Desert Fox
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This is a problem a lot of people in our part of the world face. Bd's have their own way of expressing this problem which shows itself how you accurately described.BD people (tri-river delta area) have worst case of confused identity complex (well before Muhammad was even born)...deep down always, whether they be pious or atheist....honourable or wretched.....rich or poor. This is a long deep subject by itself.
Ummah on the other hand (and concepts like this in non-abrahamic systems too) assumes there is one core, strong, unidirection identity in otherwise very different people to harness, build upon and strengthen. It has good intent (and succeeded to some note when political/military environments were achieved), but the pragmatic reality today shows the dissonance clearly in practice (esp considering Kitab al-Fitan Sunnah you referenced earlier in another thread).
Ummah is a concept that in today's world only exists in the occasional interactions between the common Muslim and that too limited to the basics of everyday conversations like the usual Salaams and goodbye's, etc... Very rarely does it exceed that.
As soon as this concept begins to encroach on the individual and collective interests of particular groups while benefiting another then this concept easily falls apart and the true human nature shows itself. As we saw in the tensions that finally led to 1971 split. Why could not the Bangladeshis accept a common unified Islamic language of the Muslims of the Subcontinent (Urdu)? Which mind you is a neutral language. It's not like the "evil Punjabis" were imposing Punjabi on Bangladeshis.
Why did they percieve Punjabis to be dominant and unfair towards Bangladeshis?
And this is also the problem of democracy. When a group that percieves itself to be in the majority and yet also unfairly treated in elections then it will agitate for secession because every electoral loss will be a validation that it is being neglected.
This is why you cannot have democracy in a multicultural society because each group is fighting to get a bigger piece of the pie at the expense of the rest of the society.
The only "multicultural" societies that have "functioned" (I say that loosely) are ones where one group, from the outset, has made its dominance clear to its subject groups. Take for example Communist China or Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia and now the current Russian federation.
The Chinese are in the process of "Hanizing" the Uighurs in order to integrate them into mainstream Chinese culture which is basically Han culture and they are using very harsh measures at times towards this goal.
Just like in Czarist Russia and later Soviet Union the dominant Slavs "Slavicized" their Muslim subjects of the Caucasus and Central Asia, this today you see surnames like Umarov, Kadirov, etc..
Because the Russian and the Han have made it clear from the outset to their subjects: "we won these lands fair and square, therefore we are the dominant authority over these lands. You are our subjects. What we say goes." The Russians and the Han are ruling by the age-old principle of Might Makes Right.
Whereas in democratic societies where the mantra of "equality" is preached, when one group surpasses the other the latter feels that it was cheated.
Only in the West the recent nonsense of "multiculturalism" is worshipped like an idol.
And this is also why the Ummah concept, if it means a single state of multiple cultures, races, and ethnicities of Muslims living under one roof, can never work because the Ummah concept presupposes "equality" between all, but when the rubber hits the road and one group surpasses the others either due to natural talent/innate qualities or historical advantage, then the cries of "hey that's not fair" start ringing out.
You are spot on.It is imperative that Muslim societies strengthen themselves first as independent, pragmatic entities than rely entirely on the notions of Ummah idealism....the ocean has been corrupted, most men are weak....you must dam the good water to survive and prosper as good souls now.
People like to affiliate themselves with the powerful. The same holds true for nations as well. Nobody wants to be tied down to someone who's weak and incapable of defending their own honor purely for the sake of "brotherhood" and "equality."
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