Voice of America has been a great punching bag for monopolizing the narrative bandwidth. The tag "Super Power" has become a favourite bashing point for analysts and intellectuals especially in the less developed parts of the world. American designs to control the world by fair and foul means have created resentment in the Asian, African and Latin American countries. This resentment is justified, but only to a certain extent. As they say when you point a finger at others three fingers are pointing at yourself. This simplistic statement may be clichéd but true. When the voice of a particular nation or group overpowers all other voices, it is also because all other voices are weak and underpowered.
Kashmir as a flashpoint is a serious issue in the subcontinent but it has never been a serious issue internationally, till recently. Not because it is not suffering as much as Rwanda or Palestine but because the voices raised for it have been muted and lowered to an extent where they hardly resonate in familiar territories leave aside becoming global cries. Historically these weak, whimpering, whining protests have really made little or no impact on the agendas of world policymakers. Thus when amazement is expressed at the UAE for awarding PM Modi with the highest civilian award of Order of Zayed, it is more of a venting of frustration than a genuine ignorance of the heartlessness of the Muslim world.
There are many reasons why the voice of the Ummah has been so voiceless:
1. Oil 'Curse'- Many people say oil was a blessing for the Middle East. Yes and No. In a way it has been a bottleneck of innovation, development and sustainable progress. Easy money never pushes the limits of effort, creativity and out of the box thinking. Despite having common Islamic forums like OIC, the Arab League and GCC the Muslim world remains a fraction of the global economic wealth.
2. Iliteracy 'Curse'- To have voice that resonate, the voice has to be designed and crafted to suit the listening audience. The West has focused on two very important pillars of controlling the mind share of the world, i.e through education and focus on scientific innovations and development. The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IESCO) stated that illiteracy rates in the Muslim world ranges between 40 percent among males and 65 percent among females. Over 20 percent of the world population i.e every fifth person on the globe is Muslim. For every single Hindu there are two Muslims, for every Buddhist there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are 107 Muslims. With this huge outnumbering Muslims are still far behind as 14 million Jews compared to 1,500 million Muslims control the world.
3. Lagging Innovation- With lack of education comes lack of invention and innovation. With lack of innovation comes lack of development. As literacy lags behind higher education that produces scientists and brain power is non-existent. Statistics to support this reality are appalling. 40 percent of the population in the Christian countries attend universities, while a mere 2 percent in the Muslim countries go to universities. Muslim majority countries have 230 scientists per one million whereas USA has 5,000 scientists per million. With this paucity of scientific intellect, technology hold, information monopoly and equipment development remains a strategic weapon of mass control for the west.
4. Divide and Fight-The Muslim world is as divided as the British wanted and the Americans planned. Saudis do not get along with Iran. Iran has had wars with Iraq and Syria is the latest battle ground for US and Russia to flex their military might by pitting Muslim countries against each other. This makes a united voice coming out of OIC or any other forum almost impossible. With this state of affairs in the Islamic world countries like India, Israel and the US have managed to sponsor Islamophobia through a very sophisticated network of communication.
These are problems due to lack of leadership and vision. Despite leaders like Mahathir and Erdogan being examples of leading their countries to transformation, no leadership has really focused on transforming the mindset of Islamic world to the requirements of a rapidly changing global scenario. However what Pakistan and the leading Muslim countries can do is:
1. Create an OIC leadership Apex- This should be a 3 to 5-member committee that has a revolving convener with the mandate to create a strategic vision for making the Muslim world a leading force in the world. This can then develop principles of how the richer countries can help the poorer countries.
2. Create a Peace Development Plan- The intra Islamic country conflicts should be dealt with firstly through this apex committee. Their mandate should be to create a mechanism where regional issues are first discussed and then championed by supporting countries rather than being dependent on the western-driven agenda forums.
3. Focus on Education and Science- Just as the EU developed membership criteria for macroeconomic variables, the Islamic countries should be given clear standards of social and human development. Apex committee should include in their strategic plan the target of developing Islamic centers of excellence in science and technology in major countries which draw out the best brains of member countries to come and work for them.
4. Create a global media operation-Al Jazeera has done a good job but they need a global stature media voice in Turkey, in Malaysia and in South Asia to really compete with the global brainwashing that is done through multiple media channels of the more powerful countries.
The uproar over the UAE bestowing an award to Modi is both justified and unjustified. On ethical grounds it makes sense but on rational grounds it is nonsense. Without the Indians the UAE economy will lose its lead as Indians contribute more than the local Emirati population. 3.1 million Indians live in the UAE ranging from labourers to multimillionaires. While there are only around 1 million Emiratis living in the country of over 9 million.
To deal with physical mutations the DNA of the body has to be transformed. Similarly, to deal with Islamic Ummah's muted voice the DNA of the Muslim world has to be transformed- from a conflicting, regressive, myopic 1.6 billion people to a united, progressive and visionary populace that can think, plan and act for a higher purpose rather than basking on the diminishing oil riches and good fortune.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])
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