Opinion: Inferiority Complex & The Disease Known as Civilization Part 1 | PKKH.tv
by Muhammad Umer Toor
I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement. Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le Colonialisme
The independence movements in colonies and protectorates came into being, not through a return to indigenous values on the part of those concerned, but through the absorption of occidental ideas and ideologies, liberal or revolutionary the process of modernization a euphemism for Westernization far from being halted by the withdrawal, was in fact accelerated. The enthusiasm of the new rulers for everything modern was not restrained, as had been the enthusiasm of their former masters, by any element of self-doubt.
Gai Eaton, Islam and the Destiny of Man
The celebrated Algerian psychologist and freedom fighter of the Blacks, Franz Fanon, saw only two parties in the battle between the colonialists and colonized: white and black. Whites oppressed, tortured and killed millions of Blacks. Fanon wrote two famous books - Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth - psychologically analyzing the plight of the Blacks and he came up with radical solutions for the Blacks to overcome their inferiority complex. Our history is different.
Our colonizers were much less intense. They did not butcher millions or harass indiscriminately 24/7 in our region (this doesnt mean that they didnt butcher or harass at all). We have no idea about the mass murdering of Central Asian Muslims and Africans by imperial powers of 19th/20th century. Our colonization was far less brutal and far more subtle. Our body was not tortured as much as were brainwashed and deluded through education and social-engineering, as well by violence, torture and a coercive legal system, which was designed to frighten locals and make them timid.
J Sartre, a philosopher, writes in preface to Fanons famous work Wretched of the Earth (hope it reminds you of our false elites):
In the colonies the truth stood naked, but the citizens of the mother country [of colonists] preferred it with clothes on: the native [colonized subject] had to love them, something in the way mothers are loved. The European élite undertook to manufacture a native élite. They picked out promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of western culture, they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth. After a short stay in the mother country they were sent home, whitewashed. These walking lies had nothing left to say to their brothers; they only echoed. (Brackets ours)
We post-colonial, brown Muslims (like our colonial parents) lack self-confidence at many levels. This loss of confidence in our culture, essence and the way of Islam haunts us in intellectual and practical matters. Many of us pay lip-service to Islam and carry on with it; many seek to reform Islam to be compatible with an aggressive West, which declared its independence from Heavens few centuries back (although we mistakenly hail that to be enlightenment). Some of us are just indifferent to the unavoidable contradictions between Islamic teachings and modern thought and its practices. We might not like these realities. Truth, however, is not concerned with likeness or dis-likeness of this or that person or society, or even a generation. Truth is above sentimentality and the fashions of minds that keep changing with every cycle of moon.
Despite the loss of confidence (and a Center), weve not stopped calling ourselves Muslims, so far. But thanks to our modern education we certainly are not that homo Islamicus of the glorious past (a) who would not be dazzled by materialism of any kind, (b) who would serve knowledge (not for moneys sake), and, (c) integrate influences from diverse sources from his own civilizational and religious point of view. His world-view was based on Quran and sunnah (as amply clear from the writings of great theological and philosophical scholars of past). He would think enough, think clearly and think rightly. More importantly, hed think Islamically. They were the people of izzat, or respect, and were imitated (who were Indians imitating when they wore turbans?).
The shocking encounter of colonialism in 19th/20th century seemingly paralyzed the body and mind of ummah. Dr Muzaffar Iqbal argues that our defense mechanisms failed because were too little prepared militarily, socially and politically; and responded too late to the sea changes that were going to change our world, perhaps forever. Europeans were notorious for being barbaric, always engaged in sectarian (or else) warfare nothing compared to what we can do today with all the weapons of mass destruction. Being over-confident, Ottomans didnt pay much attention to the reports on rising power of the Nordics, i.e., Westerners. What now? According to a medical-religious scholar, were in a post-traumatic stress from the psychological trauma of the invasion of the unclean West. Perhaps it was a medicine for our arrogance. Recovery process has not been what Quran envisages for us. (We do not change the condition of people ) A young Muslim is perplexed, dazzled and confused by the power and wealth of the West, and the condition of his own civilization, when confronting statistics on poverty, injustice, corruption, treachery and all sorts of such evils in Muslim lands. This often leads to the inversion of priorities in his mind: power and wealth (and all fields of knowledge and action that produce that) matter more than invisible forces of spirituality and religious knowledge.
Ibn-e-Khuldun distinguishes between two classes of a people or nation: the free people/leaders and the followers. Those in chains of slavery (or follower-ship) imitate all easy acts of the leaders. In a bid of feel superior, they would imitate the leaders dress, learn his language, adopt his manners, and take a dog for an evening walk with them in the park (just like the boss). However, the actions that make a leader what he is are not for followers to focus their attention on. Followers are too busy to be proactive enough to respond to challenges of West, because they're "at the receiving end of waves" generated by the latter. Imitators lack seriousness and content, but remain up-to-date with changing fashions of leading nations (although imitation of successful people is falah too).
This is not to suggest at all that we should thoughtlessly start photo-copying westerners, the leaders of all things worldly. It is precisely this mentality of blind-following we are arguing against, besides pointing out that we follow whats on easy-to-do-list, so easily. On the contrary, whats really hard for us is to respond forcefully to western modernitys challenges intellectual, political, cultural, military, etc.
Our laziness and contentment with the works our forefathers pushed us into deep slumber of ignorance. West happily took advantage from this situation and injected us further with its own disease of materialism. It was the last straw and we went down tumbling in the abyss of inferiority complex. Whats superficial and relative seemed to us important and absolute. West made us believe that without machine man was destined to stay in primitive age. In the race of machines, spirit was left far behind and thus world saw the decline of humanity. We in our naivety followed blindly the matter, when indeed we were needed to have mind over matter. This complimentary work of the mind over matter has always been going on till 16th century. Before that, the world was in a much better and proper shape (with the exception of some areas). Truth like intelligence is complex.
In a quest to control us - afraid of our religious rationality or perhaps completely oblivious of it - they started alienating us from our own language, modes of education, culture, science, philosophy, etc. We became timid, fearful to act on our own teachings, sent down to us from the Divine. This is what well try to explore and elaborate in next article where well try explaining historical process that gave birth to inferiority complex (although not exhaustively). And in the last piece, we will describe various illnesses and harmful effects of this disease in various fields of knowledge and action.
Muhammad Umer Toor is a wanna-be philosopher in distant future. Based in Lahore, with a BSc in Business, he blogs at[url]www.toorumer.blogspot.com[/url].* He can be reached at i.umer.toor@gmail.com
Source
by Muhammad Umer Toor
I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement. Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le Colonialisme
The independence movements in colonies and protectorates came into being, not through a return to indigenous values on the part of those concerned, but through the absorption of occidental ideas and ideologies, liberal or revolutionary the process of modernization a euphemism for Westernization far from being halted by the withdrawal, was in fact accelerated. The enthusiasm of the new rulers for everything modern was not restrained, as had been the enthusiasm of their former masters, by any element of self-doubt.
Gai Eaton, Islam and the Destiny of Man
The celebrated Algerian psychologist and freedom fighter of the Blacks, Franz Fanon, saw only two parties in the battle between the colonialists and colonized: white and black. Whites oppressed, tortured and killed millions of Blacks. Fanon wrote two famous books - Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth - psychologically analyzing the plight of the Blacks and he came up with radical solutions for the Blacks to overcome their inferiority complex. Our history is different.
Our colonizers were much less intense. They did not butcher millions or harass indiscriminately 24/7 in our region (this doesnt mean that they didnt butcher or harass at all). We have no idea about the mass murdering of Central Asian Muslims and Africans by imperial powers of 19th/20th century. Our colonization was far less brutal and far more subtle. Our body was not tortured as much as were brainwashed and deluded through education and social-engineering, as well by violence, torture and a coercive legal system, which was designed to frighten locals and make them timid.
J Sartre, a philosopher, writes in preface to Fanons famous work Wretched of the Earth (hope it reminds you of our false elites):
In the colonies the truth stood naked, but the citizens of the mother country [of colonists] preferred it with clothes on: the native [colonized subject] had to love them, something in the way mothers are loved. The European élite undertook to manufacture a native élite. They picked out promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of western culture, they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth. After a short stay in the mother country they were sent home, whitewashed. These walking lies had nothing left to say to their brothers; they only echoed. (Brackets ours)
We post-colonial, brown Muslims (like our colonial parents) lack self-confidence at many levels. This loss of confidence in our culture, essence and the way of Islam haunts us in intellectual and practical matters. Many of us pay lip-service to Islam and carry on with it; many seek to reform Islam to be compatible with an aggressive West, which declared its independence from Heavens few centuries back (although we mistakenly hail that to be enlightenment). Some of us are just indifferent to the unavoidable contradictions between Islamic teachings and modern thought and its practices. We might not like these realities. Truth, however, is not concerned with likeness or dis-likeness of this or that person or society, or even a generation. Truth is above sentimentality and the fashions of minds that keep changing with every cycle of moon.
Despite the loss of confidence (and a Center), weve not stopped calling ourselves Muslims, so far. But thanks to our modern education we certainly are not that homo Islamicus of the glorious past (a) who would not be dazzled by materialism of any kind, (b) who would serve knowledge (not for moneys sake), and, (c) integrate influences from diverse sources from his own civilizational and religious point of view. His world-view was based on Quran and sunnah (as amply clear from the writings of great theological and philosophical scholars of past). He would think enough, think clearly and think rightly. More importantly, hed think Islamically. They were the people of izzat, or respect, and were imitated (who were Indians imitating when they wore turbans?).
The shocking encounter of colonialism in 19th/20th century seemingly paralyzed the body and mind of ummah. Dr Muzaffar Iqbal argues that our defense mechanisms failed because were too little prepared militarily, socially and politically; and responded too late to the sea changes that were going to change our world, perhaps forever. Europeans were notorious for being barbaric, always engaged in sectarian (or else) warfare nothing compared to what we can do today with all the weapons of mass destruction. Being over-confident, Ottomans didnt pay much attention to the reports on rising power of the Nordics, i.e., Westerners. What now? According to a medical-religious scholar, were in a post-traumatic stress from the psychological trauma of the invasion of the unclean West. Perhaps it was a medicine for our arrogance. Recovery process has not been what Quran envisages for us. (We do not change the condition of people ) A young Muslim is perplexed, dazzled and confused by the power and wealth of the West, and the condition of his own civilization, when confronting statistics on poverty, injustice, corruption, treachery and all sorts of such evils in Muslim lands. This often leads to the inversion of priorities in his mind: power and wealth (and all fields of knowledge and action that produce that) matter more than invisible forces of spirituality and religious knowledge.
Ibn-e-Khuldun distinguishes between two classes of a people or nation: the free people/leaders and the followers. Those in chains of slavery (or follower-ship) imitate all easy acts of the leaders. In a bid of feel superior, they would imitate the leaders dress, learn his language, adopt his manners, and take a dog for an evening walk with them in the park (just like the boss). However, the actions that make a leader what he is are not for followers to focus their attention on. Followers are too busy to be proactive enough to respond to challenges of West, because they're "at the receiving end of waves" generated by the latter. Imitators lack seriousness and content, but remain up-to-date with changing fashions of leading nations (although imitation of successful people is falah too).
This is not to suggest at all that we should thoughtlessly start photo-copying westerners, the leaders of all things worldly. It is precisely this mentality of blind-following we are arguing against, besides pointing out that we follow whats on easy-to-do-list, so easily. On the contrary, whats really hard for us is to respond forcefully to western modernitys challenges intellectual, political, cultural, military, etc.
Our laziness and contentment with the works our forefathers pushed us into deep slumber of ignorance. West happily took advantage from this situation and injected us further with its own disease of materialism. It was the last straw and we went down tumbling in the abyss of inferiority complex. Whats superficial and relative seemed to us important and absolute. West made us believe that without machine man was destined to stay in primitive age. In the race of machines, spirit was left far behind and thus world saw the decline of humanity. We in our naivety followed blindly the matter, when indeed we were needed to have mind over matter. This complimentary work of the mind over matter has always been going on till 16th century. Before that, the world was in a much better and proper shape (with the exception of some areas). Truth like intelligence is complex.
In a quest to control us - afraid of our religious rationality or perhaps completely oblivious of it - they started alienating us from our own language, modes of education, culture, science, philosophy, etc. We became timid, fearful to act on our own teachings, sent down to us from the Divine. This is what well try to explore and elaborate in next article where well try explaining historical process that gave birth to inferiority complex (although not exhaustively). And in the last piece, we will describe various illnesses and harmful effects of this disease in various fields of knowledge and action.
Muhammad Umer Toor is a wanna-be philosopher in distant future. Based in Lahore, with a BSc in Business, he blogs at[url]www.toorumer.blogspot.com[/url].* He can be reached at i.umer.toor@gmail.com
Source
