In Muslim societies, there is a lot of talk about the diagnostics and the diagnosis of decline, degeneration and instability in the majority of Muslim states. Some states have managed to undergo phases of evolution before reaching a modicum of stability in political, societal and economic fields. However, given the domino effect that is caused by the bond of religion and culture the Muslim states share, there appears little chance that the stability and growth of these states will sustain.
Usually, Muslim intellectuals and theoreticians claim, with authority, that restraints to prosperity, progress and growth are cultural, political, religious — in strict sectarian and fundamentalist sense — and socioeconomic. According to them, socioeconomic restraint, which summarily includes poverty, social injustice and intolerance for diversity, burgeoning income inequality, illiteracy and low standard of education, is the key constraint.
The elite in the Muslim societies have themselves adopted all modern trends and thoughts and have deprived the masses at the same time
The thesis only reflects a half-truth and includes an element of deception. It is a half-truth because it significantly obscures genuine issues that need to be tackled on priority before addressing the previously mentioned socioeconomic issues. A priority must be given to the root causes. Subordinating genuine and important issues to artificial and superfluous narratives is a deception and an explicit fallacy in the thought process. I believe that the thought process, which is in chains now, has the ability to distinguish between important and unimportant, relevant and irrelevant and genuine and artificial features of facts and should be the way forward for the entire Muslim societies.
To recognise this novel thought project as a standard for analysis and problem solving, is basically a step towards the right direction. When this mindset is adopted, it begins to yield dividends. The approach to analysis and problem solving gives everybody an idea about the trajectory; the trajectory that leads to prosperity, progress and growth in all the departments of life. Hence, the identification of the right path is one of the surest blessings this mindset yields.
This frame of reference preaches finding the right direction. It emphasises achieving the objective of right direction that finally culminates in prosperity, progress and growth in all spheres of life. In this manner, it plays an important role, identical to that of soul in the body of an organism. It is, therefore, necessary that our thought process must be in line with the objective of finding the right direction first.
The new frame of reference also promises an analytical and critical approach to solving our problems by unleashing thought processes that are systematic and scientific in nature. Contrary to this approach, the thought projects prevalent in the majority of the Muslim societies nowadays, one can easily detect fallacies in the thought processes that result from a biased, unsystematic and unprofessional approach towards problem solving.
To illustrate, one of the fallacies that haunts us all is that adoption of liberal thought that includes the adoption of scientific and systematic approach to problems may undermine the cultural and social fabric of Muslim societies. It is yet another debate that the elite have created this fallacy for the masses. The evidence to this fact is simple that the elite in the Muslim societies have themselves adopted all modern trends and thoughts and have deprived the masses at the same time.
This premise of evident double standard in Muslim societies can form a solid base for the right-thinking and objective intellectuals and theoreticians to bring about a new mindset and help unleash progressive and liberal thought projects in the Muslim world.
The writer works for the development sector in Balochistan
Published in Daily Times, June 12th 2018.