Spiritual strength is a great source of help for people struggling with difficulties. It has a double impact on human beings. It boosts their spirits and conquers feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety, loss, and laxity. It fills them with confidence, happiness, and resoluteness.
Undermining spiritual strength and destroying morale is a tactic favored by imperialist states. They use it in their conflicts with nations. To ensure victory, they try to kill any spirit of resistance. They use constant propaganda to make the resistance feel small.
a) Fabricated News Reports
The media uses deliberate psychological tactics. They present real facts or create illusions about the power of imperialist states. They aim to delude the reader, listener, or viewer. They lead him to believe that resistance is futile. They suggest that self-defense is suicidal, and that opposition leads to total annihilation.
b) Studies Aimed at Making People Feel Frustrated
The media is not the only tool used by colonial states. They also use research, studies, and selective statistics. They focus attention on their own scientific and intellectual superiority. This creates an inferiority complex in weaker or less developed countries. Citizens feel increasingly frustrated by the perceived superiority of the dominant powers. Any attempt to develop through creativity is discouraged. The underdeveloped countries turn to the advanced colonizers for assistance. They ensure their compatriots learn about the developed countries, often cultivating distorted images of their civilization. The frustrated people end up losing their own identities. They become followers with no significant role to play, living off the crumbs of the dominant civilization.
c) Biased and Incomplete Representation of Cultural Heritage
Some research and studies aim to destroy the intellectual and spiritual heritage of weak people. They do this by highlighting negative aspects or neglecting positive ones. They present the civilized challenges of other people. These studies intend to negate historical contributions. They suggest, unconsciously, that their history has no power, vitality, or originality. They do this to deprive the nation of its intellectual and spiritual roots. This causes the nation to feel empty and incompetent compared to others.
To illustrate, consider the Orientalist movement that arose in Europe centuries ago. That movement studied our scientific, literary, and spiritual heritage with the aim of casting doubt on it. Some Orientalists subjected our recorded heritage to false speculations. They took it out of its true context and relied on dubious sources. This led to a greater distortion of the truth. It created a wider gap between people and their own history. This is evident in the works of Orientalists who studied pre-Islamic literature with great skepticism. They extended this skepticism to the glorious Quran itself. These studies tried to exaggerate the significance of things like Islamic mysticism (Sufism). They concentrated on negative aspects that helped boost their own impressive images.
In stating this, we are not claiming that all historical references are absolutely authentic. We wish to draw attention to the type of analysis used. This analysis obviously served an underlying political and religious purpose.
In truth, Orientalist studies of Islam tried hard to present it in a vague way. They gave many misinterpretations. They came up with assumptions that had no historical or intellectual basis. The main objective was to devalue Islam in the minds of its followers. They aimed to remove the sacred stature of its figures. This would clear their heads of all its beliefs and open the door to a new world with new figures and a new religion. This is the case for any nation that lacks intellectual and cultural strength when it encounters new ways of thinking.
We therefore believe that preaching and colonization in Islamic nations are two phenomena that go side by side with the Orientalist movement. They have the same aim: to dominate Muslims in every possible way. This is done after weakening them intellectually, militarily, economically, and spiritually. In other words, after draining them of all their strength.
Edited excerpts from "Islam and the Logic of Force"
Spiritual strength is a great source of help for people struggling with difficulties. It has a double impact on human beings. It boosts their spirits and conquers feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety, loss, and laxity. It fills them with confidence, happiness, and resoluteness.
Undermining spiritual strength and destroying morale is a tactic favored by imperialist states. They use it in their conflicts with nations. To ensure victory, they try to kill any spirit of resistance. They use constant propaganda to make the resistance feel small.
a) Fabricated News Reports
The media uses deliberate psychological tactics. They present real facts or create illusions about the power of imperialist states. They aim to delude the reader, listener, or viewer. They lead him to believe that resistance is futile. They suggest that self-defense is suicidal, and that opposition leads to total annihilation.
b) Studies Aimed at Making People Feel Frustrated
The media is not the only tool used by colonial states. They also use research, studies, and selective statistics. They focus attention on their own scientific and intellectual superiority. This creates an inferiority complex in weaker or less developed countries. Citizens feel increasingly frustrated by the perceived superiority of the dominant powers. Any attempt to develop through creativity is discouraged. The underdeveloped countries turn to the advanced colonizers for assistance. They ensure their compatriots learn about the developed countries, often cultivating distorted images of their civilization. The frustrated people end up losing their own identities. They become followers with no significant role to play, living off the crumbs of the dominant civilization.
c) Biased and Incomplete Representation of Cultural Heritage
Some research and studies aim to destroy the intellectual and spiritual heritage of weak people. They do this by highlighting negative aspects or neglecting positive ones. They present the civilized challenges of other people. These studies intend to negate historical contributions. They suggest, unconsciously, that their history has no power, vitality, or originality. They do this to deprive the nation of its intellectual and spiritual roots. This causes the nation to feel empty and incompetent compared to others.
To illustrate, consider the Orientalist movement that arose in Europe centuries ago. That movement studied our scientific, literary, and spiritual heritage with the aim of casting doubt on it. Some Orientalists subjected our recorded heritage to false speculations. They took it out of its true context and relied on dubious sources. This led to a greater distortion of the truth. It created a wider gap between people and their own history. This is evident in the works of Orientalists who studied pre-Islamic literature with great skepticism. They extended this skepticism to the glorious Quran itself. These studies tried to exaggerate the significance of things like Islamic mysticism (Sufism). They concentrated on negative aspects that helped boost their own impressive images.
In stating this, we are not claiming that all historical references are absolutely authentic. We wish to draw attention to the type of analysis used. This analysis obviously served an underlying political and religious purpose.
In truth, Orientalist studies of Islam tried hard to present it in a vague way. They gave many misinterpretations. They came up with assumptions that had no historical or intellectual basis. The main objective was to devalue Islam in the minds of its followers. They aimed to remove the sacred stature of its figures. This would clear their heads of all its beliefs and open the door to a new world with new figures and a new religion. This is the case for any nation that lacks intellectual and cultural strength when it encounters new ways of thinking.
We therefore believe that preaching and colonization in Islamic nations are two phenomena that go side by side with the Orientalist movement. They have the same aim: to dominate Muslims in every possible way. This is done after weakening them intellectually, militarily, economically, and spiritually. In other words, after draining them of all their strength.
Edited excerpts from "Islam and the Logic of Force"