Cementing Islamic superiority of Arabs.

mosques in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, UAE and Oman, I

never saw an imam of non-Arabic origin leading the prayers there.

 

Since Muslims are being taught that the best way to communicate

with Allah is by using Arabic language only, it seems reasonable

to ask:

 

1. Does Allah ( Arabic name of the same God ) who is supposed to have

    sent us many other prophets including Abraham ( Ibrahim), Moses (Musa),

    David (Dawood), Solomon(Suleyman), Joseph (Youssef), Jacob (Yakoob),

    Jesus ( Eisaa) etc. prefers to be addressed in ARABIC language only?

 

2. Since Arabic-speaking Muslims are a tiny minority ( less than 10 % ) of the

    world Muslim population, why Allah should be unwilling to communicate

    with such a vast majority of non-Arabic speaking believers in their native

    tongues? 

  

3. How did previous prophets sent before Prophet Muhammad ( p.b.u.o.h)

     managed to communicate with Him since they spoke languages other

     than Arabic?

  

4. The Holy Quran describes Allah as " aleem and khabeer" meaning the

    One Who is knowledgeable and aware of every thing. Why should He be

    considered as unilingual?

 

It is also a fact that prior to the arrival of Islam about 1500 hundreds years

ago, there have been divine messages written in different languages some of

which may be extinct now. However, others such as Hebrew and Sanskrit are

very much alive today.

 

However, Arabic seems to be very unique in the sense that the real meaning

and interpretation of Quran has become the exclusive monopoly of male Arab

scholars based primarily in Riyadh, Cairo and Baghdad. It is even more

unfortunate that ordinary Arab folks are now convinced of their 'Islamic

superiority' based on linguistic ability alone.

 

During one of my WHO-sponsored visits to Kuwait, I was having lunch with a

local medical doctor. He had visited Canada earlier and had dinner at my home

in Ottawa with my family. He asked me if my two sons whom he met during his

visit, were learning Arabic at the Ottawa mosque. He then added that

" One cannot understand Islam fully without knowing Arabic".

 

I responded that even after having spent years in learning Arabic, I still cannot

speak correctly and with proper accent. It simply means that even a person like

me who started learning Urdu using Arabic style alphabets in primary school and

then added Arabic studies a few years later, is incapable of passing an elementary

Arabic test. How on earth my two sons who are born and brought up in English

speaking societies can and will do any better?

 

However, it was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia  that I heard extremely arrogant and

insulting remarks from several  participants during a WHO-sponsored training

workshop which was held in November, 1997.  A young Saudi who had received

his Ph.D. degree in the UK wanted to have a private word with me. I took him to

the hotel lobby for listening to him privately.

 

As soon as we sat down, he heard the azan ( call for prayers), He stood up

immediately and asked me to accompany him for prayers. I suggested that we

could do that after we had finished talking. He refused and instead recited a

verse from the Holy Quran indicating the importance of praying at the right time.

We went upstairs to his room where he led the prayers.

 

The fact that I was older to him , was a visiting Canadian citizen who was identified

by WHO as an internationally recognized 'expert' in the field, named as leader of the

team of instructors assigned to conduct the training workshop etc. had no meaning

for him.

 

Being an Arab and especially a Saudi, he was fully confident and extremely proud

of his superior knowledge of Islam. So, I had no choice but to follow him as directed.

 

Incidentally, the training workshop was organized by WHO in response to a request

from the Saudi Ministry of Health. WHO took care of for all workshop related

expenses except my salary which was paid by my Canadian employer. In other words,

neither the workshop participants nor the Saudi government paid a single penny for

hosting this event.

 

Other Arab participants, young and old, local and foreign educated etc. showed little

consideration if any, for the cooperation extended to them by WHO. They neither

appreciated the generosity of the Canadian tax payer who paid my salary nor the

sacrifices of my family which had to suffer many inconveniences during my travels

abroad.

 

While on a similar visit to Dubai, I also heard  that in order to " understand Islam"

one must be able to read Quran very accurately and properly. It simply meant that

 almost a billion non-Arabic speaking Muslims can never reach the same level as

Arabs when it comes to understanding of Islam.

b

Recognizing that:

 

1. Vast majority of Arab/Islamic countries is under-developed, politically

     unstable and has very high levels of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.

 

 

2. On the other hand, a small number of Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia have

    accumulated enormous wealth by selling their crude oil and natural gas reserves.

    Hence, they are able to spend large amounts of petro-dollars in order to

     buy/bribe top military and political leaders in these poor and under developed

     countries. 

 

Consequently, wealthy Arab kingdoms and sheikdoms in the Gulf region have created

several client states including Pakistan. Their main goal especially that of Saudi Arabia

is to promote and impose extremely rigid, discriminatory and violent version of Islam.

 

A rapid and cancerous growth of this ideology is the root cause of world wide Islamist

terrorism, birth of Al-Queda and numerous other terrorist groups which have fancy

Arabic names such as Al-Shabab in Somalia, Lashkare-Tayyaba in Pakistan, Talibans

in Afghanistan, Jamaat-ul-Mulimeen in Indonesia etc. etc.

 

In addition, the Shia-Sunni rivalry among the Iranian and Saudi religious

establishments and ruling elites have unleashed wide-spread and deadly

sectarian violence in several Arab/Islamic countries especially in Syria, Iraq

and Pakistan.

 

The visionary Turkish leader and founder of modern Turkish

state, Kemal Ataturk recognized way back in 1923, many

dangers associated with the Arab domination of Islam. The

vast majority of Turkish people at that time and till today

are followers of sunni Islam.

 

He rectified the situation by adopting a constitution which

included:

 

1. Secular democracy for governance.

 

2. Equal rights for women and men in every sphere of life;

 

3. Making primary education compulsory for all Turkish

    children;

 

4. Replacing Arabic/Persian alphabets with Roman style

     writing so that the Turkish people can get education and

     conduct their affairs in their native language, Turkish.

 

 

As a result of various constitutional reforms especially for

adopting secular democracy as the governance, Turkey today

is recognized among the most progressive, economically and

socially advanced and politically stable countries.

 

 

Perhaps, other Muslim majority countries especially the

non-Arabic speaking ones, should consider following

Ataturk's  example in order to remove the unnecessary and

also over rated influence of Arabic language in their

respective societies. 

 

 

Finally, it is entirely upto 180 million people of Pakistan to decide what kind of

country and society they wish to live in. It is said that " People get the

kind of government they deserve'.

 

If the people keep on tolerating the military, political and religious leaders

who lack even elementary honesty, integrity and decency and remain ready

and willing to sell national interests to the highest bidder, then it is both

fruitless and also unfair to blame wealthy Arabs, the US or Western

imperialism or any one else, for various ills in the Pakistani society.

 

THE  END.