By Habib Siddiqui
January 04, 2005
"This chauvinism about western superiority is not limited to their history
and social etiquette and ethics, but also to their philosophical,
ethnological, anthropological, neurological and psychological assumptions
and theories."
Webster defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of
human traits and capacities and that racial difference produce an inherent
superiority of a particular race. While racism has existed in some form or
another, probably its worst manifestation has had been seen in the history
of Europe and the Americas.
Truly, the history of Western civilization is littered with the corpses of
the 'other' peoples. The blueprints for justifications of murder, genocide,
annexation, plunder and colonization - all can be found in the Bible [1] and
in the statements of its interpreters, Church fathers and leaders, and those
who came later as philosophers - believing Christians and non-believing
atheists, let alone the slave-traders and -masters, colonizers and
warmongers.[2] Strictly speaking if there ever were just one factor around
which all of them agreed to it was in their basic belief about the
superiority of their white European race.
Thus we are not surprised to find that the West presented our world with the
Crusades,[3] the Inquisitions,[4] the near-extinction of the Native
Americans and the Australian Aborigines,[5] the Pogroms,[6] Witch-burning
and gypsy-hunting,[7] the Ghettos[8] and the Embargos,[9] the two World
Wars,[10] Ethnic cleansing,[11] the Jewish Holocaust[12] and the
Genocides,[13] and not to forget the African slavery (or Holocaust).[14] Let
us also not overlook the western contribution to such ideologies as Nazism,
Fascism, Zionism and Marxism/Socialism/Communism. (The list above is by no
means a comprehensive one.) Nor are we astonished with the monstrosity of
the crimes that were committed against prisoners and detainees in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Diego Garcia and other places around the
world (including the United States). She was the first to try out her latest
WMDs on the 'other' people (actually the only one to ever drop atom bombs -
and there too, the bombs were dropped on Japan and not Germany).[15] She is
also responsible for total extermination of some human races from the face
of our globe.[16] Over and above all these acts of mass-murder, demonic
savagery and violence she has also systematically destroyed the culture,
religion, identity and way of life of the peoples that she conquered. But
none of these really troubles her. Like a megalomaniac and one gravely
afflicted with cognitive dissonance, she is convinced of her 'civilizing'
mission and has chosen to be amnesic about her troubling past.[17]
The chauvinistic attitude of European superiority has given rise to western
egocentrism - something that has always existed since the time of ancient
Greece. For a European (and American), civilized world always meant the
West; history thus begins from Greece, and ends in England, France, Germany
and America. Forgotten are the contributions of Islamic civilization to make
that dotted connection possible from Ancient Greece to new Europe (and
America). Forgotten also are the Sumerian, Egyptian, Persian, Chinese,
Indian, Arab and other civilizations in making our world history. It was all
too natural therefore to rediscover Jesus, born in Bethlehem in Palestine,
as a European with blond straight hair and greenish eyes. As the (so-called)
Son of God,[18] he had to appear European for the collective spirit of the
West! His birthday had to be transplanted to December 25 to match the pagan
festivity around Sol Invicticus, popularly observed across the Roman
Empire.[19] Even his mother Mary had to appear European looking. So complete
is this transformation that all his disciples also, minus Judas Iscariot,
had to appear European!
The western egocentrism was reinforced by the period of colonial domination,
when much of the non-Western (including the Muslim) world fell under
European domination. This is what late Prof. Edward Said called
"Orientalism."[20] Belief in their own cultural (religious and racial)
superiority helped Europeans to justify colonialism; Europeans were
fulfilling a God-given (or evolutionary) duty by educating and enlightening
the ignorant non-Westerners.
Racism is so much entrenched within the western psyche that many westerners
are unaware of its very existence until put the test. The Clinton
Administration won't send troops to stop the genocide in Rwanda. The
treatment of the other people, e.g., the Afghans or Iraqis or other Muslims
in the prisons and detention camps, is directly linked to that racist
mentality. The highly offensive remarks of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,
General Boykin, Pat Robertson, Bush and Blair all are part of that
contemptuous mindset. So is the contemptible U.S. donation for the five
million victims of the Tsunami earthquake that hit 11 Asian countries on the
Boxing Day!
Many Westerners genuinely believe in their supremacy! Their scholars and
teachers have cemented this mentality. As a matter of fact all western
philosophers (with very few exceptions) from David Hume (1711-76),[21] Georg
W. F. Hegel (1770-1831),[22] Theodor Noldeke (1836-1930) and Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900) [23] to Sigmund Freud and André Siegfried (1875-1959)
[24] have shown a very prejudiced attitude towards their white race. Even
Ernest Renan (1823-92), a great anthropologist and philologist, suggested
that the western or northern race was superior to all others and that the
blacks of Africa, the aboriginals of Australia and the native Indians of
America as members of the "inferior race". According to Count Joseph-Arthur
Gobineau (1816-82), mankind is divided into three basic races. The most
inferior is the black race, closely followed by the yellow race; the white
race is the most superior.
Hegel was arguably the greatest intellectual mind of the West. His
philosophy gave rise to almost all the western intellectual movements of the
19th and the 20th century. Marxism, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and
historiology - all have their roots in Hegel. Speaking about him, Dr. Ali
Shariati (d. 1977), one of the great intellectual minds of the East,
remarked some 30 years ago: "Hegel who purported to be a great genius said
that the Spirit was 'unconscious' before it entered into the world of nature
and animal. There it reached a stage of self-consciousness and then in the
form of a spirit it entered into man. Then it started its first evolutionary
stage when it entered into the Eastern man. Having completed its Eastern
evolution it entered into the Western man. Then it entered into the Germans
to achieve further perfection, and then it entered into the German
government. And finally it entered the kingdom which rules us now." Wow!
Look how far Hegel's whole reasoning and arguments have gone!"[25]
To a westerner, the ancient war between the Persians and the Greeks was a
war with the barbarians. This, in spite of the fact that the Medo-Persian
Empire under Dhul Qarnain (King Cyrus) had a superior culture and that he
defeated the Greeks very badly (see the Qur'an: Surah al-Kahf for
details).[26] So is the war between the Persians and the Byzantines during
the time of the Prophet of Islam.
This chauvinism about western superiority is not limited to their history
and social etiquette and ethics, but also to their philosophical,
ethnological, anthropological, neurological and psychological assumptions
and theories. To elaborate on this thread, Dr. Shariati remarked, "Professor
Siegfried states that, "God or Nature has created two kinds of races in
nature: the boss who must direct, and the laborer who must obey. Which one
is needed more? Obviously the laborer. Every thousand laborers calls for two
to three bosses. So, God has created a European race - who is the boss, and
an Eastern race - who is the laborer. This is why the birth rate of the East
is 3%-5% annually, while for West is 1%." . He [Siegfried] further says,
"What you see and tend to ignore on the sidewalk is a French gentleman, an
average worker with blond hair and blue eyes, who can easily direct huge
organizations and offices of the East. While, if you go to the East, you
will find great thinkers and personalities who are incapable of directing a
six-man organization. Why? Because the Western brain creates civilization
and organization while the Eastern brain is sentimental, poetical, and
theosophical. [Reference: L'Ame des peuples (Spirit of Nations), tr. into
Persian by Ahmad Aram, Tehran]"[27]
There were times when many in the once-colonized Eastern countries believed
in such baloney about supremacy of the Western mind.[28] But those days are
numbered, thanks to genuine and progressive native intellectuals who were
able to sort out symptoms from root causes behind the apparent lagging of
their newly independent countries. The best minds in many prestigious
western universities today are those of non-westerners. [Already every other
faculty member in Engineering in many top-rated American universities is a
foreign-born Easterner. And their proportion is steadily rising.] Many
non-westerners now run some of the biggest corporations on both sides of the
Atlantic. [This, in spite of the not-so-subtle prejudice or discrimination
that is so common in the corporate world.] The advancement in areas of
science and technology in the western world owes heavily to these
non-western experts. So much claptrap about western superior race!
Now the question is: why does the West propagate such falsehoods? I infer it
is because of two main reasons: 1) repeating the mantra of White supremacy
helps psychologically to inflate the Western ego and renew the faith among
her own rank and file (necessary for further exploitation of the East), and
2) (something that sociologists, since the days of Ibn Khaldun have known)
she knows very well that cultural slavery is the worst form of slavery. In
order to achieve this purpose, the exploiter searches for ways to deprive a
nation of its personality, which is defined as the unique aspects of a
culture that differentiates it from another.[29] The exploitive sociology of
Europe and America, therefore, has realized that in order to rob and exploit
the East, it has to strip her of her personality; she has to be defeated and
denuded completely. She has to be proven that she is inferior to the
European race; everything she produces is also inferior. Once this is
accomplished she will proudly follow the West, and become a happy consumer
of western goods that are produced by the Capitalist West.[30] [Yes, it is
all about exploitation and greed.] She will have European/American advisers
to even choose and decide for herself. He who has a past but cannot
recognize it is an easy prey in this vicious game of exploitation.
This task of cultural imperialism is, therefore, shouldered by two forces -
one imperial/occupational, carried out by its 'imperialist' intellectuals,
think tanks and 'experts' - and the other native, comprising of culturally
alienated 'house niggers' or (whom I call) 'cultural coolies.' These 'house
niggers,' acting like vultures and hyenas that wait to devour the corpse,
are often more zealous than their masters. To defeat racism, it is,
therefore, necessary to identify these two forces and confront their
untenable messages.
Racism and West-mania have worked in the past and will continue to work for
a foreseeable future until the East can reclaim and redevelop her
personality.
Notes:
[1]. See the Book of Genesis 9:21-26 for justification of racism against the
children of Ham, identified with the African race. The concept of e Chosen
People is also limited to the Children of Judah, or the Jewish people,
something that has become a rallying cry to justify the Zionist annexation
of Palestine, at the exclusion of its indigenous people - the Palestinians.
[2]. Contrast the Christian attitude on racism with Islam. The Qur'an says:
"O mankind! Lo! We have created male and female, and have made you nations
and tribes that you may know one another. Lo! The noblest of you, in the
sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware." (39:13)
Also, reflect on the verse 30:22 (And of His signs is the creation of the
heavens and the earth, and the difference of your language and colors. Lo!
Herein indeed are portents for men of knowledge.) In his Farewell hajj
speech, the prophet of Islam said, "All mankind is from Adam and Eve; an
Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority
over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any
superiority over white except by piety and good action."
[3]. To understand the Crusades, it is imperative to analyze Pope Urban II's
statement, "Oh, race of Franks, race from across the mountains, race chosen
and beloved by God, as shines forth in very many of your works, set apart
from all nations by the situation of your country, as well as by your
Catholic faith and the honor of the Holy Church! . From the confines of
Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and
very frequently has been brought to our ears: namely, that a race from the
kingdom of the Persians, an accused race, a race utterly alienated from God,
a gene ration, forsooth, which has neither directed its heart nor entrusted
its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians ." According to
western historians, anywhere from 1 to 5 million Muslims were killed during
the Crusades. (See Anthony Nuttings' book on The Arabs for an account of
Christian brutality and savagery.) As far as Jewish victims are concerned,
in Jerusalem the Jews fled from the Crusaders, locking themselves in the
main synagogue, where all 969 were burnt to death. Outside, the Crusaders,
who believed they were avenging the death of Christ, sang, Christ, We Adore
Thee, holding their Crusader crosses aloft. Earlier that day, as the
Crusaders ran over the mutilated bodies of those slaughtered, one leader,
Raymond of Aguilers, quoted Psalm 118:24: 'This is the day which the Lord
has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.' Approximately a quarter to
one-third of the entire Jewish population in Germany and northern France was
murdered during the First Crusade. In Germany, in return for royal
protection they were made 'serfs of the Imperial Chamber'. Required to pay
vast sums for this privilege, the Jews eventually became a very real source
of royal revenue. As the king's property, they could be -- and were --
bought, loaned and sold, to pay off creditors. The custom spread to other
countries. Church leaders justified this status theologically on the basis
of earlier Church teaching that the Jews were doomed to perpetual servitude
for having crucified Christ. At the time of the Third Crusade one of the
most tragic anti-Jewish riots in England occurred in York where nearly a
thousand Jews were casualties.
[4]. In 1480 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain established a
tribunal to purge the Church of those who clandestinely clung to their
Muslim and Jewish faith. Wholesale arrests followed. In 1481 the first
victims were burnt at the stake. Over the years an estimated 30,000 marranos
were consigned to the flames. The Spanish Inquisition had a long history
(from the fifteenth century until the threshold of the nineteenth century,
and a wide geographical reach, spreading with all its well-documented
atrocities to Latin America.
[5]. Estimates of death tolls amongst the Native Americans as a result of
annexation of their land by Europeans vary between 20 to 145 million. In
1788, during the early phase of British colonization of Australia, there
were probably a million Aborigines. In the 1920s, by the time they completed
colonization of their land, there was only 30,000 of them left alive. In the
nearby New Zealand, the Maori population declined from 240,000 to just
around 40,000 in 1896. (Mark Cocker, Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold (1998))
[6]. During the reign of Czar Alexander III, Russia's first major pogrom
began at Easter 1881 and spread to a hundred Jewish communities. The czar's
adviser intended to solve the Jewish problem by causing a third to emigrate,
a third to die, and a third to disappear (i.e. to be converted). Pogroms and
accompanying mass emigrations continued under Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917),
who regarded the Jews as Christ-killers . Even after World War II, pogroms
occurred in Poland, despite the horrors of the Holocaust and the greatly
decimated Jewish population.
[7]. The Reformation did not convert the people of Europe to orthodox
Christianity through preaching and catechisms alone. It was the 300 year
period of witch-hunting from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, what
R.H. Robbins called "the shocking nightmare, the foulest crime and deepest
shame of western civilization,"...that ensured the European abandonment of
the belief in magic. The Church created the elaborate concept of devil
worship and then, used the persecution of it to wipe out dissent,
subordinate the individual to authoritarian control, and openly denigrate
women." (The Dark Side of Christianity, ch. 8) In The Killings of Witches,
Bethancourt lists 628 named and 268,331 unnamed witches killed as of Dec.
2000, and estimates that between 20,000 and 500,000 people were killed as
witches. [
www.illusions.com/burning/burnwitc.htm]
[8]. In the second half of the sixteenth century ghettos were introduced,
firstly in Italy and then in the Austrian Empire. The ghetto was considered
an additional demonstration of the error of Judaism: 'A Jewish ghetto is a
better proof of the truth of the religion of Jesus Christ than a whole
school of theologians' (G. B. Roberti, eighteenth century).
[9]. Just the latest embargo on Iraq in the 1990s resulted in the death of
1.5 million Iraqis, of which nearly half a million were infants under the
age of five.
[10]. Fifteen million died during the First World War. Fifty five million
people got killed during the Second World War (of which 30 million were
civilians).
[11]. In the last decade alone (1990s) a quarter million of Muslims in the
former Yugoslavia were ethnically cleansed by the Orthodox Serbs.
[12]. Much of the crimes against the Jewish people were sanctioned by the
Church since the days of Paul of Tarsus. Speaking about Jews, Justin (c.
100-165 C.E.), an early Christian father, said, the 'tribulations were
justly imposed upon you, for you have murdered the Just One.' The
third-century Christian theologians, including Hippolytus and Origen,
elaborated on this theory. In the fourth century it was to dominate
Christian thinking. Under Emperor Justinian I (483-565) many laws protecting
Jewish religious and civil rights were abolished and restrictions were
imposed. Later, in the seventh century, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius
imposed forced baptism upon the Jews in order to ensure unity within his
realm. France's Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) declared that they were 'a
race who had not God for their father, but were of the devil'. Following the
custom of theologians of his day, he had taken a scripture (John 8:44) and
applied it to the whole Jewish people for all time. Centuries later Nazi
leader Julius Streicher carried this further, recommending 'the
extermination of that people whose father is the devil.' Hitler claimed, as
he chronicled his sixteen steps to Nazi policy, 'I am only doing the work of
the Catholic Church. The Protestant leader Martin Luther was also the one
who said, 'Verily a hopeless, wicked, venomous and devilish thing is the
existence of these Jews, who for fourteen hundred years have been, and still
are, our pest, torment and misfortune. They are just devils and nothing
more.' In the tract Concerning the Jews and Their Lies (published 1542)
Luther wrote: "Firstly, their synagogues should be set on fire . Secondly,
their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed . Thirdly, they
should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds . Fourthly, their
rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more . Fifthly,
passport and travelling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the
Jews . Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury . Seventhly, let the
young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, the
spade, the distaff, and spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat
of their noses . We ought to drive the rascally lazy bones out of our
system . Therefore away with them . 'To sum up, dear princes and nobles who
have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then
find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable
devilish burden -- the Jews." Luther's anti-Jewish teachings were to be
applied literally in the Third Reich.
[13]. In the post-Soviet era alone, more than a hundred thousand Muslims
were killed in Chechnya by the Russian Orthodox Christians. Let us also not
forget the genocide of Muslims in the Caucasus during Czar and Stalin's rule
in Russia.
[14]. No definitive estimate is possible. According to some historians,
eighteen million Africans are estimated to have died during the trade. In
American Holocaust (1992), David Stannard estimates that some 30 to 60
million Africans died being enslaved.
[15]. Here let's also not forget the use of Agent Orange, depleted uranium,
and Tuskegee experiment on the Vietnamese, Iraqis/Afghans and Black
Americans, respectively.
[16]. In Tasmania, the native population declined from 5,000 in 1800 to 200
in 1830 to 3 in 1869 to zero in 1877. (Jared Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee
(1993))
[17]. See this author's article "The White Man's Burden: the never-ending
saga" or "The burning itch to civilize others."
[18]. Islam rejects Trinity. Jesus is accepted as a prophet and messenger of
God, who foretold the coming of the last messenger - Muhammad (S).
[19]. According to the Gospel accounts (Luke 2:8), Jesus was born when the
shepherds used to graze their cattle in the fields. An objective analysis
leads us to the conclusion that he probably was born between April and
September (spring-summer), and surely not during the winter season in
December.
[20]. Edward Said, Orientalism, New York: Vintage, 1979.
[21]. In a 1748 essay, "Of National Characters," Hume said: "I am apt to
suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely
ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual,
eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst
them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous
of the Whites, such as the ancient Germans, the present Tartars, have still
something eminent about them, in their valour, form of government, or some
other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen,
in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original
distinction between these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there
are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any
symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up
amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession." (Philosophical
Works, Vol. III, pp. 228-9.)
[22]. Hegel says: "In Negro life the characteristic point is the fact that
consciousness has not yet attained to the realization of any substantial
objective existence-as for example, God, or Law-in which the interest of
man's volition is involved and in which he realizes his own being. This
distinction between himself as an individual and the universality of his
essential being, the African in the uniform, undeveloped oneness of his
existence has not yet attained; so that the Knowledge of an absolute Being,
an Other and a Higher than his individual self, is entirely wanting. The
Negro, as already observed, exhibits the natural man in his completely wild
and untamed state. We must lay aside all thought of reverence and
morality-all that we call feeling-if we would rightly comprehend him; there
is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in this type of character."
"What we properly understand by Africa, is the Unhistorical, Undeveloped
Spirit, still involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be
presented here only as on the threshold of the World's History." [GWF Hegel,
The Philosophy of History, New York: Dover (1956), pp. 93-99]
[23]. See the book: The Birth of Tragedy and The Genealogy of Morals,
Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956.
[24]. The French political scientist and educator André Siegfried
(1875-1959) was regarded as one of the most perceptive political
commentators of his time.
[25]. Man and Islam - Lectures by Ali Shariati, tr. Ghulam M. Fayez, Univ.
of Mashad Press, Mashad, Iran (1982), pp. 160-161.
[26]. According to Mowlana Abul Kalam Azad (Tarjumanal Qur'an), Dhul Qarnain
was the title for Emperor Cyrus of Persia who ruled around 536 B.C. He is
also recognized as the Messiah (the anointed one) in the Bible (Isaiah
45:1).
[27]. Op. cit., p. 162.
[28]. However, there still remain some culturally alienated individuals,
promoted and pampered by the West as "intellectuals," who see no evil with
the West or its atrocities against the East. They are the Fuad Ajamis, Amir
Taheris and Khaled Durans of our time.
[29]. The development of the personality of a generation results from the
collective flow of the spiritual, mystical, intellectual, humanistic,
aesthetic, artistic, and scientific currents of the past generations.
[30]. It is thus no wonder that western 'experts' like Pipes call for total
defeat of Palestinians and Muslims.