The Eurocentric stories we learn teach us that the global conquest and colonization was motivated by the “White Man’s Burden”. That is, the desire to share the benefits of the advanced civilization of the West with ignorant and backwards savages in the rest of the world. However, the reality is that the colonization was motivated by the desire to loot the wealth of others, using any means necessary. This robbery led to massive transfer of wealth from the globe to Europe (“development”) and massive poverty in the colonized countries (“under-development”). To understand the stark difference between hype and reality, we only need to look at the conquest of Iraq. The propaganda was that this was to protect mankind from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), to liberate the Iraqi public from an evil dictator, and to bring them the benefits of democracy and civilization. However, the reality was that a more than a million innocent civilians were killed, the infrastructure of the country was destroyed, and country was bombed back to the stone ages. This was done in pursuit of power and profits.
The Eurocentric narratives we have been educated to believe teach us that the past three centuries have been a period of amazing progress. We must de-colonize our minds to understand that the reality is the opposite – the period of European leadership has been one of amazing decline in standard of morality and humanity. The past century has been the deadliest in human history, with genocides and ruthless killings of millions of innocents in pursuit of power and profits. In the early 20th Century, education was about building character, and teaching civic and social responsibility. As Julie Reuben details in “The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality”, these goals were dropped in favor of a purely technical education. Today, students learn how to build nuclear bombs, but not that killing is wrong. In fact, they are trained to believe that morality is meaningless noise, which should NOT be allowed to get in the way of pursuit of power, pleasure, or profits.
Islam offers a radically different perspective on the path to progress. Every human being is born with infinite potential, with the capability to rise above the angels. We also have the capability to be the lowest of the low. Development is about development of the human potential within us. Progress occurs if people improve as human beings, striving for excellence in conduct, on the pattern of our Prophet Mohammad SAW, mercy to all mankind. Economic policy should be to enable all human beings to live rich and fulfilling lives, devoted to the development of their inbuilt potentials. Viewed in this light, we see the dramatic failure of Western leadership. The unbounded pursuit of profits and pleasure has destroyed the sense of responsibility at the heart of family life, the building block of society. Today, more than 50% of children are born to single mothers in European societies. Loneliness, suicides, and large numbers of psychological problems are on the rise. Westernized countries have appointed Ministers of happiness and loneliness to try to solve these problems.
Islamic teachings launched a revolution 14 centuries ago by teaching us how to develop the human potential within us. This internal revolution is the basis for an external revolution in the world. Today, our biggest problem is the colonization of our minds, which leads us to pursue the illusions of this dunya, and to sell our lives for wages in the labor market. We must free our minds to realize that this unique and precious gift of life we have been given is not for the purpose of pursuit of pleasure and power, as the global colonizers have taught us. INSTEAD, we must make use of this short term to learn to be the best human beings we can, and to do the most excellent deeds to please Allah Subhanahu wa T’aala. May Allah T’aala help us and guide all of humanity to the Noor of His perfection
LINKS: To register for the free online course, use shortlink: http://bit.ly/IsRv00 For previous lectures, see