Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Posted: 02 Oct 2012 08:08 PM PDT

Hence trade and commerce is very crucial to Islam. And the distribution of wealth (zakat) is one of the tenets of Islam alongside praying, fasting and performing the pilgrimage (Haj). And in Islam it is mandatory that every year you pay 2.5-3.0% of your wealth as zakat. This zakat is then distributed to the needy, poor, orphans, people too old or too sick to work, travellers, people in debt, etc.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

This was an e-mail sent by a friend in the UK to another friend in the UK. Both are Malaysians although I have not revealed their names. I thought it would be interesting to read the exchange.

Obviously you need some proper understanding of what is meant by socialism. Give me a call to meet up for a sensible discussion. Hopefully you will then realise the trash you are circulating has nothing to do with socialism.

Brown's "socialism" was a continuation of Reagan/Thatcher free market for the greedy to take all they could take in an unregulated market. Free market is not about rewarding those who worked hard. Free market is about giving the descendants of land and cattle thieves (the lords and ladies of the manor) and the generations of the slimy greedy bloodsuckers the freedom to accumulate more wealth by using their existing wealth, power and connection to screw the majority of the population.

I am saddened that a nice and intelligent guy like you is circulating trash on behalf of those bloodsuckers who wish to divert attention from their despicable greed that caused the economic and financial disaster we are all facing today.

I am currently in Malaysia, best wishes.

Basically, my two friends above were debating the workings of 'western' socialism. Let me join the fray (or throw the cat amongst the pigeons) and add 'Islamic' socialism to the discussion.

Muslims would normally argue that Islam is not a religion but a way of life (adeen). However, not every Muslim practices what they preach. Hence we tend to find a lot of hypocrisy amongst Muslims -- as we also find amongst the other religions that preach love but invade other countries since the last 1,000 years and have never stopped doing so until today.

If you were to study Islam in depth, you will find that Islam is a combination of socialism and capitalism. For example, Islam teaches you that doing business is better and more virtuous than working for someone. Prophet Muhammad was a businessman, as was his first wife who owned the business that the Prophet was managing. And so on.

Now, as much as most Muslims would never want to admit this (and will whack me for saying it), the first 'Holy War' was actually a war concerning trade. This first 'war' at Badr (a village south of Medina on the road to Mekah) was a caravan raid and was meant to cripple Mekah's position as the centre of trade for the Arabian Peninsular.

At that time, Mekah was the centre of commerce and this resulted in it also being the centre of religion, or vice versa. People from all over did their pilgrimage to Mekah and at the same time engaged in trade. If Medina wanted to replace Mekah as the new centre, it would have to first cripple Mekah's trade supremacy. And to achieve this the Prophet attacked the trade caravans on route to Mekah. Before the war of Badr, many caravan raids were conducted and the biggest 'battle' was supposed to be the one passing through Badr.

Hence while the Islamists would insist that the first 'holy' war of Badr was about religion, I will insist that it was about trade, although it can be indirectly regarded as about religion since whichever became the centre of trade invariably would also become the centre of religion. In short, trade and religion went hand-in-glove and to be the centre of one you must be the centre of the other.

Let me put it another way. The Prophet's forces attacked the trade caravans not to convert these 'pagans' to Islam but to disrupt the trade routes and cripple Mekah's supremacy as the trade centre of the Peninsular. Mekah, in turn, sent an army to Badr not because the Prophet was propagating Islam but because he was disturbing Mekah's trade. The fact that one force was Muslim and the other 'pagan' was incidental.

That is my interpretation of the events and is based on history and not theology. And the Islamists for sure will not agree with my interpretation of events -- but that is their problem, not mine.

In short, you are encouraged to do business rather than work for someone so that you can become wealthy and so that once you are wealthy you can take care of those less fortunate than you. So, as I said, Islam is a combination of capitalism and socialism. Islam wants you to create wealth so that you can share this wealth.

Now tell me, how many Muslims will understand this or will agree with this? Of course, the manner in how you make your money and how much profit you make is also an issue. But let's not go into that or else this piece is going to turn into a thesis.

The long and short of it would be no one starves or sleeps on the streets under Islam's capitalist-socialist system. But the reality is, there is more poverty in Muslim countries than in non-Muslim countries plus more exploitation, discrimination, injustice and so on. So, the system may be good but the people living under that system do not comply and deviate from what should be.

And that is why I always say that changing the system (or the government) is of no use unless the people themselves are prepared to reform. In theory, the Islamic capitalist-socialist system is superb. In practice, Muslim countries suck. It is not about the system or the government. It is about the mentality of the people.

In Malaysia, when we scream about reforms, we normally talk about changing the system or the government. But if it is merely old wine in a new bottle nothing good is going to come out of it. Islam's capitalist-socialist system is already good enough. It is better than even some western concepts. But show me one superb Muslim country. And show me one Muslim country that changed its government and became a Shangri-La. Most times the new government was as bad or worse than the old government. Hence the best system in the world would be like throwing pearls to swine if the people are not capable and resist change.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 3 Oktober 2012

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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