Arid thoughts
To beat the desert and grow a garden that is aesthetically pleasing there is a fundamental cycle, which is also observed in human affairs

November 25, 2005
iranian.com

PARIS -- Muslims stir in today's world because they are an assertive nation trying to finally integrate into the mainstream world. They are trying to make a garden of a region whence there were but oasises encricled by encroaching deserts,to understand them we need to adopt a more wholesome perspective. For instance I would put forward my "Tod der Wüste" (German for death of the desert) approach to analysis of the Muslim world. To beat the desert and grow a garden that is aesthetically pleasing there is a fundamental cycle, which is also observed in human affairs.

Fertilisation: To cultivate the harsh desert one must fertilise and hydrogenate the soil. Water and fertilisers must be in great abundance in order to return the soil to fecundity.Pruning: The soil has become healthy and plant life as returned in full varierty and exhuberance. There is such a great profusion of growth that it makes one forget that a desert once existed. However the right plants can be killed off by the numerous weeds, which are far more predatory and rapidly spread in the garden. Hence this period has a particular focus on pruning and weeding off those plants are potentially dangerous or plain unnecessary, which could be done naturally or synthetically.

Rooting: The desert, once forgotten, could encroach once again because of the erosion of fertile topsoil and evaporation of liquid. It is only by planting the strong roots of sturdy trees can the desert be successfully guarded against and the virtuous cycle of growth perpetuated.

Structuring: A garden must unveil a pleasing symmetry and a fundamental order to reveal the mind of the designer. To optimise growth to suit local peculiarites and relect specific features of the climate can only be done by cultivating indigenous plants that survived the transition and by indigenising exotic foreign varieties planted in the aftermath. Ensuring a healthy balance will continual guidance but the design of the garden will be moulded in its initial stages, subject to sweeping overhauls in the future which obliterates the past.

Planting: Finally the plan comes to fruition and it is time to effect action. Things won't go according to plan but hopefully the main gist will have been preserved since theory will never conform to reality. Trial and error will ensure a dynamic process of growth, life and death replacing the austere stagnation of what once was.

Protecting: Throughout the gardener must protect his creation and sometimes he may require the assistance of others. For instance if he is frail and old, still wearied by a lifetime in the desert, perhaps his efforts at pruning will have to be supplanted by one who is more vigorous and active. When structuring he must require architects, botanists for planting and borrow the water of his neighbours to launch this new cycle. Perhaps his clan will turn against him for going against the ways of the desert and he may need to seek protection against them by appealing to those who may seem of an alien nature whereas sometimes it is the will of heaven to whom he must submit himself when there is a particularly harsh day. Nevertheless it may seem that he has no control by relying so much on others but he remains at the nexus and over time develops an almost symbiotic relationship with his garden.

Considering my considerably limited knowledge about botany, plants or gardens and or even life-cycle I still think it's an apt analogy for Islam. The garden is the Islamic world whereas its collective health, opinions and state of mind is personified by its gardener.

In the century past, perhaps dating back to the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt and the stimulus of Western ideas on the Muslim consciousness, there has been a period of fertilisation. Blogosphere argues that there is no debate in the Islamic world I would beg to disagree. The great issues of the day have been analysed, talked about and thoroughly discussed, indeed Muslims rank amongst the politically engaged people in the world (in Middle Eastern cafes or Cairo dinners the discussion will inevitably drift to politics) and are keenly aware of the political events.

Perhaps it is a remnant of the tribal egalitarianism in that all members, at least free males, had a stake in the tribe's success whereas in settled China and India the political hierarchy is more established and therefore there is a greater acceptance of the established order. In these two regions it is the historic poverty that has more consciously imprinted itself on the national psyche hence their cultural leaning towards economic growth and greater prosperity. Muslims, moreso than these peoples have a greater political awareness, simply quite astounding for a region that has known autocracy and depotism for most of it's civilised existence.

At any rate returning to my original point the ideas are flowing and are discussed, which is why the fertilisation process of Islam has been tremendously successful despite it's hundred year epoch. It is an unqualified success and for those who argue that Muslims have suffered from the intellectual equivalent of a dry spigot would have a counter argument from me.However I believe that from an aggregate perspective the Islamic world is in the pruning stage. There are many "plants" or ideas growing however it is the weeds that are spreading too fast and too quickly. I would say the height of the seventies when terrorism and Islamism finally had an impact (culminated by Khoimeini in 1979) marked the transition between the two phases. The ideas flew between one another and sadly the weeds one heralding the age of pruning, and the Iranian revolution (the Black September terrorism by the Palestinians, the shift from hot war to guerrilla terror tactics in the Israel-Levant aggression implied the end of Fertilisation and the Age of Pruning.)

We've seen terror for the past thirty years however now it's in the news because we've finally conquered it and I'm confident we're on the transition to the Rooting period.Baathism, Islamism and terrorism are these weeds and indeed it is critical to uproot them faster than they can grow. America is the equivalent of the hired Hispanic help who is assigned the onerous task of plucking out these weeds one by one. Well actually not assigned so much as forced by circumstances when these weeds are rapidly encroaching into neighbouring gardens and affecting the overall stability and health of the entire environment. Thus it is a natural process we're going through, only that our perspective is microscopic, therefore we focus on the act of the weeding itself rather than its ultimate goal (a propos a good example is Iraq where continuous coverage of suicide bombing and Iraqi dissatisfaction mars the fundamental ground situation of a rapidly developing nation).

Over the time horizon of one's choice we can have different perspective and mine is the ultimate inevitability of this war on terrorism. I see it now when Al Qaeda has been reduced to making vague threats, it's leaders cowering under the boots of America soldiers dispersed throughout the four corners of the world. The best Zarqawi can do is to kill his own people instead of Œinfidels.‚ The ŒJihad‚ today is directed towards anyone who opposes stability and tolerance. The recent callous bombings in a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding opened the eyes of Palestinians to the pains of suicide bombings. Why are ordinary people being made target of a ruthless campaign? The urge to establish a puritan state willed by Allah transgresses all norms, this is the best education that Islamic nation is receiving the barefaced and heartless face of terror.

Pruning has been a sucess and the critical mass has been defused with Islamism limited to isolated enclaves. This stage is being passed and what is funny is that we won't ever actually realise that we've left it because it will be so gradual. It will be only upon reflection in later years that we will realise that we stopped pruning and that there are actually no more weeds in the garden.

I guess the pyschological attitude towards to the WOT (war on terror) is that there will be an epic battle, in the same vein as the LOTR trilogies perhaps between Bush and OBL, that will confirm the triumph of good over evil. Instead it is the imperceptible blurring of this terror presence from our lives and consciousness that we will struggle to recall them and indeed there may be a time when duo of Osama Bin Laden/Zarqawi will be considered in the same vein as Hitler, a monumentally evil man safely consigned to the recesses of our minds and the pages of history.

Adapt the history of the French Republic and one will see that it has followed a similar path from the Revolution for it was only in 1875, nearly a century later, that France finally abandoned the monarchy for a republican consitution and set up the institutions required for the prosperity of modern France.The process of building institutions (planting roots), as is going in Iraq, is the greater story and is what will catalyse the Islamic world. Once the topsoil remains the chances of desertification is substantially reduced and that is the key to a continuation of our plan.

A developed Islamic world is a bulwark for the common civilisational roots with Christendom and the process, once so gradual, will assume exponential dimension rapidly passing through the following stages after the painstakingly long task of fertiling the soil and plucking out every single weed. However I end this on an ominous note by casting an eye eastward toward the Middle Kingdom where the rains of the heaven have yet to fertilise that arid landscape. The Chinese Imperium will always pale to the American Republic, in grandeur and brilliance, and will never pose a direct threat but it is the interest of the world that they effect a reasonable journey towards the garden of enlightenment.