Why Muslim Cultures Lag Behind

In an anti-jihad article....

The author gives points on why Muslim culture tends not to "get up to speed" as other non-modern cultures have who had modern cultures and technologies encroach into their countries.

• Belief in Magic
• Belief in Conspiracies
• Lack of Innovations
• Lack of devotion to non-family/non tribal/non-clan organizations
• Lack of empowerment of women
• Lack of personal responsibility
• Lack of skilled labour
• Lack of meritocracy

The first item on the list is notable. It is one that will confuse most people who are religious, or believe in a God concept. They will think, how backward these poor ignorant people are. But they won't see that they believe similar things in their own possibly, "modern" life.



An example:


 

Practicing Ashoura

The observance of Ashoura is one of the most important events in the Shia calender. Ashoura marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in what is now Kerbala, Iraq. The death of Husayn was the beginning of the Sunni/Shia split, which persists in Islam to this day.In the past, many Shia men have demonstrated their devotion to Husayn by letting their blood flow freely from self-inflicted wounds. Today, however, many governments have tried to ban this practice, with varying degrees of success. In Lebanon, the practice is permitted, and a bloody commemoration of Ashoura takes place in Nabatieh every year.Most participants make a small cut on their head, and then beat the wound with their palm--or in this case a sword--to keep the wound open and bleeding.


Just more ancient practices. Not a big deal. Right?

Maybe not. But it's important to understand what these forms of mind altering practices lead to. We have to think clearly about following ancient practices, how useful are they, are they only useful to those groups? Or do they somehow further Humankind? Some practices are reasonable and do help move Humans as a whole forward. Meditation, for instance. But once you bring blood into it, something changes. Blood. Flesh.

The Catholic eating of the "Body of Christ". The transmutation of bread to flesh. Human flesh. Then eating it in a ceremony called "Mass". Catholics don't like to think about that. They don't see it as canibalism. It's a religious thing. God said, it his Human flesh. Really? Yeshua (Jesus) according to the Hearsay in the Bible, at the last supper, said to eat meals as if you were eating his flesh and blood, but over the centuries that wasn't good enough, and the Church, changed it into saying they were actually changing bread and wine into flesh and blood. Isn't that a telling thing? Magic, wouldn't you say? Or, is it the divine mystic's wishes?

Magic and magical thought really are what they seem to be. Belief in the unbelievable. Changing bread to flesh, wine to blood, is by definition, "Magic". Deal with it. That, is a fact. The belief of what you are doing, is not a fact. Magical thought is the belief in things that are not scientifically proven, or are not proven "facts". Not a "belief" in so called fact, but a proven fact. Saying that you have an ancient text and therefore because of your "faith" or "belief" in it, that therefore makes it a fact, is a belief in unproven scientifically supported evidence and therefore, by definition, you are believing in nonfactual, unproven, and it's a short leap of "faith" to arrive at the belief that those things are in some way, magical, or that at very least, you are participating in "magical thought".

So just how modern does that make you?

I wouldn't be so quick to laugh at these "backward" cultures, because we in our "modern" cultures, have enough of the backward still exiting among us.

When you support the belief in something that has no foundation in reality, or scientific proof, you allow the possibility for those belief's to go off in tangents, both for the good and the bad. We have also seen, time and time again, that "Historical proofs", has proven to be inaccurate and sometimes, completely fantastical. Remember that in many many cases, history is written by the winners during an era, or are self supporting in their contentions.

This was proven in great detail by the History book "A Distant Mirror" where Historian Barbara Tuchman went to the historical archives of bills of lading, showing what was purchased in certain events, thus "proving" (as best as possible and better so than using Historical accounts and hearsay as has been the case historically and in many cases, History books have cited History books, and so on, until coming to the beginning of the thread, you find it was based upon hearsay or common beliefs!).

Therefore, we see negative and self-serving elements within the Muslim community, terrorism, misconceptions, beliefs in conspiracies against them (some being accurate, or semi accurate) and leading to inappropriate responses to these beliefs.

To allow this kind of belief to be generally accepted, as in other religions, or any religion, then you allow these kinds of things to remain vital and alive. Therefore, Christians also has a responsibility in these terrorists actions. Any culture that believes in mythologies as reality, has a responsibility; Jewish, Buddhists (if they believe magical imaginings), whatever organized nonsense that is around. Like has been said before, if you're not sure what it is, you should be able to recognize it when you see it. But on the other hand, I don't expect everyone will be able to. Why? Because we have so many who are taught not to think critically, to believe in the imaginary. To believe in "magic" is a wonderful thing, to really believe in magic, is by definition, insane.

If they are going to retain their beliefs in questionable Historical events, then they should have a responsibility to do something about those other religions who are going about killing people. However, if you do then have those other religions taking action, you will have a religious war from opposing factions of Humanity. Something we certainly do not need.

So what is the one way to assure we don't have anymore screwed up beliefs in religious murders? That would be the elimination of organized and individualized beliefs in magic and mythology (that is to say religions, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, etc.); disbanding them, eliminating them, and then having people educated in logic, thought based upon reality, and an ethics of a Humane, Full World Community based view of living in a world of tolerance. At very least, it would take those who wish to believe, realize that they are having beliefs in things that are inaccurate or imaginary in some cases.

How can you say, if you believe in ancient myths, that the other guy over there, who also believes in ancient myths, is wrong? Even if they believe in a death based, murder based religion?

Because, what is the basis for saying they are wrong and you are right? Ancient texts with no basis in reality? That simply makes no sense at all.

Foolishness you say? If you cannot see who this is true, then perhaps therein lay the problems we face today with these religious fanatics who have diverged so far from their original intent that they have completely lost their way.

And long will be the road to fix it if everyone does not soon start to realize just what it is they are doing by believing in "facts" that are both questionable, and dangerous.

CIA's 20:20 Vision for the future Caliphate is Short Sighted!

This is in some ways a very interesting article foreshadowing what is currently going on in the Middle East and Egypt and elsewhere. Understand that documents like the Mapping document are done by countries all around the world all the time. Many times they are incorrect on many points but they are still helpful in giving a way to view something. Sometimes, seeing something incorrectly, can still help you make the right decision, as long as you know it is conjecture, but also brings along with it, relevant information you may not have known before.

This article was posted on  13 Sep 2010 on PKPolitics.com (Full article)

In December 2004, The National Intelligence Council of the CIA predicted that in the year 2020 a new Caliphate would emerge on the world stage. The findings were published in a 123-page report titled "Mapping the Global Future". The aim of the report is to prepare the next Bush administration for challenges that lie ahead by projecting current trends that may pose a threat to US interest. The report is presented to the US president, members of Congress, cabinet members and key officials involved in policy making.

Another point of contention in the report is the claim that the emergence of the Caliphate will not cause the regimes in Muslim countries to collapse one after the other - the domino effect.

Again this understanding is derived from an incorrect understanding of society. A cursory study of the Muslim world shows that there exists strong polarization in viewpoints between the regimes and the people they govern. Before the collapse of the Baath regime, Saddam an atheist was delivering speeches laced with Islamic terms. He did this, because he realized that the people were no longer motivated by Baathism, secularism or Arabism and only responded to Islam. Similarly, when Musharraf sided with America' s war against Afghanistan he had to quote lengthy passages from life of the Messenger (SAW) to justify his stance.

The conflict between maintaining the secular order and preventing political Islam from assuming power is a daily occurrence in much of the Muslim world. The regimes in the Muslim world are viewed as the custodians of western interests and antagonistic towards Islam. Muslims simply loathed these regimes and are eager to extinguish their existence. The only reason these regimes survive is because of the dogged support from western governments.

Today, the Islamic Ummah stands on the cusp of a monumental change, just as the Warsaw pact countries stood some 18 years ago. The iron curtain came down because people had changed their viewpoint from communism to capitalism. Likewise the Muslim Ummah has abandoned both communism and capitalism, and is waiting for the emergence of the Caliphate, which will cause these regimes to collapse in spectacular fashion, only to be absorbed by the Caliphate.

Link to "Mapping the Global Future (2009) .pdf

And from the Guardian in the UK:

Barack Obama to authorize record $60bn Saudi arms sale -Biggest arms deal in US history will shore up a Gulf ally against Iran threat, but angers Tehran and worries Israel. From September 13, 2010