Progressive Where…?

That’s why they call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. ~ George Carlin

Some people are so into the idea of a secularist/Western world view and their system of “morality”, definition of “success” and “modernism” that they practically worship it and fail to notice its obvious flaws. According to them, if Islam agrees with the ethics of U.S.A, it’s all good and if it does not agree, then Islam is definitely backward.

The answer to such people is: They (the U.S.A, for instance) claim to have reached the pinnacle of civilization but let’s be honest here, they look down on other civilizations just because of some secondary issue while ignoring a million other factors. How can they ignore that their society is the one of the most violent society, infested with crime, drugs and rape?

“The U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics states that one of six U.S. women has experienced an attempted or completed rape.” ¹

How can they claim to be “the best” just because they are a “free” society and love freedom of speech (which is quite selective). How can they claim to have a moral and a spiritual superiority over people or claim that their lives are more important than that of the third world countries?

Moral and ethical views of America are simply the moral and ethical views that are NOT divine in and of themselves. They could be right and they could be wrong. They are NOT universal and to make generalizations about other moral values and other religions (especially Islam) using the morals and values of America as a universal yardstick is illogical and foolish.

Here are some interesting statistics:

1. The U.S. is 25th among 43 developing countries for the best place to be a mother, according to Save The Children.
2. The U.S. is only the 11th happiest country in the world, according Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
3. There are 21 countries better than America in freedom from corruption, according to Heritage.org.
4. The U.S. was ranked 24th in perceived honesty, according to Transparency.org.

An independent viewpoint:

“We’re seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports…so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what you’re talking about?!” ~ Will Mcavoy

Before going into tangent or subsidiary issues (like that of gender roles, hijab, women leading prayers, etc) , let’s look at the theology of Islam. When you fathom the concept of One Creator and His infinite wisdom, you find the beauty in His commands and legislation’s.
Those who think Islam is backward are in fact weak in faith or have no faith at all, are ignorant of history and know nothing about success.

How can you compare between the ruling of Allah  with man’s reasoning? How can you leave the way that was followed by the best of mankind  and follow a different path that none of the righteous ever followed? How can one take America’s morals as the ultimate, universal and foolproof standard? Where does it say that their values are a universal yardstick?

Their values change, they are not even stable! What was considered as good in the U.S.A more than a decade ago is now considered bad and vice versa. How can you base your life’s ethics on a country whose ethics change from time to time anyway?
Don’t believe me? Look at this:

The new norm:

In addition to a plurality who now approve of same-sex marriage, Americans overwhelmingly support basic civil liberties and freedom of expression for gays and lesbians, in contrast to sharp division on such issues in the 1970s.

U. CHICAGO (US) — American attitudes toward gays and lesbians are rapidly changing to reflect greater acceptance, with younger generations leading the way, a new survey shows.

Taken together, the results show a clear “trend toward greater tolerance regarding homosexuality,” says Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey (GSS) at NORC at the University of Chicago and author of the report, “Public Attitudes toward Homosexuality.”

We need to understand that human mind and human intellect alone can NEVER define morality. Why, you ask? Because human knowledge is limited, human thinking can have errors and all of the humanity can never unite on one common definition of morality, therefore, it makes sense that the Creator of all gives one steady code of conduct, which due to His infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom, is suited to all ages and at all times.

For a long time, people have been saying: “What does religion have to do with people’s personal conduct and how can they deal with  wealth, political, social and economic life, or method of production and ways of distribution? “

But now, the financial crisis West is facing has shown us that the economy, if it is removed from shar’i rulings and principles, will
lead to problems.Major American banks have declared bankruptcy, such as Leman Brothers, Integrity, Washington Mutual; and the largest insurance company, AIG, which paid $11 billion in compensation, collapsed and incurred the greatest losses in its 90 year history.

It is no surprise that the editor-in-chief of Challenges magazine said: “If the people in charge of our banks had tried to respect the teachings and rulings that are mentioned in the Qur’aan, these disasters and crises would not have befallen us.”

Italian researcher Loretta Napoleoni, under the title Rogue Economics, points out the importance of Islamic financing and says: “The Islamic banks can become a suitable alternative to Western banks.”

Bottom line:

Don’t let the decaying standard of morality and rising neglect of faith cause you to lose your own faith and standard of morality set by Islam. Wise people in the West are entering the religion of Islam in crowds, not in order to flatter anyone, but because of the greatness in its laws and its suitability in all times and places. These wise people differentiate between what they know of Islam and what they see of the actions of some Muslims. Being more than a billion people strong, Islam is the world’s largest growing religion!

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