The earth in springtime is a wonderful image and instance of universal renewal. Grass, trees and soil-in a thumbnail portion of which countless organisms are nurtured-all together come back to life. Take a walk amongst the living creatures-how they sally forth, putting on their uniforms of renewal and rejoicing in growth! How seemingly lifeless things come to life, like armies called out to parade, transforming the earth into a cheerful, multi-coloured paradise! Thus the spring puts on show innumerable signs of global renewal. Here a sentient, animate creature panting, heaving itself forward, in a mighty effort to achieve self-renewal. There, sprouting plant-forms pushing and struggling against whatever hardship surrounds them to emerge into the light in a cluster of shoots. And there, seeds scattered in thistle down, blown along with so many other kinds by winds obedient to the season, and pollen carried upon the legs of busy insects to fertilize the eager flowers, all alike actively seeking their renewal and continuance of life. And where the effort for self-renewal is not made, a decomposing and sinking back into the soil, there to be consumed without hope of renewed emergence.

Man too must, like every other creature, make the effort for self-renewal, individually and collectively. The more that communities and societies revive and rejuvenate themselves in mind and spirit, the better they are able to shoulder the world-wide responsibilities. That is accomplished by enlightening the sciences with the truth of religion, by applying technology with the wisdom of faith, and by carrying the message of revival to all people. Those communities who fail to renew themselves in this way will never be safe from destruction and the chains of captivity.

Self-renewal must not be confused, as it often is, with the indulgence of mere novelty and the latest fashions which is mere cosmetic covering up of defects. True renewal is providing the community with immortality through the water of life from the fountain of Khadr1.

True renewal is seeking and obtaining higher and purer levels of contemplation. It is preserving the purity of seed and root, of upholding the values refined and handed down over the centuries in association with the knowledge and ideas of modern times. It is sheer delusion to make outward forms of dress a measure of modernity or backwardness, and another delusion to suppose people will long be taken in by so shallow a criterion.

Self-renewal takes place in the metaphysical, not the physical, realm and is a revival of the spirit and of the spiritual life; the term ‘renewal’ is not seriously used for any other kind of renovation.

Renewal is true insofar as it engages in and uses modern scientific developments and technological facilities as means to increase our knowledge of the universe. However, we must constantly hold up to our hearts the mirror of self-examination so that our understanding is truly and meaningfully renewed.

An individual who has succeeded in renewing himself may be considered an enduring support to the well-being of the community. A society which comprises many such individuals becomes an important element in the balance of the world. But certainly there cannot be a society-wide renewal without sufficient numbers of individuals who have truly renewed themselves. Such people have hearts radiant with faith and minds soaring into different realms in quest of ‘bright days’, people who each moment renew the quality of their consciousness of that which is holy and true. Further, it is necessary that individuals of this calibre be followed by successors willing and able to hold aloft their thoughts and ideals like a torch.

The Ummayyads were unable to save themselves from destruction at the hands of powerful rivals because, as a dynasty, they proved incapable of carrying on the revival of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al- ‘Aziz: they wallowed in corruption and passed away in humiliation. Almost the same is true of the Abbasids, and of the Ummayyads in Andalusia, and of the Ottoman Turks of the 18th century. These magnificent states decayed and disintegrated in a similar manner, at the same time receiving heavy blows from external enemies. They applied themselves to Latin and Greek philosophy in the hope of sparking a renewal of their spirit thereby. This proved no remedy at all, rather it accelerated their destruction. Worse, in the case of the Ottomans, it caused them to deviate from their essential line of development and engage in a mindless imitativeness of their enemies so that the Ottoman intelligentsia became something of a laughing stock in Europe.

Neither the ‘New Regime’2 nor the massacre of the Janissaries, nor the Imperial Edict proclaimed in Gulhane Park3 by some callow and fanciful imitators of the West could open the road to a revival for the Ottoman society. Indeed, the reverse is true, that such measures stifled that society and threw it into a deathlike coma. We do not deny that there were some positive aspects to these movements but these were of so localized a nature as to have no bearing on the negative outcome. It can even be argued that the evident weaknesses of the Ottoman regime, disguised by these reforms, became thereby more insidious and therefore more dangerous. Such inappropriate remedies had no more long-term usefulness than sedating a patient suffering convulsions or applying a truss to a hernia.

Almost all the promises made by such dead, unintelligent souls who had lost their own way have proved a delusion which have led, and continue to lead, the ordinary mass of people astray. I do not know whether we shall be able to teach true renewal to those who have been, over and over again, deceived and misled.

Notes

1. A sage and saint believed to have been a leading a life unique to himself for centuries and to appear, at the right moment, to help those who are worthy, Those who are directly guided and educated by him are also believed to gain a kind of eternity referred to as ‘drinking the water of life from Khadr’s fountain’.

2. When the Ottoman Empire began to decline and suffer successive defeats, reforms were considered necessary. The ‘New Regime’ (nizam al-jadid) under Selim III was the result. Until the 18th century the Ottoman army had consisted of two main divisions, the State Guards (including Janissary troops) and the Cavalry units stationed in different parts of the empire and mobilized at need. Following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, signs of degeneration began to appear in the imperial army as well in other institutions. The decline intensified in the following centuries. Under Selim III an attempt to establish a new regime was instituted for the army and a new division created on the French model and with the name nizam al-jadid. However, this was not at all a fundamental reform; there were some superficial improvements but nothing of any lasting, positive significance.

3. This Edict, read out in Gulhane Park by Moustafa Rashed Pasha, the then Grand Vizier, proclaimed the so-called political reforms of Sultan ‘Abd al-Majid.

Mothers shall suckle children for two whole years, for those who desire to complete the suckling. It is for the father to provide for them and clothe them honourably. No soul is charged save to its capacity: no woman should suffer because of her child, nor any man because of his. The same responsibilities are incumbent on the heir. But if (the couple) decide by mutual consent to wean (the child), there is no blame on them. And if you desire to seek nursing for your children (by hiring a foster mother), there is no blame on you provided you pay her fairly. Fear God, and know that God sees everything you do (Qur’an, 2.205).

Breast-feeding is extremely important for the mother’s own health, as well as that of her baby. The propaganda in the sixties and seventies of some materialistic physicians in cahoots with baby-food manufacturers tried to throw doubt on the value of breast-feeding and to present it, especially in ‘Third World’ countries, as something second-best, unsophisticated. More recently, however, the scientific community has been forced to recognize the irreplaceable value of the mother’s milk, compared to any artificial product, and the World Health Organisation has banned all negative propaganda directed against it.

In what follows, I shall try to answer, from a scientific standpoint, these three questions:

1) What does mother’s milk impart to the baby?

2)What should be the frequency and duration of nursing?

3) What effect does nursing have on the mother?

1- The nature of mother’s milk

For nourishment human beings need the three basic foods, and phosphorous and vitamins. All of these substances, namely proteins, sugar, fats, phosphorous and vitamins, are present in the mother’s milk. The special worth of breast milk, however, lies rather in the fact that it contains these substances in very subtly tuned proportions, and the most important secret of its composition is that fatty molecules are dispersed within it in very fine, small particles.

The mother’s own breast milk is prepared more richly than the table of a tycoon. To begin with, the entire vitamin requirement of the baby is present in it for the first six months. Properly informed science can only be amused at the sight of over-anxious parents rushing about with a fruit press in their hands in an effort to provide baby with Vitamin C.

Secondly, there are antibodies in the mother’s milk during the first six months that protect the baby against all infectious diseases. There are even antibodies protecting against measles in the milk of a mother who has never contracted measles, an inexplicable fact in biological terms. This can only be a divine indication of the value God places on the well being of His creatures.

Certain atheistic scientists have put forward an absurd claim that breast milk is deficient in iron. It has been established in recent years, however, that in adults blood is produced in the bone marrow, whereas in babies it is produced in the liver. Iron is stored in the baby’s liver even while it is in the mother’s womb. Attempts to compensate for this supposed deficiency by medicines containing iron may condemn babies to a lifetime of enteritis.

It is a biological imperative that the baby be nursed on breast milk during the first six months, since the liver, normally the centre of digestive activities, is largely occupied with blood production in babies. Furthermore, the baby uses nutrition for the purposes of growth and development rather than energy. For this reason, it is next to impossible to select and balance the required food types and vitamins. We know that there are more than 50 vitamins in addition to the handful known to medicine. The growth and development of the baby is, through the perfect balance of breast milk, brought under perfect control by Divine Omnipotence. To attempt to imitate this divinely managed blessing with imperfect human imitations of it is both arrogant and ridiculous.

2- Intervals and duration of breast feeding

Another burden atheists have put on breast-feeding is the rule of feeding every four hours, which they have invented by analogy with the normal period of digestion. Recent research has shown that milk is completely digested in 45 minutes. When this period is over, the secretion of milk in the mother’s mummeries increases by a telepathic reflex, and the baby normally begins to cry due to hunger. All these events constitute a biological computer system, and if the feeding periods do not correspond, the baby’s stomach is filled with acid, seriously disrupting its digestive system. It has even been conjectured that this may contribute to ulcers in later life.

Regarding the duration of breast-feeding, modem medicine has imposed a wholly arbitrary period, namely nine months. But the basic logic of suckling is based on two facts:

a) The liver is heavily loaded because it is producing blood, and hence there is a need for milk. It takes about two full years for the liver to recede into the background as regards blood production. For this reason, breast-feeding should last two years.

b) The most important phase of development, the period when basic biological materials are required, is again two years. Medical science definitely recognizes that the first two years of development of the baby are the most significant phase.

Another miracle of the Qur’an’s wisdom is that it specified this period, although, before Islam, the practice in the societies in the Middle East was to breast-feed for four to five years.

A final point in regard to the length of the breast-feeding period: Research on childhood mental disorders has shown that an infant needs to be breast-fed for about two years for mental health to be robust. A study done on a global scale revealed that no child in Indonesia and the Philippines suffered mental problems, and the research committee found that this was due to the sense of security and tenderness imparted to the baby during two years of breast- feeding in those countries.

3-The benefits for the mother

a) The healthy functioning of the mammary glands:

Health statistics gathered world-wide have shown that cancer of the breast occurs seldom in mothers who breast-feed their infants for one or two-years. Mothers who do not do so, on the other hand, run the greatest risk of contracting this disease. If only for this reason, a one or two-year nursing period should be commended as a cancer preventive.

b) Biological regeneration occurring in the mother’s body during nursing:

The liver functions at full capacity in a mother who breast- feeds. All the chemical problems of the mother’s body come under scrutiny in this way. Further, since all the required substances have to be mixed into the maternal blood, the mother’s cells compensate for their deficiencies during nursing. Again, since the pituitary gland is in full control during nursing, the general hormone processes all function properly, and hence the psychological makeup of the mother is vastly improved. This harmony in the hormone balance of nursing mothers and the period of calm it imposes on the psychological structure is a priceless gift. You may have noted that despite being physically tired, nursing mothers are never ill-tempered. The reason for this is the harmonization of glandular secretions during breast-feeding.

Again thanks to this hormonal balance, the womb and ovaries of the nursing mother are also afforded a period of rest. Although this period is not equal to the nursing period, a repose of two to six months is a very valuable rest in terms of the mother’s sex organs. In the meantime, simple disorders of the womb and ovaries are also cured. Two years is, again, the ideal duration of the nursing period for these benefits to fully manifest themselves.

In sum, the disparagement of mother’s milk and of breast feeding generally by proponents of an atheistic modern medicine must rank as one of the most shameful stains on the history of medicine. Biologically and psychologically, the health of both mother and baby is greatly improved by breast feeding for, ideally, up to two years. Independent scientific studies have confirmed that this is so. We should not be surprised that they have done so. For who would know better what is best for the well-being of mankind than the One who created us?

The year 1492 has long been a historical landmark: the Americans recently celebrated the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s ‘discovery’ of the new continent. But there was another 500th anniversary to be marked in 1992. Although this event was also of momentous importance for the history of mankind, it has attracted much less attention. The event we are referring to was the fall of the last Muslim city left in Spain: Granada. The date was the second day of 1492 when the Catholic king of Castile captured the city which had been governed for nearly eight centuries by Muslims.

The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, which marked one of the most magnificent and glorious periods in Islamic history began with an invitation from one side of a civil war then raging in Visigothic Spain in 711. Musa Ibn Nusayr, the Umayyad governor of North Africa, was asked to help the rival of a Visigoth king. Thereupon, Nusayr ordered his general Tariq Ibn Ziyad to aid these people with an army of 7,000. In the following years he himself went to Spain. Within seven years the Muslims took control of the whole of the Peninsula, except for Galicia and Austuria. Muslim rule was accepted voluntarily by many Spaniards and over time some of them accepted Islam. The Andalusian Muslims did little to disturb the natives and allowed them to perform their religions and customs. After the dissolution of the central Umayyad government between 1009 and 1031 as a result of uprisings and a succession of weak rulers, a number of independent petty kingdoms (in Arabic mutluk al-tawaif and in Spanish taifa) became established. In spite of the fact that these little kingdoms were weaker than the former Umayyad state, an astonishing flowering of arts and learning took place during the taifa period. One reason for this outstanding development was that each ruler patronized artists, scholars and scientists to gain more prestige than the others. Eventually, the absence of a centrally organized state led to the end of Muslims’ power in the Peninsula. They lost considerable areas of territory to the Christian kingdoms that were reasserting themselves in the north. The petty kingdoms of Al-Andalus asked Yusuf Ibn Tashufin, the Almoravid (in Arabic al-Murabitun) ruler in Morocco, to intervene. They got the help they needed, but in 1090, the Almovarids left the country to its own destiny. This time the taifa kingdoms asked the Almohads (in Arabic al-Muwahhidun) for help. The Almohads willingly accepted and for a period of time they won some success in Spain. Nevertheless, in 1212 at the battle of al-Iqab they were defeated and within a few decades the Almohads were forced back across the Strait of Gibraltar. Muslim cities fell one after another until 1260, when only the kingdom of Granada remained. Granada survived for another two centuries. By the end of 1491, the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella were at the gates of the city. There remained only one final act to be played out on January 2nd, 1492 by which Muslim political sovereignty in Spain came to an end. In 1500, Spanish Muslims were presented with a terrible choice–either to convert to Catholicism or be expelled from Spain. Some did convert, others continued to practice their faith in secret and the rest chose exile.

It is a fact that the Andulusians developed a uniquely plural society whose main features were freedom, tolerance and lack of assimilation–Arabs, Christians, Jews and other immigrants lived side by side in peace for about eight centuries. Cordoba, the capital city of Al-Andalus, was the centre of a sophisticated and rich Islamic-Hispanic civilisation. In its heyday, Cordoba was famous for its intellectually advanced culture, its centres of learning and its great libraries. In those years, there were about one million people, 200,000 houses, 60 palaces, 600 mosques, 700 baths, 17 universities and 70 public libraries in the city. The biggest central library of Cordoba had 400,000 hand-written books and the catalogues which included only the names of the books consisted of 44 volumes. The famous orientalist, Dozy, stated that nearly all the people in Cordoba could read and write.

Gebert of Aurillac, the French monk, later to become Pope Sylvester II, was the first European scholar of importance to study Arabic sciences. He was also responsible for sending many teams of students into Al-Andalus during the closing years of the 10th century. By the end of that century, the various schools in Cordoba employed hundreds of students as translators and just as many copyists working closely to interpret and translate hundreds, perhaps thousands, of manuscripts from Baghdad and Cairo. Through these translations, philosophical and scientific thought from the Greek, Roman and Arab worlds, preserved and expanded upon by Muslim scholars, passed into European consciousness to fuel both the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. Western Europe, in general, owes a great debt to this enormously long and rich intellectual flow from Al-Andalus.

Islamic Spain was an immensely fertile ground for learning, producing a long series of intellectual, aesthetic and scientific advances attributable to Muslim, Christian and Jewish thinkers and the ethos they created. This blossoming was due in part to the spirit of tolerance that prevailed for much of the history of Al-Andalus.

In literature, Ibn Hazm (died in 1013) expanded traditional romantic poetry with his Tawq al-Hamamah (Dove’s necklace). This form of poetry passed from Al-Andalus into North Africa. Islamic literature in Andalus, however, reached its peak during the taifa era when the poet-king of Seville, Al-Mutamid, established an academy of letters, and Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli wrote a series of qasaid (poems) of unequalled beauty.

By the end of 11th century, Al-Andalus was at the forefront of European sciences. The Andalusians excelled in astronomy, both theoretical and practical, perfecting their tables and the precision of their astronomical instruments. Toledo astronomer Al-Zargali, (d. 1087), simplified the Hellenic astrolabe; his version, known as the saphea azarchelis, remained in use until the 16th century. He also anticipated the 17th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler in suggesting that the orbits of the planets are not circular but elliptical.

In medicine, Al-Andalus produced scholars like Al-Zahrawi (d. 1013), who wrote extensively on surgery, pharmacology, medical ethics and the doctor-patient relationship. Ibn Zuhr (known in the west as Avenzoar), a century and a half later, was an advocate of clinical research and practical experimentation. The first medical school in Europe was built in Salerno by Andalusians.

Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz was one of the best-known geographers and renowned for his great work Al-Masalik wa’l-Mamalik (Roads and Countries). Another important geographer was Al-Idrisi who was educated in Cordoba and wrote Kitab al-Rujari (Roger’s Book) under the patronage of the King of Sicily, Roger II. In this book he divided the world into seven different climatic regions and each region into ten parts. He illustrated his book with some outstanding maps remarkable (and unique) for their accuracy.

Andalusians were also very successful in mathematics, especially geometry. They used the number ‘0’ for the first time in Europe. Among the well-known philosophers who lived in Andalus were Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd all of whom influenced European thought very profoundly. Abu Bakr Ibn Umar, Abu Marwan, Ibn Fradi were particularly famous in historical studies.

Although, over the years, the lost splendour of Al-Andalus has been much idealized in the Islamic world, there remains an appreciation of the factors behind its downfall. Some of these were external, such as the unification and expansion of the Christian kingdoms of Spain and the geographic and political isolation of Al-Andalus from the rest of the Muslim world. There were also internal factors that contributed to the decline of Al-Andalus particularly the rivalries that weakened and divided Muslim Spain, the greed and self-indulgence that gripped its elites, and the loss of inner religious dynamic.

Two of the ways that people demonstrate their intelligence are communication and learning. Effective communication requires skills in the analysis of messages received and in the synthesis of messages transmitted. The ‘message’ may be a letter, an article, a poem, musical composition, painting, or indeed any other form of communication. In order to communicate effectively, one must be able to synthesize a message. To do that well needs the ability to make judgements about the level of sophistication of the recipient, careful use of the language of the communication and appropriate speed of presentation. Understanding a message also requires intelligence. A listener needs to know the meaning of most of the words being used and to have some knowledge of the context of the message.

The ability to learn and understand is considered by many as a vital component of intelligence and perhaps a definition of it.

‘Learning denotes the changes in a system that are adaptive in the sense that they enable the system to do the same task or tasks drawn from the same population more effectively the next time.’ ‘When a computer system improves its performance at a given task over time, without re-programming, it can be said to have learned something.’

There are many definitions for Artificial Intelligence or AI. One is: ‘the study of mental faculties that encompasses computational techniques for performing tasks which apparently require intelligence when performed by humans’. The term Artificial Intelligence was first used by John McCarthy in 1956. Since then, and especially in the last two decades, there has been a growing amount of research on AI. With many scientists, engineers and programmers either studying AI techniques or building AI systems or both, national and international organizations dedicated to AI have been formed and are growing. In the USA, for example, there is now an American Association for Artificial Intelligence. A number of AI applications in the medical and engineering fields have been successful and so established AI as a promising area of study with specialist sub-sectors, namely robotics, machine vision, natural language processing, machine learning, expert systems and neural networks.

Looked at closely, each of these sub-sectors turns out to be an attempt to imitate some human organs or faculties. Robotics, for example, aims to imitate what a human being can do using limbs, hands and feet, in co-ordination with the eye and brain-which is what ‘vision systems’ aims to copy. ‘Natural language processing’ is the development of systems that perform tasks using the kind of language that humans use in routine interactions. ‘Machine learning’ aims to make computers learn how to use computational techniques. An ‘expert system’ is built to house and sift large amounts of human knowledge in order to give advice in particular circumstances just as a human expert would do. And ‘neural networks’, as the name suggests, try to reproduce in part the human nervous system.

Even though there have been many successful applications devel

oped in these areas, AI, compared to human intelligence, is still in its infancy. Everyday observation shows that the modest brains of lower animals can perform tasks that are far beyond the range of even the largest and fastest modern electronic computers. Just imagine that any mosquito can fly around at great speed in unknown territory without bumping into objects blocking its path. And a frog’s tongue can catch these insects in full flight within a split second.

At present the number of processors which can be built for specialized parallel hardware is somewhere between 50,000 and 1 million. Compared to the number of neurones in the human brain this number is extremely small. The total number of neurones in the human central nervous system can only be estimated; some estimates put the number about 1011 combined with the average number of synapses per neurones this yields a total of about 1015 synaptic connections in the human brain, the majority of which are developed within a few months after birth.

Comparative facts like those show that there is a lot still to be learnt from human beings, animals and other creatures. When somebody looks at an intelligent system-say a vision system or an intelligent robot, they will remark that it is amazing. Indeed it is amazing to see a system correctly inspect and classify many products in the space of a second. Such systems are already installed and in operation on production lines and their performance is quite good. There are several expert systems in use in real world tasks. The importance of these systems derives from their artificial intelligence which in turn derives from human intelligence. A man-made system can be very smart and artificially very intelligent but no such system so far has been awarded a prize for its innovative abilities. It is the human being who made it who wins the prize. What is prized, what is of higher worth, is not the system but its maker or builder. What about the fantastic system that is a human being? Just as an AI system is strong evidence of the existence of its maker, namely, a human being, so too human beings and other natural systems are more and stronger evidence for the existence of their Maker. To make an artificial intelligence one must first have natural or real intelligence. That means the Maker of human beings and all other creatures has a supernatural power over all of them. Just as no one could say that AI systems build themselves, it should be impossible to say the same for human beings and other creatures. This supernatural power is the All-Mighty Creator. As we have seen, it is not the system but its maker that is prized and respected. Self-evidently, the One who created human intelligence is to be prized and respected more than anything or anyone else. God says in the Qur’an: ‘We have indeed created man in the best of moulds’ (95.3). As we believe that there is definitely a maker of an AI system, why should it be hard to believe that there is a Maker of human being?

References

• CHARNIAK, E. and McDERMOTT, D., (1985) Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
• HANCOX, P.J., MILLS, W.J. and REID, B. (1990)
• Artificial Intelligence/Expert Systems, Ergosyst Associates, London.
• MULLER, B. and REINHARDT, J. (1990) Neural Networks. An Introduction, Springer Verlag.
• FORSYTH, R. and RADA, R. (1986) Machine Learning:
• Applications in Expert Systems and Information Retrieval, Ellis Horwoood, Chichester.

More than a billion human beings on this planet are chronically hungry: every 24 hours some 40,000 die directly or indirectly from lack of food; a child starves to death every 2.5 seconds. In short, more people die every two years from hunger than were killed in the First and Second World Wars.

Yet, never before has the world produced more food per head of population. While there are places where huge numbers die because they have no crops or no money, there are other places (notably in the West) where the granaries are overflowing with all kinds of foods. While food is stockpiled in some areas, then dumped or wasted in huge quantities in order to maintain price levels, elsewhere, helpless mothers, starving and unable to produce milk, watch their babies die in their arms. Uneven distribution mocks the theoretical sufficiency of global food supply: there should be no world hunger problem but there is (UNO, 1989, p.3).

The ‘world food order’ is a scandal crying out for remedy. It arises within the context of the prevailing economic and political ideologies which are rooted in a crude laissez-faire mentality. According to this mentality, individuals are entitled to absolute ownership over whatever they have acquired lawfully, that is, they have the right to use, to transfer and even to destroy their property (Article 1 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966) without being held legally accountable.

It is this mentality, entrenched in law, which prevents the right to food from becoming one of the binding principles of international human rights. Yet, without a right to food, all other human rights are of little value. Once starvation afflicts a people, the very human life for whose sake all human rights are proposed wastes (Alston, 1984, p.4).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 provides that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food…”. Since then, many international documents and most of other normative instruments aiming to secure the right to food of peoples have been agreed upon (Tomasevski, 1987, p.19; see also the 1974 Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition, and the 1986 Food Aid Convention). However, in spite of the enthusiasm and unanimity with which the right to food is endorsed, the amorality of the economic order encourages its constant, continual violation. Measures against world hunger are temporary palliatives in the form of ‘charity’ from governments politically embarrassed by crises (Alston, 1984, p.90).

The impotence of the present world order to eradicate hunger and starvation contrasts sharply with the Islamic world order which enshrines the right to food not only in its ethos but also in its positive laws. To begin with, the Qur’an teaches that all resources are put at the disposal of all human beings by God, the Sustainer. Human beings have no right of absolute ownership, but have right as just trustees (2.30). As God’s vicegerent (khalifah), man is enjoined to deal justly with everyone (not every Muslim) (5.8). To act with justice in the use and management of one’s resources requires the satisfaction of at least the subsistence needs of everyone in society: nothing is more closely connected with the concept of justice than “human rights” (Ahmad, 1991, p.15).

Once the close relationship between justice and human rights is recognized as a fundamental principle, it is a natural next step to base the right to food on the socio-economic teachings of Islam. The aim of the concept of trusteeship (khilafat) is to establish ‘global justice’ in the use of the earth’s natural resources. No discrimination is made between Muslims and non-Muslims, as humanity is a single creation of God, and all have equal right to sustenance from God’s bounty (ni’ma). If one group of the human brotherhood is unable to provide sufficient food to sustain life, for whatever reason, they have a right (haqq) to provision from the wealth of others (Ahmad, 1991, p.17).

The ‘right’ of the hungry is not merely a moral claim; it has a positive, specific counterpart in the corresponding legal obligation to satisfy that right. The authority for this legal obligation is the Qur’an itself whose precepts are binding upon all Muslims (Ahmad, 1991, p.15). The refusal to feed the hungry and to urge the feeding of the hungry is equated with a refusal of religion: Have you observed him who denies religion? That is he who rebuffs the orphan and urges not the feeding of the needy (107.1-3).

In other verses, (e.g. 2.29), the Qur’an specifies that resources be used equitably for the benefit of all mankind (see Chapra, 1992, p207). No people have the right to dump or waste the resources at their disposal in order to manipulate prices (Qur’an 2.205).

The concept of a right to food is explicitly embodied in the teaching and practice of the Prophet, upon him be peace. The civilization of Islam is dated to the Hijrah, the migration to Madina. One of the first measures instituted by the Prophet was to ‘spread peace and distribute food’ (Hamid, 1989, p.l56). He explained that poverty can lead to kufr (ingratitude and rejection of God), and emphasised the link between Muslim solidarity and the right to food: ‘He is not a (true) believer who eats his fill while his neighbour goes hungry’. In another hadith, duty to provide food encompasses animals as well as humans: ‘Whoever brings dead land to life, for him there is a reward in that, and whatever creature seeking food eats of it, shall be considered as charity from him.’ (For other ahadith which clarify the duty to feed and the accountability for failure in it, see Nadvi, 1969 and Ishaque, 1969). The importance of land cultivation in Islamic Law may be gauged from the right of the legitimate authorities to sequester land which is being left idle and apportion it to those who are willing and able to cultivate it: absolute ownership of land is not recognized by the Law.

The right to food is so important in Islamic practice that it is not denied to enemies even in time of siege and war. During the lifetime of the Prophet, upon him be peace, some of his companions blocked the supply of food to Makka, intending to maintain the blockade until Makka surrendered. However, when the hunger of the Quraish was reported to the Prophet he ordered the blockade to be lifted. Following that example, Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, sent Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan on a campaign with the specific instruction that he should not destroy the crops and livestock of the enemy. The same principle is seen in action when the Ottoman army, for example, besieged Vienna, and the city’s poor and sick came to its outskirts to get food from the besieging forces. (What a contrast with the Serbian and Croat militias who are at this time attacking and preventing relief supplies from reaching the Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the explicit intention of starving them to death.)

Islamic Law provides for each individual’s basic rights to life and food through zakah and usr, two compulsory annual levies on, respectively the general wealth and the crops and livestock of the better off. Zakah is fixed at one-fortieth and usr at one-tenth of disposable wealth. In the event of the state being unable to meet its commitment to the needy from this revenue, it may compel the rich to give more. The Prophet, upon him be peace, said: ‘God makes it an obligation for the rich of a country to provide for the needs of their poor. Authority must compel them when the resources from zakah are insufficient’. Ibn Hazm and other Muslim savants, on the basis of this hadith, declared that if a person dies of hunger the individual’s neighbourhood is responsible and must pay the bloodwit (diya) by way of atonement (Belkacem, 1979, p.144). (One is bound to reflect how near Somalia is to oil-rich Saudi Arabia.)

Refusal to pay the obligatory levies is equivalent to denying the rights of the needy and a reversion to the values of paganism. Abu Bakr was prepared to go to war in precisely this issue.

Sadaqat al-fitr, a charitable donation made either in money or in kind, at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, is a further instance, in this case voluntary, of collectively meeting the sustenance needs of the poor.

There is a world of difference between the anthropocentric and egocentric philosophy which has taken such a firm root in the Western mind since the secularization of human rights in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the theocentric ethos of Islam. The latter sees the right to food as a duty, even a debt, owed by those who have a surplus to those who do not have the bare minimum. Further, Islam seeks to establish a social order which recognizes the essential community of all human beings. Without a feeling for that essential community, and a commitment to it in economic transactions, it is hard to see how solidarity can be realized even at a national, let alone an international level. Presenting human beings as objects of ‘charity’ cannot begin to address the problem-for, very soon, the rich become ‘fatigued’ by the demands made upon their compassion and their resources. For people to be dying of famine in a world of plenty, even of excess, is an intolerable scandal and shames us all (Bedjaoui, 1982, p.465). A new ‘world food order’ must be sought as a matter of urgency: if not, the threat of rumbling empty stomachs in Africa and Asia will disturb international peace in the post Cold War era rather more than the threat of nuclear war disturbed it during the Cold War.

References

• AHMAD, Z. (1991), Islam, Poverty and Income Distribution, The Islamic Foundation,Leicester
• ALSTON, P. (1984) ‘lnternational law and the human right to food’ in Tomasevski(ed.) 1984.
• BEDJAOUI, M. (1982) ‘Are the world’s food resources the common heritage of mankind?’,Indian Journal of International Law, 22, pp. 459-67, (Bedjaoui is a former president of the International Court of Justice.)
• BELKACEM, N,M.K. (1979) ‘The concept or social justice in Islam’, in GAUHAR (ed.) 1979, pp. 135-52.
• CHAPRA, M.U. (1992) Islam and the Economic Challenge, The Islamic Foundation, Leicester.
• FAO, 1985 The Hunger Project: Ending Hunger.
• GAUHAR, A. (ed) (1979) The Challenge of Islam, Islamic Council of Europe, London 1979.
• HAMID, A (1989) Islam: the Natural Way, IELS, London
• ISHAQUE, K.M. (1979) ‘Islamic laws ideals and principles’, in GAUHAR (ed.) 1979, pp. 155-75.
• NADVI, A.H.A. (1979) ‘Islam the most suitable religion for mankind’ in Gauhar (ed.) 1979, pp. 17-30.
• TOMASE VSKI, K. (ed) (1984) The Right to Food, Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht. Extensive details and documents with regard to this right TOMASEVSKI, K(1987) The Right to Food. A Guide to International Law Documents. Martinus Nijboff, 1987.
• UNO (1989) Right to Adequate Food as a Human Rights, Centre for Human Rights, New York.

Western culture throughout the centuries has taught fear and contempt of racially and culturally ‘different’ people and in its languages has retained derogatory terms for these ‘others’. By contrast, the history of the Islamic civilization shows little evidence of racism. However, in recent times, some Muslims, under the impress of the Western example, have begun to develop feelings of racial prejudice. Following the retreat of Western imperial powers, Muslims have the opportunity to develop away from Western attitudes and ideologies. God willing, more Muslims will rediscover their Islamic heritage, and racist feelings will be removed from their hearts.

We must remember that in the days before Islam racism and slavery existed, but Islam effectively abolished the inferiority associated with slavery and integrated people of various ethnic origins into a single civilization. Muslims are one ummah and Islam is their culture and allegiance. God says in the Qur’an: Verily this brotherhood of yours is a single brotherhood (21.92). God has created us different so that we may know and distinguish one another: worth lies not in belonging to this or that nation but in belonging to God, in taqwa or consciousness of Him. Getting on with the differences in creation is a part of the trials of this life, a test of our kindliness and humanity towards those who are ‘other’.

Do you not see that God sends down rain from the sky? With it We then bring out produce of various colours. And in the mountains are tracts white and red, of various shades of colour, and intense black in hue. Similarly, among men, and crawling creatures, and cattle, they are of various colours (35.27-8).

We should rejoice in the variety of mankind and try to learn about the cultures and languages of others. We enjoy fruits of diverse kinds, and take pleasure in the differences in nature, so why not also take pleasure in the differences between peoples?

The Muslim world has never been afflicted with the intense problems which still affect the Western world. There still exist in the US groups of white supremacists who want to bring back racial apartheid and even slavery. Then, besides the problems of race, there are also problems arising from the discrimination of the rich against the poor. However, God does not judge human beings on the basis of their race or nationality or social class, but on the basis of their quality of worship and their actions.

In the first days of Islam, the pagan Arabs practised slavery. Many slaves liked the message of equality and, attracted to the truth of Islam, converted. The behaviour of the first Muslims tells us that they did not uphold racist attitudes. For instance, Abu Bakr rescued Bilal from torture by buying and then freeing him. Bilal was then honoured with the dignity of being appointed to make the call to prayer: he was the first muezzin. God commands in the Qur’an that to express remorse for certain sins a Muslim should emancipate a slave if financially able to do so. If a slave woman bore a child she was immediately considered free. Also, Islamic law provided legal means to enable slaves to purchase their freedom. Islam was thus the first civilization to gradually abolish slavery and, much more important, the attitudes of racial and cultural superiority which, in non-Muslim societies, have kept the descendants of slaves-even after a hundred years of emancipation-in positions of inferiority. In Islamic societies, slaves were considered a part of the household and fully integrated into the community, many attaining positions of great eminence- Harun al-Rashid was the son of a slave.

It is of the highest importance that Muslims should avoid becoming infected by Western ideologies. The Western nations have nowhere created a successful, stable plural society. Even between nations there is not so much peaceful co-existence as a cynical balance of power. Only Islam has ever succeeded in establishing and sustaining a feeling of common humanity among different peoples and cultures. Many verses of the Qur’an and the ahadith of the Prophet, upon him be peace, reiterate that all people are equal. A hadith qudsi related by Abu Dharr al-Ghifari records the words: ‘0 my servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another’ (Muslim). In another hadith in the Sahih of Muslim, Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said:

Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices one to another; do not hate one another; do not turn away from one another; and do not undercut one another; but be you, 0 servants of God, brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he neither oppresses him nor does he fail him, he neither lies to him nor does he hold him in contempt. Piety is right here-and he pointed to his breast three times. It is evil enough for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. The whole of a Muslim for another Muslim is inviolable: his blood, his property, and his honour.’

As long as Muslims hold to the Qur’an and Sunna and make these sources a part of their lives, they shall be spared the social evil of this age. But, having practised what they have heard preached, Muslims must have the conviction to commend (by example as well as by word) Islam to others. Unless the Western peoples come to respect Islam and learn from it, they will end up destroying themselves because of their national and cultural separatism. Muslims need to work at getting rid of the racism in the world and promoting brotherhood and peace instead.

‘Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its arts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other, nothing lacking, with the result of an absolute balance and solid composure. Everything in the teaching and, postulates of Islam is in its proper place.’( Islam at the Crossroads, p.5)

Most Western writers, especially under the influence of the Church, have never failed to accuse Islam of spreading by force of the sword. The causes of this prejudice lie mainly in the fact that the spread of Islam has often occurred at the expense of Christianity. While Islam has for centuries obtained numerous conversions from Christianity without much effort or organized missionary activities, Christianity has almost never been able to achieve conversions from Islam in spite of sophisticated means and wellorganized missionary activities, and it has always been at a disadvantage in its competition with Islam for fourteen centuries. The defeat of Christianity in the face of Islam has caused its missionaries and most of the Orientalists to develop an inferiority complex within themselves by depicting Islam and introducing it as a regressive, vulgar religion of savage peoples. (John Cogley, Religion of Secular Age; Muhammad Asad, The Road to Mecca). The same attitude has unfortunately been maintained toward the Holy Prophet of Islam. This is clear in the confessions of some unbiased writers of the West: According to P. Bayle:

‘Muslims, according to the principles of their faith, are under an obligation to use force for the purpose of bringing other religions to ruin [probably he means Jihad which is not for the purpose he suggests.]; yet, in spite of that, they have been tolerating other religions for some centuries past. The Christians have not been given orders to do anything but preach and instruct, yet, despite this, from time immemorial they have been exterminating by fire and sword all those who are not of their religion. We may feel certain that if Western Christians, instead of the Saracens and the Turks, had won the dominion over Asia, there would be today not a trace left of the Greek Church, and that they would have never have tolerated Muhammadanism as the ‘infidels’ have tolerated Christianity there. We (Christians) enjoy the fine advantage of being far better versed than others in the art of killing, bombarding and exterminating the Human Race. ‘(Bayle P., Dictionary, article Mahomed, 1850)

Islam is indebted for its unequalled spread to its religious content and values, which is admitted by all objective Western intellectuals:

‘Many have sought to answer the questions of why the triumph of Islam was so speedy and complete? Why have so many millions embraced the religion of Islam and scarcely a hundred ever recanted? Why do a thousand Christians become Muslims to one Muslim who adopts Christianity? Some have attempted to explain the first overwhelming success of Islam by the argument of the sword. They forget Carlyle’s laconic reply. First get your sword. You must win men’s hearts before you can induce them to imperil their lives for you; and the first conquerors of Islam must have been made Muslims before they were made fighters on the Path of God. Others allege the low morality of the religion and the sensual paradises it promises as a sufficient cause for the zeal of its followers: but even were these admitted to the full, no religion has ever gained a lasting hold upon the souls of men by the force of its sensual permissions and fleshy promises…

‘In all these explanations the religion itself is left out of the question. Decidedly, Islam itself was the main cause for its triumph. Islam not only was at once accepted (by many peoples and races) by Arabia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Northern Africa and Spain, at its first outburst; but, with the exception of Spain, it has never lost its vantage ground; it has been spreading ever since it came into being. Admitting the mixed causes that contributed to the rapidity of the first swift spread of Islam, they do not account for the duration of Islam. There must be something in the religion itself to explain its persistence and spread, and to account for its present hold over so large of a proportion of the dwellers on the earth… Islam has stirred an enthusiasm that has never been surpassed. Islam has had its martyrs, its self-tormentors, its recluses, who have renounced all that life offered and have accepted death with a smile for the sake of the faith that was in them.’ (Stanley Lane-Poole, Study In a Mosque, pp. 86-9).

A. J. Arberry has also pointed out that the reason for the spread of Islam is Islam itself and its religious values. (Aspects of Islamic Civilization, p.12)

He writes:

‘The rapidity of the spread of Islam, noticeably through extensive provinces which had long been Christian, is a crucial fact of history. The sublime rhetoric of the Qur’an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy…and the urgency of the simple message carried, holds the key to the mystery of one of the greatest catalysms in the history of religion. When all military, political and economic factors have been exhausted, the religious impulse must still be recognized as the most vital and enduring.’

Brockelman, who is usually very unsympathetic and partial, also recognizes the religious values of Islam as the main factor for the spread of Islam (History of the Islamic Peoples, p.37). Rosenthal makes his point as follows: ‘The more important factor for the spread of Islam is the religious Law of Islam (Shari‘a, which is an inclusive, all-embracing, all-comprehensive way of thinking and living) which was designed to cover all manifestations of life.’ (Political Thought in Medieval Islam, p.21).

Besides many other reasons which are responsible for the spread of Islam, it is the exemplary life-style and unceasing efforts of individual Muslims to transmit the message of Islam throughout the world which lie at the root of the conquest of hearts by Islam. Islamic universalism is closely associated with the principle of ‘amr bi’l-ma’ruf (enjoining the good) for Islam is to be spread by Muslims by means of ‘amr bi’l-ma’ruf. This principle seeks to convey the message of Islam to all human beings in the world and to establish a model Islamic community on a worldwide basis. The Islamic community is introduced by the Qur’an as a model community: We have made of you an Ummah justly balanced, that you might be witnesses (models) for the peoples, and the Messenger has been a witness for you (2.143). A Muslim or the Muslim community as a whole thus has a goal to achieve. This is the spread of Islam, conveying the truth to the remotest corner of the world, the eradication of oppression and tyranny and the establishment of justice all over the world. This requires the Muslim to live an exemplary life, and thus the moral and the ethical values of Islam have usually played an important part in the spread of Islam. Here follow the impressions of the influence of Islamic ethics on black Africans of a Western writer of the nineteenth century:

‘As to the effects of Islam when first embraced by a Negro tribe, can there, when viewed as a whole, be any reasonable doubt? Polytheism disappears almost instantaneously; sorcery, with its attendant evils, gradually dies away; human sacrifice becomes a thing of the past. The general moral elevation is most marked; the natives begin for the first time in their history to dress, and that neatly. Squalid filth is replaced by some approach to personal cleanliness; hospitality becomes a religious duty; drunkenness, instead of the rule becomes a comparatively rare exception chastity is looked upon as one of the highest, and becomes, in fact, one of the commoner virtues. It is idleness that henceforward degrades, and industry that elevates, instead of the reverse. Offences are henceforward measured by a written code instead of the arbitrary caprice of a chieftain–a step, as everyone will admit, of vast importance in the progress of a tribe. The Mosque gives an idea of architecture at all events higher than any the Negro has yet had. A thirst for literature is created and that for works of science and philosophy as well as for the commentaries on the Qur’an.’ (Quoted from Waitz by B. Smith, Muhammad and Muhammadanism, pp.42-43)

The tolerance of Islam is another factor in the spread of Islam. Toynbee praises this tolerance towards the People of the Book after comparing it with the attitude of the Christians towards Muslims and Jews in their lands. (A Historian’s Approach to Religion, p.246). T. Link attributes the spread of Islam to the credibility of its principles together with its tolerance, persuasion and other kinds of attractions (A History of Religion). Makarios, Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch in the seventeenth century, compared the harsh treatment received by the Russians of the Orthodox Church at the hands of the Roman Catholic Poles with the tolerant attitude towards Orthodox Christians shown by the Ottoman Government and prayed for the Sultans (T. Link, A History of Religion).

This is not the only example of preference by the followers of the religions for Muslim rule over that of their own co-religionist. The Orthodox Christians of Byzantium openly expressed their preference for the Ottoman turban in Istanbul to the hats of the Catholic cardinals. Elisee Reclus, the French traveller of the nineteenth century, wrote that the Muslim Turk allowed all the followers of different religions to perform their religious duties and rituals, and that the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Sultan were more free to live their own lives than the Christians who lived in the lands under the rule of any rival Christian sect (Nouvelle Geographie Universelle, vol. 9). Popescu Ciocanel pays tribute to the Muslim Turks by stating that it was luck for the Romanian people that they lived under the government of the Turks rather than the domination of the Russians and Austrians. Otherwise, he points out, ‘no trace of the Romanian nation would have remained,’ (La Crise de l’Orient).

The Muslims’ attitude towards the people they conquered is quite clear in the instructions given by the rightly-guided Caliphs: ‘Always keep fear of God in your mind; remember that you cannot afford to do anything without His grace. Do not forget that Islam is a mission of peace and love. Keep the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) before you as a model of bravery and piety. Do not destroy fruit-trees nor fertile fields in your paths. Be just, and spare the feelings of the vanquished. Respect all religious persons who live in hermitages or convents and spare their edifices. Do not kill civilians. Do not outrage the chastity of women and the honour of the conquered. Do not harm old people and children. Do not accept any gifts from the civil population of any place. Do not billet your soldiers or officers in the houses of civilians. Do not forget to perform your daily prayers. Fear God. Remember that death will inevitably come to every one of you some time or other, even if you are thousands of miles away from a battlefield; therefore be always ready to face death.’ (Andrew Miller, Church History; Ali lbn Abi Talib, Nahj al-Balagha)

A historical episode which Balazouri, a famous Muslim historian, relates, tells about how pleased the native peoples were with their Muslim conquerors is of great significance:

When Heraclius massed his troops against the Muslims, and the Muslims heard that they were coming to meet them, they refunded the inhabitants of Hims the tribute they had taken from them, saying: ‘We are too busy to support and protect you. Take care of yourselves.’ But the people of Hims replied: ‘We like your rule and justice far better than the state of oppression and tyranny in which we were. The army of Heraclius we shall indeed, with your help, repulse from the city.’ The Jews rose and said: ‘We swear by the Torah, no governor of Heraclius shall enter the city of Hims unless we are first vanquished and exhausted.’ Saying this, they closed the gates of the city and guarded them. The inhabitants of other cities–Christians and Jews–that had capitulated did the same. When by God’s help the unbelievers were defeated and Muslims won, they opened the gates of their cities, went out with singers and players of music, and paid the tribute (Futuh al-Buldan).

To sum up, although most Western writers, under the instigation of biased Orientalists of the Church, have alleged that Islam spread by the force of the sword, the spread of Islam was because of its religious content and values, and ‘its power of appeal and ability to meet the spiritual and material needs of people adhering to cultures totally alien to their Muslim conquerors’, together with some other factors. Some of these factors are the tolerance which Islam showed to people of other religions, the absence of ecclesiastic orders and hierarchy in Islam, mental freedom and absolute justice which Islam envisages and has exercised throughout the centuries, the ethical values it propagates, and Islamic humanitarianism, universalism and brotherhood, and its inclusiveness. Sufi activities, the moral superiority of Muslim tradesmen, the principle of ‘enjoining the good’, and Islamic dynamism and the magnificence of the Islamic civilization contributed of their own to the spread of Islam.

The main religious qualities which attracted people to Islam were:

(i) the simplicity of the theological doctrines of Islam based on the Divine Unity;

(ii) rationalism of the Islamic teachings;

(iii) the complete harmony of the Islamic ideals and values with human conscience;

(iv) the inclusiveness and comprehensives of Islam, covering all aspects of physical, mental, and spiritual life of individuals and societies, hence the harmony of religion and life which it established;

(v) the lack of formalism and mediation;

(vi) the vividness, dynamism and resilience of the Islamic theology, and its creativity and universalism, and its compatibility with established scientific facts;

(vii) the cohesion and harmony of the Islamic principles, and

(viii) the shortcomings of other theological systems.

Further Reading

• Abu’l-fazl Izzeti (1976) ‘As Introduction to the history of the Spread of Islam,’ London, is mostly quoted.
• Ahmad, A. ‘Garbin Islam’dan Ogrendikleri’.(Turkish trans.) Istanbul.
• Al-Mas’oudi, A. (1964) ‘Muruj adh-Dhahab’, Cairo.
• AlguI. H. (1987) ‘Islam Tarihi’,Istanbul.
• Al-Tabari, L. J (1955) ‘Milletler ve Hukumdarlar Tarihi’ (Turkish trans.), Istanbul.
• Balazouri(1965) ‘Futuh al-Buldan’, Istanbul.
• Dursun, D. (1989) ‘Osmanli Devletinde Siyaset ve Din’, Istanbul,
• Fayda. M.(1989) ‘Hz, Omer Zamanında Gayr-i Muslimler’, Istanbul.
• Imam Abu Yusuf (1973) ‘Kitab al-Kharac’, Istanbul.
• Naumani, S. (1975) ‘Butun YonleriyIe Hz Omer ve Devlet Idaresi’ (Turkish trans.), Istanbul.
• Qutb, S. (1980) ‘Islam’da Sosyal Adalet’, (Turkish trans.) Istanbul.
• Said, E. (1983) ‘Oryantalizm’ (Turkish trans.) Istanbul.
• Tuna, O. (1969) ‘Selçuklular Tarihi ve Turk-Islam Medeniyeti’, Istanbul.

Together with massive campaigns to promote Western products, such story-lines and images, perpetuate the inferiorized stereotypes that used to be taught openly in the nineteenth century. Films especially can be seen as an arm of economic domination: ‘Because every film is a part of the economic system, it is also part of the ideological system… cinema and art are branches of ideology. None can escape; somewhere, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, all have their allotted place’ (Nicholls, 1976, vol.1, p.24).

Because the US got the edge over the Europeans in the mass-market film industry, Hollywood and what it stands for have often been accused, even by Europeans, of cultural imperialism. The English as well as the French often complain that the norms of popular culture in their countries have been ‘taken over’ by the Americans. But the fact is that the success of American styles has been largely due to their commercial skill and power relative to English and French products. In no sense can it be claimed that the American popular culture industry portrays the French or the English negatively. By contrast, it is true to say that Western cinema, particularly American cinema, portrays Orientals, especially Muslims, negatively as a matter of course. All easy, popular stories have goodies and baddies, but must the baddies so often be foreigners and need the foreigners be culturally foreign? In order to be popular, popular films reinforce popular stereotypes-it is a vicious circle, at least for its victims. For those who manage such images, popular cinema is a powerful instrument of cultural suppression and domination. As one writer maintains, the virtual monopoly Hollywood has enjoyed for the last quarter century has made it the single most powerful advocate and purveyor of a simplified, homogenized American culture (Collins, 1989).

Within this Hollywood style in particular, there has been a consistent Middle Eastern stereotype-Arab or Arab-Palestinian, or Turk or Iranian-with negative physical and moral characteristics- lustful, fanatical, irrational, cruel, scheming, unreliable, often cowardly, and always outwitted and defeated. The adventurer-hero, once in the Flash Gordon style of noble warrior on the side of the good (in simple contrast to arch-enemy Ming the Merciless, an Oriental tyrant), is now, typically, a morally imperfect figure, nevertheless worthy of the audience’s full sympathy. The ‘James Bond’ character of the sixties and seventies remains by far the most successful hero-formula. He was designed for British and American audiences to identify with: ‘he is worldly, has diverse but specialized expertise, and has a passion for excitement. He is self-reliant, proud, wedded to privacy, honest, candid, loyal, a man of honour…’ (Simon, 1989). This figure exemplifies, in a form appropriate to the genre of comic caricature, the virtues and ethos which are supposed to give the British and the Americans their directness and sense of humour, their get-up-and-go, their problem-solving success. The villain-figures altogether lack positive characteristics, even any energy or wit they have is of a mad, evil-genius type; their characters lack any exposition; they have no past, their only present is to pose the challenge to the hero. It follows that no audience, not even the non- British/American audience can possibly do otherwise than identify, through the momentum of the story, with the hero and the ethos he represents.

Among recent historical films which have to do with Muslim lands and people, the most popular have been Lawrence of Arabia, Death on the Nile, Midnight Express, and Robin Hood. Of these, only the first has any substantial claim to be a serious, well-made film. In it, Lawrence, a British army officer, stationed in Cairo during World War I, works to ally the Sharif of Makka with the British against the Turks. The Arabs are presented as bumbling, loud, unruly primitives with some barbarian dignity but, in the end, easily bribed, easily tricked. The Turks are utterly vile and disgusting with no saving qualities of any kind. Indeed, the Turkish Pasha in Egypt is, in addition to being, ugly, foul and aggressive, a sodomite- characteristics flatly contradicted by historical evidence (Kirkbride, 1956). The fact that Lawrence was a British spy with very British images about the desert, about Arabs, Turks and Muslims in general, never enters into the film or the consciousness of its audience-there is not the slightest hint that the events might be presented from another point of view and so tell quite a different story. For all the undeniable beauty of some scenes, this film well illustrates the general point made by Raymond Williams that, in spite of their being artistic, works of art still serve an ideological function, that is, serve as propaganda (Williams, 1982). Embedded in Lawrence of Arabia there are all the usual distortions, political and cultural, which less artistic films present also, but crudely.

Midnight Express has been widely and continuously shown since its production in 1978. Though shot mostly in a nineteenth-century British barracks in Malta, the film is set in Istanbul which comes over as a most depressing place – a shock surely for anyone who has actually visited it. David Putnam, the director, freely admits that the film is based on a ‘dishonest book’ (Shipman, 1984, vol.2, p.1103). It wholly misrepresents what really happened to Billy Hase who was sentenced in Turkey for drug smuggling: the story implies that he was innocent; it makes much of his escape, though he was released under an amnesty agreement’ (ibid.). The quality of the director’s attention to the Islamic setting can be judged from the scene in which hairy- eared Hamidou (the actor is in fact an American) is whipping Jimmy with a leather belt while some other Turks are praying to Allah – Jimmy’s yells of pain provide the ‘music’ to the praying chorus (Kael, 1980, p.498).

Much the same kind of attention (and the same intention) is evident in the opening scene of Robin Hood: in a gloomy atmosphere the call to prayer rises from a minaret in Jerusalem, then an abrupt ‘cut’ to a filthy prison where an executioner is chopping off the hand of a prisoner – an illustration for the audience of Islamic justice. The point of these and similar devices of narrative and plot of setting, colour, tone and music – many examples could be given – is not only to present an image of Islam and Muslims that is as negative and humiliating as possible. It is also intended to contrast that negative with the positive virtues of the Western characters portrayed within the same story: the audience are required (and expected) to conclude that ‘the Americans, and the Englishmen and the Swedes, are civilized and sensitive…’ (Kael, 1980, p.498).

References

• COLLINS, J. (1959) Uncommon cultures: Popular Culture and Post Modernism, Routledge, London.
• KAEL, P. (1980) When the lights Go Down, Holt, Rinehart & Wilson, New York.
• KIRKBRIDE, Sir As. (1956) A Crackle of Thorns: Experiences in the Middle East, John Murray, London.
• NICHOLLS, B. (1976) (ed.) Movies and Methods, University of California Press.
• SHIPMAN, D. (1984) The Story of Cinema, Hodder & Stoughton, London..
• SIMON, S.R. (1989) The Middle East in Crime Fiction, Lilian Barber Press, New York.
• WILLIAMS, R. (1982) The Sociology of Culture, Fontana, London.

having fixed their hearts upon the Light

they set out for eternity.

And wherever the journey led, they carried

their gift of radiance

Gleams of Beauty

unfading so entranced their souls,

they heard at night in their dreams

angels singing of bliss and the music

of other worlds.

More enchanted ,

more earnestly they searched in every place,

and cherished for their homeland the dream

of a beloved of matchless excellence, hero

or saint or both.

Without let our pause

they strove on in high, passionate hope;

some perplexities of life they unravelled

as they journeyed apace, and at last obtained

the promised happiness.

Lovers of the Light

are pledged to a long journey, its end Unseen;

the very roads are proud upon which they go;

the rhythm of their going is Certainty, and their rank

slaves of the King .

Whoever disdains

that rank, disdains his own good fortune,

exchanging hope for a regret everlasting;

he shall not attain, not ever, the further rim

of all that is.

Only the lovers,

passionate lovers of the Ideal, may behold

that far horizon, eternity itself impressed

upon their faces, and their names rehearsed

in hymns of praise.

They desire life

again only to be martyred again, hearts

forever surrendered to the Light, forever

remembered in our hearts. They raise now

light-filled eyes,

in their hands are translucent beakers

held aloft, at ease, filled to the brim from

rivers of Paradise.

***

This universalistic spirit is explicit in Article I/l of the 1967 Space Treaty: ‘The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries… and [outer space] shall be the province of all mankind’. Two years after the Treaty was formally signed, the American astronauts broadcast the same message from the moon. When Neil A. Armstrong landed on the moon, he saw the new frontier as open not only to space-faring states, but to all mankind: ‘one small step for man, leap for mankind.’

In the quarter century since then, the rapid growth of aerospace technology, thanks to the Cold War between the then two super powers, has led to remarkable achievements and technological spin-offs. However, for most of that period space technology and science were largely focused or directed to the production of weapons of mass destruction. The end of the Cold War should herald a new era in which existing aerospace technology will only be used for ‘the benefit of all mankind’ and only ‘for peaceful purposes’ (Walter, 1985, pp.l20).

In the new post Cold War the Russians and the Americans, once rivals, have begun to pool their brain power and hardware with the aim of building space stations in orbit around the earth, then on the moon, finally on Mars (Time, 19 April 1993, pp.62-3). The European Space Agency (ESA) has already laid down its long-term space programmes that are to lead Europe’s space efforts into the 21st century (Von der Dunk, 1989, p.426). Japan, China, Brazil, India, Israel and even Australia have achieved significant satellite technology and launching capability through independent efforts (for an account of those programmes, see Gatland, 1989). They all aim to explore and exploit the natural resources and potential usage of space.

Within ‘peaceful’ uses and exploration of outer space, there are a wide range of possible activities related to scientific research and experimentation, remote sensing, telecommunications and commercial aerospace manufacturing (Tennen, 1979). It is worth considering the benefits that God, the All-Mighty, has made available to man in space.

A) Satellites

The first major benefit is satellite communication. Telecommunication and especially direct broadcasting satellites can only be located in an exceptional orbit known as the geostationary satellite orbit (the GSO). This orbit is a three-dimensional corridor lying on the equatorial plane, at a distance 36,000 km (22,300 miles) above the surface of the earth. The importance of this orbit is that satellites rotate in the same direction as the earth does every 24 hours. That is to say, if satellites follow an equatorial path in the direction of the earth’s rotation, they will appear to remain fixed at the same spot above the equator.

The GSO facilities those services such as direct broadcasting satellites, navigational aids and solar energy stations which require round-the-clock coverage of a given area of earth (Wihlborg and Wijkman, 1979, pp.2S-6). The great advantage of the GSO for communication purposes is that one satellite can observe approximately 40 per cent of the surface of the planet, which means that three satellites are enough for global coverage.

However, the GSO is a physically limited natural resource. Satellites located in orbital slots wander around 100 miles horizontally. Hence, once a satellite occupies a spot in the orbit, it precludes the use of the same slot by any other since slots are located in a three-dimensional tube with a total length of 150,000 miles, the GSO only has room for 1,500 such slots with a zero probability of collision.

However, no one knows exactly how many satellites can occupy the GSO. The orbit is expected, in the very near future, to be used for the gathering and transmission of solar energy from very large space objects to earth by microwave or laser beams (Christol, 1980-81). This will increase the problem of orbital slot scarcity and bring about contentious debates about use of the GSO. There are at present around some three hundred satellites in orbit so the congestion does not present a problem for the time being. However, in the decades to come the GSO will be saturated and there will be no ‘slot’ to locate a new satellite.

Since few states have satellites in the GSO, telecommunication via satellites is a very lucrative business. The overwhelming number of satellites are owned and run by the handful of technologically advanced states. Hence, they earn very significant amounts of money out of these activities. The full-time use of one single channel is around US$ 200,000 per month. A satellite transmitting 100 million message units, for example, earns $1 million each day.

Apart from broadcasting and communication satellites, there are observation satellites rotating vertically and horizontally around the world keeping their owners informed about weather, ocean conditions, catastrophes, pollution levels, atmospheric changes, the kinds and conditions of agricultural crops, the position of hidden minerals and fossil fuels (Schneider, 1986).

B) Mining

The samples collected by the Apollo showed that lunar soil contains, as percentages, 41.3 oxygen, 21.6 silicon, 15.3 iron, 5.4 aluminium, 6.8 magnesium, 0.1 potassium. There are also traceable amounts of sodium, sulphur, hydrogen, nitrogen, copper, zinc and lead in the samples collected (Bille, 1990, p.109). Out of these lunar materials, various minerals and metals, alloys, cement, electrical conductors, glass, silicone resins, rocket propellants and numerous industrial chemicals could be produced. One study concluded that hydrogen and oxygen, stored in lunar rocks, could be used to make air, water and rocket fuel. It is also said that the moon is rich in helium-3, which, almost non-existent on earth, may be usable as an ideal fuel for fusion power plants because of its low radioactivity (ibid., p.110).

Apart from the moon’s rich resources, asteroids are seen as extremely valuable celestial bodies. Scientists have found that there are dozens of mineral-rich asteroids circumnavigating the earth. These asteroids are on average 500 metres across and made of solid nickel-iron. Just one such asteroid could possibly meet years of global demand for these elements. Scientists reckon that asteroids within the vicinity of the earth contain abundant amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen and free metals. It is technologically feasible to process these asteroids on an industrial scale in outer space, more easily than exploitation of the moon’s resources. Such extraterrestrial production could avert earthbound pollution and potential conflicts over scarce earth resources (Condora, 1984, p.178). It was estimated in the 1980s that an asteroid could be worth five billion dollars. It is also projected that asteroids would be processed in outer space for extraterrestrial construction of space stations.

C) Space manufacture 

Although satellite communications and remote sensing are already very profitable commercial enterprises, space manufacturing is thought to have even greater commercial potential. As space is a relatively dust-free, micro gravity environment, it offers a unique laboratory setting for the development and processing of some complicated chemicals, pharmaceuticals, semi-conductor crystals, glass and metal alloys-indeed, production under micro gravity conditions is estimated to be up to 500 hundred times that possible on earth and with a degree of purity unobtainable on earth (Jericho and McCracken, 1986, p.802).The potential market sales for such products is reckoned at around $20 billion annually.

Additionally the relatively uncontaminated space environment is an ideal place for growing crystals used in computers, optoelectronics and ultrasonic equipment; for developing floride glass used in laser and fibre optic applications; and for producing new metal alloys as well as metals of higher purity and structural uniformity (ibid., p.803). In sum, the horizons for potential use of space are immeasurable.

The Islamic countries and space activities

Our concern is to find out what the Muslims are doing or not doing in the face of the continued progress of the space-faring Christians (NASA, ESA), the Jews (Israel), the Buddhists (People’s Republic of China, Japan), the Hindus (India). It was declared at the beginning of the ‘space age’ that space would be a province all mankind. However, it is apparent that it is only the technologically advanced non-Muslim states who are ploughing in huge sums of money into aerospace technology and enjoying the benefits of the outer space environment. Muslims in general seem unaware of the fact that it is enjoined upon them to keep abreast of the latest science and technology and to be as equipped as the non-Muslims. For example, in Sura al-Mulk, God directs our attention to the Heavens:

‘He who created the seven one above another: you will see no want of proportion in the creation of the Most Gracious, so turn your sight again: Do you see any flaw? Again turn your vision a second time; your sight will return to you dim and discomfited, in a state worn out’ (67.3-4. See also 7.54; 13.2; 21.33; 36.40;51.7; 81.15.)

In the light of this encouragement, the Arab Muslims, from very the beginning of Islamic civilization reached the highest degree in astronomy. While the pre-Renaissance Christians thought the world flat, Muslims realized that it must be round and that it rotates on its axis. The Muslims in the Abbasid period detected many stars and constellations and gave names to them which are still used (See, for more information, Sharh al-Mawaqif and Ma‘rifatname by Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum; also, al-Hayat by Nur al-Din Batruji,d.1185).

Until the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic scholars had been for centuries at the leading edge of study in astronomy as well as other pure and applied sciences. Even as late as the last 19th century, astronomy was an essential subject in the curriculums of the Ottoman colleges. However, some narrow-minded Muslims decried the teaching of scientific knowledge in schools and prevented Muslims from education. Their efforts were one (though not the only) reason for the relative decline of the Oriental world. This attitude degenerated further into the sinister view that any non-Muslim knowledge or equipment makes a person an unbeliever.

Vestiges of this barbarism remain to this day. To give an anecdote: I know of an imam who was recently accused by some peasants of being an unbeliever simply for informing them during a sermon delivered in their village that human beings had landed on the moon.

On the other side, Western propaganda has persistently labelled Islam as ‘backward’ and ‘unenlightened’, and imposed a feeling of inferiority among many Muslims-so that they find themselves thinking-‘The non-Muslims have walked on the moon, while we still walk barefoot on the earth.’ For over a century and a half, Muslims have been deliberately kept behind Western achievements. But the trust (amana) that God has bestowed upon mankind is most particularly the responsibility of the believers, the Muslims. Are we ready to live up to it?

God declares in the Qur’an: Before this We wrote in the Psalms, after the Message (given to Moses ): My servants, the righteous, shall inherit the earth. No one should doubt that one day this truth guaranteed by God’s oath will come true. An eminent Islamic scholar has read this verse to mean that the human stewardship will not be confined to the earth. Rather, those who become the trustees and masters of the earth will also rule over the remotest parts of the skies (Sahin, 1993). Naturally, such rule depends upon qualifications and quality. It is essential therefore that Muslims acquire the qualities demanded by the only Owner of the heavens and the earth. Even, this promise will come true to the degree that Muslims do acquire the requisite qualities (ibid.).

Are the Muslims indeed striving to get the requisite qualities? To a certain degree, yes. After the emancipation from the years of colonization, Islamic countries (particularly Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran) began to educate their own experts in sophisticated technology. But colonization has been followed by a brain drain. Thus, it is reported that there are considerable numbers of Turkish scientists working in NASA’s space programmes.

With regard to space technology, there are incipient attempts by the Islamic countries. One such attempt is the Arab Satellite Communication Organization (ARABSAT). The Charter of the Organization was signed by twenty one Arab States in 1976. ARABSAT is intended to fulfil the aspirations of the Arabs have their own satellite system as a tool for socio-economic development of the region and for bringing about the transfer of technology. The ARABSAT space segment is composed of two satellites launched in 1985 and 1992, and located on the GSO at 19’E and 26’E respectively. But the organization does not have its own launching pads. Hence, it is dependent upon either the European Ariane or the US Space Shuttle. In addition to this, two Turkish Satellites will soon be sent to the GSO. TURKSAT project will be an important milestone in the communication of Turkic and Islamic countries.

Surely, the achievements of ARABSAT and TURKSAT are not promising in terms of scope and infrastructure. Islamic countries need to pool their scientific, technological and, more importantly, financial resources to set up an Islamic aerospace organization. Arab petro-dollars are wasted in Western banks when they could be channelled into this potentially lucrative area. The break-up of the USSR is an extremely good opportunity for the fledging Turkic Republics to collaborate with other Islamic states. The launch pads of the former Soviet Union were set up in Kazakhstan. Today the Kazakhs are waiting for customers. In the CIS, as Mikhail Osin said: ‘the pay of those who build spaceships is lower than that of a floor sweeper’ (Lemonick, 1993). The petrol-rich Arab countries could and should attract the space-engineers of Muslim states to work in the establishment of Muslim space programmes…

In conclusion, unless Muslims are prepared to face up to the necessities of the post-industrial era and to the requirements of a new century by investing their wealth on intellectual property and technology, never will the present Muslims walk on the moon, while the Christians will be left free to exploit the resources of the Universe not for the benefit of all mankind, but their own benefit at the expense of others. But, when God’s promised time due, the Crescent will surely embrace the stars.

References

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• CHRISTOL, C.Q. (1980-81) ‘International space law and use of natural resources: solar energy’, Revue Belge de Droit Internationale, 15, pp.28-52.
• CONDORA, C. (1984) ‘Outer space like the sea and air, whose frontier? Incredible potential with inscrutable obstacles’, Houston Journal of international Law, 6, pp.175-96.
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