mA! It can’t be better put. We need to wake up and connect!
Take the good and leave the bad!

S.AHA Nadwi was very illuminating in fearing the consequences that the West has on the Muslims. For example, not a single so-called Muslim country (in-itself an innovation) has any sort of real Islamic form of governance. They all have secular constitution and amalgamation of “Muhammaden-Islamic” law, which may work well for the Westerns, but does not do justice for the Muslims. (Of course the sharia is well reserved for the poor and those who do not have assets in oversea banks.)

Muslim “informality complex” gave way to a mix-match of half-Islamic & half-western ideals (I can’t give names) and “buying & selling” of western ideas and western technologies. His preciouses foretelling of the Gulf Arabs is all too true. Spending millions on cars, and hotels and horses hardly seems “Islamic” when juxtaposed to millions dying in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

The Islamic education is an issue that would take too long to comment, but the absolute vulgar way Muslims seeks secular education to enhance their lives is enough to make anybody take heed of what exactly it means to be an educated Muslim.

Not exactly…SHY would elaborate on why Muslims in the west are becoming westernized muslims

Absolutely spot on,laser guided comment and befitting reply,cant get any better.

Being in a South Asian country i am fed up with peoples hatred and cursing of West,but when talk about real islam,they fall away and say its too extreme.Just take out their frustration at west when they dont know that Allah sends the conditions down on people as we sent actions(amals) up there

The Prophet PBUH and Sahabas never bad mouthed or criticized the enemies,romans,persians etc but they kept on Perfecting themselves,being obedient to Allah command and being beneficial to public in general.And the rest was done by Allah

I am sad,how many sacrificng revert brothers/sisters went through all this trauma when they hear such stories.

Allah made US,Europe,white people,English,etc… its up to them how they use it and accordingly they will be rewarded and punished.

Thanks for your detaield comment,i will copy it and use it when confronting such people.

Love All Reverts For Life

LARFL !!!! lol

To each his own I guess, but I think that the biggest and most vital problem of Muslims is not that which is stated in the above quote, but is “their appalling ignorance and backwardness”, which promotes the acceptance of “Western culture” in all its forms. I think not that “the West” would have the strength to “break through the fences the Arabs had erected around themselves and force its way triumphantly into the sacred land of Islam” if the Muslims had not brought upon themselves “a state of affairs for which no justification could be found either in reason or in justice and which did not deserve to survive in any age, to speak nothing of the modern fast-changing one.” And ignorance and backwardness, coupled with tacit acceptance of “Western traditions” (though they have changed rapidly over the course of the last few centuries, so it would be problematic to define accurately that which is “Western”)is a force against there is little to be done against.

With this part “spirit of earnestness, fidelity and love that have become extinct among the materialistic nations of the West can still be seen in the Islamic countries.” I would only partially agree, but I shall not discuss it.

Indeed, it seems to me that Muslims in general, especially those in predominantly Muslim countries, have made little effort to adapt themselves to the currents of change, and have decided to (from my experience at least) instead merely justify their passivity with various reasons and arguments.

Very true br.accepting we should blame ourselves and take responsibility but what I think the article is trying to say is we need to acknowledge the existence of the problem so we can fix it..cultural imperialization is a fact and I really think that we as a muslim nation are morphing our identity into something we think is internationally acceptable we’re taking the worst of the western culture.. while we should take whats in thier brains and leave whats in thier souls we are reversing the formula hence the example you’ve given Dubai a country of arab origin no longer represents anything arabian or islamic for that matter… I just wish we knew how to approach a problem like this because sometimes it feels like ur one person against a wave and you come out feeling a stranger an outsider someone who’s backward… but yea in the end it’s us who are responsible for allowing it to happen…

Thank you for the article. It really helped me think through my thoughts on the whole ‘Islam versus the West/Clash of Civilizations’ issue.

I find the whole ‘west versus east’ dichotomy presented (even with all the caveats) not convincing.

While I agree that Western influence has not always been good for Muslim societies, perhaps positive influence of the west, ie, the emphasis on critical thinking, rational discourse, can serve as in impetus to ‘refresh’ the current state of Islamic thought, jurisprudence, educational systems, etc today.

Furthermore, the while the West has its problems, it also has done a fair amount of thinking about these issues. For example, the West has been the major polluter (although that is now changing with China and India gain ascendency), but also has done the most thinking on how to solve problems related to pollution.

Many Westerners also today recognize the problem of rank materialism; there is no shortage of ideas on how to simplify one’s life, reconnect with oneself and others, etc. Muslims can (and are) playing a positive role in this discourse. As mentioned by ‘Accepting Reality’, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West.

So, perhaps idea is not to curse ‘Westernization’, but to learn from it, to take what is good, and leave what is bad, always keeping the Quran and Sunnah foremost in mind.

Also, Muslims in the West can continue to play a critical role in shaping the Western tradition in a positive manner.

All is not lost. I understand where the writer is coming from, but in the Holy Quran 49:13 –

O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware.

As a revert myself, I see in that ayat that knowing one another is possibility of revitalization, helping one another, old and new to do our duty and have good conduct. Things change, but the basic, principles are eternal. There is one Allah and Mohammed (PBUH) was his Prophet. Follow the Quran and the Sunna.

There are Muslims everywhere and many reverts. Get to know us, let us revitalize you and you vitalize us. Do not let culture separate us because in that space of separation, all that is bad about the West creeps in. I was recently in Egypt and a Pharmacist there, he was surprised that there were Muslims in the United States. He thought that we all thought that they were terrorists. I was in turn surprised about how little people knew how wide spread the Ummah was.