Journey to the land of Islam’s Holy Places

In a few days, a group of journalists led by STAR publisher Max Soliven and his wife, STAR columnist Preciosa Soliven will be journeying to Saudi Arabia on the invitation of the Saudi government. It comes at a precarious time with threats of a US attack on Iraq that could drag other countries in the Middle East, workplace to more than a million, mostly Christian Filipinos. But the persuasive charm and goodwill of Saudi Ambassador Saleh Al-Ghamdi has made the visit possible despite the threat of war. As the Ambassador put it,"A million Filipinos and their families already know what my country is all about but there are others who don’t. This is why it will be good for members of media to see it for themselves and report on it." The itinerary includes visits to Riyadh, Dharan, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah, and Asir. The delegation includes Isagani Yambot, publisher, Inquirer, Jose Galang, editor-in-chief, Manila Times, Lourdes Fernandez, editor in chief, Today, and Danny Bernardo, senior vice-president, ABS-CBN.

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In a way I will be out of sync with the likely theme of the visit. I expect the Ministry of Information will be out to show us how modern Saudi Arabia is despite criticism in the West of its political and cultural backwardness. Instead of looking for what is modern I will keep an eye on what has remained of the experiment to meld religion as the guiding constitution of the nation. I would like to see how it works. I already know that Mecca is the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, site of the Holy Ka’ba. It is also the central point of the Muslim world, the symbol of ethics and values for Muslims. It provides its followers with a sense of direction, not unlike what Rome is to Roman Catholics except the former are more fervent, praying five times a day. Believers anywhere in the world turn their faces to Mecca when they pray. They seek orientation towards this central place, the starting point to which they constantly refer to every day of their lives. It acts as the constant point through vicissitudes and vagaries of life. Does it work? The partnership of church and state is not unique to Islam. Once, that had been Christian, too. Remember the Holy Roman Empire? I am more interested to know the roots of the conflict between Islam and the West. I am convinced that if we gain a historical perspective, we will be less prone to solve the conflict with irascible violence. I can imagine how difficult the conversation must have been between President Bush and Prince Abdullah when they talked about Iraq. The conflict did not begin on September 11 nor is it only against Americans as we are made to believe by media drumming on our little heads.

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I take my cue from Ziauddin Sardar, author of an essay on Mecca who wrote about an old Muslim politician, a fundamentalist in newspapers you and I read. He said the West feared Islam even more after the demise of communism because the religion, followed by a quarter of humanity alone offered an alternative to modern civilization of the West. To those who wish to go beyond politics, crashing planes on the twin towers of the World Trade Center is a symbol that foreshadows the end of the age of materialism. The tragedy is that 3,000 innocent Americans paid the price of their overweening materialist culture.

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If we were to trace the conflict that blew up the World Trade Center in New York, it began a long time ago indeed. There was a time when the West, and this refers more to Europe than to America at a certain point, was culturally and technologically backward. We forget that in the dark years of medieval ages, Hellenic and Egyptian learning were preserved by Muslim scholars in the Middle East, where it was discovered by Renaissance humanists. In Alexandria, Egyptian astronomers led by Ptolemy thrived four centuries after Aristotle. In the golden age of Islam it was the West that did the catching up. Once it caught up, it went on a binge of conquest, subjugating the seats of Islamic culture. That is the wellspring of contemporary Muslim grievances, the humiliation of taking second place. No wonder Osama bin Laden is hero to young Muslims, who consciously or unconsciously, pin their hopes for the future on retrieving a glorious past.

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Demoralization with defeat takes time to unravel. It is measured in months and years for an individual, centuries and generations for civilizations. That is the timeframe to reckon with Islamist dissatisfaction. It is not difficult to understand why Arab countries, more so in the heartland of Islam, we find "recalcitrance" and "inflexibility." It is how they protect their way of life. On an earlier visit to Riyadh, my hostess who belongs to one of the most powerful families of the country but schooled in the West proudly donned her abbaya and nonchalantly covered her face while reciting some economic indices to help me understand her country. "Come" she said as she took my arm, ‘let me introduce you to the other ladies." We were at a department store stocked to the ceiling with the latest Chanel suits and Ferragamo shoes. "Talk to the ladies about business, some of them are the real power behind the biggest industries". She could have been referring to the Philippines. "But why do you wear the abbaya and the veil?"I asked. "That," she said," are the parts they cannot reach." I understood immediately even as both of us laughed.

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It also explains revulsion with US power and global capitalism being imposed as "the new world order" regardless of the consequences to poorer countries. I do not question our President’s prerogative to choose foreign policy that is best for our economic well-being but I shudder when she is called the Tony Blair of Asia. Our stakes, by reason of geography and history, are in Asia. There is room for more independence. That has been Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir’s style and President Megawati has not done badly by adopting the same. We are all part of the bigger Malay family. More independence is natural for any Philippine leader who has to balance the war against terrorism with the interests of his or her Muslim constituency in the south along with the more than a million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries.

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I end this column with the Zapatistas of Mexico, another country with similar colonial experience: "Do not try to define us. We define ourselves. We will not be what you want us to be. We will not accept the destiny you have chosen for us. We will not accept your terms. We will not abide by your rules. The only way you can eliminate us is to destroy us and you cannot destroy us. We are free."

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My e-mail address: [email protected].