The American appears—despite advanced science and meticulous work—primitive in his view of life and its other human components in a way that is astonishing. This stark contradiction likely contributes to Americans appearing eccentric in the eyes of foreigners who observe their lives from a distance and struggle to reconcile their exceptional industrial civilization and precise management of work and life with this primitiveness in sentiment and behavior, a primitiveness reminiscent of the ages of forests and caves!

The American seems primitive in his admiration for physical strength and material power in general, while he greatly undervalues ideals, principles, and morals in his individual, family, and social life—except in the realm of work, economics, and finance. The sight of crowds following American football games, with their rough nature that has little to do with actual "football," where players do not use their feet but instead snatch the ball with their hands and run with it towards the goal while opposing players try to stop them by any means—including blows to the stomach and brutal fractures of arms and legs—is a sight that reflects a primitive fascination with brute strength. The crowds revel in the violence, caring little for the rules of the game and more for the sight of spilled blood and shattered limbs. Their cheers resonate with cries like: "Crush his head! Break his neck! Smash his ribs! Grind him to dust!" Such a scene leaves no doubt about the primitiveness of sentiment that idolizes raw physical power.

With the same spirit, the American public follows conflicts between groups and sects, as well as struggles between nations and peoples. I do not understand how the myth—especially in the East—that Americans are a peace-loving people has gained traction!

The American, by nature, is a warrior who loves conflict. The ideas of war and struggle run deep in his blood and are evident in his behavior. This aligns with American history, as the first waves of settlers left their homelands for America with a colonial mindset, driven by competition and conflict. They fought their way into the land, first battling the indigenous inhabitants (Native Americans) in an ongoing war of extermination, then engaging in combat with Latin settlers, pushing them southward into Central and South America. The Anglo-Saxons then fought the British Empire in the War of Independence under George Washington. Later, the North fought the South in the Civil War led by Abraham Lincoln, a war framed as a struggle to "free the slaves" but, in reality, driven by economic competition. The enslaved Africans brought to America to work as forced laborers could not withstand the cold northern climate, so they migrated to the South, where they provided cheap labor, granting the southern states an economic advantage. To counter this, the North declared war under the banner of abolition!

The era of isolationism ended when America entered World War I, followed by World War II, then the Korean War, and various other conflicts. How, then, has the myth of America as a peace-loving nation persisted despite such a history of warfare?

Material vitality is sacred in American life, while weakness—regardless of its cause—is a crime. If one is weak, no principle can save him, and he has no place in the vast arena of life. As for the dead, they are guilty of the ultimate crime: dying, and thus forfeiting any right to concern or respect.

I was once at George Washington Hospital in Washington, D.C., when an unusual wave of commotion spread through the normally quiet institution. Patients capable of moving left their beds and gathered in the hallways, whispering curiously. We soon learned that a hospital staff member had been in a severe elevator accident and was on the verge of death. An American patient went to see for himself and returned to describe the scene: the injured man’s neck had been crushed, his skull shattered, and his tongue hung limply from his mouth. To my shock, the man telling the story laughed and mimicked the dying man's final moments. Even more disturbing, those listening burst into laughter, amused by this grotesque reenactment!

Thus, I was not surprised when a friend of mine shared his own experiences with American attitudes toward death.

A colleague told me he had attended a funeral where the deceased was displayed in a glass casket, as per American custom, for mourners to view before offering their final farewell. But after the procession, as the attendees gathered in the reception room, he was stunned to find them cracking jokes—about the deceased and other topics—laughing heartily, including the man's own wife and family, all while his body lay wrapped in shrouds nearby!

The Egyptian director of academic missions in Washington was once invited to an event with his wife. Shortly before the event, his wife fell ill, so he called to apologize for their absence. To his surprise, the hosts assured him that no apology was necessary—he could still attend alone. They even suggested it would be good fortune, as another female guest had just lost her husband suddenly before the event and would now have a companion for the evening!

I once visited an American woman who was helping me with my English. She had a friend over, and they were engaged in conversation when I arrived. The friend remarked, “I was lucky! I had him insured, and even his treatment cost me little because he was covered by Blue Cross.” She then smiled cheerfully.

After she left, I remained with my hostess, assuming they had been discussing a pet—perhaps her dog—though I found it odd that she showed no sorrow for its death. But then, without prompting, my hostess clarified: "She was talking about her husband. He died three days ago!" When I expressed my astonishment at her composure, she responded matter-of-factly, "He had been sick for over three months!"

My mind drifted back to a deeply moving scene I had witnessed years ago—one that inspired me to write an unwritten reflection titled The Mourning of Birds. I recalled a group of chickens we were raising at home, which stood still in silent shock around a freshly slaughtered one, as if struck by an emotional thunderbolt. The scene left such an impression on our household that we never again dared to slaughter a chicken in their presence.

I also remembered the familiar sight of crows mourning their dead—a scene many have observed. The gathering of crows, their hovering in tight formation, their various cries and calls, their attempts to carry away their deceased companion—all these behaviors hint at an instinctive sorrow, an awareness of death.

Reverence for death seems almost innate. It is not mere primitive sentimentality that erodes it from the American psyche but rather the stark emptiness of life devoid of emotional empathy. Their existence is built on material equations, bodily impulses, and deliberate disregard for the very things the rest of the world holds sacred. They revel in defying age-old traditions, as if doing so grants their "New World" an edge over the so-called "Old World."

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Source: Al-Risala Magazine, Issue (959), 19/11/1951.

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If the family is the basic unit of society, then the network of relationships among its members forms the foundation of this unit. It plays a pivotal role in shaping the values and principles adopted by the family members, starting from the parents and extending to the children. Thus, it serves as the “practical translation” of the value system believed by all its members.

From this standpoint, a family whose members predominantly adhere to a utilitarian value system will not be cohesive in any way. Their relationships will resemble contractual ones based on conditional exchanges of interests rather than mutual support, solidarity, affection, and mercy. This contractual nature has become a hallmark of the era of Western cultural dominance, which measures everything by its price, including kinship relations.

However, the civilization of Islam, based on divine revelation as the primary reference for guiding family relationships, places the concept of value in parallel with the concept of price. It asserts from the outset that there are things that are truly priceless, with family relationships being foremost among them.

Building family relationships on foundations derived from the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet is the only safeguard in our time against the flood of materialistic drift that seeks to commodify every value and price every virtue. This is in the dominance of materialism, which is the essence of Western civilization and the main reason for its technical superiority and moral decline simultaneously.

The statistics that record Western superiority in technology and science are the same ones that show a rapid trend towards demographic decline due to a decreased desire for marriage and childbirth, and an increase in rates of homosexuality and other practices glorified by the devilish propaganda machine in the so-called progressive countries. The reality is that what is progressing is materialism, its ability to shape and transform, while humanity is sinking into a deep abyss of loss.

Astonishingly, in this context, the alarm bells rung by Western institutions, including the International Monetary Fund in its report issued in June 2023, focus on the danger of the phenomenon from a materialistic perspective as well. Demographic decline means the formation of a future population bomb, characterized by a shrinking workforce and thus increased financial burdens on social welfare systems, which in turn burdens national economies!

In contrast to this perception of man and life, the religion of nature, revealed by Allah, portrays a different picture of family relationships based on mercy as the foundation among family members. This divine guidance is reflected in Allah's saying: “And We have enjoined upon man to his parents, good treatment.” (Al-Ahqaf: 15), making the relationship with parents a value that transcends utility or price. Similarly, the Prophet's guidance in his saying: “The most liked deeds to Allah are the prayer at its proper time, then goodness to the parents.” (Agreed upon), and his saying: “The merciful are shown mercy by Ar-Rahman.” (Narrated by Abu Dawood and At-Tirmidhi)

The echo of removing family relationships from the circle of utility, which governs the materialistic framework of life, is even recognized in studies by Western research institutions. A study conducted by researchers at Brigham Young University in 2018 found that families placing the satisfaction of God at the center of their lives exhibit stronger bonds among their members. However, the results of these studies remain confined to a reality dominated by money, overshadowed by lobbies profiting from human destruction!

The Master of Creation, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a walking Quran in this sense. He stood with Lady Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, to fulfill her passion for watching the Abyssinians play with spears in the mosque. He would kiss his grandsons, Al-Hasan and Al-Hussain, and show tenderness to them even if they climbed on his back during prayer. He wisely handled jealousy among his wives, and treated his servant as a family member.

How far we have strayed from these values and drifted into what materialistic dominance has trapped us. It is time we reinstated our religious values at the center of our family lives, practicing this practically by collectively engaging in religious rituals and laws. This ensures the blessing in the network of family relationships, which is priceless and unparalleled by any number. It is, at its core, the divine success Allah grants only to His pious servants.

One of the manifestations of this success is the unique social cohesion reflected in the family through the collective practice of rituals and laws. This cohesion is the result of adhering to Allah's commands, which is why the Quran expresses it with the term “placed” in Allah's saying: “And He placed between you affection and mercy.” (Ar-Rum: 21) The matter is not a chemical compound produced by rigid steps, but rather related to the purification of souls by subjecting them to what Allah commands and diverting them from what He forbids.

These values enhance a healthy family environment and help its members handle life's difficulties with greater maturity and balance. Otherwise, the materialistic grind knows no end, precisely what the Quran warns about in Allah's saying: “And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life.” (Taha: 124)

Depression is not necessarily poverty, as even the wealthiest may experience it because they are the least purified in their souls and the farthest from obeying their Lord, thus the farthest from the values of truth, justice, and goodness. This later reflects on how they raise their children and develop their personalities.

The role of the family is fundamental in shaping social identity, playing a crucial role in forming the individuals' identity and values. When family relationships are built on strong religious foundations, it consequently leads to the formation of a cohesive society. Therefore, we must address the phenomenon of family disintegration as an existential threat to our societies, not just a social phenomenon as viewed from the Western perspective.

Our societies cannot exist if families disintegrate, and there are no alternatives that can replace the basic building unit of society, as the proponents of gender ideologies and monosexual families claim, along with other dazzling materialistic Western ideas that are rapidly leading to self-annihilation.

Building our family relationships on foundations derived from divine revelation is not merely a religious duty but also a social necessity that enhances societal stability and cohesion. However, reinforcing these relationships requires collective effort in practicing what Allah has commanded, with the essence of this being the purification of the souls.

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The term “Secularism” has historical roots dating back to the religious wars in Europe that erupted in the 17th century and the emergence of the modern nation-state, where power shifted to the civil state away from the domination of the church.

The late scholar Dr. Abdel Wahab El-Messiri, in his encyclopedia “Partial Secularism and Comprehensive Secularism,” differentiates between two approaches to understanding secularism. Some restrict it to the separation of religion from politics and the economy, meaning the separation of religion from the state. This type of secularism does not oppose religious and moral principles but does not wish to involve them in worldly affairs subject to experimentation.

There is also comprehensive secularism, which strictly tries to neutralize the relationship between religion and values in various life aspects. It believes that only materialism can explain phenomena and that the material is the center of the universe. This concept developed through eras with the rise of the nation-state, European colonialism, increased production, the erosion of intermediate institutions like the family, the spread of value-free utilitarian thought, a shift towards rampant consumerism, and finally to the post-modern era with the spread of multinational corporations and phenomena such as sexual deviance, the nuclear family, and the misuse of science in medical and research fields.

The secular state, with its educational, entertainment, and media institutions, has reached the human conscience, infiltrated dreams and behavior, and undermined what remains of religious or even human morals!

When Socialism and Liberalism Met

El-Messiri points out the essential material essence of Western philosophies, despite surface differences. The Soviet Union, deeply entrenched in comprehensive communism, quickly adopted liberal values and American goods obsessively upon its fall. Meanwhile, the United States, which still allowed freedom of belief and Protestant religious propaganda, fell deeply into secularism and atheism due to the expansion of industrialization, urbanization, and the commodification of everything, including humans—a process known as “Americanization.” This resulted in the widespread prevalence of McDonald's, Pepsi, hamburgers, sexual advertisements, war movies, the American lifestyle, and songs and literature linked to the grim reality rather than ideals, despite its inherent racist bias against the Third World, Arabs, and Muslims specifically.

Globalization has literally dismembered the world and its people with its colonial advance, the emergence of Westernized elites in the Third World who rule through oppression, supported by Western (democratic secular) countries, or through phenomena like Nazism and Zionism that dismantled Polish, Russian, and Jewish humans in Europe, and Palestinians in our Arab East. Thus, the history of secularism cannot be separated from the history of modern Western colonialism.

Between Nazism and Zionism!

Modern secularism is an expression of the disappearance of values and the sacred from human life, and the glorification of commodities and materialism alone, leading to “the computerization of everything,” as El-Messiri describes. He links what happened to European Jews, who were treated as obsolete parts to be eliminated and transferred to Eastern countries, with what the Zionists, supported by America, are doing today by displacing and exterminating Palestinians.

El-Messiri also connects Nazi concentration camps and gas chambers with the persecution, extermination, and imprisonment faced by Palestinians today at the hands of the Zionist Nazis of our time. This is done by cold-blooded employees who believe these systematic steps are necessary for the security of “Israel,” the offspring of Western colonialism; from their perspective, it is a rational matter unrelated to emotions or history, which they simply erase to let the Darwinian theory of the fittest prevail.

In his famous book “Modernity and the Holocaust,” Polish-born British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman links modernity with the fall of values, with increasing relativism and the absolute religious truth, leading to a focus on the body and the absence of any standard in human behavior. Instead, there is an instrumental rationality concerned only with procedures, not ends, just as the Nazis sought to exterminate the mentally and physically disabled through “euthanasia” before moving to gas chambers to suffocate the Jews, considering them all useless categories!

Some have linked the secular Turkish forces during the rule of Erbakan to this tendency, as they staged a military coup against the people's choice of a moderate Islamic party, the Welfare Party. Here, the secular forces became the greatest adversary of democracy, turning into a fascist secularism until the balance of moderation was restored later.

El-Messiri highlights an important aspect: the impact of Western pragmatic thinking on Arab political elites over the past decades. With it, the Palestine cause shifted from being a matter of land taken from its rightful owners and given to Jews who committed horrific massacres and destruction to reclaiming the borders of 1967. We began to concede little by little, and the discourse changed after the Camp David Accords, taking an economic rather than an Arab nationalist form, until the hope became a ceasefire on innocent people and halting the expansion of settlements.

If we contemplate “Israel,” we will see it as merely a practical application of Western imperialism, which has always exterminated millions and plundered their resources in Africa and Latin America for its interests. Zionism is a secular Darwinian movement that turned Jews and Palestinians into utilitarian materials to achieve its goals, just as it did in Vietnam, Bosnia, Chechnya, and all the roles led by American intelligence.

Secularism from Within

Secularism never carried the dream of peace, justice, and equality as it claims. The French Revolution was a period of sacred violence, Napoleon's armies brought nothing but destruction and death to Eastern countries, as did the British Empire, which plundered the resources and enslaved the people. The Bolshevik Revolution produced Stalin in Russia, and thus were the secular regimes around the world.

El-Messiri, in his encyclopedia, dedicates sections to miserable models produced by secularism, such as the Singaporean hero (transformed into a production hero and a greedy consumer market), the Thai hero (transformed into a sexual force that can be marketed), and finally, the hero by Zionist standards, where sheer material brute force devoid of any value decides to exterminate the other in its camps.

Colonialism, by the logic of “transfer”—meaning a person who believes in moving and has no loyalty to culture or place—created pockets loyal to it in all its former colonies. It moved Chinese people to Malaysia, Jews to Palestine, and Jews also to Argentina, thus moving the human surplus it did not want to achieve its interests.

The idea of transition and instability evolved to include even the human gender. A man could become a woman and vice versa, and the call for free choice of partner emerged, with men marrying men and women marrying women. Thus, humanity fell into the swamp of deviation from any value or instinct.

Comprehensive secularism reduced humans to raw materials, cheap labor, and guaranteed markets for the benefit of the stronger and superior race in its biased colonial view. It encouraged the division of the world into small nation-states, then further divided them and stirred up prejudices to maintain its dominance. Meanwhile, it raised consumption rates, increased market demand, and spread Americanization, ending the uniqueness of cultures and the individuality of humans. It encouraged the idea of immediate gratification of desires outside traditional systems. At its core, America denies humanity and sanctifies materialism. Our duty is to confront secularism with a comprehensive project expressing our open, civilized, and authentic Arab-Islamic identity and instilling it in future generations.

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