WHEN MUSLIMS WAKE UP … (0/100)
I propose in this section, a hundred synthesized reflections, on the state of contemporary Muslim consciousness and what is needed for its awakening and emancipation.
0/100: INTRODUCTION: Coping with reality
Not a day goes by without referring to Islam in a negative way. Whether in predominantly Muslim societies or in the West, Africa and Asia, reflections are similar and add up to reach a point of saturation.
It is noted that Muslims are lagging behind in innumerable fields: they do not contribute to any intellectual, scientific or technical progress; they are not in the vanguard of any of the noble struggles for freedom of thought, equality (among human beings, on the one hand, and gender equality, on the other), against racism or poverty and, finally, for the protection of the environment. For decades, they have not offered any real alternative to the world order. They certainly excel in criticizing this order, the arrogance of the dominant powers, the corruption of the States and the injustices caused by the neoliberal economy as well as media bias. But what did their intellectuals and their scientists offer to the contemporary thought that can serve as inspiration for a new, singular, Islamic as well as universally shared reflection. When will the Muslims wake up?
Additionally, not to mention the way Muslims are perceived today. In the East as in the West, Islam is perceived to be responsible for the terrible state of the affairs in societies where Muslims are the majority. Economically underdeveloped, politically corrupt, culturally deprived, intellectually paralyzed… Muslims, wherever they may be, appear to be a manifestation of a social malaise than an enriching asset. Not to mention the political and media portraying Islam within a frame of violence, terrorism and death. In Africa, the Middle-East, Asia or the West, the pattern is repeated and the picture is very dark.
We can go by and weep about one’s fate. One can emotionally feed the tendency to fall into the trap of victimization. We can give up and justify one’s defeatism by one’s passivity. We can. As one can also wake up, analyze, understand, free oneself and emancipate. With determination and wisdom, resist both what we do for ourselves and the image we are reduced to, and condemned to.
So it’s about waking up, it’s about waking up lucidly and without fear. It takes courage, wisdom and patience. There is a need of conscience and faith; in God, in oneself, and in the human being.
