Salam, Science and Secularism

اپ کا بھت شکری� کھ آپ نے یھ کام کیا...بس اب اردو مین ٹا-پ کرنے کی عادت پڑ جا ے گی

For the glory of Allah
Jul 5th 2007
From The Economist print editionThe early followers of the Prophet owed their astounding success in spreading the faith to intelligence and restraint as well as to zeal
The Khalili Family Trust


AN AGGRESSIVE Bedouin horde, drunk on religion, sweeps out of the Arabian peninsula—on the way burning the great library of Alexandria—and, through wholesale massacre and forced conversion, imposes Islam on a vast area stretching from Spain to the fringes of China. If this is your mental picture of the rise of Islam, dimly remembered from some long-ago history lesson, take note: it is in almost every respect wrong.

Hugh Kennedy sets out to explain an historical puzzle. How could Arab forces, relatively small in number and with no particular superiority in weaponry, have pulled off such an apparently impossible feat? In the century that followed the death of the Prophet in 632, they challenged two established empires (the Byzantine and Sasanian). They conquered Syria in eight years, Iraq in seven, Egypt in a mere two and Spain and Portugal in five. At the same time, they pushed deep into Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. How did they do it? Why did they not meet stronger and more sustained resistance? And, no less of a mystery, how did the empire they created endure?
By painstakingly reconstructing the series of Arab conquests, Mr Kennedy paints a picture strikingly at odds with the popular clichés. “The Muslim conquests�, he writes, “were far from being the outpouring of an unruly horde of nomads.� The Bedouin of Arabia were tough and highly mobile, fired by tribal honour and love of booty as well as by zeal for Islam. They were led by intelligent men from the Meccan elite who knew they had to channel the “frenetic military energies of the Bedouin� outwards, or else face a real risk of implosion.

These leaders also seem to have grasped that to have based their conquests on mass killings and conversion by the sword would have been a fatal mistake. There were massacres, but they were not the norm. If conquered peoples paid tribute and did not make trouble, they were largely left alone.

Local people were incorporated into the new administrative class. Existing religions—Christianity in Syria and Egypt, Zoroastrianism in Persian-ruled areas, Hinduism and Buddhism farther east—were not persecuted. Large-scale conversions came much later; at the time there was little or no pressure on the conquered people to convert. As for the sack of the Alexandrian library, that, says Mr Kennedy, is a discredited myth.

The Arabs were also lucky in their timing. Mr Kennedy speculates that, had they got going a generation earlier, success would probably have eluded them. As it was, disarray within the Byzantine and Sasanian empires helps to explain why the Arabs met little serious resistance there.

But this was not everywhere the case. The early Muslim armies met their fiercest opposition from the Turks of Central Asia. And, on the other side of their empire, they conquered the Berbers of North Africa but alienated them through the brutalities of the slave trade, which sparked the great Berber rebellion of 741.

Mr Kennedy tells a remarkable tale with skill and authority. Perhaps occasionally he is too much the conscientious professional historian. The general reader must get used to constant cautions (“As usual the actual course of the campaign is confused�). But there is an important point here. The historical sources are confused and contradictory, sometimes written long after the events they describe.

Besides, as so often, history is written by the victors. Arab accounts are full of self-serving bravado, eulogising the virtues of the simple, egalitarian Bedouin in contrast to their elitist and effeminate Persian foes. Mr Kennedy uses Arabic sources, but critically, and tries to balance them by giving voice to the conquered.

The book's subtitle (“How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In�) is not directly addressed. Perhaps Mr Kennedy and his publisher thought its truth to be self-evident. The Arab conquests dramatically transformed the world in which they took place. But for today the lesson is different. It is the loss of that early power that torments Muslim hearts and minds, producing anger, humiliation—and eventually the vengeance of al-Qaeda.

Wonderful dear Hoodbhoy. But who cares. Bhuto who paraded as a liberal and even a socialist converted the Constitution of Pakistan into a `Fatwa`, the deadliest one in the human history, which made the faith of every pakistani questionable by requiring them to submit insulting declarations with every application for an ID, a Passport or even registering him as a voter. What surprises one is the fact that the only thing sacred and sustainable in the Costitution is this Fatwa of Kufr in this so called Islamic Republic. What a joke! First there were Ahmadies and now Shias are the target who had joined hands with the sectarian mullah in excommunicating the Ahmadies. BUt strange enough, Bhuto`s PP which was responsible for all this theocratic nonsense making Pakistan the worst theocracy has the cheek now to question the MMA about the 17th Amendment. I wish I had a pen like yours Mr. Hoodbhoy to write a dirge about Pakistan which the youngmen of my generation struggled to achieve against the opposition by these very mullahs who have hijacked it now to join hands with the `Tullah` to try to wreck vengence on the Muslims for making Pkistan despite their opposition. May God save us all from Mulla`s nefarious designs!

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy is a great intellectual and one of the my favourite physicist. I was used to watch his TV program on science and was quite inspired from his speech.

I remember once he talked about the great physicist Dr. Abdul Salam, I don`t remember the exact phrases he used but the way he cited Salam`s efforts to science, islam, country and human beings, all that should truly be appreciated. Dr. Salam was no doubt a thorough gentleman.

I was kid when my mother brought a book of ``First Ahmadi Mulsim Scientist Dr. Abdul Salam``. I was shocked to read his genius. My palms are still itching but no more electronic ink this time I promise ... :).

Salaaam`s death was a great loss to the Muslim World ....

Inshallah a Kemalist revolution will come in the Muslim countries

Yasser Hamdani

Thank you Prof. Hoodbhoy for your wonderful article.

I am still ashamed of attesting to the declaration of ``Ahmadis being non-Muslims`` on my passport application.

Maybe one day we won`t have to do that. What Pakistan needs is a Kemalist Revolution.

With people like you around there is still hope for the Pakistan that Jinnah envisioned.

God bless you. And may God rest Prof. Salam`s soul. His contributions to this country are immense.

Dr. Hoodbhoy:

At the risk of unintentionally offending you due to misinterpretion, I must say that you are a true Brahmin, i.e., one who speaks his/her mind without giving consideration to the problem of image, and as to how it will be recieved by others. I have read your articles on the nuclear issue, and I must say I have not read such honest words emanating from the pen of another writer of your country. But then, perhaps, that is more an indication of my limited reading, than reality.

Sometimes I think that if it is foolish to write what you write, especially when one factors in numerous cases of harrasment of journalists in your country. But then as long as Hoodbhoys keep on taking birth in every society, there shall always hope of things turning back for good. May your tribe increase.

Dear Dr Hoodbhoy,

I am sad after reading the treatment to Dr Salam. I earlier read about him in The Statesman and Telegraph of Calcutta.

I salute Dr Salam for not loosing hope against all odds. I salue you for writing this piece.

Good article. Too bad I read it so late.

Problem is, Secularism is just as much as a religion as any other faith now days. Look at Turkey, Algeria, etc. Communism has left it`s bloody mark on us aswell. I`m sorry, but the generic solution of secularism is not an answer at all. We have to find our own solutions to our own problems. Adopting western ones sure as hell won`t work...the differences are too great between our socieities (the lack of a church in Islam, the fact that there *is * a secular elite in most Islamic countries that seem to be as ineffective or as intolerant as the so-called religious, etc).

I would rather die than see religion be so far removed from society as it is here in the west. In fact, I will boast that America had almost reached utopia once back in the 1950`s - if it were not for the racism. Other than that, it was a very nice society.

What a great eulogy, thank you Mr. Hoodbhoy.

We muslim always eager to say west is racist but always forgot to see the prejudice in ourselves. May God help us !

And God rest his soul in peace. Ameen

I think, very simply, if you substitute ``India`` for Pakistan and logically amend the religions, this article will hold good for the Indian scene, too. A very illuminating and eye-opening document.

Thank You

Veeresh Malik

New Delhi,

India

veeresh@vsnl.com

In the quest to improve our social and economic stature in the world, what
difference does it make if a Pakistani (shia or sunni), comes up with a brilliant idea for the betterment of the country? I feel the divisions have long kept us behind, maybe its a ploy to keep reminding us about our religious differences in order to keep the collective intellect of our nation right down in the dust.

I found the writer of the above essay to be educated and learned, as the points he made were logical, coherent,and indisputable. He brought home his point very well that the gentleman Mr Abdul-Salam was clearly ignored, differentiated, and held contempt against on account of his change of religion. I believe, that its every mans right to make the correct decision for oneself regarding choice of religion once
he grows up and becomes socially aware about the world, rather than to be a Muslim just for the sake of the fact that he happened to be born in a sunni family. Maybe shia sect appealed to his sensibilities who knows. who cares.

But what i do care about is that a genius, metaphysics scientist and nuclear physicist was shunned from his own country by its own people, based on his religious differences. We as a nation need to be more patient and tolerant with other people of other religion, and not simply use Islam as a yardstick to compare and denounce death to all who are not Muslim, or who are not the
same type of Muslim i.e belonging to our particular sect i.e sunni or shia.

Look its by chance that those people who were initially shia living in the then india, came under Pakistan when it was built, of course they are a minority, but that still does not give us a right to patronise them and to shun them off  even if they have some good ideas for the betterment and progress of our country. Suppose tomorrow, suddenly the west decides on such
a hostile stand against religions, and it turns out all the pakistani expatriates all over the world, of course we are going to make a big hue and cry about insensitivity on west`s part, and how intolerant they are. But we dont say a thing when injustices are done in my own country against people
with different sects of religion solely because of their beliefs.

Remember that the article states that Mr Abdul-Salam never acquired a second
citizenship, for he considered Pakistan to be his home, regardless of what the government or the political opinion of its citizens considered him. It looks apparently he believed in his rights as a Pakistani first and foremost, and then anything else.

I must clarify however for my other learned friends before hand that i am a sunni, in case they want to cast libels of shia on me based on my request of tolerance and sympathy for the oppressed in my country. I am afraid tolerance and ability to get along with different sects is the only way out
for a country like ours which is on the high seas, in troubled waters, and the gale force winds are tossing it this way and that before they break it. Now a mutiny on that ship under such circumstances is sure to sink it, but if the crew decided to unite and think and act collectively they can move
their ill-fated ship to safer shores. I hope one the imagery is crystal clear.

An excellent eulogy.

Yet, all of us here who have a Pakistani passport, and are labelled ``muslim`` have blithely signed a testimonial stating that we participate in this excommunication.

In allowing the government to tell us both that ``Ahmadi`s are not muslims`` and that ``we may not call ourselves muslims until we believe so`` means that it was not just the Ahmadi`s who were excommunicated, but ourselves, whatever our religious persuasion or opinion.

The speech of Prof. Abdus Salam posted here suggest that he believed himself a muslim. I have neither the right, inclination or the knowledge to exclude any aspirants of the ummah.

I am ashamed of having participated in this petty and small minded inquisition, and I don`t think I will do so anymore. Thank you, all those people who contributed to this special ed. and helped me decide.

Kash Yeah Mattee Zara Naum Hootee.

Professor Hoodbhoy, THANK YOU! Thank you a million times for an absolutely brilliant and honest statement. As long as there are people like you there may yet be hope for that desolute sea of ignorance and bigotry where the Dark Ages seem to have stopped the clock of history.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, and please don`t let the modern Inquisitioners threaten you into silence.

John Paul II finally relented after centuries and acknowledged the injustice done to Gallaleo. Perhaps a day will come when the Turban wearing bearded bigots` successors will have lost their virulence and Abdul Salam will be recognized for who he really was. One lives on hope.

Thank You Prof. Hoodbhoy and Thank You Chowk.