This is what’s wrong with Islam in the 21st century:
Yes! That’s the picture of a couple taking a ride in their horse carriage. That’s the analogy I wish to present here. There’s a very good reason for me picking this analogy. Let us begin.
Throughout the Islamic world, there is this mass marketing of this idea that the perfect way of life is to be found back in time. Meaning that if you wish to prosper, instead of progressing, try to live the way they lived in 7th century Arabia. Throughout the Muslim world, there are countless books, videos, TV channels, preachers and even ordinary people who mass market this nostalgic romantic view of how perfect the world was some thousand and a half year ago. As a result, instead of progressing, Muslims are encouraged to try and regress to those “glory days”. So what’s the relevance of that to a horse carriage?
Well, let’s imagine that we live in a world where a large number of us are religiously convinced that the ideal way for us to live is by using horse carriages. Do horse carriages work? YES! They do work. Will they get some work done? Of course! However, it’d be a very bad idea to bring them back and make them the norm. The people who have been brainwashed to romanticize those good old days of horse carriages must understand that the world has changed a lot. There are many problems with that old mode of transportation, for example:
They may not be structurally fit for the roadsThey may be too slow and slow down others as you bask in the “glory” of your horse carriageThe amount of horse-poop that will result from it simply might be unacceptableIt will lead to lower overall productivity for the nation’s peopleA lot of animal welfare/abuse issues might cause some serious concerns.
So you see, it’s not that horse carriages don’t work. It’s just that it doesn’t make much sense to regress back to that mode of transportation from what we currently have access to. That is the problem with Islam in the 21st century. Given that Islam, like any other religion, is more or less what a Muslim makes it to be, I guess it’s a problem with Muslims. There are progressive brands of Islam which are 21st century compatible. However, the fact remains that 99.99% of Muslims don’t belong to that group.
So why won’t Muslims become progressives and just seek out regressive interpretations? It’s a very complex issue to address at this point. One big part of it is the Saudi oil funded Wahhabi ideology. These people are the kings of mass marketing. Whether you go to the east or the west, these people fund mosques/madrasas/Islamic centers/apologists/preachers/TV networks/written materials with billions of dollars to ensure that they get to make their interpretation the default understanding of what Islam is. Their competitors in the Islamic world simply can’t match their marketing budgets and the resulting influence. The end result is that we can expect the Islamic world to be backwards and IT IS backwards.
It won’t be exactly fair to end this answer without giving some good shout-outs to some people who deserve it. There are some Muslims who are working hard to combat this extremism and repressiveness in the Islamic world. One of them is Dr Usama Hasan:
This guy used to be the imam of Leyton Mosque and went through hell after trying to explain to his congregation that Evolution is a fact. Of course he ended up endangering his life by trying to educate his congregation and bring them up to speed on the latest science. Another person who is working very hard to support some reformation is Maajid Nawaz:
This guy used to be an Islamic extremist himself! He even went to prison and got tortured. Anyway, his life has changed a lot and he now works very hard to combat religious extremism.
These people need our support. We can endlessly moan about how the Islamic ideology is like a horse carriage, like I did, but at the end of the day that isn’t going to change the world. 1.6 billion Muslims are not going to leave the religion. At least not anytime soon. As such, I think it’s worthwhile for us to empower such good Muslims and help the Muslim world out of the oil funded Wahhabi virus that is holding it captive. So, I’d like to urge you all to follow and support these people as much as you can:
Facebook links for them:
Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Nawaz
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