Monday, May 22, 2006

Arabs--Unworthy Guardians of Mecca?

Mecca has always been our locus. Islam was incomplete until Mecca embraced it. Muhammad willed himself to live only as long as Mecca was not his. For forteen hundred years we have gone to Mecca in search of God, in fulfillment of duty. We have assured that the pilgrim's path to Mecca be unimpeded. We have stepped in the footprints of Abraham in Mecca. We have kissed the black stone of Mecca. We have stoned the devil in Mecca. We have killed those like Hallaj who dared to make a Mecca in their backyard. We have told stories about the invincibility of Mecca - how no birds fly directly over the Kaba; how even an army of elephants were rent asunder on the plains outside Mecca; attempted to prove how Mecca is the center of the universe; how Adam first landed in Mecca (and not Sri Lanka); how Mecca is our everything. Source.

You can read here and here, where the Saudis are desecrating holy sites within Mecca and Medina. This problem is well known, and is one of many complaints that devout muslims have against the house of Saud, and its guardianship of the holy cities. It is not merely the house of Saud that is unworthy, however. It is actually the entire group of people known as "arabs."

Islam has outgrown the arabs, and is in need of a more cosmopolitan outlook. Wahabis and terrorists are all that arab muslims seems capable of producing. This gives Islam a bad name to the rest of the world, and induces antaqonism among the masses of unbelievers.

It is unlikely that the Qu'ran was dictated word for word in arabic to Muhammed. The Prophet was illiterate and incapable of writing or reading. It is more likely that over time the Prophet's spoken words were copied by scribes, with frequent transcription errors through the years. Recent German scholarship appears to substantiate this commonsense view.

Given that arabs are laggards of the world, and desecrators of the holy places, is it not better for the torch to be passed to more civilised muslim people? Another language can be chosen as a standard for the Qu'ran, a language spoken by more civilised people than the arabs, by a more successful and enlightened people, such as the Turks.

Turkey was the home of the most recent world caliphate, and as the most modern muslim nation on earth, Turkey is still the logical guardian of the holy places Mecca and Medina. The house of Saud may keep its dwindling oil, such as is left, but what matters is that Islam is in stable and worthy hands.

Furthermore, Mecca and Medina should be guarded by international troops, to establish the global importance of these cities. There will be no more denying of entry to non-muslims to the holy sites. That is the type of bigotry and prejudice which creates antagonism against Islam in the hearts of otherwise peaceful unbelievers.

Arabs have had over a thousand years to prove themselves worthy guardians of holy places. They have failed miserably. It is time for the torch of guardianship to pass.

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