CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: The inevitable Clash of Civilisations, Waleed Gubara
uploaded 17 Sep 2002
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September 11th: And The Inevitable Clash of Civilisations
History’s scribes can record no era more painful than this;
A tragedy deeply embedded within the ‘sands of time’
Where every grain can tell an orphan’s story or has shared a widow’s grief
And can bare witness to a monstrous tale or a hideous crime
Oh how far we’ve dropped from a ‘State of Grace’ like the dried out leaves
For the Shield that guards has been reduced to a paper file
Where once the Mighty Vessel ruled the Seven Seas
The Pirates with their Stars and Stripes now ride the Tide
Sep 11th: One year on
My dear Muslim Brothers and sisters, a year has passed since the September 11th attacks in America and still the so called war on terrorism continues.
We were told 12 month ago that this is a war between the civilised world and the uncivilised world.
We were told that “This crusade, this war upon terror will be of a long period”
We were told that this is not a war on Islam or the Muslims
And yet for the past 12 months since the attacks, in the last 365 days western bombs have landed only on Muslim countries, masses of innocents have died only in Muslim countries and Western military bases have been established only in Muslim countries.
In the past 12 month never before has the discussion on Islam and Muslims engrossed the media as it does now.
In the past 12 month we have been bombarded by programmes and articles from newspapers to television and all that’s in between urging us to redefine Islam, to reconsider Allah’s words, to make His Deen more palatable to western tastes, and to accept the West’s political culture.
In the past 12 month we have seen the unjustified crackdown on Islamic individuals some detained for months without trial and without a shred of evidence with new laws issued under the pretext of combating terrorism to facilitate this.
In the past 12 month we have witnessed a Muslim genocide in India crimes that have been conveniently overlooked by the Western governments. We have witnessed the mass murder and genocide of our brothers in Palestine at the hands of the Butcher Sharon crimes committed with Western weapons under the watchful encouraging and endorsing eye of the US.
In the past 12 month the despots, rulers of the Muslim world, the puppets of the Western Governments, Musharaf, Karimov and their likes have turned their attention to deconstruct Islam and secularise their countries at America’s orders. Launching their mini wars against Islamic groups, mosques, madrassas and all opposition to their tyrannical and kuffur rule.
In the past 12 month a single so called terrorist organisation is yet to be apprehended, dismantled, arrested or destroyed.
The question begs; where is this War on Terrorism? Or is this merely a front for a war on Islam and the Muslims?
Is there a war on terrorism or is this the manifestation of a clash of civilisations?
A clash between the western civilisation that is based on the ideology of Capitalism and the Islamic Civilisation that emanates from the Islamic Aqeedah
They say that September 11 is the day that changed the world, no rather it is the day that has conveniently brought anti Islamic sentiments and feelings within the realm of public acceptance.
It is the day that unified the western people against a common enemy and allowed them to say the Muslims are coming and they are terrorists, for the Red Menace; Communism has been officially substituted for the Green Menace; Islam.
The Clash of Civilisations between Islam and the West
My dear Muslim brothers and sisters conflicts have existed throughout time always there has been a victor and a victim, with the causes of conflict ranging from religion to simply the desire to dominate others.
What concerns us today is the clash of civilisations that has existed for centuries between Islam and the Western civilisation that has taken a more deceptive and covert shape since the beginning of the 20th century from the style of the crusades and that today specifically after 9/11 manifests itself through America’s desire to dominate the middle east and the Muslim world at large.
George Bush senior in 1992 made the following statement “A world once divided into to armed camps now recognises one sole and pre-eminent power, the United States of America”.
The two armed camps that he was speaking about were the USA and its allies against its ideological adversary the Soviet Union and its allies.
More significantly it was a clash between Capitalism its thoughts and systems that exhibited itself through the leader of the so called free world and communism its thoughts and systems that exhibited itself through Soviet power.
And whilst communism has been sent to the dustbin of history today there remains a far greater ideological threat to the Capitalist world order namely Islam.
Both Islam and Capitalism poses a collection of concepts about life and hence they are civilisations or ideologies.
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And We have sent down to you the Book (the Qur’an) as an exposition of everything … [TMQ: Al- Nahl:89]
Islam is both spiritual and divine because it emanates from the Islamic Aqeedah, the source of which is revelation and the other capitalism, man-made emanating from the doctrine of secularism which is the separation of religion from life its source being that which was agreed upon by man.
Both have systems to implement their viewpoints about life (economic, political, social)
Both have systems to defend their view points about life
Both are expansionists and seek to propagate their view points about life
Indeed the Islamic threat is a clear and present danger for Capitalism, and here I do not speak about the western propaganda of so called terrorist groups or acts of terror, but I speak of the superiority of our civilisation, its intellectual strength, its global appeal that have made it the biggest contributor to human advancement and positive existence.
Today Islam is the fastest growing religion
It is the religion of choice of an estimated 1.5 billion of the worlds populous
Today despite all of the attempts by the western powers to subvert Islam and reduce it to nothing more than a system-less religion, the Islamic dawah that has ensued in the Muslim lands through the call for the Re establishment of the Khilafah has re-established Islam in the minds of many as a complete way of life, an ideological creed with thoughts and systems that can govern the whole of humanity.
That despite the political divide between Muslims the false borders superimposed by the western governments and their agents, the Muslim Ummah still sees her self as one, one Deen, one Ummah and yearning for one state.
This revival coupled with the geography of Muslim countries who by Allah’s Grace find themselves sitting on top of the worlds largest oil and natural gas resources (Saudi Arabia and Iraq alone sit on 37% of the worlds oil supplies) as well as controlling the most strategic waterways has caused much concern for the western world.
A concern that for so long has dominated Western foreign policy and influenced decision making in relation to the Muslim world prompting an intellectual, political, economic and military struggles between Capitalist powers and Islam.
The Intellectual Struggle:
After the attacks of 9/11 the intellectual attack against Islam continued, more importantly critics of Islam could afford to be more honest about their hatred towards it.
The Italian PM Berlusconi stated, “We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights”.
A writer in the IHT said, Islam since 1914 has failed to make a serious intellectual response to the modern West. Culture and intelligence, not power, decide the quality of societies.”
Indeed these quotes reflect the general feelings that exist about Islam in the West from those who dared to be honest about their feelings within a world dominated by the illusion of freedoms and human rights.
Feelings that existed way before September 11th. Richard Nixon in his book ‘Victory without War’ he states “The revolutionary Islamic ideology is a reaction against modernisation. Communism promises to rotate the hour of history forwards and Islamic fundamentalism returns it backwards…Communist and Islamic revolutionaries are ideological enemies adopting a common aim: Desire to achieve power by any necessary means with the aim of imposing a dominant dictatorship based upon their ideals which are unbearable.”
Further to this in his book ‘The Favourable Opportunity’ he describes what he means by Islamic fundamentalists: “They are determined to return the previous Islamic civilisation through reviving the past, and they aim to implement the Islamic Shari’ah and announce that Islam is a deen and State.” So according to this your prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), his companions (ra) and all the trustworthy and pious are fundamentalists and extremists.
Also today you can go to a French school or library and pick up the French cultural encyclopaedia and in it in reference to Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) it states: “Anti-Christ, kidnapper of women, and the greatest enemy to the human intellect.”