Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

The 20th century Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan writes, “Morality is a flower which springs out of the plant of individuality.”

Although the Muslim world has been reticent to embrace change (much like the Haredi parties in Israel), there are signs of an ideological thaw taking place as we speak. How appropriate! Spring is the time of transformation. It is a pity the Western media acts as if social change in the patriarchal world of Islam is an impossibility. Maintaining the status quo will never solve the great problems we all face, but like a seed breaking forth in the earth, perhaps more people will begin to embrace the kind of attitude that is now surfacing on Arab media for the very first time in its history.

Recently, an American professor has become the first Jew to win the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, popularly known as the “Arab Nobel Prize.” Stanford professor Ronald Levy, who heads of the university’s Oncology department, told Haaretz that as an American Jew married to an Israeli it never crossed his mind that he might win the Saudi-financed competition.The prize, which included $200,000, a medal, and a certificate in English and Arabic, also came with a dinner with Saudi King Abdullah. Levy’s victory is the first time in the award’s 30 years that a Jew has won, which Levy says he took as a sign that Saudi Arabia is becoming more open. Levy won the prize for his part in the development of a drug used in the treatment of many types of cancer that is being widely viewed as revolutionary.

Even more recently . . . .

February 26, 2010 — Clip No. 2414 — memri.org

Former Saudi Shura Council Member Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: The Arab Is Incapable of Individual Thinking

The following excerpts are from an interview with former Saudi Shura Council Member Ibrahim Al-Buleihi, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on February 26, 2010.

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: When we want to study a religious issue, we go back to our heritage. But when we want to study an earthy matter, such as why we are backward, while others are prosperous, we must search for the answer elsewhere, not in our heritage.

Interviewer: Where is “elsewhere”?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: In the West. Without a doubt.

Interviewer: In the West, not the East?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: The East only emulates [the West]. Take Japan, for example – if not for its openness to Western culture, it too would have remained backward.

[...]

The individualism of the Arab has been erased in this society…

Interviewer: What do you mean by erased individualism?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: He is incapable of independent thinking, and therefore, he always rejects what is rejected by society, and accepts what is accepted by society.

Interviewer: So “team spirit” prevails?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: It is the spirit of a herd, not of a team. It is the spirit of the herd that cannot free itself from the captivity of the prevailing culture. Whatever society considers to be good, the individual considers to be good. He is incapable of independent thinking, and of benefiting from the cultures of others. He is incapable of stepping out of the mold imposed on him since childhood.

Interviewer: Should the Arab individual be rebellious, for example?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: Not rebellious, but he should seek the truth. He must not efface his self and dissolve into the herd.

[...]

Interviewer: You criticize the Arabs and praise Israel. Do you think that the Arabs should follow the Israeli model?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: No, Israel did not create itself. It is an offshoot of the West. They are an offshoot of Western culture. That is why I compared Israel to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. I want to make a very important point.

Interviewer: Excuse me, but I have a question. Do you consider the fact that some countries are offshoots of Western culture to be a good thing or a bad thing?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: It’s a positive thing.

Interviewer: So we should be offshoots of the West as well?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: No, but we should benefit from this rich experience. It is the West that produced all this prosperity. To this day, we are a burden on the West. Even Japan admits that without benefiting from the West, it would not have developed.

Interviewer: Prosperity in what?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: In everything. In the value, liberties, and dignity of human beings, as well as in the development of science, of technology, and of life. Do you believe that life today is the same as it was ten centuries ago? This tremendous change was produced by the West. Who else produced it?

Interviewer: But shouldn’t the notions of the West – such as human rights – be viewed as an accumulated achievement, in which all societies played a role?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: It is not an accumulated achievement.

Interviewer: It was achieved solely by the West?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: Undoubtedly.

[...]

Tyranny is a tremendous obstacle, which makes any progress impossible.

Interviewer: Do you believe that this theory applies to Iraq, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, whom you describe as…

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: Iraq has not been permitted to achieve stability. The whole world has intervened in its affairs, as we have seen.

Interviewer: The West, which you praise so highly, intervenes in Iraq.

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: No, the West intervened in Japan’s affairs as well, and managed to save Japan from tyranny. Today, Japan is considered a model of democracy, of liberties, and of all the advantages that the West has produced.

[...]

Interviewer: You have said that during their conquests at the advent of Islam, the Arabs emerged from the deserts in order to conquer, not to learn. What did you mean by that?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: In my view, over the centuries, the Arabs believed – and continue to believe – that they have sufficient knowledge and wisdom, and that they do not need to learn anything from others, because they appeared, on the stage of history, in order to conquer, not to learn, to teach, not to study…

Interviewer: As guiders, not people seeking the guidance of others.

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: That’s right. This delusion of the Arabs persists to this day, even though the entire world has changed. The world has changed, but they still believe that it is their duty to teach others, and it is the duty of others to heed them. The truth is that the Arabs have nothing to offer others, yet they continue… This horrible delusion, this belief in one’s own perfection, the belief that others must learn from them, makes it impossible for them to benefit from modern culture.

Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)