DAR AL ISLAM: ARABS CANNOT HANDLE CRITICISM

The present-day predicament of Arabs
By Munir Daair, Special to Gulf News

The Arabian predicament: One of our common traits, we the Arabs, is our difficulty to handle criticism. Try to point out our faults to your fellow Arab, very likely the fault will be justified because it also happens elsewhere, most likely in the West.

Well yes, even in the West they have faults, but let's stay focused please, on our own faults and our own failures for a change?

I don't really care how rigid the French educational system is or how bad the American healthcare system is [I will take the 'bad American healthcare system' over any of the great socialist healthcare systems available in the world...ed. A.I.]. That's all none of my business, it's their problem not mine. Mind you, despite all their problems, these two countries have excelled in science and other human endeavours and are world powers while we Arabs cannot manufacture even the drilling bit needed to drill for oil in our ground! Indeed, even drilling for the most precious item in our life, water, is only possible with equipment manufactured outside Arabia.

Does it get any worse? Oh yes it does. In our minds. We go about our life, our pomp and abundance, in total denial of our predicament. Our refusal to take an inward look at ourselves in a critical way, to address our shortcomings openly, is as if we have made a covenant against ourselves and the future of our children.

The most significant contributor to this dormant status, this lack of self sufficiency and meaningful progress in Arabia is the absence of freedom of thought and expression.

Nations that have made great accomplishments are those that have been free to question "conventional wisdom", are open to the various versions of truth and follow the argument wherever it leads, so to speak. It is not a lack of belief or propriety to re-examine established beliefs. Indeed, it is the true essence of faith to evolve in a way that makes those beliefs applicable and viable for all times. In the end, it is not the evolving modus operandi that matters but the spirit of the faith and our determination to ensure that the objectives are accomplished.

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Associated risks

Freedom of thought and expression are a risky business. But no one can benefit from these freedoms without accepting the associated risks. No one can ascertain the validity of these freedoms without boldly testing their limits. It is only through this process that these freedoms can be defended and their survival guaranteed.

In the past Arabs progressed through a forward thinking Islamic state. Today, ironically, Arab progress might be possible only through thinking back, to the time of our ancient vanguards of free thought.

Despite arguments to the contrary, the main causes of the Arab predicament are inherently Arabian. Only Arabs can address this problem through re-establishing freedom of thought and expression and their ability to once again break through the boundaries of regionalism.
The risks we must take today to re-establish free thought and break the boundaries of regionalism will perhaps, more than anything else, result in the greatest legacy we can leave behind for future generations.


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Pertinent Links:

1) The present-day predicament of Arabs