The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center

Chapter 9 Islam in the Service of Empire
Islam and Knowledge vs. Socialization
The very foundation of hegemony and empire lie in the public holding
largely facile views of truths essential to the rulers.
By Zahir Ebrahim | Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
I sometimes like to tee off my writings on the human condition from the opinions I hear being
expressed among the common man, in the grapevine, or in the news media. The quoted
perspective below is from an unknown website written by an anonymous person. It expresses
the seeds of a crucially pertinent topic to the human condition which is examined in
considerable depth in this article.
'On occasions, I feel Muslims ‘lose’ something when it comes to religion. I am
speaking about the second last prophet Jesus or Isa (E-sa) peace be upon
him. ... My general opinion of Muslims is that they tend to take on a facile
view of Christianity ... I get the feeling that this may be because: If an
increase in discussions by Muslims of Jesus (pbuh) were to take place, it
would be percieved as “being Christian”.' ---- article [1]
The interesting perspective embodied in that quote which inspired me to address this issue, is
along the lines which reduce to the following empiricism: Human beings in general don't tend
to appreciate what is not part of one's own socialization.
Furthermore, with suitable inculcation, this lack of appreciation can span the gamut of behavior
from remaining largely indifferent to being outright antagonistic to what's not perceived as
one's own. The limit of that of course being intense doctrinal hatred and warfare.
This is pretty much a universal trait. An observable universal truism if there is one. And just as
The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity 166 / 334 Zahir Ebrahim