ISLAM AND THE MODERN WORLD

In the year 2002 there were nearly 6,2 billion people in the world. Of these 1.25 billion were Muslims, 90 percent Sunnis and 10 percent Shi’as. About 80 percent of all Muslims in the world lived in 57 countries who were members of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). Detailed statistics about these countries can be found in the Appendices. On average 80 % of the population of the OIC countries was Muslim. Thus there were as many nonmuslims in the Muslim countries as there were Muslims in the rest of the world. The following table gives the basic statistics:

	World	OIC Members	OIC total as World %
Area sq km	130,295,148	31,209,703	23.95
Population	6,106,267,299	1,334,608,993	21.86
No of Muslims	1,252,754,259	1,047,815,624	83.64
Total GDP in billion US dollars	32,067.115	1,465	4.57
Purchasing Power Parity	100	9	8.97
Per Capita GDP in US dollars	5,251.51	1,097	20.90
Economic Growth rate percent	2.09	4	212.65
Inflation Rate percent	2.55	10	395.74
Population density, people per sq km	47	43	91.49

The 57 OIC countries include: AFGHANISTAN, ALBANIA, ALGERIA, AZERBAIJAN, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BENIN, BRUNEI DARESSALAM, BURKINA FASO, CAMEROON, CHAD, COMOROS, COTE D IVOIRE, DJIBOUTI, EGYPT, GABON, GAMBIA THE, GUINEA, GUINEA-BISSAU, GUYANA, INDONESIA, IRAN I.R. OF, IRAQ, JORDAN, KAZAKHSTAN, KUWAIT, KYRGYZ REPUBLIC, LEBANON, LIBYA, MALAYSIA, MALDIVES, MALI, MAURITANIA, MOROCCO, MOZAMBIQUE, NIGER, NIGERIA, OMAN, PAKISTAN, PALESTINE, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, SENEGAL, SIERRA LEONE, SOMALIA, SUDAN, SURINAME, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, TAJIKISTAN, TOGO, TUNISIA, TURKEY, TURKMENISTAN, UGANDA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UZBEKISTAN, YEMEN REPUBLIC OF.

Economic Power

As can be seen in the table above the 57 Muslim countries that are home to nearly 22 % of the world population contribute less than 5 % of the World’s Gross Domestic Product in US dollar terms. The under-valuation of their currencies and their trading disadvantage can be judged by the fact that although their Purchasing Power Parity is nearly 9 % of the World, the GDP is only half that value. This means that their currencies are on average valued against the US dollar at nearly half the rate they deserve. Although there is much publicity about the economic power and affluence of the Oil exporting Muslim countries of the Middle East, they hardly play a significant role in the overall economic or trading scenario of the world. The reasons are simple. These countries are literally defenseless and have to depend on others for the exploitation of their natural wealth. The following Table compares the combined economic performance of the Muslim countries with other significant groups. Detailed statistics of the groups can be found in the appendices.

Groups*	Total Area as % of World	Total Population as % of World	Average per capita Gross Domestic Product US$	Combined Purchasing Power Parity World %	Total Gross Domestic Product World %	Ratio of World % GDP to PPP	Average Annual Inflation Rate %	Average Population density per sq km	Average Annual GDP growth rate %
G-7	16	12	30,112	44.02	66.5	1.45	1.63	22	1.47
22 Richest per capita	24	13	29,665	50	75	1.5	1.32	26	1.52
20 Largest GDP	54	60	7,556	77	86	1.12	1.73	51	2.05
20 Highest PPP	56	66	6,714	79	84	1.06	2.12	55	2.18
11 Oil Exporters	9	9	1,571	6.00	4.0	0.67	6.73	41	1.08
57 Muslim Countries	24	22	1,097	8.97	4.57	0.51	10.09	43	4.44
22 Deprived Countries	40	66	919	32	11	0.36	6.86	77	5.37
20 Poorest Countries	7	6	175	0.18	0.20	1.11	11.52	42	5.33
World Average	100	100	5,251	100	100	1.00	2.55	47	2.09

* For lists of countries in each group, refer to Appendix-1.

American World Empire

There is perception among many Muslims that there exists in the USA a clandestine organization of very rich and influential individuals that manipulates American policies. It gets presidents and politicians who get out of its line murdered, and creates scares, scandals and even catastrophes both within and out side the USA to mould public opinion to its liking. In the absence of an official name we shall call this so far hypothetical organization the American World Empire and abbreviate it as AWE.

Most Americans believe that the Diversity Visa program is an attempt to justly share the American affluence with all ethnic communities of the world, but many Muslims look upon it as an attempt to create an electoral college proportionately representing all nationalities of the world that would make the American president the rightful ruler of the World.

The Anthrax scare was timed to influence the public and the elected representatives of USA to pass the Homeland security Bill in violation of the US Constitution. The investigation to find its perpetrators was hushed up. It stands out as one of the most recent achievements of AWE.

The leaders of AWE seem to be aware that the spirit of freedom inherent in Islam will be the biggest obstacle to their megalomaniac aims and are keen to find ways to either crush it or to put it in a straight jacket.

The AWE considers any other entity having similar ambitions of world domination as its natural enemy. For this simple reason, the AWE fought against Nazism and Communism, and is now fighting against Islamic Revivalism.

Iran

George W. Bush in his State of the Union speech in January 2002 named three countries, Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the “axis of evil” for indulging in the development of weapons of mass destruction. The claim about Iraq has been proven false beyond all doubt. Iran and North Korea have been found to have legitimate nuclear technology development plans that can be used in more than one ways.

The only thing really common among the three so-called axis of evil countries was that they had single party totalitarian ideological governments. Iraq and North Korea had communist connections and Iran’s theocratic administration was very similar to the communist system.

Iran’s religious (and by default polirical) leaders who proudly call themselves Ayatulla and Ruhullah meaning ‘God’s word’ and ‘God’s spirit’ (terms used for Jesus in the Qur’an). They claim to be the direct descendants of Ali bin Abu Talib and hence a special breed. They are regarded as demigods by their followers. Shi’as belonging to the Iranian sect anywhere in the world have undivided loyalty to the Ayatullahs irrespective of their nationalities. Democratic Western nations can not discriminate against their citizens of Iranian origin, so they are trying to solve the problem at source.

The occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq on fraudulent pretexts was meant to surround Iran before the planned military invasion. If Afghanistan and Iraq had not been secured first, it could become another Vietnam. The irony is that it will inspite of everything!

Iraq

The 12 year aerial and naval siege of Iraq by the US and British forces was the longest in history. Saddam and the siege survived three changes of president and prime minister and military chiefs in US and UK.

If Saddam was able to deter the Americans and British for twelve years with a hoax of weapons of mass destruction, he will go down in history as the greatest military strategist ever.

The Americans and the British leaders attacked Iraq only after they were convinced by UN inspectors’ reports that there were no WMDs in Iraq. They used Saddam’s secondhand hoax of WMDs to fool their own people and the world and create an excuse for the land invasion.

General Tommy Franks, the front man in the run-up to the Iraq invasion and its execution mysteriously disappeared from the scene soon after the fall of Baghdad. The media did not take any notice, or was told not to.

It is also widely conjectured in the Muslim world that the plan for the invasion and control of Iraq had been prepared long before and during the 12 year siege, a team of Iraqi immigrants had been brainwashed and prepared to form the puppet government after the fall of Baghdad. It explains the opposition of the patriotic Iraqis to the interim regime put in place in Iraq by the Americans. It is commonly understood in the Muslim world that the Americans and the British are going to stay in Iraq until they have recovered all the expenditure of the siege, the war and the occupation with a hefty interest. The frequent attacks damaging the oil pipeline to Basra is meant to prevent the British occupation forces from stealing and shipping Iraqi oil to Britain.

Israel and Palestine

A magnificent Palestinian Empire already existed when Moses led the tribes of Israel from Egypt into Sinai. The subsequent Jewish Empires of David and Solomon (regarded by the Muslims as Islamic Empires) were always at loggerheads with the Palestinians who have maintained their national identity over the millennia, although many of them converted to Christianity and Islam. The Palestinians are a freedom loving people who have become aliens and refugees in their own homeland, thanks to the torch bearers of freedom and democracy such as USA and UK.

The thorn in the Israeli psyche is their refusal to accept a minority status. They became unpopular all over the world because wherever they settled, they formed Jewish enclaves and tried to become a local majority imposing their own customs and ideology on others. They also led the money lending trade with all its attendant corruption. However, all Jews are not Israelis. There are still many good Jews living in all parts of the world who would not even dream of forcibly occupying the property of others.

Whereas the Jewish faith has all the paraphernalia of a religion, it contradicts its universality by insisting on its racial uniqueness. Ideologies always transcend racial, cultural and geographical boundaries. The bitter truth is that Israelism is just a fad like Nazism and Fascism. How long it will last depends on how well it can serve the purposes of others. European and specially Eastern European nations can change the course of history to a better direction by offering incentives to Jews trapped in Israel to return to their original homelands.

When the sympathizers of Palestinians see Israelis firing rockets on unarmed Palestinians from an American built helicopter, they hold everyone who was involved in the production of that helicopter, its components, the rockets and the explosives as a party to the gruesome murders. They see traces of Palestinian blood on the hands of every American and most other Westerners. So they attack them wherever they find them vulnerable. The war on terror will never end as it has created an unending vendetta.

Islamic Revivalism

During the past few years there has developed a significant Islamic revivalist movement across the globe. It is not the result of any conspiracy, but the obvious reaction to world events of the near past. The Muslims of the world have observed the failure of Muslim politicians, scholars and statesmen to forge unity among the many Muslim nations with their own cultures and traditions. At the same time, the nonmuslim nations appear to have connived together to deny freedom to a number of sizeable Muslim nations such as Palestinians, Kashmiris and Chechens who have age old distinct national identities. To the more sensitive and less sectarian Muslims the only way to unite the Muslims and pool their resources so that they may stand at equal footing with other religious nationalities is to create an Islamic order based on the traditions of a time before the divisions among Muslims started. This means the institution of the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad himself and the early Caliphs.

Unfortunately, the political model of the early Caliphates does not bode well with the democratic perceptions of modern times. In modern secular jargon the Caliphs were absolute autocrats. They had no ministers and no parliaments. There was no police and not even a regular army. The lack of public security in those days can be judged by the fact that the second, third and fourth Caliphs were all murdered in the public. The great conquests that created one of the world’s greatest Empires of all times were achieved by purely volunteer armies.

There was no economic policy in the Islamic State of Madinah, which most revivalists look up to as the model. Conquests were producing a constant flow of spoils of war that were distributed justly among the people of Madinah making their lives quite easy and comfortable. The only indigenous source of income for the state was charitable donations during the time of Prophet Muhammad and Zakat (2.5 % of accumulated surplus wealth and stock in trade) during the reign of the 4 earliest Caliphs. A certain amount of earning came from the blood money (mistakenly called ransom) paid by the relatives of prisoners of war taken in the battle field. Since there were no prisons in the Islamic state, prisoners of war who were unable to pay blood money were given as slaves in the custody of the relatives of the Muslim soldiers who were killed in the battles. Those conditions simply can not be recreated in the modern world.

Cruelty in the name of the Merciful

Most of the gangsters like the Philippine Muslim guerillas derive their inspiration from literature published by the opponents of Islam which maliciously depicts the Prophet and his companions as bandits who robbed trading caravans and abducted people for ransom. Quite contrary to Islamic principles of universal justice and protection of all citizens, some illiterate Muslims still believe that heathens have no right to life, property or honor. Such people can only be regarded as enemies of Islam, as they are in league with those enemies of Islam who published libel about Islam centuries ago. It is the responsibility of every good Muslim to find ways to teach such perverted Muslims the true values of Islam.

The End of the World

A young dog was walking along a railway track when it was accosted by an old dog.

“Where are you going so thoughtfully?” asked the older dog.

“I am going to find out where the trains come from?” replied the younger dog.

“Isn’t that obvious?” said the older dog. “They come from where the railway tracks start in the distance where they meet,” continued the older dog, “they start at a point of singularity and continue to expand as they approach us.”

“Must be an interesting world out there,” said the younger dog, “might as well walk up there and find out for myself.”

“No, no,” screamed the older dog, “can’t you see that space contracts in all directions from where we exist? If you walk too far away, you may get stuck in the shrunken space or you may shrink to a point and never recover again.”

“Never mind,” yelled the young dog as it moved away, “ I shall bark once if I get stuck in short space and twice if I start shrinking into a dot; that way the rest of the dogs will know exactly what happens in the distance.”

“That idiot”, muttered the older dog, “will come back with new knowledge and make us old timers look like fools.”

Morals: 1) All dogs don’t bark in vain.

2) A repeatable illusion is not Science.

The Other Perspective

THE OTHER PERSPECTIVE

You think that you know every thing. But when you talk to strangers, you wonder if you know enough. Here are a few examples:

September 11, 2001

Although most people in the Western world believe that the horrendous destruction of the WTC twin towers was caused by the suicidal crashing of passenger airliners hijacked by members of Al-Qaida, most Muslims do not subscribe to the idea. Some of the objections are as follows:

• An aluminum aircraft could not penetrate the steel structure of a sky scraper.
• The bodies of the victims were totally charred and could not be identified. The lists of victims are the lists of missing persons presumed dead.
• The video of the aircraft hitting the second tower was a fake. The aircraft was shown striking the building in a tilted position hitting about ten floor slabs. The wings should have broken off and fallen out. The video was released within minutes of the event and therefore must have been prepared from a simulation in advance. Obviously one of USA’s media giants was involved in the plot.
• The jet engine combustion chambers could not have melted and should have been found intact.
• The timing of the attack was such that there would be minimum casualties, and the towers collapsed so symmetrically that there would be minimum damage to adjacent buildings. A terrorist attack should have targeted maximum deaths and damage. The attack was planned with concern for human lives and property, unlike the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• The twin towers collapsed in such a way that could happen only due to a controlled demolition with strategically placed explosives at the weak points of the structure detonated in a planned sequence.
• The first explosion was at the top floor of one tower, allowing ample time for the evacuation of all the occupants of both towers.
• At least 4 of the persons of Arab origin included in the passenger lists of thr airliners said to have been involved in the acts of terrorism were found to be alive and well. The reports in the Arab newspapers were not picked up by the Western media.
• Airline and airport personnel were not asked any questions on live television.
• WTC had suffered an earlier truck-bomb attack with considerable damage which could have rendered it unsafe. Since the WTC belonged to the NY City who also regulates building safety, the fact may have been concealed.
• Large contingents of US and British navies had been waiting for over a decade in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea for an excuse to invade Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.
• Since the US and British leaders have been proven liars in the case of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the opposite of everything they have ever said should be believed.

Who Preaches Terrorism?

Since the middle of nineteen-nineties a new breed of mullahs has emerged in Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. They can be identified by distinctive characteristics:

· They come from very modest backgrounds, but have suddenly become quite affluent.

· They frequently state that the time has come for Muslim men and women to sacrifice life and property in the name of Allah.

· They have a lot of respect and admiration for Prophet Moses and place him above Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

· They narrate absurd and fictitious stories calling them Hadith such as:

1) When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) went to heaven during Meraj, the angel asked him to look left where he saw a small crowd and was told that it was the Ummah of Prophet Eisa (Jesus). He was then asked to look in front where he saw a very large crowed and was told that it was his Ummah. He was then asked to look right to find an unending crowd which he was told was the Ummah of Prophet Moses. (The author of the story didn’t know that there have never been more than a handful of Jews in the world.)

2) When the angel of death came and told Prophet Moses thst his time had come and he had to go, Prophet Moses became angry and slapped the angel so hard in the face that he lost one eye. The angel went back to Allah and complained………..

Such Mullahs could only be the agents of Israel.

Who Benefits from Terrorism?

The acts of religion based terrorism that have created a visible rift between the Chritians and the Muslims lately clearly indicate that someone is investing in them. But one only invests if one expects a profit. So, in order to find the sources of terrorism let us see as to who could be the ultimate beneficiaries of a conflict between Christianity and Islam.

1) Palestine is the home of Christianity and there is a sizable proportion of Christians among the Palestinians. Alfatah, the militant wing of the PLO has traditionally been dominated by Christians. The deep interest of western media in the Palestinians is also related to the contacts of Palestinian Christians with them. A global animosity between Christians and Muslims may eventually create a divide between Paletinian Christians and Muslims and help to maintain Israeli domination of Jerusalem.

2) The Kashmiris, being all Muslims, fail to attract the attention of Western media; although their cause of freedom should find universal support. Polarization between Christianity and Islam would help India to isolate Pakistan and turn the western society against the Kashmiris, paving the way for the perpetuation of Indian atrocities in Kashmir.

UN Reforms

Ideas for a New Millenium
I feel utterly confused about how the United Nations is being reformed. One of the clever ideas seems to be the expansion of the Security Council and I have two questions about it:
1) The European Union is in the process of becoming one country. It already has a European Parliament and the European Constitution is in the process of being formed. Shouldn't there be one permanent European representative in the Security Council rather than three, let alone the twentyfive term members? One would have expected Britain and France to withdraw in favor of EU, but instead Germany has also started in the race for the SC permanent seat.
2) How can a country like India that is in default of implementing a UN Security Council resolution be nominated for a permanent seat. I would recommend that the United Nations would become really effective if the membership of countries in such default is temporarily suspended.
Any answers?