The Soft War and its Impact on the Role of Women in the Islamic Awakening

Zeynab Awazeh Faqih ( Journalist and Expert in Educational Psychology from Lebanon)

Abstract

The aim of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to make the Muslims vigilant and conscious, and to free them from ignorance, and spiritual and intellectual aberration. Imperialist the United States of America is looking for domination over the minds and hearts of the Muslims through spiritual lethargy and intellectual stagnation and ignorance. In so doing, the imperialists are trying to achieve their main goal that is estranging the Muslims from the core of their religion, engulfing them in material matters of life, and abducting them from the sacred religion of Islam. The struggles to bring back Islamic awakening for the Islamic communities, which were increasingly sinking in the whirlpool of servitude of global powers due to the domination of puppet governments, is worthy of appreciation. Such attempts help us to exclude ourselves from that noble Hadith which says: “People are in sleep of ignorance and wake up when they die”. We are obliged to wake up from the sleep of ignorance when we are alive. What we are witnessing in the Islamic and Arab countries is the beginning of awakening in those countries. ….

The presence of people in streets, regardless of the success or failure of the revolution, is indicative of some certain factors. Among those factors are: they no longer can tolerate oppression and tyranny; they seek freedom; they demand divine commandments and traditions to be exercised; they be granted their human rights; the religious values be observed; and the Islamic communities be protected from dangers and threats. All of these factors prepare the ground for use to move towards the Islamic awakening.

 

Introduction

The main result of these sessions is nothing but to restore the spirit of Islamic awakening in Muslim communities, which are going through a variety of transitions day by day regarding the issue of submission. In fact, what we should aim at is preventing the realization of the famous hadith which says “people are asleep and will only awaken when they die”. We need, therefore, to be alert and awake. What we are currently witnessing in Muslim Arab nations fits well into a pattern of an Islamic awakening movement. However, some of those nations are still half awake and in some others the uprising is being controlled by a bunch of opportunists who are leading astray the revolutions from their true paths.

Whether successful or not, the revolution in Egypt and people’s gathering in Tahrir square or other places send us one main message: people are fed up with injustice and suppression, they seek freedom, the rule of God, human rights, and transparency in the implementation of Islamic values and laws. They also want to stand against seditions aimed at their united Ummah. These are all elements needed in the preliminary stages of Islamic awakening.

As a matter of fact, awakening should begin from within an individual. This change should be directed toward beliefs with which we can change what is there on the ground. Among the main factors contributing to us in this path is undoubtedly Islam, a religion which brings us together with nations which share their values with us. Unfortunately, however, the global arrogance has well realized this important fact. Thus it has been trying to sow division and create a gap among Muslims. It has been doing its best to stop Muslims from clinging to their sacred beliefs, dominate their lands and whereby distort their culture and history. To attain such a goal, the west has been using a wide variety of tools with a language of war, aggressions, occupation, creating identity crises, and annihilating Muslim nations from their history and geography. A clear example is what happened in Palestine. The West and Israel went ahead in the occupation with the motto “the elderly will die soon and their children will forget” (3). However, history proved them wrong. The elderly taught their children the truth, and inscribed it in their souls, minds and hearts before passing away .This was just one among many other instances in which military might failed to eliminate aspirations of a nation.

The enemy has learned a lesson and is now back to launch a new battle, in which there is no need for military equipment. This one is even more complicated and effective than a conventional armed war. It’s being referred to as the soft war, a term publicly used for the first time by Joseph Nigh, director for the center of governmental studies at Harvard University, and a US assistant defense secretary. He described such a war as a strong tool in international politics. Nigh pointed out that this new form of war could be more effective than any other one Washington has launched. This one he believes is a war of attraction rather than one of imposition. He refers to such a force as one which has existed from the very beginning of human history. It is a war, therefore, between good and evil; it is a battle between human soul and the devil, a tactic Satan used against Adam and eve. And Satan is the one who is quoted as saying “O Lord in your dignity I swear that I will be deceiving every one of them except for the ones who are your sincere servants” (4).

It is, therefore, a pledge made by devil against humans to prevent them from obedience and submission to God. In the same verse, however, Satan admits that he would be unable to deceive the true and sincere believers. This is indeed what we need in the fight against the new forms of devil. What we need as resistance is allegiance to faith and enforcing and acting based on Islamic teachings. These days the reality is the same and we are being targeted the same way that Satan targeted Adam and Eve. The enemy does so by entangling our instinct and earthly wishes thereby emptying us of any valuable religious blessings that Islam has bestowed upon us. It tries to create divisions among Shias and Sunnis thus minimizing Islam. Although enjoying some fleeting moments of victory in this regard, the enemies have in general faced failure in such a scheme. This is mainly due to the fact that the enemy has failed to recognize great figures in the Muslim world that have always united the Ummah through highlighting the commonalities shared by Muslims.

Many of us unfortunately still think of devil as the traditional one. We fail to see the multitude of new Satans in modern days. The new forms of devil do their best to attract us with soft methods and tempt us toward wrongdoing. Now the question is how to overcome such tactics and gain victory in such a war?

The solution is nothing but awakening, alertness and listening to the religious and cultural elite. This is in fact why we are gathering here. Therefore considering the new devils mentioned and fresh and increasingly softer techniques used by the enemy, I am here today to discuss the role of women as pillars and important components of any Muslim society in such a battle.

In this article, I’ll be trying to shed light on how the Muslim women are being targeted in such a war.

 

Natural role of women in Islamic Awakening

The starting point for Islamic Awakening in a Muslim society is the family, where women have the leading role. It is commonly said that women are half of the society. But they are in fact the main elements who form the second half as well. Because they play the role of mothers, wives, lawyers, doctors, child bearers, politicians, etc. High cultural awareness among women can easily be transmitted to next generations. The Islamic awareness of mothers in a society is in other words inherited by their children. Thus, if women enjoy such a trait, the society will stay safe and sound. And if not the family and the society as a whole will go astray and fall in corruption. As a matter of fact, the effects of women are not limited within families. Despite having roles similar to those of men in a society, women can even be more effective and leave greater impact on their societies. Mothers can affect their sons much stronger than fathers do and the same holds true for school boys with female teachers. At a larger scale, children in their families and societies are much more influenced by mothers.

We all tend to protect our bodies against viruses and lethal elements. However, we keep ignoring the health of our souls in the face of social and behavioral threats. In this regard, women are undoubtedly of a crucial part with their different roles which God has assigned them to play in their societies. As the Lebanese say “women have the role of lions in their societies” (5). Such a significant role was demonstrated by women in revolutions across the Arab world in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, even longer before, one could witness the presence of women in resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine. These days the Muslim world is in great need of lady Al-Haja, the mother of martyr Emad Moghnieh, a woman who played a perfect social role along with her family duties by bringing up three martyrs and still wishing to sacrifice more children if she had any. She is indeed an exceptional mother. Once I asked her about how she raised Emad. Al-Haja said “I had to also raise other children and friends of Emad as they used to gather for their discussions in our home. And I closely monitored them.” By everyone’s admission Al-Haja had raised a hero; a woman who has no children now but has turned into an epitome of resistance for other women in all generations of her nation .No one can doubt her success in playing her role in Islamic awakening. In fact, she is a perfect success story, by awakening a huge number of other women in Lebanon and other Arab countries. And so is the mother of Bou Azizi who sparked the revolution in Tunisia and the whole Arab world. It is absolutely a huge success to raise a child and protect him against the threats of a modern world and make him a symbol of revolutionary movements in Tahrir, Pearl and other landmark protest sites in the Arab world…..

 

Obstacles facing women in          Islamic awakening

We have already pointed out the role of women in laying the foundations of a society as well as their strategic part in leading Islamic awakening. Now we need to focus on the hurdles preventing women from playing that part. The fact is that global arrogance always seeks to work out ways to dominate Muslim societies through clever tactics. After failing to target and affect the beliefs of Muslim communities through military means, the westerners came to the conclusion that they need to aim at the bases of those societies which is nothing but the family and women. Therefore, the awareness on the part of Muslim women is the only means which can resist such attacks. The arrogant powers have realized that women are the main sources of power in Muslim communities. They have repeatedly launched programs and campaigns aimed at women’s feelings and tendencies and some women unfortunately are unaware of the dangers of the west’s traps set for them. Still the main obstacle facing women is preventing them from performing their duties in the process of Islamic awakening. This occurs through the two following means:

1- The first tactic launched by global powers and on top of them the United States is using westernization and Judaisationas tools to make Muslims forget their original history and identity. They have always begun with women by corrupting their minds thus corrupting the society in question. And this is one of the deadliest campaigns.

2- The second comes within the very society the women are living in. Women’s own society can be deviating itself, such Muslim communities which claim to be moderate ones and the ones which have a tendency toward the western culture. ….

Nowadays with a rapidly developing global village encompassing the whole world and various technological advancements, boundaries get closer and closer thus providing all cultures with a chance to learn about each other. However, when we discuss the issue of soft war, what we are focusing on are the negative aspects of the invading culture. The media through which the invasion takes place are television, internet, telephones, and untrue slogans propagated by some international organizations.

I’d like to mention some examples in which Muslim women have been targeted in Muslim Arab nations through the western-led soft war, a campaign aimed at blocking the progress of women and deviating them from the path of Islamic awakening in those countries.

1- Imported soap opera movies

2- Media programs which have nothing to do with the realities on the ground

3- Satellite channels devoted to modeling, cosmetics and clothing

4- Newly-developed communications and social networking channels

These channels are sometimes very conscious about the intentions of their programs and plan them basically with specific and predetermined purposes sponsored by government budgets. Some other programs are just a blind imitation of others. Those channels are not aware of the fundamental soft war elements in their programs. But, they still do the same harm unintentionally.

 

In the next issue of Mahjubah you can read the rest of this beneficial article.

 

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