use 'Islamic' to describe their way of life. Excellent point...and yes, I would very much be interested in the article by Dr. Sherman Jackson...u got a soft copy?
@JD, I did see your comment on your thoughts on migrating and I must say they all make sense. However, you didn't address the greatest reason to move, IMO, which is what I and Yursil have written about - the slippery slope of an American-flavored Islam.
@JDsg
Actually I did see your comment in Br. Yursil's post, which I also agreed with. There are several great benefits of living in a Muslim majority country as you pointed out. But due to individual circumstances, I don't know how feasible it is for every Western Muslim to migrate out. For example, I know a family in the US(who are the perfect example of Muslims who aren't abiding by secular capitalism but instead struggling to raise their kids by Deen) who said that they would have considered moving to a Muslim country if it wasn't for their sons' medical condition, the treatment of which can only be found in the West. Unfortunately right now even if Muslim societies are conducive to an Islamic lifestyle the governments in most countries are not Islamic at all and fail to provide any sort of decent standard of living to their citizens, which includes decent health care. So in my friend's case I feel that living in the West right now is the best option especially since she and her family are succeeding in successfully struggling against the onslaught of secular capitalist Islam.
As'salamu Aleikum all,
JDsg, regarding your comment on Yursil's blog. You are right about the advantages of moving to a Muslim country. I spent three weeks in Gulf states, and just hearing the Adan (prayer call) was enough for me to consider finding a job in the region. I know three weeks is a short time, but it gave more spiritual experience than the 23 years I lived in the West.
^ above 'gess'.
gess
Salaam 'alaikum.
@ Naeem (and RCHOUDH): You're right, I didn't address "American Islam" in that comment as what I wrote is more in the line of "standard advice"; i.e., something I would advise most any Muslim regardless of a concern about "American Islam" or not. However, as R pointed out, it's not feasible for every Western Muslim to do hijrah. In fact, in certain respects, it's very difficult to emigrate to other countries. Yes, I did it, but I had several factors that worked in my favor: I was single at the time, and I have a Master's degree (MBA). And, of course, not all Muslim brothers and sisters are going to have those benefits. But if he or she has the ability and resources, ayah 4:97 (as Naeem pointed out) should be kept in mind: "Was not the earth of God spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (From evil)?"
@ Omar: I hope that that's a more accurate example about Malaysia.
Not really. The one point you're correct on is that Malays are defined by law as Muslims. But the notion that Indian and Chinese reverts are expected to adopt Malay culture is not really true at all. Indian Muslims especially are a large enough community in both Malaysia and Singapore that they often follow their own traditions. (I should also say that because Malays and Indians have lived side-by-side for so long here in SE Asia that there's considerable overlap between the two cultures.) In Singapore, for example, there are "Indian mosques" and "Malay mosques." (I'm sure this is mirrored up in Malaysia as well.) I've prayed in both, and while Muslims of any race are welcome in either set of masajid, there are some differences in how people act and interact between both themselves and other people who are not of that ethnic group. The differences are minor, really, but they're there. As for Chinese Muslims, they're not necessarily expected to assimilate into Malay culture, although some do. Actually, in this region, Chinese Muslims have the peranakan culture to fall back on, which is a culture that developed among those Chinese who moved to SE Asia and partially assimilated into Malay culture. (It is not quite Chinese culture, but not quite Malay culture either.)
Salam JDsg. Thanks for the information.
I'm really surprised at this point the wiki article makes:
The language of the Peranakans, Baba Malay (Bahasa Melayu Baba), is a dialect of the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), which contains many Hokkien words. It is a dying language, and its contemporary use is mainly limited to members of the older generation. English has now replaced this as the main language spoken amongst the younger generation.
I mean, talk about Western cultural hegemony.
Salam Naeem. Unfortunately I don't have a soft copy of the essay, Islam(s) East and West: Pluralism between No-Frills and Designer Fundamentalism, which I was referring to. But Marc coincidently quoted from Sherman Jackson's Islam and the Blackamerican an almost identical passage in the comments section of his blog.
Salaam alaikum,
I enjoyed this response and thought it gave a lot of substance to your stance. That is what dialog is about: finding common ground. And even if we don't entirely agree on one particular issue, we can better understand how we come to our conclusions through dialog.
@ Omar: Hah! :) Well, in all fairness, your "Western cultural hegemony" isn't quite so "hegemonious" as you might imagine. Yes, the peranakan language itself might be dying out, but it lives on in the local creole, called Singlish, which itself is a mish-mash of English, Malay and Hokkien (a Chinese dialect). And Singlish is extremely popular. ;) In the public schools, Bahasa Melayu is the primary language taught in Malaysia, regardless of the ethnicity of the student (which is why many Chinese families up there have been putting their kids into private schools, so that their children will be taught Chinese as well. Likewise, Bahasa Indonesia is the primary language taught in Indonesia, at least in the big cities like Jakarta. (There are a lot of dialects throughout Indonesia, and these are normally the primary languages taught in the rural areas.) As for Singapore, while English is the one language taught to all school children, it is only one of four official languages here (including Chinese, Malay and Tamil, an Indian language); also, all children are required to take a "mother tongue" class throughout their schooling in one of the three other official languages. Likewise, there are many classes available for both children and adults in other languages, two of the most popular being Japanese and Arabic. So, English, while it is frequently spoken throughout SE Asia, is only one of many languages used.
(On a personal note, other languages are spoken so often here that, while outside my home, I normally just "tune out" everyone who speaks in a different language. Also, when I walk by my Chinese neighbors' apartments, I've noticed that virtually all of them watch the various Chinese-language stations. So, once again, English is not quite as dominant here as you might think.)
That's very interesting JDsg. Thanks for sharing your first hand knowledge. My mother's side of the family comes from a Hokkien-speaking minority in the Phillipines. According to my mother, the new generation of Hokkien-speaking Chinese have lost their language because they're no longer allowed to attend their own schools and preserve their culture and language. It's interesting that Singapore, though, has 4 official languages. Very interesting. I hear, however, that there's a slow process of the government secularizing the Muslims -- for example enforcing long school hours in secular education and sponsoring think-tanks that support liberal-minded Muslims like Farish Noor etc. Would you say these observations are accurate?
@ Omar: I hear, however, that there's a slow process of the government secularizing the Muslims -- for example enforcing long school hours in secular education and sponsoring think-tanks that support liberal-minded Muslims like Farish Noor etc. Would you say these observations are accurate?
Enforcing long school hours? :) No, that's not a problem here. :) With respect to education, first, there's a very strong emphasis on education among Singaporeans, especially among the Chinese. Malay kids tend not to be as ambitious as Chinese kids and, to a lesser extent, Indian kids. The real problem is not "enforcing long school hours" for Muslim children, the length of time in school being equal for all school children regardless of their ethnicity or religion, but getting Malay kids (and especially the boys) to take their studies more seriously. Moreover, I don't really worry about Muslim school children being "secularized" too much. Some of the masajid I attend here literally have hundreds of primary and secondary school children attending jumu'ah every week. I don't know how easily these kids can pray the regular prayers during the week that occur when they're in their sessions, but in the observations my wife (who's a primary school teacher) and I have made of Muslim school children, many of them tend to be observant in matters such as salat and fasting during Ramadan. Adults may be more secular, but many are very observant. The masajid are almost always standing room only, if not having hundreds of boys and men praying outside for jumu'ah. (Since moving to my new neighborhood, I've only been able to pray once inside the mosque, and that was only because there was a big rainstorm that afternoon.) Secularizing the Muslim community here is not one of my concerns.
As for Farish Noor and the RSIS (the think tank he belongs to), he himself is not a major player in the Singapore community. I can't say whether or not his admission to the RSIS was encouraged by the government, but most Muslims in Singapore don't give much thought to what liberal Muslims have to say. Bringing this back around to the problems within the American Muslim community, the reason why I haven't commented much on this blog or the others about this topic is that these problems don't seem to concern me much anymore. Islam has been in this part of the world for hundreds of years now, and most of the problems the American Muslim community is going through now (as documented by Yursil) were settled long ago. Here, the emphasis isn't on molding Islam to modern daily life, but on molding life to Islam. "Is it halal?" is a major question here, not just of food, but of daily activities. This is an orthodox community, and that reason alone is why I feel so comfortable living as a Muslim here.
Just one example of the ridiculousness Western Muslims in the West have to put, having secular capitalism pretty much forced upon them:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/French%20police%20probe%20halal%20burger%20discrimination/2587936/story.html
Salam JDsg. I know what it's like to grow up Muslim in a Muslim country and I've tried to break down my own personal experience in a piece I wrote here. There are definitely challenges living Islam in the West, but people who live with challenges have a creative edge not found in people who lack challenges. For example, some of my friends from the UAE are less interesting (just being frank here) than my friends from Malaysia and Kuwait because the UAE is very apolitical. With some of my Malay friends we're always examining questions related to state, religion and society. Likewise, Islam in the West has its challenges, and I'm very very much influenced by the essays of people like Dr. Sherman Jackson, Sh. Abdal Hakim Murad, Dr. Umar Faruq Abdullah, etc. who are responding to those challenges with interesting insights.
About Singapore. I guess it would've been more accurate to say that the government is trying to domesticate the Muslim community. My friend has shown me the government approved khutbas and pictures of mosques that are disappearing one be one and I have this picture of the Singapore government of being very controlling. Also, while I was trying to look up information about JI Islam Singapore I came across this piece (PDF) talking about Singapore's policies in some detail.
@ Omar: My friend has shown me the government approved khutbas and pictures of mosques that are disappearing one be one and I have this picture of the Singapore government of being very controlling. Also, while I was trying to look up information about JI Islam Singapore I came across this piece (PDF) talking about Singapore's policies in some detail.
Wa 'alaikum salaam. Regarding the khutbahs, yes, they are written by MUIS, the Muslim liaison government agency. I've posted a few of them on one of my blogs. They almost always focus on religious matters and largely avoid controversial topics.
Regarding "disappearing" mosques, yes, that may be true from the respect of shutting down some of the tiny mosques (in a country where land prices are astronomical) in favor of building huge mosques. The mosque in my neighborhood has a stated capacity of 4500 people, and yet there are probably at least 1000 more people outside who can't get in. I normally pray on a tarp as you can see in this picture.
Very controlling? I don't know about that. Personally I think the PAP does a very good job at governing. (It's certainly better than the chaos going on in the U.S.) I'll have to look over your pdf file later as I've got to get ready now to go out.
i wanted to point out that amongst the scholars who say it is obligatory to move to a muslim country so to speak from a non muslim nation...they do make exceptions...
educational
medical
and one other which escapes me..
just pointing it out for those who are like yeh but so and so cant go for such and such reason. well its been addressed :-)
i'm not saying its fardh to move to a muslim country . but dangit after having lived in teh US for the majority of my life...i would recommend it to move out if u can :-)
p.s. i wonder if there is someone out there who can do a in depth nuanced analysis of the pros/cons of living in egypt vs saudi.
@ Omar: Also, while I was trying to look up information about JI Islam Singapore I came across this piece (PDF) talking about Singapore's policies in some detail.
I finally got the chance to read your article this morning. I was not very impressed; to be honest, it was largely a "let's bash Singapore" piece.
The first ten pages or so are a lot of "J'accuse"-type rhetoric, often with inflammatory or silly language (wow, Singaporeans are "emasculated," p. 9) and with very little nuance. She makes accusation after accusation, but never explains the "why" of the situation; there's no context. I suspect that she probably does know the reasons for why the situations are the way they are here, but didn't want to discuss them because, quite frankly, her arguments would weaken considerably if she did. (I could certainly make a case against many of her arguments.)
Around page 11 her writing becomes less confrontational, but she often picked out cases that are not as important as she made them out to be. For example, the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act. She's probably right in that it may be too ambiguous and perhaps even unnecessary; as she pointed out (p. 14), it's never been invoked. As a piece of legislation it's more or less dormant. So why spend 2.5 pages on it? Likewise, the issue over the government banning tudungs at the public primary and secondary schools (which came to a head around the time I first arrived in S'pore). Now, far be it from me not to encourage women to cover (my wife and much of her family covers), but I don't have a problem with girls being told not to cover (especially at the primary school level; secondary school, I'm more willing to say, yes, the girls should be allowed to cover if they desire). But, as Zubaidah points out (p. 17), Muslim teenage girls are allowed to cover at the post-secondary schools here. Moreover, this regulation applies only to the public schools. All of the girls studying at the six or so madrassahs here cover (it's part of their school uniforms). In addition, what's never said is that the Muslimah school teachers (such as my wife) are allowed to cover in front of their students. Muslim girls are shown the daily example by their teachers of Muslim women who cover and do their jobs. (The Zulfikar case I'm not able to comment on as that took place before I got here.)
Some of the issues Zubaidah addressed are correct; for instance, the issue of discrimination against Malays. The government, by and large, doesn't discriminate against Malays. (Although the military has in the past with respect to the commissioning of Malay officers (p. 21); however, even that is changing. For example, since the writing of this paper, the SAF promoted the first Malay to the position of general.) Most discrimination, when it happens, is with respect to workplace employment in the private sector. Perhaps as a result, I see a lot of Malays working for the government here.
Now I've tried to discuss this woman's paper on the merits of her arguments, but I do find it more than a little ironic that you should question about a liberal Muslim like Farish Noor when this Zubaidah (if you read her university profile) is almost certainly a liberal Muslim herself. Shari'ah reform?
To give you something to read, you might try an old blog post of mine, Pax Singaporeana: Why They Hate Singapore.
Naeem, the whole idea of American Islam etc, must be taken to it's roots. All we're seeing today can be explained with a little history most of us already know:
1) The Prophet(SAW) establishes a perfect 'Islamic State'.
2) The State is run by Caliphs for centuries, with good Caliphs and not so good Caliphs. It wasn't perfect, but the State still based it's laws on the Qur'an.
3) 1900's see the start of the destruction of the State, colonialised by the Western allied states. Split over the following 100 years and on going in more and more little countries, giving them "independence", all ruled with constitutions NOT based on Islam, but Secular principles, headed up by rulers(slaves), strategically placed there by there by their slave masters.
4) During the rule of the puppet rulers it became apparent they care little for the success of their nations and have no intention of ruling by Islam or uniting the Muslims once again. After all, Lord Curzon, did clearly state in the House of Commons that the Caliphate was the strength of the Muslims and only through it's destruction have they achieved success.
5) The "Muslim" countries continue to go downhill and the western states continued to advance in material aspects.
6) Muslims forget about their purpose, the purpose that the Prophet(SAW) and Sahaba worked hard for - to establish Allah's word in the land. And as the Prophet(SAW) prophecised in the famous hadith, the muslims will be inflicted by 'Wahn'[love for dunya, hate for death].
7) Some Muslims are fortunate enough to escape to the land where you will acheive success[material of course] - the american dream. And two, three, sometimes four generations on, they are still there chasing this "success", some having completely forgotten that they have a purpose other than what Capitalist principles teach, and others trying to hold on to their Islam while also ensuring they don't miss out on chasing what their parents were promised when they were priviliged to enter countries like the U.S and U.K - sadly most end up compromising their beleifs completely and forgetting their purpose - the spreading of peace and justice.
That's the situation and that's how Muslims got there, they didn't go to the states or the UK to better their deen or because practising Islam there is better, or share the beautiful message - but for material increase(in 99% of cases). So it's quite natural you'll be finding this new 'flavor'.
Sadly the Muslim lands don't offer much right now either, we're in a pretty impossible position right now and are in need of a reviver that Allah(swt) sends each century. However what can be said is that we probably live in the last hour [Imran Hosseins books are recommended on this area] and any change that will come, i.e. the return of the Khilafah Rashidun as promised by our Prophet(SAW), is going to happen in the Muslim lands. It's all about Muslims returning to their purpose, as defined earliar.
The tricky part is how to do it. One can feel helpless in these times when the state of mankind has become exactly what the Prophet(SAW) described would be at the end time. Do we just wait for the Mahdi, meanwhile keeping ourselves and those we can help on the correct path? I mean we could discuss the various 'flavors' of Islam till the sun goes down, but isn't it fruitless when the power of Secularism and ultimately Dajjalic culture is penetrating every land today; we surely have to accept that the majority of even Muslims will be and are following Dajjal, be it unknowingly, in the shape of his system(until he appears physically). It's going to happen, flavors will come, the religion is being and will continue to be diluted... But, very few will hold on to the PURE UNCORRUPTED truth.
DINOSAUR
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