Crescent of Shawwal (Hilal-e-Eid) appears every year and then disappears beneath the hoopla of religious rituals and traditional festivities in the vast lands of Islam. The moon has been weeping at the pathetic conditions of the Muslim world for a very long time but no one cares. The hypocrisy, incompetency and the self serving attitude of the Muslim rulers is appalling and the insensitivity of their subjects is equally mind boggling. Why are we so corrupt, backward and immature? We do not think critically and remain under the subjugation of our emotions. The answer is very obvious if we learn from the history. Europe remained in the dark ages when the clergy and the monarchy joined hands together and ruled over the ignorant masses. The darkness of the Muslim world presents the same scenario.
The forces of monarchy and the clergy in the world of Islam have succeeded in their mission to replace the dynamic ideology, embedded in the principles of Quran, with the rigid, divisive and dangerous practices of “Oily Islam.” They did this by using their enormous oil wealth to spread their own version of Islam among the vast majority of the poor Muslim masses. They emphasized on building glorious and expensive mosques all over the world and diverted the attention of the Muslims towards the religious rituals and drifted them away from the political and ideological message of Islam. It is astonishing to see that an ideology that has no place for clergy in it is being dominated by the thousands of so called Islamic scholars. It is heart breaking that the educated and successful Muslims living in the West have also been brainwashed by these scholars. Their children think of Islam as a religion that emphasizes on rituals for individual salvation and nothing more.
If Muslims want to continue practicing their religion as it is now then they should stop talking about the Muslim Ummah or the Caliphate. Their glorious past is over and it is not going to come back by their religious rituals and prayers. They can take a secular stand in solving their political and social problems. They should establish political institutes and get rid of corruption, monarchy and clergy in their countries. They should emphasize on science, technology and rule of laws and start living in this world instead of falsely hoping for a better life hereafter. If they do this, at least they would be able to produce some leaders who would be able to bring them in the main stream of the nations of the world. They should think hard about their current leaders and self proclaimed custodians of Islam who had recently rolled out the red carpet welcome to a President who had openly insulted Islam and its followers. Almost all of the Muslim rulers participated in the festivities. They dined and danced together with the person who is even labeled as a “Liar-in- Chief’ by his own people. Is there any trace of dignity in their actions?
The message of the moon is very clear. Don’t be ostriches. Open your eyes and see where we are going.