Extremist Politics and Culture, and the Western Role in its Resurgence
The Cognitive Culture of Excessive Reproduction, Poverty, and Violence
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In the last fifty years, the population of nearly every Muslim country has more than tripled. Given that nearly all Muslim countries that depend on indigenously generated wealth are predominantly poor, many thinkers see the dogmatic injunctions for unlimited reproduction, which by far out-paces the creation of resources, as a deliberate creation of poverty. Because, without destitution there would be little motivation to go for jihad, the creation of poverty through excessive reproduction serves as a self-fulfilling “divine” purpose, motivating the faithful to extend Islamic boundaries into “infidel” lands. The political Islamists justify the sufferings of hundreds of millions in dire poverty as a “divine necessity” until all lands will belong to Allah’s people alone. In the developed European countries, the state welfare measures have proved to be an ideal funding source for those wanting to keep their women away from jobs, marry them younger, and reproduce to their fullest potential. Consequently, there has been a remarkable upsurge in extremist traditions preached in European mosques, commanding the faithful to marry their children as soon as they reach puberty, stay away from the sin of family planning, and overwhelm... Extreme manifestation of the quest for “purity” is found in the concept of “martyrdom.” Martyrdom rids one of the impurities one might have contracted in one’s life. That is why the extremely devout actively seek martyrdom even if that means blowing oneself up in the mosque of a rival “impure” sect. The desire for martyrdom reaches its peak in one’s youth when emotionality and sex-associated guilt feelings, or the pain of failure of some kind, are as strong as the drive for sexual activity. These young men (at times women as well), harboring guilt and a deep sense of failure, and with little support for better prospects in life, could be brainwashed to become suicide bombers. However, with growth in one’s capacity to contain one’s psychological problems through rationalization of some kind, the influence of the brainwashing gradually diminishes in one’s middle age. Skepticism takes roots but the skeptic often finds it impossible to find an alternative life… If, hypothetically, Israel had not been there, it would not stop the extremists because then they would target Spain, as they claim that Spain was once part of the Islamic Empire – the Khilafah. They would also target Chechnya, Serbia, Kashmir, and more of Indian land where Muslims are in a majority. They would continue the ousting of non-Muslims from Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, and other Muslim countries, and they would fight to carve political Islamist states in the Philippines, Thailand, and other African and Asian countries. If, hypothetically, in order to achieve peace, their above mentioned demands too are met, that too will not stop them because then they would want Shari’a Law to be enforced in Central Asian post-Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan etc., in Bosnia and Kosovo, and in English cities such as Birmingham and Bradford where they have a sizeable population. To hasten these developments, they exhort the faithful to reproduce faster than any other cultural group. … It is almost unbelievable that while the communists never attacked the United States on its own soil, those who succeeded in doing so happen to be from countries that America saw as its best friends and allies against communism and the Soviet Union. For long, the Western world had been pouring hard currency into the OPEC countries, Indonesia, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia etc. through oil exploration and sales without bothering about the use of petrodollars in the global spread of extremist politics and poverty-and-violence-generating values… At least half the population in most of these countries is educated only in religion and rituals. Some estimate the figure to be as high as eighty percent. Considering the close ties and interdependence between the United States and Saudi elites during the Cold War, it is hard to believe that the former did not influence the latter to as little as to provide normal regular education to its citizens… As against the above said Western-Islamic policies, the Soviets aimed at and significantly changed the cognitive cultures of the Muslim countries within the Soviet Union. This is reflected in the high degree of moderation and tolerance found in the post Soviet Muslim countries, such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan when compared to the same in Muslim countries allied to the West during the same period, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, and Iraq. The former set of countries, contrary to the latter set of co
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About the Book
“I was a young man when the first airplane flew to India. Many Indian ullama issued a fatwa stating that Muslims should not travel by airplane because it was a devilish invention that flew in the sky and disturbed God (who lived there). Later, the Imam of a mosque began using a loudspeaker for his sermons. Again, a fatwa was issued stating that this was haram [unlawful] because Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) never used a loudspeaker for prayers.” The propagandists have become much more sophisticated now than they were in the days of the above narration. They now impose their dogmas through violence and taking hold of people’s minds through modern media. Television and the internet are their favorite tools. It is now commonly known that extremist politics, in its various manifestations in numerous countries, poses a serious threat to the socioeconomic stability of those countries, and, globally, to a civilization based on tolerance and intellectual freedom. However, not so well known are the common factors and dissimilarities among all these groups, scattered in so many countries and known as Chechen, Kashmiri, or Palestinian freedom fighters, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Sunni or Shi’a insurgents, Islamic Courts, Hamas Militia, Al Sadr Brigade, Jaysh al Mehdi, Hezbollah, Hizb’l Muhajayroon, Hizb’l Tahrir, Jama’at-a-Islami, Akhwan’l Muslaymoon, the Algerian GIA, and FIS, etc. This work aims to inform the reader about the common cognitive-cultural factors that generate these forces, how the extremist culture creates poverty and violence, how its expansionist strategies function, and how it imposes its values to dominate and purge other values. As explained in this work, the extremist expansionist beliefs result in the general impoverishment of societies, violence, migration to newer regions, and the systematic cleansing of non-conformers as more and more regions are gradually absorbed into the extremist dominated regions of the world.
About the Author
Dr. Ahmad Nadeem has been conducting empirical and theoretical research in extremism for more than three decades. After his graduation in psychology, physic and mathematics, he did his masters in English literature from Pakistan (1985), MBA from Strathclyde University (1990), and PhD from Middlesex University (1998). He has been a British Council fellow (1989-90), and lecturer in Pakistan, Arabian Gulf, and London for twelve years. His analyses of extremism have been collected in his recent book “Extremist Politics and Culture, and the Western Role in its Resurgence.” This book describes the poverty and violence generated by the expansionist familial culture and extremist politics, resurrected by petrodollars and the Cold War alliances, and discusses the importance of why and how Muslim states and the West must tame the Frankenstein-monster they created against communism.