You wrote:-
"As for what Islam, should do, it should have an Enlightenment, as Europe did in the eighteenth century, and join the modern world. David Warren has some good thoughts on the subject.......
Nadine, I personally do not think an enlightenment is possible given the present level of sophistication of most of the Moslems in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Enlightenment is a gradual process and it takes time and a building up to it. Right now, most good Moslems pray five times a day while facing in the direction of Mecca, and are highly fatalistic about the will of Allah. When things go wrong, they simply say, "Mekthoub." To me, this has the effect of confining their potential to do more for themselves and their countrymen. And when they act against non-Moslems, they are fond of yelling, "Allah u Akhbar." Little is done to improve the social condition. I hear that their obsession with increasing their population (for there is safety in numbers) ever exacerbates their social condition, and the rich and the haves do little to help the have-nots.
The Europeans were able to enjoy an era of enlightenment because they had already gone through a period of Renaissance, had reached out far beyond the confines of their own countries, made advances in commerce, in science and the arts, and in philosophy and mathematics etc. Enlightenment cannot happen at the flick of a switch or push of a button. There must be a gradual build-up to it. Remember: "Not by revolution but by evolution are all things achieved in permanence." |
