There is a vicious war of words going on between those who classify themselves as “reformers” in this land. Not being privy to the art of dialogue or the science of logic and argumentation, the “reformers” do little more than appeal to popular emotions while ignoring facts and whatever might not support their positions. Television stations play on this inherent intellectual weakness and stoke the fires with personal attacks and possible scandal.
These people are calling each other names — nothing sophisticated and nothing worth our while. The argument revolves around who is a government agent and so in the pay of the state and who is an “independent”, facing the dawn with a clean conscience as the Arab saying has it. Needless to tell the reader that the whole lot of them is nothing but charlatans who see an opportunity and want to profit from it.
Since we do not have media laws that control this kind of libelous behavior, a chaotic situation favoring these characters has developed. You might think this is a matter of free speech. Well, think again. It is exactly the same mentality that Bin Laden uses to try to bring about change — if you are not with me or do not do what I deem right, I will blow you up. On the pages of newspapers, on the Internet and television, you become an agent, a “kafir” (infidel unbeliever), and, in one case, a “witch” if you do not agree with me.
Of course, all these labels carry punishments under either legal or religious jurisdiction. The gist of the argument raging between these people is nothing more than that: I will indict you and await the execution. This is indeed a sorry state we are in. Not a single person has come up with anything that can be discussed, elaborated upon, codified, classified or perhaps acted upon one of these days.
To better understand the mentality behind this miscreant behavior, I will tell a true story without names. A man of piety was sent by an Islamic society to attend a conference on charity work in Southeast Asia. When he entered his hotel room, he opened the fridge and was shocked to see a full mini-bar. He took out all the bottles and smashed them in the bathroom with the proper indignation. The next day he discovered that the hotel had restocked his fridge. He did the smashing again. The third night, the hotel people thought he needed more than the average guest so they doubled the stock. Again, he smashed everything. He did not think of simply asking them not to stock his fridge. You see, he saw himself as judge, jury, and executioner and took those roles upon himself as the duty exacted by piety.
When he was leaving the hotel, he was presented with a bill for all the bottles he had smashed. He tried to explain himself but was met with polite but firm resistance: What you did with the bottles is your business. Our business is to collect the money. He decided not to pay. The hotel then said that they would have no choice but to itemize the bill and send it to the Islamic society that had sent him there. Realizing that, if that were done, he would have a hard time explaining himself, he coughed up the money from his own pocket.
Are we as a nation waiting to cough up the money from our souls and minds? Some might argue that we have lost our minds, but surely, somewhere we still maintain a semblance of a soul.
