The Ummah is tired, stagnant, and seemingly fresh out of hope about its situation. Colonialism, not only physical, but intellectual as well, has returned openly to the Muslim world. The Crusaders and Mongols of the past were comparatively minor threats. For all the destruction they brought, they were eventually defeated by ideas that guided Muslims to resist. For example, the concept that Muslims should live as one Ummah inspired the Kurd Salah-ad-Din Ayubi to abolish the Ismâ'ilî Fâtimî anti-caliphate, and then eject the Crusaders from the Muslim lands they stole. Today, however, the intellectual colonialism seeping into the Muslim world only intensifies the bite of military occupation. For the time being, members of the Ummah have used one of two approaches to deal with the dire situation: selling out or setting off bombs. H2FT would like to propose a third, better option: Muslims' intellectual revival.

Before saying more about option #3, let's describe the other two approaches and explain how they are pathways to failure. Option #1-surrendering or collaborating with the American or Western powers-manifests itself in many ways. Some turn quisling to advance their own careers under Washington's patronage. Others sincerely care about their Muslim brothers and sisters but sell out because they believe there is no other choice. After September 11, 2001, many of us ran and hid for fear of persecution by our rulers. Some simply feared to speak the truth, while the opportunists among us figured, "If we can't beat them, let's join them." Quite a few opted to carry a shovel behind Pharaoh's horses by focusing on fundraising to clean up the disasters exacerbated by the policies of the Great Powers and their satellites in the Muslim world. (For more information, see "The Problem with Muslim Charities" and "What's Wrong about Donating to the Hurricane Katrina Fund?" on our Archives Page.) The worst of all-among them, Ibrahîm Ja'afari-completely sold themselves for the chance to embrace the devil. Ja'afari himself once was part of the Islamic Da'wah Party; but when he was offered the prime minister's job in the new "American" Iraq, he relinquished his Islamic ideas for ruling and swallowed what his new master had to give him.

On the opposite end are those who want to blow things up. Their option #2 is wreaking a harsh, bloody vengeance on the greatest number of kuffar, as well as people they dismiss as "corrupted" Muslims. Their intensive and extensive labors have brought no benefit whatsoever to the Ummah. What they have done is provide an excuse for any authority wanting to crack down on Muslims. The Americans, British, French, Israelis, and yes, many Arab regimes, use the bombers as tools to put pressure on us all. Moreover, the leaders of kufr have become quite skilled at using "terrorist" incidents to pursue their interests and consolidate their spheres of influence in the world. In Lebanon, for example, Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was killed in a car bombing. Immediately after, both Americans and officials of the European Union butted into the affair, making themselves the referees for the crisis that soon erupted. This allowed them to interfere and influence the situation to their benefit, at the ultimate expense of the locals. Last and not least, the bombings kill many innocent people of all kinds. There has to be another way!

Option #3 calls for Muslims to focus on their intellectual revival. Today, political thinking within the Ummah is in deep decline. In fact, many of us now believe that Islam has nothing to say about systems of government or public policy. This has left plenty of room for bogus un-Islamic ideas, such as nationalism and secularism among others, to circulate freely. This in turn has lead to the neo-colonialism rampant in the Muslim world.

Instead of sincerely tackling the weaknesses within themselves and their societies, Muslims find it far more convenient to Blame the Jews and the Freemasons for Everything* . This has caused millions of otherwise intelligent Muslims to fritter away countless hours poring over drivel like The International Jew and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, wasting time that would have been better spent on studying how Islam should act on the national and international scenes. Unfortunately, this preoccupation with Jews is really poorly-masked envy, a frantic search for arguments that Muslims groveling before their Bosses in Washington might use to plea that they are better servants than Jews and therefore deserve nicer rewards. Zionist and other "conspiracy theories" now pass for political thought in the Ummah, but such thinking will never return it to leadership. There is no real research into how the world works, specifically in the political arena. We are unable to profit from our occasional victories and opportunities. Hence, we at HF2T strongly urge the Ummah to focus on an "Intellectual Renaissance."

Many of us fail to appreciate the importance of ideas in the progress-or destruction-of civilizations. A single bad idea can destroy a whole society. Take, for example, Hitler's notions of führerprinzip and Aryanism, and look at what evil they did to Germany, Europe, and the world. Another example of a concept that continues to have catastrophic effect on a nation is the old American notion that blacks are not fully human. This justified the enslavement of African people in the USA for over 250 years. Even today, this one idea refuses to die. It resonates still and manifests itself in many ways, notably in the US administration's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lastly, look at what nationalism did to the Muslim world, whether Arab, Egyptian, Lebanese, Turkish, or Bangladeshi. Its widespread adoption made the success of European (and later Indian) "divide and conquer" policies possible, with the subsequent collapse of the Islamic civilization. Ideas are more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction; in fact, ideas can make WMD's irrelevant: consider the fall of the Soviet Union.

If ideas can destroy societies, they can build them as well and make the people of those societies inheritors of the earth. The best example was the revival of the Arabs under the tutelage of Prophet Muhammad (SAAW) and the Islamic ideology.

There is a state of emergency in the Ummah, but the final cure is not an instant one. This revival is definitely not happening overnight. It took hundreds of years for the Ummah to infect itself with bad non-Islamic ideas, ideas that helped destroy the Ummah and divide it into the impudent and weak nation-states we find today. And the longer we wait, the more we shall have to undo.

Muslims will never re-establish themselves as a superpower as long as they neglect the intellectual state of their Ummah. They must unite around a set of core ideas, abandon nationalism, and repudiate the multiple nation-state concepts as the political framework for Muslims. Their Ummah must make Islam and its sources the only basis for legislation in a single state uniting the Believers under one government. Finally, without Islam, the Ummah of Muhammad (SAAW) can never regain its past dignity, to the cost and sorrow of non-Muslims as well as Muslims** .

We dare not neglect Option #3, the revival of the Muslim mind, followed by making Islamic political and social ideas come to life by putting them into practice. Our Creator (subhanahu wa ta'ala) revealed Islam to the world to shape the behavior of human beings and societies. But if we Muslims don't know the ideas or remain unclear about them, we are crippled and fail! Seeking revenge and selling out have got us nowhere. Thousands of fundraisers have failed to address our problems at the root. Our true strength lies in the ideas that we carry to the world. God willing, we can move forward by clarifying many Islamic notions to ourselves and then engaging in culturing the Ummah via discussions. Ideas fly and fly fast, especially with the advent of the internet. Our colonization was mental long before it became physical, so we must first deal with our mental fetters before we can throw away the physical ones. You are invited to adopt the Third Option with us and work to effect change within the Ummah. (Submitted 12/4/2005)

*As an example, shortly after September 11, 2001, many Muslims and even Al-Jazeera were saying that 4000 Jews employed at the Twin Towers were warned to stay home that day. Even after the bombing of the luxury hotels in Amman on November 9, 2005, some of us were saying that 200 Jews left the target points before the blasts.

**Of course, there are many other concepts and ideas that are important and relevant to the revival of Islam. However, the idea that one must, for instance, drink from a cup held in his right hand is just not critical to an intellectual Islamic revival, even though doing so is Sunnah.