Monday, November 10, 2008

Don't let westernization fade away our religious values

Westernization has intruded so deeply into our culture that the Islamic values and “Adaabs” have faded away. The obligations of a Muslim have long been forgotten. No longer do people respond to the call for prayers, No longer do they keep fasts in Ramzan, in fact, they eat or smoke openly. Alcohol, prostitution, drugs are becoming regular and despite their openness, no actions are being taken to eliminate them from our society.

So people, come on this blog and share your viewpoints. Discuss the causes and the steps that can be taken to improve the situation and regain our cultural and religious values.

Don't let westernization win!!!!

27 comments:

Abeer Pervaiz said...

this is a very good topic and needs to be discussed being muslims we need to carry on with the teachings and even if ppl dont want to they should at least respect others religions and values.

Aqida said...

I don't think Westernization has anything to do with Muslims not offering prayers or not fasting. There is no obvious causal relationship between the two... Saying that they are related means that Muslims who live in the West don't offer their prayers or don't fast? That obviously is not true.

And why are alcohol, prostituion and drugs associated to the West? Are we saying these things weren't present in the Muslim community before the Westernization started? That's not true either.

We need to stop associating Westernization with everything bad. We need to start taking some responsibility for our deeds.

With the West being far superior than us in almost everything, we need to accept that there is going to be Westernization. Besides, what is our culture anyway? We're a confused society. Half the things we do are Indian, and the rest are all Western. Only a minute part of our lives is Islamic. What do you expect from kids who grow up watching indian movies and F.R.I.E.N.D.S :p

Besides, Westernization has brought quite a few good things with it. All our educational institutions are "Westernized". All the restaurants we go to are "Westernized". The cinemas we go to are "Westernized". And we don't seem to mind all that? :)

The thing is, you cannot un-Westernize the generations to come. Pakistanis who grow up with iPods, Playstation, watching European football matches, watching countless American shows and movies, listening to gora bands and what not.... you cannot expect them to abandon all that. It is just not possible anymore.

The best we can do at this point is to strengthen familial ties and to keep the sense of morality intact that I believe most of us still have inside us, which will not eradicate the adverse effects of Westernization but will at least minimize them.
Alienating the next generations from the West doesn't seem to be a very good choice.

annahiya javed said...

when we speak of westernization,why do we always consider the bad points of the western society?
if youy really look at the west, their societies have some really good qualities about them.Apart from the fact that yes, they are sexually more "active" and consider that normal,the islamic values and adaabs are what they have and not us.Their societies and people enjoy far more privileges and protection of rights than our pakistani society ever could.When they work,they work with honesty and they have strict laws,and a system of law that actually works! unlike the law system we have here.Look at their police,the firebrigades the doctors.Half the policemen we have here are actually involved in rape and the rest are waiting for bribes.(if you don't believe me, read the newspapers:P)
The sad and unfortunate bit is that people here have failed to take the good things from them and taken up bits and peices of their society that are only harmful.
We belive westernization in only a limited sense.
We need to be proud of who we are and what our religion teaches us.saying salaam o alaikum is harder than saying hi or hello only for people who are ashamed to be muslims and think that adapting only the negative aspects of the western society is the way to move ahead.

Amarah said...

You are right aqida, about the fact that westernization has penetrated so far that its hard to reverse it...

I am blaming westernization for teaching our generations the liberal view of doing everything openly (which means having no shame). Initially people atleast had some respect of our traditional values and religious viewpoints... they felt shame in doing wrong openly... but now, what i see is that people do not care of paying any respect or having any "Haya". They eat and drink openly in Ramzan. They abuse our traditions, festives and religion openly... They ARE becoming westernized by becoming liberal... and they are Proud of it.

As far as reversing this is concerned, we might not be able to do it. but we can atleast try to respect and spread awareness so in future our people can return to what truly matters in life: "Maintaining your identity as a Muslim."

Also, i believe that Pakistan as a nation has ALOT. More than we can imagine. The need is to explore it, bring it forward and then spread it... so that it is neither westernized nor indian... its truely Pakistani. =)

Sofia Khan said...

I totally agree with you amara! there is too much of western influence in todays generation. Youngsters dont know that they are crossing certain boundaries and have become too open. We should to some extend control the western culture from spreading...

Amarah said...

thank u annz for commentinggg....

its true that western society has alot of good points and here in pakistan there is alot of corruption as u have mentioned.
Therefore i do believe that if Islam comes in every aspect of our soceity then there won't be so much problems. People would do their jobs honestly, justice, law, poverty, women rights... in short everything would be taken seriously....

its just the need to realize that only copying other's traditions wont help...

Amarah said...

thank u sofia for commenting and agreeing on my viewpoint

mahin amjad said...

i think media and government can play a huge part in making sure that westernisation doesnt take over our religious values. media can stop being so open about everything,and governnment can start putting bans on prohibited things like amarah said

Amarah said...

yes thats one very important thing that'll reduce the prohibited acts.. thanks mahin

zara ahmed said...

saying that onyl westerniaztion is fading away our religion is not completley true. first of all peoples faith is becoming very weak, they are only living for today and they dont take out time to think about right and wrong, afterlife etc. secondly they have started taking everythin very lightly be it religion or any another matter. this i think is becauseof the westernization, too much insigt and exposure in their culture is jeapordizing our own.

Amarah said...

thank u zara for ur comment... yes thats completely true that we are also responsible for the whole situation and not just the western world...

I think it is us who have actually brought in modernization while developing our country... i also think that we can become an advanced country (by introducing technology and knowledge instead of copying what they have as an advanced nations)

anika said...

this is true that people dont even feel ashamed if they dont fast in ramzan.

Amarah said...

thank u anika for commenting... yes its true and a very serious issue... people need to develop atleast the "respect" for other person's fasts... so they are not tempted...

even alot of places carry out dance parties,concerts or movie nights in ramzan... when people should be remembering Allah.

fz said...

i feel not only westernization is fading our religious values but we ourselves have just forgotten what our religion is all about. Its true that westernization has played a role in it but neither can this be denied that it is us who has allowed ourselves to do that....people dont offer prayers cuz they dont want to...they dont fast cuz they dont bother to....religion has no role to play in our lives....we r just living our lives as an atheist ....nowadays muslims r muslims just by name and just cuz they r born as muslims....its true that ppl have no sharam nemore cafes r the best example....n we just love adopting the wrong sides of west society ...there r good aspects as well but what r they we dotn even know cuz nobdy wants to follow them....its a huge debate ....in short it depends on an individual as well as the society to keep alive our religious values and to eliminate the wrong things adopted by us from ne part of world....

Amarah said...

thank u fz for ur comment...

yes its very true that individual's own desire to seek religious knowledge and follow it plays a vital role

Haleema said...

Umm.. i dont feel westernization can be totally blamed for the fact that religion is fading.. away. What is an obligation would remain one even if we dont accept it, likewise prayers and fasting is an obligation. I totally agree with zara it's the faith of people which is weakenin day by day, the examples which ammarah mentioned are true but i've come across people who still need to proves to believe there is Allah, now what possibly one can do about em??? they probably relate everything around them with Science, and unfortunately they are Muslims. We can't blame west totally for it as they are doing what is their culture, and probably i believe parents and their values given to us have a greater role to play here, My mother has to sometimes act as a reminder for me in terms of my prayers, true this responsibility should come with inn, but at times we get carried off in the routines so much that as a matter of fact we forget the very basics of our religion, and thats where you go wrong when we tend to take things so light that in the process we ignore the indispensable part which is our religion!

Anum Rehman said...

Yes you are right Ammara!
Our society is basically going under culture conflict that means Pakistani society possesses imported cultures along with its own. The numerous cultures tend to conflict with one another. Westernization is upsetting our society but let’s not blame western culture entirely for all that is happening in our society. Westerns do not come and tell people to smoke, not to keep fast in Ramadan, not to offer prayers and loose their values. The reason why people have become like that is because may be its parents’ fault somewhere because they have become unaware and indolent. They don’t really care what their children do? Where do they go? What do they wear? What do they eat? Etc. They try to act cool by giving liberty to their kids which make them feel advanced and later cause all these issues. The impact of Westernization can only be lessened or removed completely if people start practicing their own cultural values. It’s country Government’s fault as well. The set up in our country is so awful and terrible that people are getting fascinated by Western countries from where they are brining in that culture. They are getting more attracted towards Western culture because they find nothing attractive in their own.

MT said...

westernization is our own fault... its not the mistake of west... v have made ourselves sensitve to it...
obviously, it was bound to have an influence on everything.

Amarah said...

yes haleema ur right. many people these days question the existence of Allah which was shocking for me.they just cannot believe that their is a Creator and science is not everything.basically they need to have proper knowledge so that they can regain their faith.

Amarah said...

thank u anum and haleema for commenting...

u people are right that apart from individual responsibility its also the reponsibility of our parents and friends and our social circle to influence us rightly.

mahin amjad said...

offering prayer or fasting is something very individual, one thing that our nation needs to learn is pateince and how to be polite with people, imean nowadays everyone is sooooo rude, its unacceptable!!! i think we should focus on that more

Amarah said...

very true mahin... people like to be straight forward without considering other person's feelings....

dealing with people politely is more important in our religion than anything else.... a very good point

Anonymous said...

You're an idiot, we need to modernize, westernize and economize. We need to adopt state socialism and separate church and state. We also need to crack down on muslim priests and head for progress. This is the way of Humanity and if pakistan does this it will set the way for progress and perfection, whilst becoming the California of Asia.If this is not done, Pakistan and the rest of the petty so called "Islamic" world will fall deeper into the shithole its already in. Priests practically control people in the "muslim" world like they used to control christians during the middle ages.
You idiots call yourselves muslim, you are the worst people.

Anonymous said...

to support my comment above, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a radical liberal who was against priesthood, and priests ( islamic ones) were actually opposed to the partition. Cmon you idiot backward "muslims" haven't you learned your lesson from Napoleon? The Commonwealth? Soviet Russia? YOU NEED TO PROGRESS!! OTHERWISE YOUR STUCK AS A PETTY NATION FOLLOWING 10TH CENTURY IDEALS!! YOU HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE FOR GOD SAKES! GOD IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE IT FOR YOU! YOU NEED TO WORK FOR PROGRESS!!

Jacque Mahmoud said...

AND BESIDES THE POINT,PRAYING DOESN'T GIVE U ANYTHING.. I AM A MUSLIM BTW.
PRAYING IS FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, GOD GIVES YOU NOTHING IN RETURN. IF HE DID THAT WOULD BE BARTERING AND UNISLAMIC

TRUTH said...

AMZ IS A FUCKING WHORE... LMFAO LIBERALISM IS PROGRESS, ALL THAT SHIT UR SAYING AINT WESTERNIZATION, ITS CALLED ATHEISM LMFAO.

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