Fearing the hornet nest

 

Subject: Fearing the hornets nest

For a Muslim there is no useful history before the birth of Mohamed. The faith, brought to focus by the Prophet, transformed the Arabic perception of what was important in life and the intellectual substance of many countries in the Middle East, their sense of their history and their  place in that history was totally reconfigured by the arrival of Mohamed. The religions rigorous totality transformed what made up life before into one of strict religious observance, there was no place for people outside the religious culture and one had to conform or suffer the consequences. The hold that this strict, very specific interpretation of religiosity had over the Arabs living in the region, spreading on to Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines was due to the strict, almost robotic functional dynamic of daily prayer. Where ever you are, prayer is dictated by celestial time and an awareness irrespective of your place on the globe you turn and face Mecca, restating each day its geographical and historic presence and therefore your identity and religious focus.

This collective obedience of millions of worshipers, prostrating themselves in what appears to be abject subservience sends out a powerful message and becomes the the timepiece on which you form your day putting non religious things in second place. Religion was said to be the opium of the poor and the hallucinogenic observance in specific nations across the globe has seen the Muslim faith grow in power, not only religious power but political power since politics has always been an important compartment of the faith.
The hold that religion has over the mind of the religious convert surpasses individual or national power and in this way, Islamism  is especially potent in binding people to a cause which could be used for political ends. In these instances the Imam holds sway over many thousands if not millions of minds which, which ever way you look at it can be seen as a threat.
In ideologically totalitarian regimes such as in Russia or China the Muslim is only tolerated in a rigorously circumspect and often brutal way. The totalitarian state recognising religion as being akin to their own form of totalitarianism by the insistence of conformity. In the West were 'independence and acquiescence' struggle side by side there is no reluctance to allow religion to grow even when it has a fair amount of militancy attached in the name of Islam and blatant misogyny practiced as part of its medieval structure. We tolerate this because we are blinded by message that religion is one of the pillars on which civilisation stands and also a fear to disturb what could well be a hornets nest.