I can totally understand why a housewife would sit with some guests tediously analyzing the reasons that led to the failure of her sponge cake recipe or explaining the most recent glass-cleaning techniques.
Such housewives indulge in limiting their talk to issues concerning the small world they belong. However, I find it difficult to understand how people with scientific and ideological titles follow the same methodology when writing books and appear on interviews that analyze the miserable situation of the Muslim world. Such experts repeatedly come out with the same mantra that “Muslims have drifted away from their religion”.
Why haven’t any of these people compiled scientific research and surveys that deal with the reasons why Muslims have supposedly drifted away from their religion? Such phrases have negative connotations and are one of the primary reasons why violent extremists have appeared in the very first place. Any sane person would question the meaning behind the phrase “Muslims have drifted away from their religion”? How do we categorize people we meet in our daily lives as close or far away from religion? Is wearing a Hijab or having a long beard enough sign to help us identify a true Muslim? Do such outward signs of piety really reflect the true spiritual state of an individual?
The most important question is how did people with such views actually reach the conclusion that most Muslims have drifted away from Islam? In order to support such assumptions one needs accurate figures and statistics. The research has to follow correct methods of analysis beginning perhaps with the definition of the phrase “Muslims have drifted away from their religion”. Then a foolproof examination tool must be developed to study a five to ten percent sample group of approximately 130 million Muslims. The results should then be gathered and analyzed by experts and highly specialized statistical programs.
By assuming that deterioration in this situation means a decline in development rates, the very same process of analysis must be applied to confirm the existence of a clear relation between a lack of religiousness and standards of development. By doing that, we could possibly verify the credibility of such an assumption.
At this point it is worth noting that a study of the relations between drifting away from religion and 49 percent of children not enrolled at elementary schools in Islamic countries would make material for an interesting research report.
The difficulties in carrying out such a massive research aren’t just related to financial expenses, there are many other obstacles. The idea of being close or far away from religion is something that cannot be defined, not even by those who peddle such mantra. There are minor disagreements that can start fierce wars making it impossible to agree on the type of behavior that identifies an individual’s position in accordance to his or her religion.
There is one fact that has slipped the minds of people who make such assumptions, and that is the issue of disunity. Muslims are divided along racial and cultural lines even in relation to the understanding of their religion. In fact internal differences on religious issues are common even among Arabs.
The results from studies carried out by international organizations concerned with development make it evident to the rest of the world that not all Islamic countries are presently deteriorating. Malaysia’s drive toward development and Dubai’s economic success make Muslims proud.
We live in a global village and with the advancement in technology we have free access to relevant documents and data. As Muslims, we really need to stop judging individuals and assume that we have the capability of feeling the pain of nearly one and a half million people.
Every time I read or see someone peddling the same old boring message I remember a scene from a play when people in a rural area asked a doctor to examine them. The doctor asked the villagers to stand together and take a deep breath while he stood at a distance putting his stethoscope to the air to measure their heartbeat.
