Ideological Invasion and Our National Identity [Archives:2001/28/Culture]

Saleh Abdulbaki 
Yemen Times 
The Islamic and Arab nations are living today in one of the most sensitive periods of our history due to various strategies the enemies of Islam are fabricating against it. These aim at tarnishing its civilized identity as a result of the bad situation of dissension and conflict among the Muslims – in utter neglect to catch up with scientific technology. In addition, they have given up their efforts to master and lead the world. As a result they stayed still for the last two centuries have under the challenge of ideological invasion, slavery and colonization either in the form of protection, regency, or an armed colonization. 
This invasion which has become one of the living realities has various implications, economic, political, or ideological. Islamic and Arab nations have suffered a lot of repercussions of the colonization of the super countries and have sacrificed so much for being free and independent.They also have suffered from economic colonization, starvation and terrorism as their capacities and wealthies were exploited willy nilly by the super powers. However, all these forms of colonization were not so gross to control these nations completely. Therefore, they invented a more dangerous way which is known nowadays as the Ideological Invasion for perfectly perpetuating dominance over the weak developing nations, especially Arab and Islamic nations. They have started their campaign with the ideologies and education. They have imposed their curricula and syllabus either directly or indirectly on these nations intending to deform and disfigure their ideologies and beliefs and to replace these by their own. This applies for all nations especially the ones having a great and ancient civilization, history and heritage our nation. 
A good illustration of this is the language. They are imposing their languages on us by all means and making us neglect to learn our own, thereby, weakening the nation in its respect of language and its thought. 
It is interesting to note that the ideological invasion against Arab and Muslims aims at destroying the roots, origins and the core of our heritage not merely the outer form or the branches. It has focused precisely on two main origins. The first is the holy Koran and Asunah AL NABWIA which are the main sources of origins for Islamic legislation as a whole. The other one is the Arabic language which is the language of the holy Koran and of all Arabs. 
The invasion has also spoilt the Islamic heritage in terms of culture, thought, principles, customs, social values as well as literature, arts and every thing relating to our Muslim society as . Consequently, some intellectuals have called for progressive movements. That is, they have brought to Islam peculiar things and have quoted from it the principles that the European civilization is based on. The Muslim Indian leader Ahmed Khan is an example who called for adjustments through two creeds such as ALGADIANI and ALAHMADI. These do not relate to Islam at all. 
In the present time, the ideological invasion spreads all over the Islamic world and have different forms. For example, campaigns are mounted for disfiguring and mutilating Islamic civilization, culture, heritage and even the language. For this purpose, they have employed many institutions such as missionary, Zionism and freemasonry to implant their thoughts as socialism and nationalism as well as philosophies against morals of Islamic society. 
To sum up, the ideological invasion and the concept of globalization have made sustained efforts to hold and control all the world not only economically but also socially, politically and ideologically. This is so evident through the technology revolution in the recent years which effect the dominance of the super powers over the developing ones. What makes the situation worse is the media through which they present their programs which affect the Yemeni citizens in particular and the Arabs in general negatively. Some of the negative effects of globalization are : 
1- The Propagation of the western culture all over the world in order to make it a dominant culture. This in turn will lead to grasp the mass media and all instruments of technology. 
2- The future culture targets the individual because it reaches people in their house. 
So what is our responsibility in view of all this? 
As individuals what we can do minimally is to choose our culture and what to receive according to our need and reality. The state should put some restrictions and limitations on mass media to protect and maintain our identity pure as Arabs and Muslims. 
It goes without saying that this will not be fulfilled unless we have our own mass media and our own cultural projects. We have to activate and mobilize our culture to be accessible to masses through cultural exhibitions, symposiums and forums. in order to encourage and cultivate children’s culture, the theaters, private or public and to talented people should be encouraged. Above all we should show others the originality, greatness and multitude of our Arabic and Islamic culture through participation in regional as well as international activities and exhibitions. This is necessary for us not only as Yemenis but as Arabs and Muslims.
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