OK chepea, where to begin?
Lets ask, what kind of attitude towards life, the world, and towards non Muslims does this produce? What kind of humility is there in the idea that if you remain faithful, the world of non Muslims will capitulate and defer and submit to you?
To begin with, what kind of humility is there in the aspiration of total dominance in an imperialistic minded manner? This isn't humility, this is the opposite of that - arrogance and supremacism.
Hi Billy, thanks for your reply!!!
I think that if someone approaches Islam as a means to expand their ideology and impose it upon others, then they are doing it wrong. They probably have a bad worldview to begin with and are now using Islam to achieve that end.
In contrast, I think Islam does have the notion that the establishment of a true Islamic 'state' (if states can even be called Islamic) will, through the intellectual and spiritual base it is built upon, be embraced, and should be embraced. Much like people should embrace social improvement, they should also embrace truth, honesty, good moral character, etc that an Islamic state would be based on.
I don't see a problem with that. It's not a matter of supremacism or arrogance, since a person shouldn't be a Muslim to spread Islam, but spread Islam by being a Muslim.
And what kind of bitterness and paranoia and denial and blame-hunting does it cause amongst believers when this reward for being faithful to Allah doesn't happen?
I think you'd like Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa by Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Google the translations
They talk about that attitude in the Indian Muslims (of being ignored by God), and Jawab-e-Shikwa is God's reply to it.
I think the signs of Islam being crippled are the ones in which its not able to move beyond these ideas and this kind of worldview, and the rage and resentment it causes cripples its ability to liberalise itself, move beyond literalist ideas, move beyond the narrow 'Ummah Supreme' notions, amongst other things, and how this leads to inquisitions against those within and outside who point this out, for example.
I think that rage and resentment are not caused by Islam, but by nostalgia and frustration built over a long time of cultural imperialism, self-pity, and intellectual stagnation.
I think there are many movements within Islam that are dynamic and forward-thinking, I think there always have been, so I don't know what you mean. :S I think Muslims (including myself when I was a practising Muslim) think of Islam as a way back to their roots instead of a religion that is supposed to cause self-improvement. So instead of trying to think outside the box as the original thinkers of Islamic thought did, they hold on even tighter to the Islam of the 11th-13th centuries. But that is the common Muslim in the West, who possibly faces an identity crisis anyways. I don't know what goes on in scholarly circles...
Topic: Quran etc etc split from "What book are you reading?"