Facebook Vs. Drones

Many people consider it ironic to condemn west in a language which is western, on a platform created in the west like facebook, on a hardware like computers or cellphones again manufactured and imported from west... on a surface the dichotomy is unmistakable, however on surface only...

The problem is with the inclination of the public to generalize, which we all do in areas where our knowledge is limited. For example, for a layman a plastic is a plastic, however for an expert it is PP (Polypropylene), ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), Acrylic, PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), PC (Polycarbonate), Polythene etc. So how this example explains the problem being discussed here?

Western civilization is a complex phenomenon, its not a single homogeneous mixture of the same kind of people thinking the same thing, having exactly the same objective of invading Muslim lands and committing genocide there (as and when required) etc... There are good people there, and bad as well; there must be some people there who hate Islam, but there are many who have reverted to Islam as well and many more who would be reverting in future! Also west manufacture all kind of stuff including Alcohol and Porn, do all kind of academic and scientific research, and export different good or bad stuff including wars to different places in the world. So one needs to be careful what needs to be opted out from the west and what not.

Prophet Muhammad s.a.w didn't also rejected everything from the previous practices going on in Arabia like those which were not contradictory with the Divine message, and the rest were either altered or prohibited.

Similarly to consider west as a single entity isn't wise, for example a large number of western population have the potential to revert to Islam and when they will do, and it would be really absurd to expect them to reject their whole lifestyle and live in sahara desert in Africa! An intelligent filtering system is therefore needed through which we can categorize constituents of western civilization and their actions as acceptable and unacceptable, in such a way that they are brought into the folds of Islam sooner or latter.

Terry Holdbrooks, the Guantanamo Bay Guard
who accepted Islam. Source: The Guardian

In this regards, the critical ones from the west who has been highlighting their own mistakes can be really helpful. From Howard Zinn, Jean Kilbourne, Michael Moore, Naomi klein, Noam Chomsky, John Perkins, Ron Paul to Medea Benjamin, Alex John etc. are all westerner / Americans who have been critical to the policies of their own governments, corporate sector, military industrial complex, etc... but the weakness in their approach is that they are not sure about the ultimate solution to the problems they are facing there. A westerner, particularly females who reverts to Islam often explains that it was the way they were treated by their own society which motivated them to accept Islam because in Islam they found salvation and peace. Imagine if a guantanamo bay prison security guard has the potential to accept Islam while getting inspired by the detainees then should he be considered as an enemy or an asset?

This doesn't mean that if US govt. for example comes to bomb your neighbourhood then you shouldn't resist, the right to self defence is always your right and responding by stealing weapons from your enemy would also be considered OK if you are out of ammunition.

Same is the case with Indians, while I was raising my eyebrows on our youth when they were watching Chennai Express in atrium cinema despite Indian violation of LoC, then someone argued that why you are using Facebook despite US bombing Muslims across the globe?... this response made the same categorization mistake!... Watching and enjoying Chennai express is an appreciation of a vulgar and obscene culture, values, ideals which is against that of ours and to protect ourselves from influence the same had been the very reason for the creation of Pakistan, in comparison facebook / internet is a medium of communication which can also be used to spread Islamic ideas and values, defend Pakistan's identity, exactly the way it is done these days by social media while countering the anti-Pakistan campaigns by various private news channels; which means watching Chennai Express is something very opposite to using facebook. (just an example)...

Therefore a line needs to be drawn and it needs to realized that it is a "War of Ideas" (see RAND report 'Building Modern Muslims Network') and to win it we need mature and learned minds who know how to differentiate between what is lethal and beneficial in context of making the west realize the solution to their problems which do not exist in their secular and liberal tool box, but in the teachings of Islam.