My advice to the   Westerners who fear Islam today
By Dr Muhammad Saeed Al-Booti
         
  Since the seventies (of the past century), the  West, both in Europe and in America, has lived a period of fear of what  it called “the Islamic Extremism”.  
  In fact, Muslim extremism is not what the West fears, but rather Islam itself; of its wide, and expected spread in the West in general and in America in particular. 
It was Allah’s wish that made it possible, for me, to lay my hand on the oldest western report which expresses these fears.This  report was delivered by “William Clifford”, the Director of the  Australian Institute of Criminology, to the United Nations following a  series of conferences held by the Arab Organization for the Social  Defense against Crime, and emanated from the Arab League in the middle  of the seventies.  
  I then managed to lay my hand on another report  which expressed the same fears.  This time, it was a report sent by the  US National Security Council, in the beginning of the nineties, to the  relevant American departments.
  
The fear expressed in these two reports was not a fear of what they called:“Islamic Extremism”, but rather a fear of Islam itself.  
  This fact is evidence that “the Islamic  Extremism” which we hear about or witness here and there, is nothing but  a plot hatched within special circles in the West, then exported and  suggested to the collaborators and experienced specialists in countries  and places where these planned extremist acts are executed.  
 
  
  What I want to say to the westerners in general is the following:True  Islam does not pose danger to the West or the western civilization  today.  Islam is in fact the cure that will prevent the collapse of the  western civilization.  It will heal the diseases that have afflicted it  today, and will help it regain its previous power and vigor.  This will  happen if the West gets to know Islam and understands its true nature.    
  
The real danger that threatens the western  civilization today lies in  similar decay and corruption that spread  through the Roman Empire and ultimately led to its destruction.  
  
The corruption in the West today can be  summarized in the fact that it had completely abandoned its dealings  with the universe, concentrating mainly on the machines, or the  materialistic world; forgetting human beings in the process.The Western society tends to deal now with the science of the machines:Their importance, how to make them, ways to use them and how to develop them.
  It is in a constant breathless competition with others in this arena!
  The Western society forgot that machines should serve human beings, not the reverse. 
  The cure calls for science to deal with the human being first and foremost with regards to his self:
  Who is he? What is the source of his existence?  What is his destiny? What nourishes his soul and emotions? How  important are ethics in his life? What are the source and reasons for  his commitment in his behavior?
  
  The calamity of the West lies in its mistake in  sanctifying the machine, and in the process it denigrated humans into  servants of the machine. Hence, the West turned its back on what  nourishes the spiritual existence of the human beings and fills their  souls.  The reverse should have been observed… the main attention should  have been directed to the true nature of the human being and to  nourishing his ambitions and endeavors.  In fact, machines should have  been made to serve humans.
  
  This calamity resulted in an intellectual  vacuum in the minds of the people of the western civilization prompting  them to search and question constantly. It also resulted in an emotional  vacuum which prompted them to search for love without ever knowing who  the loved one is.  It, moreover, resulted in perception vacuum due to  their failing to recognize their relation with this universe. 
  
  The generation whose role in life has ended or  neared its end, doesn’t feel this vacuum as much as it feels problems  and solitude.  This is because it is immersed in its business and work  whether scientific, political or social, all of which have become  routine and automatic, devoid of life.  
  
  It’s the new generation who feels this scary  vacuum, because it is new to this world and lacks knowledge of it.  It  doesn’t have what keeps it busy.  Most of its members seldom rely on the  family for their emotional support, because they’re not used to family  life or have never known it.
  
  Don’t you see how they escape the consequences  of this exhausting mental and emotional vacuum by seeking refuge in  different distractions, represented by all types of drugs and  intoxications, in order to forget; and in creating all types of perversions, including  bizarre amusements and sexual and criminal deviations and killings that  have no meaning or reason?!
  
  You probably also heard about how different  news agencies have reported that 40% of America’s primary school  children are given extended dosages of drugs, under specialist medical   supervision, to provide what these doctors consider necessary for the  mental balance of these children. 
  It has become evident beyond any doubt that  this new generation is unqualified to carry the required political,  governing or social administrative responsibilities which are being made  vacant and available by the departing older generation. 
  I know that this phenomenon is more evident and  serious in America than any other parts of Europe.  But the signs are  all there, here and there.  Therefore, the repercussions are eminent,  whether in the near or distant future.  
  
  This is the danger that  threatens the western civilization then, not Islam as is indicated by  many reports, some of which I have already alluded to. 
  
  Yes, this is the danger.  What is the cure, then?
  The cure lies in having the West direct its  attention towards human beings, not towards the machine.  By “attending  to humans” I don’t mean applying the articles of the Charter of Human  Rights, which raises a lot controversy and noise in the realm of the  political arena to affirm the destiny of Human Rights.  I mean getting  to know the true nature of the human being in his whole make up, and  getting to know his hopes and aspirations and spiritual needs.  There is  no room for denying these needs anymore.  The West needs also to work  hard on providing answers to the questions that the minds of many  youth dwell on in this exhausting tumultuous sea of materialistic automated  world… this world that agitates the nerves and irritates the self.  Some  of these questions are: who am I? Why am I here? What is death? What is  my destiny?
  
  The answers to all these questions should be  scientifically disciplined away from fantasies and myths that sneak into  the western way of thinking today under the guise of spiritual research and  studies.  These fantasies seem to gain acceptance even with their  mythical nature, due to the spiritual thirst from which many of the youth in  the West suffer.
  
  Where can these answers be found, away from myths and fantasies?
  I won’t be exaggerating, and I won't be a fanatic, if I say that you’ll  find your answers in Islam.  It’s the only thing that will reveal to you  the whole truth about the human being and its worth as a master of this  universe.
  I am not saying to the politicians and the  thinkers of the west to come and embrace Islam.  I am only saying: come  and understand Islam, away from the misty images that shrouded it, and  from the foreign ideas that was thrust upon it.  Firstly, you will get  to know it; secondly you will find that its facts are in harmony with  your scientific expectations, and you will soon realize that Islam is  the refuge that will snatch the western youth from the center of  suffocation or loss.  What you need, in this case, is one thing.  You  need to relinquish your idea about Islam as an imminent danger, and  consider it instead as a true friend, a refuge at a time of need.  You  need to leave those who wish to study Islam and then embrace it, in  peace, without constricting them.  You probably know that Mourad  Hoffman, the German ambassador to some Arab countries, was stripped off  his position and many of his social entitlements because he embraced  Islam.
  If the west maintained this artificial barrier  between it and Islam, and remained oblivious to the real danger that  creeps quickly through the foundation of the whole western society,  which I have touched on just now… then the result will be the collapse  of the whole western civilization within a period of not more than half a  century, according to the expectations of the western sociologists  themselves.  For those who read “The 25th Hour” by Constantin Gheorghiu  you will know the truth of my words.  
  
  I said to Silverman; don’t take me as a  politician who plays with political trickery through my words, but  rather as a friend who fears for the western civilization of decay and  decline before taking notice of the readily available cure.
  He said to me: I appreciate your advice, and  agree with you that we have to search in earnest for a way out of the  danger you have pointed out.  I hope that the Americans will be  convinced soon that the real cure is Islam.  
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