Cultural stagnation, clinging to the past, and a distorted sense of self

Osman Ly, Ruba Mansour:

 The mutual liberation between past and present means freeing the past from the standards of the present, such as acknowledging what is called the historical context, and freeing the present from the past by giving the present its own historical context, This means the independence of both past and present, Reconciliation with the past means ending the state of conflict with it by judging it, issuing the appropriate verdict, and then implementing that verdict, The past is then placed in the realm of critical understanding, The present distances itself from the negative aspects of the past and, consequently, refrains from repeating them, It then ensures the continuity of life for its people by providing material and moral compensation for the past’s negative aspects, This, in summary, is what Germany did for itself, It denounced the negative parts of its past, refrained from practicing them in the present, and promised not to practice them in the future, It then compensated for the damages inflicted by the past on itself and others, morally through an apology that is more important than material compensation, Germany freed itself from the burdens of “sins” and the curse, and dedicated itself to building a present and future worthy of a people who have erred—for who among us is infallible? It liberated itself from The burdens of sin and crime, which were attached to it through Caesarean and Hitlerian practices.

  As for the Arabized people afflicted with the culture of the best nation and the culture of Bedouin rights—that is, the legitimacy of theft and war spoils—and the absence, or at least the atrophy, of a culture of apology, they have not yet been able to liberate the present from the burdens of the past, Spain was occupied for about seven centuries, yet there are still those who defend this occupation, considering it a blessing for the Spaniards and something that should have continued, But it did not continue and cannot continue, because it was a religious, conquest-based colonialism, and because it was utterly despicable in its thefts, plunder, and rape of women, What would the tens of thousands of girls whom Musa ibn Nusayr captured and turned into prostitutes in the palaces and brothels of Caliph Abd al-Malik in Damascus say? Could a believing woman who offered herself to Ibn Abdullah for marriage answer this question? She could not! Because tens of thousands of Spanish virgin girls did not willingly offer themselves to the Caliph for sexual assault!   

   Arabists claim that the Bedouin transferred their Bedouin civilization to the Iberian Peninsula, as if Bedouinism was civilized and other peoples could benefit from it, There was no civilization in the Arabian Peninsula, only unparalleled decadence, The desert does not produce civilization, and nomadic Bedouinism, moving from place to place, was not and could not be civilized, The Arabian Peninsula was savage, and the savage wielding the sword could militarily outnumber the civilized inventor of writing, as was the case with the people of the Levant, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Berbers, the people of India, and other peoples struck by the nomadic locusts of the peninsula. Bedouinism was not on par with Roman, Syrian, Hellenistic, Stoic, Byzantine, Chinese, or other peoples of Roman law, Hellenistic philosophy, and Byzantine civilization, Whoever mentions this finds himself, by some miracle, choked and pelted with a barrage of accusations and insults as a hater of Arabism and a detractor of religion! 

   The savage Germanic tribes destroyed Rome and ended the existence of the Roman Empire, If you ask one of the “descendants” of the Germanic tribes about what these tribes did to Rome, he will tell you that the deed was degenerate, This deed did not prevent Europeans from acknowledging that Germanic tribal degeneracy, nor did it prevent Europeans from adopting many features of Roman civilization, such as Roman law, on which modern European civilization was founded, Europeans did not base their current civilization on the backwardness of the Germanic tribes, while the opposite happened in this miserable Mediterranean region,That is, the states that were established after the First World War adopted a nomadic lifestyle, and thus they disappeared and perished, unlike Europe, which flourished and progressed.  

  The current world civilization was founded on Hellenism, which extended from the fourth century BC to the fifth century AD, It was a giant civilization politically, culturally, artistically, and philosophically, Its characteristics included openness and sciences such as engineering and literature (the Iliasd and the Odyssey), then the Olympic idea and philosophy, such as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and hundreds of others, Hellenism was a translation of the freedom that every human being needs, Does a human being need nomadism and its raids? In order for the peoples of the Middle East to progress, they must distance themselves and break free from obstacles, and nomadism was and still is one of the most important obstacles.

Byzantium survived for about a thousand years after the fall of Western Rome to the Germanic tribes, The end of Constantinople came at the hands of the Ottoman Empire’s Mehmed II, or as he is called, the Conqueror, a title bestowed upon him with religious justification and praise, namely, the spread of Islam, Mehmed II achieved what Ibn Abdullah, and later the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, had desired. Ottoman barbarity succeeded in eradicating Byzantine civilization in 1453, If some of the Arabized peoples of the Middle East were asked about Sultan Mehmed II’s actions, a considerable number would likely consider the conquest of Constantinople and the destruction of Byzantine civilization a positive thing, which Erdogan then completed by occupying the Hagia Sophia and converting it into a mosque. These Arabized peoples were not pained by the mass extermination of the Byzantines at the hands of Mehmed the Conqueror, nor did they condemn Erdogan’s occupation of Hagia Sophia,Yet, they supported and continue to support the fervent “flood of Al-Aqsa” campaign. What is permissible concerning Hagia Sophia is forbidden concerning Al-Aqsa Mosque! Thus, we find The worst form of unethical dealing with history: how can these people stand in this era with the conqueror Muhammad II and with Erdogan! At a time when these people are suffering from the “conquests” or occupations of their countries by others, the people seem lost and hypocritical to the point that they are not even reconciled with themselves.

 Some might find the term “self-reconciliation” surprising, Is it possible for a person and their inner self to be at war, requiring reconciliation? Yes, every person needs reconciliation with themselves,The reason for this inner conflict is the discrepancy between a person and their conscience—when the “self” desires something while the body acts in opposition, The peoples of the region suffer from colonialism and the occupation of their lands, and thus rightly reject colonialism, Yet, at the same time, they glorify conquests, the jizya (tribute tax), the Pact of Umar, and the occupation of Hagia Sophia, while simultaneously condemning the harm inflicted upon Al-Aqsa Mosque, They glorify the Muslim Brotherhood’s fundamentalism, but when they are starving, they don’t flee to Afghanistan but rather to Germany,This duality, or schizophrenia, cannot exist without an internal conflict—a conflict with the self, There is no hope of healing for those who are unaware of this conflict or illness—the loss of self-awareness, From self-awareness springs awareness of others,In short, treat others as you would like to be treated, You are them, and they are you!