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on 16-07-2002 17:32
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By Bernard Lewis
Oxford University Press
$23.00
180 PP
Reviewed by Khalil Abdel Alim
The question in the title is not rhetorical nor is it an adjunct to the current phrase sparked by the events of last summer, “Why do they hate us?” It is rather a question posed by many thoughtful people including Muslims in regard to the decline of Muslim civilization and the condition of most Muslim states today.
What went wrong after the rise of Islam in the 7th century and the growth and development of science and knowledge and its spread to the West spawning the Renaissance? How did Islam that forged empires that went into Europe and Africa ruled Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, and parts of Russia fall to its present condition? The condition of blind adherence to medieval tradition, an aversion to modernity, and desperate acts of terrorism.
Lewis, a noted historian, gives a detailed answer to that question. He traces the rise and fall of the Muslim power in the Ottoman Empire of the 15th century on. He points out the main reason for the decline of Muslims-their departure from the authentic roots of Islam –the Quran. Lewis points out that the struggle with modernity is not contemporary-the Ottoman’s resisted the adoption of Western war technology in the 18th century causing much military defeat. According to Lewis before the end of the 18th century Muslims had little social, commercial, or diplomatic contact with the West. Muslims avoided this contact for religious reasons. Some questioned whether it was proper for a Muslim to live in a non-Muslim country. Some of those concerns persist even today among some Muslims. There were some that believed that their departure from true Islam had brought the wrath of God manifest in their being eclipsed by the West.
The Muslims adopted Western concepts of identity of patriotism and nationalism. The isolation of those societies supported autocratic rulers. As today modern communication-television, fax, and Internet are working to undermine them as the Muslim masses become exposed to new ideas and freedom of thought.
When Muslims came in contact with the West they saw great social differences that prevail today: attitudes toward women, science, and music, Lewis observes. However, he errors when he posits that Islamic law and tradition did not afford equality to non-Muslims, slaves, and women. It is simply not true. The Quran and the history of the life of Prophet Muhammad, called for the freeing of slaves. Respect, in fact adoration, of women is called for in the Quran and in the words of the Prophet. The Quran calls for equality of Jews, Christians and other believers before God. Lewis points out that class system of elitism and privilege that exist in much of the Muslim world today are contrary to the authentic egalitarian Quranic roots of the religion and the life example of Prophet Muhammad.
Lewis reveals the roots of the human rights problems in modern Muslim society when he reveals how Muslims departed from the emancipation of women and slaves brought about by Prophet Muhammad. Modern discrimination against and rejection of African American Muslims by immigrant Muslims especially Arabs has roots in the continuation of slavery in the nineteenth century with is legal abolition taking place in Saudi Arabia only in 1962.
Professor Lewis points out that the separation of church and state is a Christian concept alien to classic Islam in the Holy law of Islam is comprehensive and covers all affairs and that all aspects of life in Islam are a part of obedience to God.
The author demonstrates a great deal of knowledge of and respect for the Quran. Lewis, in his survey of Muslim history, points out that the Muslims represented by the Ottomans made the cultural, political, and social error of attempting to superficially change their society to imitate the West –and they equated modernization with Westernization.
The cultural submission of Islamic culture to Western culture that is reflected in the collective inferiority complex of the contemporary Muslim world along with much of the “Third World.” Imitation is almost always fatal.
He concludes with a cogent observation: “In every era of human history, modernity, or some equivalent term has meant the ways, norms, and standards of the dominant and expanding civilization.” “…the dominate civilization is Western, and Western standards therefore define modernity.”
Lewis’s work lends some historical perspective to the evolution of modern Muslim society and can give to the thoughtful some reasons for the decline of Muslims to their present state of affairs. The Muslims try to blame the Mongols, the Turks, Jews, and Western Imperialism but the realty is explained ironically in an American cartoon, ”Pogo”: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Last update : 16-07-2002 17:32
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