Islam and European Colonization: A Tale of Two Contrasting Cultures

Islam and European Colonization:
A Tale of Two Contrasting Cultures

Dr. Pasha

(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)

Islam Gave the World Liberty and Peace

The world today is dealing with two important legacies, coming from two contrasting cultures, traditions, histories and overarching value structures.

One is Islam and the other is European Colonization.

A proper understanding of these two contrasting legacies holds the key to a more complete grasp of what really is going on in the world today.

Islam, starting out, let us say, in the middle of the 7th Century, gave the world liberty, equality, universal human dignity.

Islam empowered and enriched the various peoples of the world.

And Islam gave the world peace.

European Colonization Gave Bondage, Poverty and Strife

European Colonization, starting out, let us say beginning of the 16th Century, gave the world slavery, racism, exploitation, discrimination.

In fact, Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, had set sail from Europe as early as the latter half of the 15th Century. And they did so with an eye on the fabled wealth of India, and in search of gold and slaves from West Africa.

Both India and Africa at that time were centers of Muslim power and home to large Muslim populations.

Gama Becomes Viceroy of India, Columbus Is Lost at Sea!

Columbus got lost at sea and ended up, not in India but in “West” Indies, in the Caribbean. Gama on the other hand reached the West Coast of India, on the shores of Arabian Sea, in the Malabar region, and is reported to have died in Kochi, Kerala, recorded as part of “Portuguese” India.

Gama’s occupation is listed as the Viceroy of India.

In sharp contrast to the liberation, empowerment and plenty that Islam gave the world, European Colonization brought bondage, servitude and impoverishment to the world and its various peoples. And in many places, such as the Americas, and parts of Africa, it brought large-scale death and destruction to the inhabitants of those lands and their habitat.

And European Colonization plunged God’s world in perpetual strife and conflict.

European Colonization Advanced at the Expense of Islam and Muslims

And much of that European Exploration, Expansion and Colonization came at the expense of Islam and Muslims.

As a result, much of what media call “Volatility” around the world in our time, whether it is in the so-called Middle East or elsewhere, is, in large part, a continuation of some of that same original conflict between Islam and Muslims, on the one hand, and between the descendants, disciples and lackeys of European Colonization on the other hand.

Old European Colonization in New Garbs

Today, it is the same continuing story of ruthless domination and exploitation of Muslim lands, and pillaging and plundering of Muslim wealth, everywhere, against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of rabid anti-Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda, demonization and dehumanization.

Today, the same old forces of European Colonization, in countless new garbs and incarnations, seek to further strengthen their stranglehold on Muslim lands and resources, and squeeze out all life out of massive swaths of Muslim peoples and populations.

Traitors, Turncoats and Paid Agents among Muslims

And today, in their attempt to dominate the Muslim world, and its peoples and resources, the forces of European Colonization are aided by traitors, turncoats and paid agents from inside Muslim societies.

These are people with ostensible Muslim names, identities and credentials. But their loyalty is to their Overseas Colonial Masters and Mentors and Protectors, and not to the various peoples of their Faith and Culture of Islam or to their own native lands.

Response by Adherents of Islamic Faith and Culture

In response to the continuing waves of onslaught by Old European Colonization Advocates, from the so-called Neo-Cons to all kinds of others, many among those still adhering to the Faith and Culture of Islam in one form or another, resist and fight back, using whatever primitive defensive means they can lay their hands on.

But the truth is that these sons and daughters of Islamic Faith and Culture have their backs against the wall. They have neither the weaponry to defeat the Colonizers. Nor do they possess the skill and the ability to effectively counter the pitiless propaganda, demonization and dehumanization by adherents of the old cult of European Colonization that seek to delegitimize their very existence on earth.

The result is what many in the media refer to as ongoing “Volatility” and upheaval around the world.

God Enters the Equation

I have elsewhere talked about the God Hypothesis. This hypothesis simply posits – suggests – that there is an all-powerful God who is the master and manager of this world. He made this world and, therefore, he owns it.

Not only that, God also runs that world on a day-to-day basis.

What the world often tends to forget is that this God, in Heaven, also happens to be what Thomas Jefferson refers to as a Just God.

Jefferson said he trembled at the thought that the Justice of such a God “Cannot sleep forever!”

Of course, poor Jefferson, an indomitable seeker after truth – and an inveterate advocate of human Liberty and Justice – as much as a consummate politician and man of the world, from his time and cultural background, can be expected to be, did not fully understand that God cannot be someone who sleeps on the job.

A God that tires doing his work and then falls asleep? I will say fire that impostor and hire yourself a real God.

So, the fact is that God’s Justice never sleeps. Not even for the fraction of a second. For, God is, the Qur’an tells us, someone who is not affected by tiredness or sleep!

Laa Ta’khudhuhoo Sinatun wa Laa Nawum!

English Language Has No Equivalent for Zulm

And in this fight for liberty and justice, that the oppressed peoples of the world are waging everywhere, God is clearly on the side of the adherents of Islamic Faith and Culture.

For, the Qur’an repeatedly proclaims God to be on the side of the oppressed: those who are subjected to what the Qur’an calls Zulm.

But, alas, the English language does not have an exact equivalent that will do justice to the Divine Expression Zulm in the Qur’an.

END

Note: The author is an educator and a scholar.