By Dr. Mumtaz Y Balkhi
We recently saw a man burn pages of the Quran near a Mosque in Sweden. That was followed by stomping and burning of the Quran outside the Iraqi embassy in Denmark. These incidents demonstrate that the far right groups in Europe are still living in pre-pandemic, war on terror, “our” exclusive way of living, and unipolar World order.
A reminder must be made that the post-pandemic world is seeing historical changes and new global and competing power centers are emerging. China is all set to become World’s largest economy and military superpower. Internecine conflicts in the Middle East have all but settled. With Afghan withdrawal, America and the West’s war on terror and such “democratizing” projects have become history. The Middle East is increasingly pivoting toward Asia. Asian age has already taken off!
Yet as the saying goes, “old habits hardly die”. West’s far right still live in their invincible, racial, never-ending civilizational supremacy. However, the rise and fall of civilizations represents a universal fact. None of the dominant civilizations lasted forever. What is consistent in the fall of civilizations is arrogance and delusional belief of never-ending dominance, looking down in disdain at other people and values dear to them. The same arrogance that West demonstrated had been the feature of prior dominant civilization that is Islamic golden age. That also saw barbarians among the other non-Muslim communities till savage barbarians in the form of Mongols descended on them from nowhere decimating Islam’s golden age, and palaces of tyranny, precious literature that had origin in Quran’s teachings.
While Mongols descended as God sent punishment to Muslims, West and US fought self-imposed unnecessary wars in Muslim lands who never posed any threat to their dominance. Instead, it was the same Islamic countries who were closest allies to them. Yet, civilizational arrogance made them blind and made them consider Islam as a threat. All the while, the threat to their dominance was coming from a resurgent China that quietly rose to such an extent that it is now directly threatening the West’s dominance in the world.
Muslim World bore the brunt of unnecessary wars imposed on them and when time came and the window of opportunity opened, they ditched their nonnatural condescending allies and opted for China. While this all is happening, far right groups in the West continue to rally against Muslim emotions. What does burning a Quran achieve, will that kill the message that is followed by over 1 billion people and numbers continue to rise? Instead of burning the Quran that puts your moral values lower than the barbarians and depicts a mindset that refuses to believe being defeated, it is better to engage in scientific and scholarly debate, argue with facts, and prove your claims that the Quran does not conform with scientific, physical, astronomical, and geographical facts.
The Quran not only encourages you to do so but even challenges you to find inconsistencies. See below:
Chapter 10 Jonah: Verse 37: It is not “possible” for this Quran to have been produced by anyone other than God (Allah). In fact, it is confirmation of what came before, and an explanation of the Scriptures. It is, without a doubt, from the Lord of all Worlds. 38. Or do they claim, “He made it up!”? Tell them “O Prophet, “Produce one chapter like it then, and seek help from whoever you can-other than God-if what you say is true!”.
Chapter 4. Women: Verse 82: Do no they reflect on the Quran? Had it been from anyone other than God (Allah), they would have certainly found many inconsistencies in it.
(Translation adopted from clear Quran by Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer.
- The author is an Academic faculty associated with Tufts University School of Medicine and University of Maine, USA
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