Analysis is Not Advocacy

Well, the situation is really bad, in terms of, false narratives and so on. It's rendered masses and masses of people completely estranged from reality, and it's very difficult to combat, frankly. And online, you're basically just chipping away at a glacier because they the the Internet and social media are disproportionately in the English language, and the narratives in the English language are disproportionately created and propagated by non Muslims or by English speaking Muslims in the West who are themselves indoctrinated and alienated from the realities of the Muslim world. The colonizer narratives still dominate news and discourse about Palestine, about Syria, about the Middle East, about the Muslim world generally, in online discourse. And I've talked about it before.

It's like the like the perception of Iran in the Muslim diaspora is completely informed by the West and not by the Muslims in the region. You know, America says that Iran is this big bad opponent, that it's dangerous and poses a threat to Israel. So because America says so, you just go along with it, and you think that the Muslim position should be therefore to support Iran. You only know what America tells you. And if anyone in the region rejects your adulation of Iran as a big bad threat to Israel and tells you that Israel and Iran actually have a symbiotic relationship, then you'll say that those people are Western stooges.

Meanwhile, you only know about Iran what the West tells you. Both sides of the Western spectrum on Palestine, on the Middle East, both sides are neocons. Some are open imperialists and others are camouflaged imperialists. The open ones call for war, and the camouflaged ones also call for war. They just do it under the pretense of advocating defensive war by the Muslim countries.

But both of them want the region to go up in flames. Most people who actually live in the Middle East know this. Certainly the leaders understand this. This makes most English language commentary irrelevant to Muslims in the Muslim world, but it also, broadens the chasm between the Muslim diaspora and the rest of us because they have a very inaccurate picture of reality, and in typically western fashion they think that anyone who does not accept their version of reality has no idea what they're talking about. They think that they have the best grasp of politics and power dynamics in The Middle East.

They think that they have a better grasp of it better than the people who live there themselves, and as I said, their understanding is entirely based on Western colonizer narratives. The narratives of the open and the camouflaged neocons, the open and the camouflaged imperialists, These are obviously all highly ideological narratives and none of them constitutes analysis. These are all things that are being put forward to drive a particular objective, to shape perceptions of reality, not to depict reality. They are supposed to make you believe in and support a particular course of action. It's propaganda.

And in this case, the course of action desired is war and destabilization in The Middle East because war and destabilization in The Middle East is good for colonizers, it's good for Israel, it's good for the military industrial complex, it's good for the neo cons, and it's bad for the Muslims. The open neo cons advocate externally inflicted war, and the camouflage neo cons usually advocate internally inflicted war, meaning popular uprising, rebellion, civil war, and so on, or else they advocate for regional military retaliation against Israel, so that The US will then have a reason to intervene and bomb the Arab countries to pieces, because this is all they want. They just use different strategies and different rhetoric, and it's obvious why, because Muslims themselves, actually listen to and applaud the camouflage neocons. It's a brilliant strategy. You literally let the imperialists define for you what anti imperialism is supposed to look like.

It's perfect for them, and many many people do actually go along with it. But again, as brother Ali said very succinctly in our discussion group, analysis is not advocacy. When I'm talking about what I think is happening, or what I think is likely to happen in the region, or in any other part of the world, in any part of the world that I try to analyze, I'm simply looking at what is actually taking place, and what the trajectory seems to be within the the context of overall global trends as I understand them. I'm not saying necessarily that this is what I want to happen, or what I hope will happen. I mean, there is something that I would like to happen or that I hope will happen, then I'll say that.

Otherwise, I'm just saying what I see. Now the only part of my analysis that you could potentially misunderstand as advocacy, is just that when I look at what is actually happening, and what seems likely to happen, I try to look at the potential positive outcomes of that policy or that direction, or what have you. I try to see if this plays out the way it looks like it's going to play out, what are the potential positive aspects of that? What are the good things that will or could potentially predictably result from that? And that doesn't mean that I'm not cognizant of the potential negatives, or that I'm not aware of whatever risks might be involved or alternative ways that things can play out.

But I think from the Islamic perspective, we should emphasize the good and we should try to identify when something is better for the Muslims, whatever it may be, and to try to place events within the broader timeline of Muslim history which includes the inevitable future of Muslim triumph. So I look at things from that angle. Now, I know for non Muslims that approach will be dismissed as ideological. But I would happily put my record of accurate analysis against theirs anytime. Honestly, if you're not familiar with and and and if you don't believe in the Quran, the hadiths, if you don't know the seerah, in my opinion, you are at a tremendous disadvantage in understanding and analyzing the world.

Because Allah and his messenger explained every type of person we see today, every personality type, every type of character, and every type of behavior. Just like how the hypocrites would ride out with the Muslims to battle only to then pull back, you know, how they would support and abandon Islam just to demoralize the Muslims. Well, that's George Galloway. How Shaytan would inflate the power of your enemy in your minds to make you think that defeat is certain. Well, that's all the people who talk about how Israel is so powerful or America is so powerful, and how they can never be put in check, even while objective observation and analysis actually shows that US power is in steep decline over the past decade.

Every type of trick that the enemies use has been exposed and explained by Allah and his messenger. Either we read it in the Quran or in the hadith, or we learn about it from the seerah. These are absolutely the best sources for understanding human behavior. The behavior of those who have power and the behavior of those who don't have power. So analysis is not moralizing, it's not idealizing, it's not advocating, it's not wishful thinking or anything like that.

It's just as I see it trying to fulfill the Islamically designated role as an impartial objective witness to what actually is taking place in the world. Now if you have ideological or moral or any other sorts of goals and objectives that you would like to achieve, well you need to ground that in accurate analysis. You simply cannot achieve any real world goals through just the fabrication of narratives. I think this is a big part of why The US and the collective West are actually experiencing such a dramatic decline. Because they have really believed in this idea that perception is reality.

And they've gotten so deeply involved and so, reliant upon propaganda that you now have at least two or three generations of people, their people, who are so heavily propagandized that they simply do not understand the real world anymore. They cannot relate to anyone outside of their indoctrination. It's more of a cult than a culture at this point. Their view of reality is so bizarre, that it has effectively rendered them completely incompetent in terms of international relations. You know, they used to use their their approach to diplomacy used to be with the carrot and the stick.

That was the carrot and the stick approach. Well, stopped growing carrots a long time ago and their stick is rotting. And now countries around the world and across the global South are seizing the moment to make moves towards their own independence and their own sovereignty, and that's actually what's happening. That is actually what is happening in the real world and it is irreversible. But if you're a westerner and you're propagandized by the West, probably won't recognize it.

So I would strongly advise anyone and everyone to try to look objectively at world events, at geopolitics, at the news, and try to understand and not interpret things according to how you want to believe things to be. I mean it's fine to to to want things to be a certain kind of way, but you will never be able to make any kind of headway in trying to achieve anything to make things the way you want them to be if you don't have an accurate picture of reality to begin with. So you try to take your feelings out of it, take your ideology out of it, take even your moral judgment out of it when you're doing analysis. Just look at the facts as they actually are and once you have a clear picture then you can feel free to apply your moral judgment, apply your ideals, apply your ideology and what have you. But also part of having a clear picture of reality also includes understanding that the moves being made by any country, by any leader, by any movement, any decisions or any policies that they might pursue are always going to be choices that they are making according to real existing available options.

And this will pretty much always bar the possibility of making ideal choices or utopian choices. As I've talked about before, all anyone can ever really do is try to make choices that are better than other choices. Try to pursue outcomes that are better than other outcomes. You're never gonna be able to make choices, that result in perfect outcomes. That's not a thing that can happen.

This is something that we learn also in Islamic jurisprudence, is that we have to make decisions that result in what is closer to righteousness, what is better, what is nearer to perfection, not perfection itself. In the West they call that making a choice between the lesser of two evils. But we are positive people by nature. So we we look at it as choosing the better of two less than ideal options, so that we can move towards what should be by engaging maturely with what is. We're not a people inclined towards theatrics.

We're not a people inclined towards drama. The Muslims are a steady, disciplined and realistic people. The best deeds are the deeds that are done consistently even if they're small. And we try to make the most realistic, the most responsible, and the most moral decisions that we can according to what our situations dictate. That's what we do in our own lives and that's what our leaders do.

And so when you find someone who's railing against the leaders, railing against the rulers or the governments or denigrating the ummah as weak or astray or whatever other nonsense these types of people spout, Sensible people know that those are people who are from a certain segment of the population that simply does not have any sort of accurate or mature understanding of the real world. They don't have an understanding of the real world, they don't have an understanding of their deen, and they are both propagandized and propagandists, trying to impose a skewed version of reality, and you will consistently find that their version of reality always gives our enemies the advantage and always belittles us. Any Muslim with any intelligence knows never to utter a single word in public that will give comfort to our enemies because that is literally treachery. And again, have examples of that from the Sira. No, you stand with the Muslims as a single solid structure.

Each one of us is a brick in the fortress of this ummah but some of you have let yourselves become stones that the Kufar can throw at us. And you're so confused that you think you're doing something good. That's a remarkable level of psychological colonization that they have convinced you both that they have successfully destroyed our people and that somehow our people are to blame for that for that destruction. No. The truth is they never destroyed us, they failed to destroy us and our people are exactly why they failed.

So you've got it backwards. We're not responsible for their victory over us, we are responsible for their failure to gain a victory over us. Again, is objective reality but you won't see it if you're blinded by the self serving deceitful narratives of the West. They've actually got some of you on the defensive trying to convince Westerners that the Muslim world is or can be democratic. That the Muslim world is or can be tolerant of all the wickedness and perversion that they embrace in the West.

They've got some of you trying to say that we can be just like them because you have accepted their definitions of what is advanced and what is moral and what is civilized. So you think being westernized is the same thing as being civilized. You think being westernized is the same thing as being advanced and developed and so forth when it's the exact opposite. Well, you don't even have democracy in the West. Why should we pretend to have a system that you don't really even have over there?

It didn't work over there anyway. I mean, at least in the Muslim world, we know who our rulers are. You don't even know in the West who's ruling your societies. That's what your democracy is all about actually. That's what it's for.

It isn't for anything but to obscure who's really ruling you, your oligarchs, your corporations, your billionaires. I mean, at least we know that our kings and our emirs and our sheikhs and even our presidents and our prime ministers, we at least know that those people are actually the ones in charge. And the hilarious thing is that you'll call that system corrupt. Honestly, you're like a leper making fun of someone who has acne. The only reason America and the West want everyone to be like them is precisely along the same lines of thinking as Shaitan declaring that he will lead as many people into hell as possible alongside him.

That's why America comes at you from the front and the back, from your right and from your left, laying in wait for you to mislead you on every path. And they do it in so many ways and propaganda and false narratives is one of the most effective tactics that they use. I mean, that Shaitan makes the evil seem good and that's exactly what America does. It's just what the West does until you start trying to prove that you can be just as evil as they are just to prove how good you are. Oh, they've got you messed up.

They've got you so confused. They've got you to where you don't know up from down, day from night, right from wrong. Well, how are gonna take guidance from misguided people? So no, you have to start looking at reality as it actually is, and if you don't know, then at least listen to the people in the region. Take your cue from the people in the region.

Pay attention to the main body of the ummah, and don't think that the main body of the ummah is supposed to follow the diaspora, especially when the diaspora is disproportionately following the attitudes and the perspectives and the opinions of the misguided societies that they live in. And when you see the Muslim countries doing something, if you see they have some sort of a policy, try to understand what they're doing and try to understand why they're doing it and try to identify the good in it, and try to identify the potential positive outcomes that it might support. That doesn't mean that you're advocating it, it means that you're being realistic and you're being optimistic and you're not giving our enemies anything to use against us. If you advocate and you should advocate, then advocate for the good of the Muslims and look for the good wherever you can, instead of looking for the negative because you tend to see what you look for. So if you're someone who sees nothing but catastrophe and despair, then that's because that's probably what you're looking for, or rather that's what Sheikh Khan is placing between your eyes.

Precisely because he wants you to be despondent, he wants you to be hopeless, and he wants you to denigrate and discourage the Muslims. Rasulullah said that whoever says that the people are ruined is himself, the one who is ruined. So remember that and don't let the words of your enemies ever be spoken with your own voice.