Author: Abu Aisha
Explanations about Orientalists (2nd part)
In the first part of the article, we mentioned some of these tools, in this part we would like to mention some other tools and devices that the Orientalists use to attract the youth, teenagers and other sections of the Islamic Ummah to them. They affect them, let’s say:
Lectures in universities and scientific centers
Lectures at the university and giving speech lessons at scientific gatherings and centers are one of the methods through which Orientalism achieves its goals and objectives. This is not a modern phenomenon; Rather, it has existed since the beginning and threatens the Islamic Ummah in the future. Our youth, especially students, professors and officials, should be awake and alert and not be deceived by anyone and not give permission to anyone to give speeches and lectures to students.
Dr. Mustafa Sabaai, may God have mercy on him, writes in his book: “Al- Orientalism and Orientalists about this phenomenon: “It is a matter of regret that the most dangerous people and the most severe enemies of Islam, to the universities of Arab and Islamic countries in Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Rabat, Karachi, Lahore, Aligarh, etc. were invited to give speeches about Islam.
Publishing articles in domestic newspapers
Another goal and program of the Orientalists is that they write articles in the domestic newspapers of the countries and advertise for their plans. They sometimes hire some newspapers and magazines for their benefit. write articles and advance their plans.
Dr. Abdurrahman Umirah writes in his book “Islam and Muslims between the hatred of proselytization and the misguidance of Orientalism” about the tools and means of Orientalism: “[one of the tools and means of Orientalism] is the publication of articles in the domestic newspapers of Islamic countries. In this way, they were able to get a large number of Hire newspapers to publish articles and promote their thoughts and ideas.
Holding scientific conferences
One of the ways that Orientalists have taken to implement their plans and goals is to hold scientific conferences, most of them have a propaganda aspect, these meetings are very visible and concrete according to the testimony of scholars and writers.
The Orientalists used these conferences as a means to project ideas and spread ideas and opinions, and to strengthen the ties of cooperation and increase coordination among them. They held dozens of conferences where countless groups of Orientalists They participated from different cities and universities, in these meetings the issues and debates related to the East were examined from all its aspects.
Writing an encyclopedia
One of the tools of Orientalism and its tools is writing dictionaries, encyclopedias and other things so that people can refer to these sources when researching. They wrote these encyclopedias in several languages and widely They published and allocated very large budgets for its printing; Unfortunately, our educated and cultured people have considered this encyclopedia as a proof and have gone too far in reasoning from it, One of the scholars writes in relation to some of these encyclopedias: “It is very unfortunate that this encyclopedia is the reference of many of our cultural scholars, so that they consider it as a complete proof and reason in their discussions, and this is one of the symbols And it is a manifestation of ignorance towards Islamic culture, and it is the inner complex of these cultured people.
Orientalist intellectual movements
Researchers have divided into several groups regarding the classification of schools of thought and belief of the Orientalists and have presented different theories; One group has considered the objective classification, and the other group has introduced Orientalists according to their specializations and listed some of them in terms of the fact that they have engaged in Quranic research. And some have mentioned those who have studied the life of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, below are the most important schools of thought of this group:
French school of thought
The French school of thought is one of the most prominent schools of Orientalism in terms of intellectual richness, the abundance of literary works and the abundance of explanation and expression.
The reason for this is the close relationship that has existed between France and the Arab world and Islamic countries since ancient times Most of the Arabs have been in contact with Europe, this contact has caused them to turn to oriental studies and do research in this regard.
English school of thought
The most important feature of this school of thought is its precision and focus, and this school of thought has a very close relationship with the East, especially with the Middle East and the Far East, Britain’s relationship with the East was strong through cultural, political, military and economic relations, and the school of thought English was related to the Gulf region, Iraq, Palestine, it is natural for this school of thought to pay attention to the geographical areas under its control.
German school of thought
The Crusades were the most important motivation for the relationship between the Christian West and the Arab world and Islamic countries, and it is very natural that when Oriental studies were noticed by scientists in France and England, they also investigated and researched Oriental languages in Germany. and Germany’s relations with the Ottoman government were strong due to political and economic issues, when Germany realized the importance of oriental studies and research, it created departments and centers for the study of oriental languages in its universities at the beginning of this century. The interest and attention of German universities to Arabic and Islamic studies increased.
Other orientalist schools
Considering the expansion and transformations in all dimensions and aspects, including political, economic and other contemporary sectors, there is a possibility of new schools of thought emerging, which are not the same as the old schools of thought; Rather, the schools of the past disappeared with the passage of time and new movements emerged whose thoughts are completely different from the thoughts of the past and this group believes that the citizens of the East are inevitable and necessary.
The Orientalism of tomorrow is more dangerous than the Orientalism of yesterday, and this Orientalism has taken control of the East and considers itself responsible for it.
It is expected that other schools of thought will be created in the future, which will not be like the schools of yesterday, and their centers will be political headquarters. And the new world system cancels the old concepts and will soon create new concepts.
Dr. Ali Hosni Al-Kharboutli in his book ” “Orientalists”” has described Orientalists in another category into three categories, he writes:
Since the movement of Orientalism was a comprehensive movement with different branches, in the beginning, the stages it went through, the approaches, motivations and results it achieved are different, in this movement thousands of Orientalists in the history different people have participated and their efforts have been comprehensive in their forms and means, and not all orientalists are the same, some of them have produced many literary works that have been useful for humanity in general and for the East in particular, and their efforts Some of them have been very little, and some are on the verge of orientalization.
These groups are briefly:
The first group of fair and moderate orientalists:
Undoubtedly, some western orientalists made Orientalism an essential science and devoted their lives to it and spent all their efforts, time and money in this way; Even sometimes, Orientalism has caused losses for this group and some of them went to prison and some of them became completely bankrupt, poor and helpless in this way.
Here, we consider it appropriate to mention the names of some Orientalists who were influenced by Islam and chose this divine religion as their religion; Of course, this faith has turned to Islam with satisfaction, contentment and confidence.
Orientalists who became Muslims
This group is named after the Orientalists who have been guided, and we mention some of them below:
Anselm Turmida, Najib Al-Aqiqi has introduced him among the Orientalists:
Hari Saint Philippi 1885-1960.
Maurice Bocay, a French physician.
Murad Wolfrid Hoffman 1931.
Abdul Karim Germanos.
And some others whose names are only mentioned in the mentioned books.
Bockhardt, Krenkoff, Zonstine and Shnister
Majhaf orientalists
This group has insulted and disrespected the religion of Islam, the character of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the Islamic and Arab civilization. Some have even reached the point where it is impossible to ignore their actions and their mistakes cannot be forgiven, and the second group, although they have been rude and disrespectful; But since their actions are limited and are limited to a few cases, it is possible to forgive them because of the countless scientific works they have presented to the libraries of Arab and Islamic countries. But we do not exonerate it; Because their rudeness was intentional, they revealed their ugly intentions and presented absurd reasons to prove their accusations.
Unintentionally majhaf orientalists
The third group are Orientalists who have made mistakes and insulted Islamic history and Arab civilization. But this was not their work intentionally, although we impeach them for their mistakes; But – without a doubt – our verdict on them is less and milder than the verdict on the previous group of Orientalists who did this on purpose and were biased in their writings.
At the end of this section, I feel it necessary to write a few points that are my own interpretation of this article: It is true that Orientalists do their best to make our religion appear defective, and this is the habit of the enemies of religion and Islam.
Because of their long-standing enmity towards Islam and Muslims, they do not spare any efforts in this direction and are never satisfied with our actions, works and progress. Because Almighty God reminded us of this several centuries ago, where he says: «ولن ترضی عنك اليهود ولاالنصارى حتى تتبع ملتهم» (Jews and Christians will never be pleased with you unless you follow their religion.
But we must realize that we ourselves are to blame in this regard and our weakness and incapacity has given them courage, there have been days in our history when the enemy surrendered before the Muslim kings. But now it is almost the opposite.
In the book “Orientalism and the Intellectual Background to the Civilizational Conflict” The writing of Dr. Mahmoud Hamdi Zagzouq says: “We must admit that Orientalism derives its power and strength from our weakness and helplessness, and its existence is conditioned by the inability of the Islamic world to recognize its own essence. The day when the Islamic world recognizes its essence and stands up to its own weakness and removes the burdens of intellectual and civilizational backwardness from its shoulders.
It is there that the Orientalism finds itself in a crisis, especially the Orientalism that is engaged in Islam, because it never finds anyone in Europe, nor in the Islamic world, to address it, and it is not right for us that Let’s wait for other people – whoever that person is – to help us wake up from this dream, we have learned from our fathers: “No one will scrape my back but my fingernail”, so take all your responsibilities.
