Listening to certain important sources in high places, one gets the impression that approximately an year or so ago, there was no such thing as the universe in existence, no stars, no sun, no moon, no planets, no oceans, no earth, no flora and fauna, no human beings nor any birds or beasts. It was all a vacuous nullity, a complete oblivion, just a void!

Then suddenly one epoch making day (on 9/11 to be more precise) there was a Big Bang after which the universe came into being; there was a sky in which the sun and the moon rolled, puffs of clouds emerged out of nowhere and roared, there were forests galore filled with birds and beasts and finally there came a two legged creature in their midst claiming primacy over everything else.

But this creature is no longer the same as the one he used to be before; he obeys laws but only those that suit him; he has no adversaries because he has excelled everyone else; the tigers, the crocodiles and the anacondas with whom he shares the earth no longer kill the other inhabitants of the wild to appease their hunger and slake their thirst but they kill because it is something they can do unopposed; it is a combat in which they can never be beaten! In this new universe, the sun does not shine to give sweetness to the fruits and fragrance to the flowers but only to scorch and burn anything that gets in the way; the moon does not radiate its silvery beams for poets to write poems and lovers to stroll hand in hand in darkened glades, but uses them as vicious tentacles to squeeze the blood out of poets and lovers! In this new world David is not destined to slay Goliath but Goliath is allowed to slay David because God has been taken out of the equation!

In this cosy world he has built around him, he is not required to practice what he preaches; he takes sides with those with whom it is useful for him to take sides; he pins badges of ‘terrorism’ on others but himself engages in acts of terror; he forges alliances with those who talk his language and brings down the truncheon of his wrath on the heads of those who do not; he masterminds nasty plots that are of benefit to him but threatens to send into prison those who plot against him (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)

For how long is this seemingly interminable battle between good and evil, the mighty Goliaths and the pretentious Davids, the strong and the week, the west and the east, the oppressors and the repressed, the hunters and the hunted, the chauffer-driven and the mule riders is supposed to go on?

Manager:

ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES GROUP