Transcript of Occupy Wall Street, End of Capitalism? Part2

Below is a transcript of my following presentation:

Slide #1

Every Ideology has a set of fundamental concepts known as “Creed” or what we call “Deen”. Specific Systems emanate from this Creed/Deen

Transcript of Occupy Wall Street, End of Capitalism?

Below is the transcript of my following presentation:

Slide #1-

I begin with name of Allah the most Beneficent and most Merciful

Slide # 2-

My name is Nadeem Ghafoor Chaudhry. I am assistant professor in the department of Computer Science at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology or CIIT as it is commonly known in Pakistan. But CIIT bears no responsibility regarding the contents of this presentation.  The title of this presentation is “Occupy Wallstreet, Challenges & Opportunities”

The Best Economic System for Mankind

The Occupy WallStreet movement has highlighted the problems of Capitalism but unfortunately they have not identified the solution to the problem. The solution to the problem lies in Islamic Economic System. I am not an economist or scholar of Islam so I cannot write in detail about this topic, but I have come across The Economic System of Islam it is written by Taqiuddin an-Nabhani. I would encourage people to read it and pass it on to people in the Occupy WallStreet movement so that they can know that there a far better alternative than Capitalism or Communism.

Our hypocrisy at display in broad day light

AoA,

These pictures are not from some western country bent on humiliating Islam and Muslims. These are from the main road entering Model Town, Lahore, Pakistan. I would estimate that more than 20,000 vehicles travel this road daily with all sorts of people religious, liberal, secular etc looking at them. But we don’t react to anything anymore. To register your concern (if you have it) send email to info@mts.com.pk

Roots of our current state of affair

For fifty years Aurangzeb held the reins of an empire unequalled in size, population and wealth among the polities of the contemporary world. In the discharge of his extremely onerous duties he had shown a devotion, assiduity, courage and calmness which mark him out as a unique ruler of men. In personal life he was the model of a good man. He was free from the vices so common among Asian potentates and princes. He lived simply, nay, austerely. He was abstemious in food and drink, in dress and all the amenities of life. While engaged in the heavy work of imperial administration, he found time to earn money to provide for his needs by copying the Quran and sewing caps. In his last will, his instructions concerning his funeral expenses were, “four rupees and two annas, out of the price of caps sewn by me, are with Aia Beg, the Mahaldar. Take the amount and spend it on the shroud of this helpless creature. Three hundred and five rupees, from the wages of copying the Quran, are in my purse for personal expenses. Distribute them to the faqirs on the day of my death. His daily routine was exacting, and he gave only three hours of sleep out of the twenty-four. He was a stern taskmaster, equally of his own self and of others. He supervised every detail of his vast administration and he directed personally every military expedition. He had inexhaustible energy and indomitable will. ( Chapter One: History of Freedom Movement In India, Volume One. By : Tara Chand) Aurangzeb died in 1707.

Lord Thomas Babington Macauly came to India in 1834, about 127 years after the death of Aurangzeb, and travelled the length and breadth of India for four years. On February 2^nd 1835 he addressed the British parliament and had the following to say about what he saw:

“I have travelled across the length and breath of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self -esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

Please keep in mind that at the time of Aurangzeb the estimated population of Muslims in India was probably around 5-10%. This means that an over whelming majority of people he was ruling over did not share his religious belief. But the state took care of all in a manner that even 127 years after Auranzeb’s death the system that he had established was such that an imperialist man, like Macauly, was forced into saying “I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief”. The question is what was that system? That system was the Sharia, which he enforced through out his kingdom. It was the sharia based economic system that Macauly had to say “Such wealth I have seen in this country”. The wealth was not concentrated in few hands as is the case with modern day capitalism but was so much dispersed that “I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief”. Compare this to the situation of U.S.A the “lone superpower” and undisputed champion of capitalism. “In 2009, the top fifth of households held 87.2% of all wealth in U.S.A” while “the bottom fifth actually had negative net worth” which means that not only they own nothing but instead they owe money to banks etc. http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cwed/wp/wealth_in_the_us.pdf

But if we look at our current situation with rampant corruption, illiteracy, poverty etc it is hard to believe that we are the same nation which was making our would be colonizer so worried that he had to say “I do not think we would ever conquer this country”. The question is how did we reach this situation? A simple answer is Macaulay and his countrymen succeeded in “replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self -esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

Here I present a piece of evidence which will be very unsettling for many amongst us so please read with an open mind and let me know if it is incorrect. “Without flattering the English, I can truly say that the natives of India, high and low, merchants and petty shopkeepers, educated and illiterate, when contrasted with the English in education, manners and uprightness, are like them as dirty animal to an able and handsome man. The English have reason for believing us in India to be imbecile brutes.” Excerpt from a letter written by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to the Secretary of the Scientific Society at Aligarh in October 1869.

After reading the above excerpt is there any doubt that Macauly has indeed succeeded in his plan. We have lost our self-esteem and have become a truly dominated nation. We pray five times, fast, go to Hajj etc and often pay lip service to how good Islam is, but the fact of the matter is that we really do not believe in our ideology, in fact we are embarrassed of it. We do not think that sharia is implementable in the times we are living in, which means that intellectually we are unsure about Allah’s guidance; we think it was ok for old/simpler times but not now. Modern day Shaitans in the form of Macaulay and his disciples have sown the seeds of doubt in our hearts through secular education. This doubt has corroded our belief in “Tauheed” because when we look towards others than Allah for guidance, in any part of our lives, (economics being the most significant ) then in reality we are affirming that there are others whose guidance is equally ( if not more ) relevant than that of Allah. We might deny it all we want but our daily lives and the system we are supporting is a proof of who we are following. This confused belief allows Shaitan to make inroads in our belief in Tauheed. If we contemplate changing the system, he threatens us with poverty. We start to believe that if we do not follow Macaulay and his disciples we will perish. Intellectuals/economists and pragmatists will tell us that this world does not run on emotions, it runs on mighty Dollars and if we don’t have enough of them then we are doomed. So we have no choice but to leave aside the utopian ideas of a by gone era and try to improve our lot within the existing system. Once Shaitan has scared us into this trap then he orders us to commit Fahsha. “Shaitân (Satan) threatens you with poverty and orders you to commit Fahsha;” (Al-Baqara-268). This is exactly what is happening, we are scared of poverty and as a result commit Fahsha. Fahsha does not mean that one goes out nude in public, it encompasses all sinful acts. Look around, which sin is absent in our society?

So how do we get out of this situation? A comparison might be helpful at this point. I think our situation is very similar to that of bani-Israel when Allah freed them from the oppression of pharaoh. They had very weak belief in Tauheed which made them such cowards that they refused to fight when Musa ( pbuh ) told them that Allah had ordered them to do so. We are a nuclear power, but afraid, why? because we are more afraid of non-Allah than of Allah Himself.

So who can help us rebuild our belief in Tauheed? Bani-Israel had prophet Musa ( pbuh ) and his disciples, who do we have? religious organizations/parties? My observation is that most of them are more interested in superficial aspects of Islam and/or grabbing political power. They want to replicate the ideas of mass production in religion and want to mass produce Islam of their brand. Our prophet Mohammad ( PBUH) produced less than 100 Muslims in 13 years of preaching in Mecca. But the belief in Tauheed of those early Muslims was such that 313 of them, poorly armed, defeated more than a 1000 well armed well fed non-believers. It was the belief in Tauheed of each individual Muslim which translated in the collective belief the group. Similarly we have to build our individual belief first of all before we can move forward. To do that each individual has to work on him/her self. We all know when we are afraid of or motivated by non-Allah in our daily lives. We can start our journey towards Tauheed by discontinuing doing that.

How controlled is Tunisian "revolution"

AoA,

Below is a NY Times link about how the president of Tunisia fled from country. The interesting line in the article was

"For the first time in the month of protests, large numbers of young women joined the crowd, almost none wearing any form of Islamic veil."

Add the following about Ghannouchi the new man who took over from Ben Ali

In a secret US cable in 2006, recently released by Wikileaks. "A technocrat and economist, Ghannouchi has served as prime minister since 1999. Is rumored to have told many he wishes to leave the government but has not had the opportunity. Length of his service as PM also suggests Ben Ali [president until resignation] does not view him as a threat and he is unlikely to be viewed as a qualified successor. However, average Tunisians generally view him with respect and he is well-liked in comparison to other GOT and RCD [ruling party] officials." Then US ambassador William Hudson said: "Given the fact Ben Ali has a dictatorial hold, it is hard to believe he'll voluntarily step down." Even so, "the mere fact an increasing number of Tunisians are talking about the end of the Ben Ali era is remarkable."

I am glad that the jerk is gone from Tunisia but the relative ease with which western powers allowed this to happen makes me think that it is a controlled implosion experiment. If it succeeds (meaning it does not produce veils and beards) in Tunisia it might be repeated in other "friendly" Arab countries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/world/africa/15tunis.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=global-home

What do you think?

AH

Nadeem

Hajj , what it meant for Pakistan?

I have a request before you begin, if you don’t have time to read this completely then don’t start it because you might draw wrong conclusion from it, thanks. Alhamdulillah I, along with approximately 150,000 Pakistanis performed Hajj this year. According to a rough estimate there were about 3,500,000 hajjis this year. This is probably an unprecedented number of human beings gathered at any place at any time in human history. It started me thinking as to what it is all about, particularly what is its outcome. This thought has become more acute ever since I have arrived back in Pakistan. The reason being, every one of my relatives/friends/acquaintances, except one (my teacher Mr Samad), asked me about my stay in Saudi Arabia. They were interested in knowing if I got proper accommodation or not, if I got sick or not etc. Other than Mr Samad, no one asked if it has produced any change in me. May be because of my black and white beard they wrongfully presumed me to be a pious person.

But this question of outcome is very bothersome for me, being a Pakistani I am more concerned with what it means for Pakistan. On average each Hajji spent about Rs 300,000/- which means that Rs 45,000,000,000/- was spent on Hajj this year. My question is this: as a nation, what did we get for 45 billion rupees? Some one can say that it is too early to look for results. Approximately same number of people performed hajj last year too, so we can discuss its outcome. Did it reduce corruption in our society? absolutely not, according to Transparency International corruption increased by six points. Did it reduce disparity between rich and poor? Look at the expensive cars on our roads, our posh housing societies and then at the desperation of people committing suicide due to poverty. Did it reduce violence in our society? you only need to take a look at the front pages of our newspapers.

Some people have argued with me that compared to our total population of approximately 180 million 150,000 is not even one percent, so expecting a change from such a miniscule segment is not logical. But this argument is fallacious, because this “miniscule segment” is the one which can afford this journey. They belong to the segment of our society with wealth and power (which like mass and energy in Einstein’s E=mc² are inter-changeable). This segment consists of senior beaurocrats and army officers, politicians, businessmen, surgeons, professors etc. Peons and batmen cannot afford to go for hajj, neither can servants and factory workers, nor can nurses and primary school teachers. It is the powerful and wealthy who overwhelmingly perform this ritual.

The question that Mr Samad asked me is the question that we should all be asking ourselves daily. Did this Hajj produce any change in us? and I don’t mean change like growing a beard by men or wearing a scarf by women. Don’t get me wrong, growing a beard is Sunnah and as such is commendable, similarly if a woman starts wearing a hijab that is also very good.

But the real change is which makes a difference in our society. Did the beaurocrat change his attitude from a being a replacement of British ‘gora sahib’ to being a true helper of his fellow citizens? Did the doctor stop prescribing unnecessary medicines/tests and/or performing needless operations? Did the businessman stop hoarding and jacking up prices? Did the professor stop short changing his students? Did the politician change his attitude from a being a replacement of viceroy to being an imam of his people?

I am sorry, but I don’t see this happening. So what should we do? Stop doing Hajj? Definitely not, it is an obligation that those of us who can, should. I suggest a two steps :

1) It is stated that a hajji has a forty day “extension period” in which his supplications are accepted. We should use this period to sincerely pray to Allah that HE accepts our Hajj with all the mistakes we made in its performance.

2) Write down on a piece of paper, and I really mean write it, at least one significant action related to our profession, which will improve the lives of our fellow countrymen. Keep that paper in a place where we are reminded of it daily, and pray to Allah that HE helps us in our commitment.

Nadeem