The Cultural War against Islam

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By: Zuhair Salim

   All what mentioned before was necessary introductions to get into the talk about the cultural war being waged, relentlessly and by many means, on Islam and its people. It is a mistake to imagine that this war has actually begun after the fall of the Soviet Union , or were associated to the events of the eleventh of September. In fact the cultural war against Islam began even before the campaign of Napoleon against Egypt , accompanied him and tried to onset using the people of delegations who engaged in the life of fun and amusement more than seriousness. Even Refaah Al Tahtawi of Al Azhar who went as a guide to the students of Egyptian exchange, he came back saying that the waltz dancing between a man and a woman is kind of sport and art, and it is necessary to the pleasure of life.

   This war began with the beginnings of the European invasion, as part of this war, Quran was raised in the House of Commons, and one said you would never prevail over Muslims as long as this book is in their hands. In the context of this war was the assassination of martyred Imam Hassan al-Banna, and within it was the covert war on Islam, the religion and the law, led by the allies of colonization against our countries.

   Even though, we can say that this war was announced and devoted after the fall of the Soviet Union . Once the Soviet Union fell, the capitalist West gave all time for its war against Islam, and the battles began to follow on Muslims countries, and the armies began to be levied. The beginning was by the thirty countries coalition on Iraq and the attempt to occupy it, after an unequal battle has been carefully prepared and has invested the reckless occupation of Kuwait , by which Saddam Hussein was enticed. And then we started hearing terms like “axis of evil” and “rogue states”, and the concept of terrorism, which was stuck to Islam, floated on the surface. Then came the events of the eleventh of September to be the pretext to the occupation of both Afghanistan and Iraq, and to the successive strikes directed against the Arab and Muslim countries, and to allow the Zionist enemy to bully and go far in its dubious plan in the form of two attacks one against Lebanon and the other against Gaza.

   By these battles a series of political conflicts started to tame some Arab regimes and violate their sovereignty. The Western project intervened in our religion, its laws, rituals, and our reading of Holy Quran, in our educational programs, in the rules of dressing, and in those who have the right to participate in decision making in their country and those who do not have this right.  As the evaluations of (terrorist) and the (fundamentalist) are outlined on purely political measures in which your position of ( Israel ) entity and homosexual culture come in the forefront.

   This war in its both political and military faces is a clear and manifest war that every one of us can notice and follow and stop at the addresses and details. But the culture war is that soft war that creeps into our building in a hidden way that many may not notice. The cultural war is based on two key inputs in the lives of the peoples: the attraction and influence.

     Attraction according to Joseph S. Nye, in his book “Soft Power”, is the ability to seduction and glamour; it is exactly the magical chemistry which makes man submits to the charm of a woman.

   As for influence, it is another concept that differs from attraction, influence is the temptation, seduction is a psycho passion, while temptation is greed or fear, a carrot or a stick, by which a situation of fellowship is created.

   Thus, we find our people today addict lovers of West, apply to it what they do not apply to themselves, and find it even far above eating food. And we find today many of the greedy for the carrot or the fearful of the stick, we find them in rulers, in the forces, in political parties, in groups, and in individuals. We find such people in the men of politics, economy, science, culture, and literature.

   It might be useful or even necessary to pause to specify the goals of this war in order to know what those folks want from us, what they want from us while they are controlling our rulers, decisions, and wealth? Why they are so enraged by the veil of Muslim women in the mountains of Afghanistan , or in the deserts of Saudi Arabia ? Is it right that they are concerned about the Muslim women?! Why they do not sympathy with those women in the black Africa who are starving?! Why they are so worried about our rejection to usury, and abstention from adultery, and protecting our minds from the intoxication of alcohol?! Mr. Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister shortens the answer to us.  The Prime Minister who made his decision with Bush to destroy Iraq, under the pretext of the confiscation of mass destruction weapons, Then, when the falsity of this claim was revealed, the British Prime Minister wrote a comprehensive report, apologizing to his people, declaring that the battle with us is a battle of values (we are going to attach this report, which we have translated and published at that time and posted on the website of the Centre Arab Orient, with this vision).

   It is then a battle against the values, i.e. it is a battle against what is to be considered as right and what to be considered as false, what’s good and what’s evil, and what’s ugly and what’s beautiful. This battle then is the real battle for the Governorship that Muslims has explained a lot since the ages of our virtuous ancestors.

   It is about this matter they are disputing us, they want us to drink what they drink, like what they like, and believe in what they believe. They do not care to the name of the religion, as they said that they have reshaped Christianity in the way the church gave its blessings to the sexual deviation in the name of homosexuality. Today they want to reshape Islam, to impose on Islam a reference that does the same thing and accepts it, a reference that does whatever asked.

         War on the values expressed by Tony Blair's means the war to clarify the distinction between the following passion of our law, civilization, and culture, and the followed passion in their civilization and culture.  A passion that took the place of (God), (Christ), and (the church).

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*Director of The Arab Orient Center

zuhair@asharqalarabi.org.uk