Secular capitalism spreads a population crisis from the west to the east

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Secular Capitalism Spreads a Population Crisis from theWest to the East

October 28th, 2014 by kafi

The issue of population extinction of SouthKorea – that emerged since the beginning oflast September – was a shocking concept tothe ordinary public. The first question thatcomes to mind is why the societies withadvanced technology, high levels of welfareand the rapid pace of modernization areactually at risk of extinction? This questionneeds an answer.

Research by the National Assembly Research Service (NARS) in Seoul which wasreleased in late August, suggested alarmingly the potential of the population of SouthKorea to become extinct, due to the decline in its birth rate to a new low of 1.19 childrenper woman in 2013. The research’s simulation showed that the population will shrink from50 million today to 40 million by 2056 and 10 million in 2136. Then the last remainingSouth Korean people will live until 2750.

The population crisis in South Korea actually reminds us of the same issues that also hitJapan and the Asian tiger countries over the last few decades. The Diplomat even said ifthe latest forecast is accurate, then the region –not only South Korea- has an even biggerdemographic threat: extinction. South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore arestruggling to finance huge numbers of their old age population. Almost the same as SouthKorea, approximately 39.6 percent of the Japanese population will be retired by 2050.According to a study released by Tohoku University in 2012, the population of Japanwould also be extinct within a thousand years, with the last child born in 3011. It is anirony and paradox that the countries which have been dubbed as the “East Asian miracle”due to their success in transforming to become a high economic growth region, currentlyface the risk of their own race becoming extinct as a nation.

The Chicago Syndrome: Sick Society and Population Crisis

The phenomenon of an aging population that engulfed East Asian countries cannot beseparated from their pioneer in the West that has experienced it first. Successful EastAsia in transformation from a passive part of emerging global capitalism during thecolonial expansion of the West to an active builder of the globalizing capitalist system –meant that it did not take them a long time to experience the same syndrome experiencedand pioneered by Western countries such as France, Italy and others. After only aboutthree decades of capitalization in their countries, the damage and social breakdown



caused by this system immediately swept across their societies.

Chicago’s Syndrome is a term coined by a Malaysian professor. The Professor from theInternational Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), Mohd. Kamal Hassanrecognized the symptoms of major cities in the United States and other Western countrieswith “having economic progress but suffering detriment civilization”. And indeed this is thecharacter of many capitalist countries today. In such states, rapid development is oftenaccompanied by a social crisis, the collapse of the family institution, widespreadcriminality, violence against women and children, and high suicide rates, in addition tofalling birth rates which are in large part due to the massive involvement of women in thelabor force. South Korea faces a serious problem in the elderly suicide rate; it is over4000 elderly suicides per year. Likewise in Japan, about 30,000 people die as a result ofsuicide each year. This equates to around 80-100 Japanese people committing suicideeach day. And surprisingly most of them are of a productive age and have a steadyincome financially. Child abuse has also become a big issue in capitalist East Asiancountries. In South Korea the number of confirmed child abuse cases rose to 6,700 in2013 from 2,100 in 2001, and then up 36% this year to 10,240 cases. Japan is evenworse in that it reported a total of 73,765 cases of child abuse in 2013- its highest everlevel and the first time the total has surpassed 70,000.

Western societies which are characterized by three things: secularism, pragmatism andhedonism – as described by the eminent scholar Taqiyuddin an-Nabhani (1953) in hisbook, The System of Islam – have transmitted the same traits in developed East Asiansocieties, along with the detrimental consequences that extends to their society’s life.When the West continues to propagate their values and ideology to the world in a veryarrogant manner through maligning Islam and Muslims, in reality it is an attempt to hidethe desperation that they have created in their own societies and also in other regionssuch as East Asia. Now the West is no longer able to hide the decline and damage oftheir secular values and way of life.

The so-called ‘advancement and modernity’ supposedly offered by Capitalism in truth wasnothing but an effective recipe for mass dehumanization of mankind, for the ideologymade communities value material and physical pleasures rather than the wellbeing oftheir societies. Its values made individuals indifferent to humanity and the preservation ofthe human race itself. Acutely individualistic minds created by capitalism have spawnedgenerations with damaged mentalities and spiritually empty lives – generations who havefailed to understand clearly the reality of life, have no clear purpose in life and who areobsessed with imaginative and inhumane superhero figures from their own capitalistentertainment industry. They are also being transformed into an inhumane generation thatis obsessed with materialistic success and a hedonistic lifestyle rather than the happinessthat comes from a stable and successful family life. Many also shun the commitmentassociated with marriage due to pursuing individual pleasures and desires. And otherspostpone having children till late in life or even decide to remain childless because theysee children as a burden that drains their finances. This is because they do not have abelief in the Creator who guarantees the rizq (provision) for every son of Adam. All this is



coupled with capitalism’s “Womenomics” policy of coercing women into the workplace – apolicy that has created mass exploitation of female workers; and that has caused manywomen to view being employed as giving them a higher status than being a mother,resulting in them losing their passion to have many children. All this is why the birth rateand marriage rate in many capitalist countries has become very low, for many of theiryouth did not value marriage and family anymore. So slowly but surely, this flow ofmodern capitalist dehumanization led to population crises, and even predictions ofpopulation extinction! This is a toxic form of success which is offered by secularism – toxicbecause despite abundance of sciences and tremendous technological advances, suchsocieties have failed to organize the personal lives of individuals to build healthycivilizations.

The Sublime Vision of the Islamic Civilization

“If the U.S. spends hundreds of millions of dollars for scientific researches in addressingsocial problems in their society, then Islam eliminates ingrained habits in jahiliyahsocieties only by a few sheets of the Quran.” – Sayyid Qutb

The above quote is true. Islam has rooted solutions to create a healthy society. Medina isthe best model of a healthy and civilized society as Islam, since its birth in the ArabianPeninsula, has incised remarkable achievement in bringing dignity to the community.Under the shade of Allah’s Revelation, Islam also managed to fuse thoughts and feelingsin the community within the purity of the Islamic Aqeedah and Laws. Not surprisingly, thepredominance of Medina is illustrated by the words of the Prophet صلى هللا علیھ وسلم whodescribed it like a blacksmith furnace that is able to get rid of iron rust. Rasulullah صلى هللا:has stated علیھ وسلم

«أمرت بقریة تأكل القرى یقولون یثرب، وھي المدینة تنفي الناس كما ینفي الكیر خبث الحدید»

“I was ordered to a town which will eat up towns. They used to say, ‘Yathrib,’ but it isMadina. It removes the bad people like the blacksmith’s furnace removes impurities fromthe iron.” (Muwatta Malik / Book-45 / Hadith-1605)

The Shariah as a body of laws has particular maqasids (intents) that are aimed atpreserving five things that exist in human civilization, namely: belief, life, mind, honourand property. These Islamic aims ensure that economic prosperity, modernity andadvancement will not cause a social breakdown in the society. So the advancement oftechnology in Islam does not need social costs. This is because Islam does not recognizea dichotomy between knowledge and faith as the Western civilization does. The churchdoctrines in the Dark Middle-Ages often conflicted with the sciences, so it forced the birthof secularism which became the main reason of social breakdown today despite the factthat such states reached prosperity and technological advances.

The Prophet صلى هللا علیھ وسلم also described the life of the Islamic community as a group ofpeople who sailed the seas within a ship that contained specific laws of behavior toprotect all on board. It symbolized the nature of a society whose constituents have a



collective responsibility to prevent wrongdoing inorder to protect the rights and welfare ofall;

«مثل المدھن في حدود هللا والواقع فیھا مثل قوم استھموا سفینة فصار بعضھم في أسفلھا وصار بعضھم في أعالھا فكان الذيفي أسفلھا یمرون بالماء على الذین في أعالھا فتأذوا بھ فأخذ فأسا فجعل ینقر أسفل السفینة فأتوه فقالوا ما لك قال تأذیتم بي وال

بد لي من الماء فإن أخذوا على یدیھ أنجوه ونجوا أنفسھم وإن تركوه أھلكوه وأھلكوا أنفسھم»

“The example of the one who stands for the Hudood of Allah and the one whocompromises the Hudood of Allah are like the people in a boat, some of whom occupy theupper deck and some occupy the lower deck. Whenever those in the lower deck needwater, they have to go to the upper deck to retrieve it. So some of them said, ‘why don’twe make a hole in our deck so we do not harm the people of the upper deck?’ If thepeople do not stop them, they will all fall and be failures, but if they stop them they will allbe saved.” (Bukhari)

This ship analogy highlights the importance of the collective responsibility in a societywhich functions as an effective protector of the wellbeing of the people. Islam stronglyrecognizes this principle, and the obligation of amar ma’roof nahee munkar (enjoining thegood and forbidding the evil) that it prescribes upon all believers functions as a strongimmune system within the society to prevent the spreading of social diseases.

Muslim Women as the Guards of Civilization

As members of society, women are in the center of the cultural wars in many Muslimcountries today. They are seen as “bearers of culture”, the manager of tradition and familyvalues, as well as the last bulwark against the penetration and domination of Westernculture.

Islam views women as having a central position within a civilization. Muslim women playan important role within the family to maintain the Islamic identity of the Muslim society. Ahealthy Muslim community can therefore only be achieved if Muslim women realize wheretheir exact position within a society lies and regain that position. The main position ofwomen is as educators of the future generations. An intelligent and righteous mothershould be aware of her main role which is to create the best children of this Ummah whowill improve the condition of Muslims. In the West, this main role of women has beendevalued and undermined. The result has been the rampant spread of social diseasesand crimes within their societies.

Therefore Islam prescribes a set of noble laws to maintain the dignity of women. Islamalso ordered women to have extraordinary roles in motherhood – where in a larger scopethe accumulation of this role will guard the civilization, so that the population crisis andsick society will be prevented from emerging even in the smallest measure. Islam forexample recommends having many children, defines the primary role of women as wifeand mother rather than as employers feeding the economy, and it shuns theindividualistic, hedonistic culture of just pursuing physical pleasures that leads toindividuals rejecting marriage or remaining childless. In addition, Islam has also provided



the one and only comprehensive system which will provide the cure for a sick society.This system is nothing but the Islamic Khilafah. As Uthman ibn Affan (ra), the companionof the Prophet صلى هللا علیھ وسلم once said, “Verily Allah gives authority to the ruler to removeanything that cannot be eliminated by the Quran.”

The Khilafah – as the global leadership for the Muslims – with its new political, economicand social vision for human civilization – will implement a system that embodiescomprehensive social-economic policies which couple modernity and prosperity withmoral preservation as well as noble civilization, at the same time rejects liberal freedomsand rather promotes taqwa (God-consciousness) within society that nurtures a mentalityof collective responsibility to eliminate various diseases within the community. All this isimplemented under the umbrella of the Islamic ruling system that obliges an efficientjudicial system to deal with crimes and social diseases swiftly. Thus a healthy society willmaterialize, and the sustainability of the human race and its lineage will always bepreserved.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Fika Komara

Member of Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

Baca juga :

1. The Voice of the Ummah against the Miss World 2013: Ignored By the Deaf,Dumb and Blind Capitalist Elites

2. Reflections 2012: Capitalism is the Source of Disasters, Khilafah is the Solution3. Press Release: Capitalism Has Dehumanized Indonesian Women Workers4. China’s Aggressive Campaign against Women’s Islamic Dress is Due to its Fear

of an Islamic Awakening in East Turkestan5. It is the Capitalist Liberal System that Bears Primary Guilt for Fuelling Violence

Against Women

Secular capitalism spreads a population crisis from the west to the east

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