Of Extremism

We need to reflect on the proposed meaning of the terms that are susceptible to abuse in this dark age. There's no limit to the abuse of the term extremism, etc. The most rational, sound, compassionate and/or traditional/orthodox would be called religious extremist if they say something inconvenient about modern superstitions. At a mundane level, son of America and Islam, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf notes that in reality "extremism is as American as apple pie." He points to the fact that it's not the problem in the context of it's actual usage: violence is. I suppose he implicitly would agree to my adding important adjectives like indiscriminate, unjustifiable, "without right." Synonym of this kind of violence may well be "oppression/a-fitnah", which as per Qur'an is worse/greater than killing.

Similarly, calling such fascist-liberals or false-liberals, or even liberals [based on philosophy of liberalism] would be a disservice and abuse of the term extremism. Because it is about wrong thinking, as such.

Use of word extremism is only appropriate when things are view from the Centre and Origin, which is the Prophecy, or traditional, orthodox understanding of it. Anything that is away from First Principles or Centre or Revelation of Islam, is extreme. The 'radical middle way' from which we can keep check on extremism is very clear and pluralistic at once: the sunnah of final Prophet sent to humanity. What more need to be said on this than the fact that Prophet Muhammad warned against "ghulu" (translation as extremism) in religion.

Foundations of Secular Educational System

While nineteenth century materialism closed the mind of man to what is above him, twentieth century psychology opened it to what is below him (René Guénon)

The ‘eclipse of human soul and intellect’ by secular thought has brought disastrous consequences not just at pure intellectual level, but at societal and practical level as well. The change agents have been ‘false prophets of modernism’ (i.e., modern philosophers and theorists). At intellectual level, they’ve lost the traditional, religious view of nature and knowledge, and created false alternatives – the cause of mass misguidance. Not only that, these handful of men have produced this ‘Dark Age’, a material civilization, in which both human actions and intellectual efforts are profane and cut off from Divine guidance. At practical level, though they have discovered in their way great deal of facts about human mind and body, but still paved way to moral degradation, materialism and suffocation of public morality.


Read full article here.

1st 2013 Post: What do I love about modernist culture & art

Anti-Knoweldgism of East & West

Deep down our society has become perverted due to the historical process called colonization, and colonial education that stripped away elements of sacredness from the very business of instruction and education. In Mirror and the Lamp, economic historian Atiyab Sultan with illuminating and ground breaking research from earliest and contemporary scholarly sources show how Britishers in the name of reform actually deformed everything.

Our society has developed a materialistic mindset. A pursuit of knowledge for personal ilmi consumption that is not related to something "practical", (say the professional degree) is frowned upon as a toxic waste that will rust one's mind, especially if it serves no monetary purposes. Our muslim forefathers, a philosopher and a polymath scholar told us, would sell everything for ilm, and not sell their knowledge for money. (Surely stipends were given to teachers, scholars and their those who reflected on deen.) Their love for knowledge was unearthly - starting with the First Principles of Prophecy which influenced all other fields like a canopy over earth. I too want to drink from that cup. For Iqbal, taking the sip from modern west is a big no-no (perhaps because their 'intellect is atrophied'), for the method in the recipe of Hashmites is unique. As Frithoj Schuon put it: West thinks too much and thinks wrongly; east is sleeping over treasures and doesn't think much.

Biggest Idol

Imam Al-Ghazzali considered the greatest idol to be the idol of the Self. This was his starting point."

- Hamza Yusuf in a speech: Critical Importance of Imam Ghazzali in our Times.

Counting Probabilities in Movies

My tiny brain cannot comprehend the delusions perpetrated by movies. I was perplexed and doubtful - but never sure - of these delusions.

Have the screen play writers ever wondered what they are producing? How would people perceive the writers?

They do mention here and there the odds a hero is up against. But. Take into (some level of) free will of so many people and things surrounding the heroes. That hardly seems to count. Occasionally, one or two things won't go according to the plan and that's it. That's just not enough to even remotely satisfy or honor randomness at work in the world of chaos in which the plots are set.

Do they have anything else but "escapism" as an excuse for fooling themselves and their audience? Probably not. Maybe that's the point that even if the possibility of doing a feat is 1 in a million times - it's doable. However, the process of getting there is brutally by passed in the name of Greece's self-delusional fantasies..

We mistake high definition graphics and few moments of breathtaking actions as a recipe for stretching beyond the limits. Not even a chance. Censorship is required by those with deep introspection into these matters.

Fooled by Singularities

Source. Its no physics' singularity theory i'm talking about :P

By singularity here i mean a single explanation or a theory about something which is not fully understood to a person. The person fooled is the one who is trying to fully understand something. This problem seems to be most relevant in history, philosophy and like social sciences, and even for mathematical thinking. When presenting our explanations, we can be a victim of confirmation bias. Latter is all about looking at data that fits our narrative, and not looking for what go against it (see The Black Swan). This is what Iqbal protested in his PhD against the singular explanation of scholars of historical events. IT seemed egoistic to me why they'd stick to just their unique proposition, when even in their minds other explanations would be as helpful as theirs.

In econometrics, people have gone madder than that. They take two data set and run tests to see correlation between the two - without thinking about any causal relation between the two. They do so because of their adherence to logical positivism which is nominalistic and denies the study of unseen/unobservable. Hence, they look at data and not what lying beneath it, the 'reality', the unseen. (See Methodological Mistakes and Econometric Consequences.)

Perhaps that's why we say: No god but God. Denying everything else first to confirm the Unity of God.

I just had a flash of intuition that above 2 paras imply in some way the latter.

Pursuit of Satisfaction

For some time recently, I've been perplexed by self-projections and how i should judge my myself. Should i judge myself from my professional (ie academic) achievements, or the quantitative influence of my work (though I'm yet to produce a single thing)? This all sounded egoistic afterwards, as soon as i tried to reduce the anxiety by little introspection from a spiritual point of view. But. Even this spiritual understanding of my ambitions didn't solve the conundrum. I got the answer from iqbal's persian poem.

(English trans by me from Urdu)

Laazt e sair ast maqsood e safar.
Gar nigah bar aashiyan dari mapar.

Purpose of journey is in its pleasure.
If you aim at your destination/home, don't fly.

***

Zindagi juz lazzat e parwaz neest
Ashiyan ba fitrat e Oo saaz neest

Life is nothing but taste of flight.
Ashiyana (home) is not nourishing for his nature

Comments on 'Lambs to the Slaughter': On Alif, Bay, Pay Education

Comments/response by Hassan Habib to the previous post: 'Lambs to the Slaughter': Reflections on Geo Network's New Educational Campaign.

1

First of all, bravos on this try of presenting the truth. It denounces wickedness behind this despicable slogan of GEO. The thing that I found in the piece of writing was that it presupposes that the reader knows about the deep routes of concepts of Tawheed.

The world-view of Islam is in total opposition of what we believe today. For example, the industrial revolution, the revolution itself identifies the height of ignorance of humans. Why? Because it provided the seed of materialistic endeavor and attitude towards life, it replaces everything with regards to morality on the sentiment of material and material alone.

The modern theories of quality and obsession of companies to achieve it is just a futile endeavor from Islamic perspective. Islam views the world as a temporary abode while the real wealth and real life is the life of hereafter. It focuses on the principles of purifying one’s self from this worldly glitter. While, the whole idea of education today is revolving around this idea, that, we have to satisfy the ‘customer’. Customer’s needs are not the ones that are necessary for its survival rather these are the voluptuous desires that the companies have to ‘satisfy’. The engineers, scientists and managers work to ‘make a winning team’ that fulfils this task of providing the ‘best quality’ with ‘agility’.

The concepts of Total Quality Management, Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Just in Time have evolved into the defining techniques of development today and are being taught with awe in Pakistani institutions. If you go through these in detail you would know that the basic idea is to increase profits and make more customers by attending to their needs. There is no morality and no values that these people follow.

Jack Welch in his book ‘winnings’, describes the idea of values that the leaders should define and the employees should follow. The values are the ones that have ‘competitive advantage’ and are aural for the company itself.

Today all the specializations and modern subjects are catering the needs of these business giant companies that are just robbing people off by selling them things they don’t really need.

When I reflect on this I am left unanswered about how things will change or how can people realize that instead of selling these luxury items to elite, these should be rather sent to areas where still people remain without food for days.

With these words we conclude that the education is nothing but a way for the rich to continue to increase their wealth while their counterparts continue to suffer.

2

What should replace this idea of education? What should be the foundations of building up the moralities of men? How knowledge should be used to create harmony among people? What is the concept of wealth? How this challenge of defining Islamic education be met? What has the researches in modern technologies given humanity? What do we have to do while standing on the brink of this destruction? What does Islam say about this? I think that the utopian debate of Socrates must follow these questions and answers should be sought.

It should be noted that the development that has happened in some of the Islamic countries in the past few decades have followed the same pattern that is being followed by the West. Entrepreneurship and elevation of industrial sector has been the foundations for the development of Turkey and Indonesia.

The subjects that really add to our good character are the ones that we stop studying after our matriculation. Like history, Geography, Social Science and Islamiat. These subjects are always given the second priority while the ones that add nothing to our character are given the first priority. There are no regular subjects that teach us Quran or Hadith. The history being taught to children is itself modified and does not align with the true ideals of Islam.

All the education that follows after our college supports the idea of materialism and inculcates an egoistic approach towards life. That destroys the moralities of humans. Whether it is commerce or management, engineering or life sciences all are void of any sensuality and spirituality.

What is the need then?

First is the idea of realizing that we are the servants of Allah and we cannot spend lives according to our own wishes. Based on this fact we have to rethink our priorities.

Secondly we should recognize what are the major problems being faced by humanity today. How can we practically free people from modern idols of Nationalism and materialism? It is that dawah that prophet S.A.W did and freed people from idols and made them the servants of Allah.

Thirdly we must provide the solutions to these problems that can really solve these problems. We should analyze how different professions interlink with our Islamic needs. (By Islamic I mean the ones that are a necessity and not a luxury). Then we would have to separate the ones which are contributing up to a critical amount to the Islamic ideals and we have to finish those that are opposing those ideals in totality.

Fourthly we must practice and promulgate the true Islamic character. For this the thinking, dedication and sincerity has to be induced in people that makes them to work so hard that they not only become good managers or doctors or engineers but they become a true Muslim. It is also necessary then to abolish those technologies or inventions that directly act in corrupting the character.

Extensive debate and discussion with authentic resources is needed to elaborate further all these needs.

There are many people who can really add to these struggles but they are trapped in the vicious circles of life. There is this need of freeing them from these circles so that they can contribute their part.

Media is using tools that quickly adhere to the brains of people, while it is needed to present people with truth with more passion and enthuse. We are still not doing enough I think so as to reverberate in the minds and hearts of people for that we need a strong synchronization and unity.

These are just the thoughts of an ignorant mind that were reflected on the article you wrote. These are just words while action is rather much needed. I would like to hear from you further on refuting the idea of GEO and presenting the truth. It is very much needed that we debate on practical models of change so that we can meet the aspired end.

‘Lambs to the Slaughter’: Reflections on Geo's New Educational Campaign

Image source.

Edited version by and at Mybitforchange.org

Authors

Hira Shamim | Muhammad Umer Toor

1

“Sticks and drones may break our bones, but ftina really hurts”

Few months back, Geo aired different kinds of ads of success stories in education. We were having very heated discussions with our friends on Facebook about those one-sided educational promos, in which only one type of education was being glorified: materialistic that helped people gain jobs, and not ethical and spiritual training. Then, nothing was too startling or alarming about it. With a very smooth transition, the message has been stepped up to a whole new level. Now they’ve come up with a very bold, exclusivist and provocative message: Taleem k siwa Paksitan ka matlab kaya? (‘Except education, what can be the meaning of Pakistan?’ No god but education?) [Emphasis ours.] The message is known to at least 44% of Pakistanis in a survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan. Alarms have been raised in conscious minds.

If we forget about Pakistan’s history and the concept of Tawheed, we cannot raise serious objections over this slogan. However, if we view this innovative slogan by Geo – logically – in the context of history and meaning of Pakistan, it has disastrous connotations, and justifiably the cause of infuriation to many.

Pakistan, we believe, was forged in the liberating fire of Tawheed, and any attempt to replace this meta-historical basis is to bring a new idol back into the Kaaba of Muslim consciousness. Pakistan was gained in the name of Allah, apart from other factors, such as economic freedom, etc. Saleena Karim in her thoroughly researched and seminal book, Secular Jinnah & Pakistan: What the Nation Doesn’t Know (2005), has exposed multiple myths of secular academia. Some of these textbook myths paraded as facts are: “Jinnah never used the word ‘Ideology of Pakistan’,” or, “Jinnah vetoed the proposals for an Islamic state,” or, “Jinnah wanted a homeland for Muslims, not an Islamic state,” or, “Islam was just a propaganda tool.” Suffice to say that Pakistan’s soul is Islam and its supra-identity is Islamic identity, as formulated by Quaid in following words: “The Pakistan Movement started when the first Muslim put his foot on the soil of Sindh, the Gateway of Islam in India.” Of course our history goes beyond this period, and we do not seek to disown or forget our national heritage; but, we do not believe in the modernist, nationalist notions of nationality/identity based solely on geography or race. Rather, our nationalism is based on a direct link with Heaven and the Final Revelation of Islam.

In this light, is this campaign not a philosophical and intellectual ‘crime’ towards the collectivity of Muslims of Pakistan? Is it not an act of Sacrelizing the profane and worldly? What can replace the formula of Oneness of God? By education, they hopefully cannot mean that which leads back to La ilaha ill Allah which they seem to be replacing. This can be a very logical indicator of their true intentions, but may not be the accurate one. They're generalizing a ‘particular’ beyond its proportions; generalizing worldly education as a new world-view which is as confused as enslaved animals of Animal Farm and as materialist as Pigs of Animal Farm.

2

What has to be understood is that formal education cannot be a complete world-view or meaning for and of a nation. It is part of the world-view. Education is a means to an end, and not an end in itself. Unfortunately, modern man is obsessed with ‘means’ so much that he cannot see ends today, due to a loss of Sacred, Unifying Principles of Revelation of Islam.

Then there is also this danger of destroying our Tradition by emulating Western educational systems, when in fact we should be working towards integrating modern forms of knowledge within Islamic framework, stresses Dr. Seyyed H. Nasr: 

“There is always a relationship between every form of knowledge and a worldview within which that knowledge is accepted as knowledge. There is no doubt about that. The worldview in all civilizations before modern times came from religion. This is true for every civilization. Hindu universities, Chinese universities, Islamic universities — but as Western influence spreads all over the world, we will begin to emulate Western forms of knowledge, which claim to now be independent of religion. But it was not independent of the Christian worldview. The secularist paradigm which was created in the 17th century is itself a pseudo-religion in that it is a view of the nature of reality. There is no abstract knowledge; knowledge is always within the framework of a worldview, of a way of looking at the nature of reality.”

3

“All education is useless until it teaches you the splendors of yourself.”

The present education system of our country is exactly opposite to this phenomenon. We gloat over the Golden Period of Muslims yet don’t acknowledge the reasons behind that epitome. List all the Muslim scientists, scholars of that time and you will notice a common thread running through all of them. They studied history and nature, in addition to inner experience. Their basis for education was Quran. They took the spirit and matter hand in hand. Fresh avenues of research and studies kept on coming forth, unlike our rote-learning culture. What is the basis of our current education system? What does it teach us? What does it tell us about our world, our history as humanity, our collective future? Except slavery, materialism, inferiority complex, blind following, selfishness and hording a lot money, nada! And that’s just one platform.

Dr Muhammad Iqbal raised serious doubts about the colonial educational system prevalent in his time; and, we have many reasons to believe that the ghosts of that period are still living realities. Ironically, credentials of Iqbal are used to convince us about the benefits of an alien system of education, whereas his severe critiques are not incorporated. In his paper ‘Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal’ (1909), he argues:

“Education, we are told, will work the required transformation. I may say at once that I do not put much faith in education as a means of ethical training—I mean education as understood in this country … I venture to say that the present system of education in this country is not at all suited to us as a people. It is not true to our genius as a nation, it tends to produce an un-Muslim type of character, it is not determined by our national requirements, it breaks entirely with our past and appears to proceed on the false assumption that the idea of education is the training of human intellect rather than human will.”

We venture to say that not much has changed, at least at higher levels of education. Secular Western world-view continues to dominate Muslim thought, especially in social sciences and even in the philosophy of science; from psychology to economics to, from pure philosophy to governance systems; although many positive developments have been taking place in modern fields of knowledge for past fifty years.

Education in Pakistan should be subservient to the genius of Pakistanis and their aspirations; it should be subordinate to the operating Principle of Tawheed. He further inquires:

“But what sort of education? … A form of education which has no direct bearing on the particular type of character which you want to develop is absolutely worthless. I grant that the present system of education in India gives us bread and butter. Well, if we succeed in securing a few appointments in the higher branches of service, what then? It is the masses who constitute the backbone of the nation; they ought to be better fed, better housed and properly educated. Life is not bread and butter alone; it is something more; it is a healthy character reflecting the national ideal in all its aspects.” [Emphasis added]

Coming back to Iqbal’s skepticism regarding the presumed “magic” of education: how can we put so much trust in (a more or less) materialistic, job-oriented educational system, and announce it as the purpose of Pakistan, as the solution for all of our ills?

We believe that present educational system has many, many resemblances with the colonial setup of Iqbal’s era. Even the authors find themselves guilty of giving more thought to bread and butter than pursuit of pure knowledge, which was the hallmark of madrassah system before the colonial invasion, according to educationist Dr Tariq Rehman. Summing up, Iqbal takes a very brief quiz in basic intellectual, moral and practical life of Islamic history – I miserably failed:

“… [H]ow many of us know that Muhammad II conquered Constantinople at the age of twenty-two? How many of us have even the faintest notion of the influence of our Muslim civilization over the civilization of modern Europe? How many of us are familiar with the wonderful historical productions of Ibn Khaldun or the extraordinarily noble character of the great Amir Abdul Qadir of Algeria [20th century hero]?”

4

Our media, like its global mentors, is very expert at propaganda psychology: repeat a lie 1000 times, and it will transform itself into a truth. Perhaps this is what they hope to achieve with this campaign of ignorance, devoid of illumination. We thank Geo for creating this controversy which has led many into serious introspection about the purpose of Pakistan, basis for education, and our comprehensive world-view, including the authors. It seems to be a blessing in disguise! This introspection is more than needed ever, given that we are far from achieving various educational goals: high literacy rate while at the same time integrating modern education within Islamic framework, and creating alternative to discourses based on a-religious and secular worldview.

Initial Book Review: The Black Swan

Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Although the primary subject of the book - distillation of a life-long personal, academic and professional inquiry - may sound technical being related to finance and econometrics, the book interests all. Its not just that the application of the subject is universal, it's also that the cross-disciplinary approach and wealth of examples makes it a much more interesting book. Too enjoyable for escapists and hedonists. Psychology and philosophy have this aspect being accessible and relate-able to many, if not all, as their interests revolve around humans and their various problems, theoretical and practical.

It's 1970s. Lebanon (or the old Levant) enjoyed centuires of societal harmony despite as a hub of diverse cultures, ethnicity, religions, and sects of all sorts; as a meeting place of East and West, although more European than Eastern. (Fact that Europe exlcuded it from itself just gives a clue about their "openness" and the yearning to be in there by those relegated to East points to their "authenticity" and "independence".) Any prediction of a sudden, unnoticable, rare and catastrophic breakdown and dissolution of this harmony was beyond "imagination." It was not to be.

It was to be. Sudden. Unpredictable by conventional thinking, which was based on empirical data of centuries that only predicted more cohesion and unity in diversity than a bloody, long civil war between Muslims and Christians. The prime minister, relative of Taleb, had as reliable a clue about the situation as PM's car driver.

This is what Taleb calls a Black Swan. "All swans are white," was a belief paraded as a scientific truth by many who did not get dose of humility in school. It only took sighting of 1 black swan in Australia (perhaps) to demolish this "fact." Hence the idiom: as rare as a Black Swan.

The book is a decent dose for those who're too cocky about their expert-ness, especially of financial and mathematical models. At another level, it is also a critique of those obsessed with trying to fit things into neat and clean forms, types and categories, ignoring nuances and not-so-apparent distinguishing elements. At another level, it also questions our temptations to "explain things away" and find causes and motives to every fact or happening as immature babbling of an untrained mind.

Author belongs to the large pool of profane minded thinkers, intellectuals and writers, i must add. They are skeptic about everything else, but not about their value-judgments and exclusivist  mechanistic view of the world and creation, and their rejection of transcendence and fate. They believe in accidents as if accident is god or gods? They don't explain that. They're not skeptic about dogmas of modernity, and very unequivocal about their rejection of any "chance" of transcendence.

Overall, interesting book to read before sleeping.

"BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO": Your Guess?

I'm taking an online: Think Again. It has introductory lectures on various kinds of arguments. Today i listened to lecture on linguistic acts, defining meaningful sentences. It has to be grammatically correct and meaningful. We'll be exploring, i guess, deeply what's meaningful and what's not. Of course, it's advanced.

Nonetheless, there was a very interesting sentence. BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO.

Buffalo is also a verb which means, to trick or fool. So a nice and fat buffalo fooled a buffalo.

Think about this:

BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO.

Buffalo is a town in New York. So a NY Buffalo did it to a NY Buffalo.

How about?

BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO.

I still have to figure this out. Gotta check multiple meanings of Buffalo on net. What's your guess?

Gloomy state of self-affairs

Self-destruction caused by slavery of lower self (or satanic part of man) combined brilliantly with this lack of self-awareness and worth of being an Adamic being and a follower-speck of the celestial nation of Allah's Beloved (s.a.w.s) has led to this state of passivity, fear, non-action, complexes, narcissism, egoism, pursuit of a trouble-free and introvert life without any higher purpose.

The blog is back & alive

I have recovered this blog, lost in Jan 2012.

Umer Toor

Get smarter & better effortlessely

Interact with those who're smarter than you are, who're don't have any feelings of adulation for you, and who're ruthless in giving critical feedback to you.

Why Hope is like Hair or Nails?

I friend of mine sent an SMS, "Our hopes are like hair and nails. No matter how many time you cut it, they grow up again." Provided a person is not suffering from some kind of biological disease that don't allow these to grow at all.

What can justify such an analogy? Freedom movements. Our rising up from falls or failures. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Night's being darkest just before the sunrise. Yes the last 2 sentences are merely poetic and not arguments, but no matter what they do testify that humans do not fail to be hopeful. Perhaps only this explains existence and constant invocation of such idioms.

What do Modern Muslims Love?

Of Levantines' historical roles and professions, son of Levant/Lebanon Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes in The Black Swan:

"The Arabs, who seemed interested only in warfare (and poetry) and, later, the Ottomon Turks, who seemed only concerned with warfare (and pleasures), left to us the uninteresting pursuit of commerce and the less dangerous one of scholarship (like the translation of the Aramaic and Greek texts)."

Source.

History remembers the Arabs, the Turks, and Levantines for their individual, independent and original pursuits. They were true to themselves and realized their own potentials without imitating anyone. History remembers those with a vocation and an essence. What about those who are too dazzled by the enslaving, ruling 'decepticons'? Despite the fact that modern Muslims belong to warrior races, they turn their backs on political and territorial independence, succumbing to the pressures to every bullying new super power. And above all, in all aspects of life and thought, only love to be second-best copies of "enlightened" Western men. For what will history remember them, for being parrots trying to mimic voice of a superior species?

What do Pakistanis love? They love to be front-line foot soldiers of Amerikanos with all F 16s and a mercenary Army, for sure... And few franchises of junk food chains, few concrete roads, few ugly huge plazas, few modernized educational instituitions, few mass destructive gadgets, and a an English accent that puts Englishmen to shame.

Old Blog: Very Near to Get it!

My older beloved blog: Umer Toor Blog. was hacked in Jan 2010.

I'm very near recovering it from the original hacker, who despite everything didn't change a word of it!

I'll be exporting this back and redirecting it to the older blog inshaAllah! If you're following this blog, please follow Umer Toor Blog too.

Colonists Bluffed Us, the Mozlems! Still Do!

That's a euraka! post that i want to share. I would rather allow Gai Eaton to shed a new light on the Muslim perception of West and ensuing self-pity and reactionism that harms Muslims alone:

The Muslims´ lack of self-confidence may be attributed in part to the experience of colonialism, but it still endures chiefly, I think, because the West has bluffed the Muslims into accepting it at its own valuation and has succeeded in hiding its weaknesses, its vulnerability. It seems to me that this was exemplified in the early 1970s, during the so called "oil crisis." The oil producers — the Saudis in particular — had what amounted to a stranglehold on the Western world; they had very great power, which might have been put to use to their own advantage and to the advantage of the Ummah. What they lacked was the self-confidence which would have enabled them to use that power wisely and effectively. They lacked also that spirit of daring which encourages the powerful to make full use of their power. The opportunity was missed and may not come again... When I talk with my fellow Muslims about the nature of Western dominance, one of my principal aims is to persuade them that this power rests upon very shaky foundations.

These shaky foundations and bogus pshyco-propaganda has to be exposed with so much academic sources available at our disposal. All these academic sources provide logical foundations to the truths already to be found in Islam. Dr Asad Zaman is doing a seminal job by persuading his research graduate students through lectures in this regard by making us realize that we've been bluffed by self-deception (freely available online here). His analyses draw from variety of sources: Islamic reasoning, "subaltern" history, empirical evidences, economics, philosophy, etc. One such introduction to his lectures asserts:

Mostly people believed that history is objective, factual but in fact history is always biased. West claim that they feel the white man burden that’s why they attack other nations to make them civilized but its not true, in this lecture we have tried to show the true picture of why west attack other nations.

Its the game of confidence which Muslims lack at individual level and societal level vis a vis West. The point is: Muslims/easterners are not inferior in any sense to Western men; guess is that they are more advanced. The latter guess has to be induced in the minds to arrive at the former truth, because the confidence level is abysmally low.

What do i envy?

I envy:

• people who know nature of things
• people in love with Allah and his Prophet
• people who are bay-niyaz, i.e., to whom nothing matters except will of God
• non-mercenary, really patriotic and morally aware FIGHTER PILOTS! [My only janoon/extreme passion-obsession-love: a realm beyond that of love/ishq and anything else you know; pure passion: in which one personifies his target job/field/role and behaves like one everyday; only such janoonis as per psychiatrists outperform the rest and do miracles no one else can dare imagine doing]
• productive people, especially academically 
• people with expertise
• people with encyclopedic knowledge of fields that really matter, like philosophy, medicine, fiqh, history, mathematics, physics, metaphysics, etc., not fluff being taught in universities - the outliers in non-outliers
• people with indomitable courage
• with vision, wisdom, perseverance, people knowledge
• bloggers who get lot of comments
• people who can theorize and explain through essays and even books with lot of evidence (either factual or mental/logical/metaphysical/philosophical)
• people on the right track! fixated please...
• people with cute children [can i adopt one being single?] and devout wives (hoors later)