الأستاذ الكريم د. محمد شادي كسكين
إليك الترجمة إلى الإنجليزية للنص الذي وعدتُ بترجمته
في انتظار التدقيق
جزاكم الله خيرًا
Proposal No.:
101005- 11
Presented by:
Ms Munjiyah Ben Saleh
Category of the Proposal:
Category A – For Non-Muslims
Proposed Language:
English
Text Written by:
Dr. Muhammad Ramadan Sa’eed Al-Booti
Source of the Text:
A lecture presented in France on 23/06/2001
The Title:
My advice to the Westerners who fear Islam today
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 a 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 emotions vacuum by seeking refuge in different distractions to forget, represented by all types of drugs and intoxications; 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 the 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 of 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 up to 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
. 0