Half the planet had cities, laws, trade networks, science, and philosophy long before European colonialism, and many of them were set back by it

But let’s actually go through a little bit of what European colonialism brought

Below is Algerian skulls collection in France

https://twitter.com/mattmorsetv/status/2003496501650342370

Congolese father stares at the severed hands and feet of his 5 year old after he failed to meet the rubber quota. Colonized by leopold of Belgium

There is something interesting about the story of Yusuf (as) in the Quran, right before he was seduced

The Qur’an is deliberate in marking that temptation does not arrive at Yusuf’s weakest point, but “when he reached his full maturity”, when his strength, clarity, and…+ …usefulness had fully formed. This is a civilizational law, not just a biographical detail: power does not waste seduction on the broken, it targets the capable. Yusuf is not tempted in the well or in slavery, but in the palace, because temptation is the final technique used…+

The author’s approach effectively sidelines how colonialism, and the neoliberal order that emerged in its wake, fundamentally reshaped its very foundations: its epistemic horizons, institutional architectures, modalities of intellectual production, the relation of the self…+

https://twitter.com/kasurianmag/status/1985309915468947532

…to knowledge, and the subjugation of Muslim societies to global capitalist logics. By neglecting to foreground how colonial and post-colonial structures redefined the very conditions of intellectual and civilizational possibility, the argument risks reducing the crisis of…+

Those who turn to revolutionary literature, whether Marxist or its ideological opposites, in search of liberation from alienation commit a profound epistemic error: they approach the problem of man from within the very architecture that produced his estrangement. The Marxist…+

https://twitter.com/lebcommie/status/1978139347875500462

…attempts to redeem man through the reorganization of material relations, while the liberal reformer seeks freedom in the reorganization of moral or political ones. Yet both remain entrapped within the same dialectic, merely shifting weight from one end of the seesaw to the…+

The Muslims are the only ones uniquely positioned to stop this juggernaut, not by copying anyone else's methods, but by our own. We know how to dismantle empires because we’ve done it before on our own terms: the Sasanians, the Byzantines, the Visigoths, the kingdoms of North…+ …Africa, India, Central Asia. No people have confronted and reshaped so many realms, and we have endured. Do not accept the comforting lie the West tells itself that we were somehow vanquished; we have never been truly conquered. Our lands were not turned away from…+

Gaza functions as the world’s unconscious: the space where all the suppressed contradictions of liberal modernity surface. Every missile is an attempt to suppress the unbearable truth that the “order” governing the planet depends on perpetual disorder somewhere…+ …else. Gaza, therefore, is the system’s necessary shadow, the evidence that the global order’s peace, progress, and humanitarianism are sustained by carefully managed zones of devastation. What makes Gaza powerful is that it makes this hidden structure visible. It…+

The Qur’an’s brilliance lies in how it unveils the mechanics of falsehood, not merely as moral corruption but as social engineering. In describing Fir‘awn, Allah says: “So he made his people think lightly of him, and they obeyed him. Indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient…+ …people” (43:54). This verse captures something profound: Fir‘awn didn’t rule only through brute power, he normalized his authority, made tyranny appear ordinary, and corrupted moral perception itself. The Qur’an thus exposes a subtle process, the manufacturing of obedience…+

Many people are dangerously deluded by the idea that words, especially from figures like Kirk, are just empty opinions floating in the air, detached from real-world consequences. In reality, rhetoric is one of the most powerful tools of influence: it shapes public…+ …opinion, normalizes violence, and provides ideological cover for oppression. When someone with a massive platform repeatedly vilifies Palestinians and other marginalized groups, it does not exist in a vacuum; it strengthens the political will of those in power, justifies…+

Many Muslims today associate deep religious commitment with struggle and poverty because of how modern systems have structured economic and cultural life. Under colonial and postcolonial orders, Islamic piety was increasingly pushed out of public life and into the private…+ …sphere, leaving little room for it to be tied to upward mobility or economic power. The professions, institutions, and industries that lead to material wealth and social prestige have been redefined along secular lines, while spaces of Islamic…+

Some Muslims today have internalized the false assumption that giving priority to the deen automatically weakens their ability to engage with the modern world. They believe that once a Muslim becomes serious about Islam, he inevitably withdraws from society, neglects worldly…+ …responsibilities, and becomes passive in the face of worldly challenges. This misconception is rooted in the colonial and secular conditioning that has redefined religion as a private affair, disconnected from politics, economics, or intellectual pursuits. As a result, Islam..+

Too often, when Muslims raise concerns about the pitfalls of modernity and the dominance of Western paradigms, their words are dismissed as abstract or overly theoretical. The impulse behind this dismissal is rooted in an impatience for immediate change, people want to see…+ …quick, tangible solutions, movements, or results as soon as discussions begin. This mentality is flawed because it reduces the problem to surface-level solutions while ignoring the deeper structures that actually shape societies. The West itself did not become dominant…+

The present global and economic order relentlessly drives the Muslim towards accepting modern idolatry by restructuring the very conditions of survival. As @asharfouch explains in “Against the world”, the modern system does not simply ask for compliance, it demands a new…+ …ontology of man, where the human being is defined primarily as a consumer, producer, and citizen of the secular order. Muslims, faced with precarious economies, inflation, debt traps, and the dominance of multinational corporations, are pushed to prioritize material gain…+

The most comprehensive blueprint I’ve seen for an ideologically grounded and politically resolute action plan for Muslims is laid out by @asharfouch in his book “Against the World: Towards an Islamic Liberation Philosophy”

Harfouch’s solution to the ummah’s crisis rests on…+ …reclaiming tawḥīd as the axis of liberation, a truth that does not merely exist in the abstract but dismantles the idols of self, capital, and state that dominate modern life. For him, tawḥīd is both a cosmic orientation and a political rallying point, grounding the…+

The general picture of the Muslim world as war-torn and ghettoized is not a natural outcome of Islam or Muslim societies, but the direct result of deliberate historical processes that sought to weaken and fragment them. The colonial powers dismantled flourishing Muslim…+ …empires, carved up territories into fragile nation-states, and imposed artificial borders that guaranteed internal conflict. In place of strong Islamic governance rooted in justice and unity, colonialists installed loyal elites whose only purpose was to safeguard…+

The reason it seems that most religions “get along” with the modern world while Islam stands out as stricter and more resistant is because many of those religions have already undergone a process of deep compromise. Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism have, to…+ …varying degrees, been reinterpreted or reshaped to align with secular liberal norms. Their doctrines and moral teachings were either privatized, restricted to personal spirituality, or selectively revised so they could coexist with the dominant worldview of modernity. For…+

“Muslims were sleeping while the West went through the Industrial Revolution,” is an all too common line used to explain why Muslims fell behind, but this narrative is both simplistic and misleading. The West’s Industrial Revolution was not a mere story of waking up earlier…+ …and working harder; it was the product of very particular historical, social, and ideological developments. Europe’s fragmentation into rival kingdoms forced relentless competition, while intellectual shifts like the Enlightenment, Protestant Reformation, and the rise of…+

Muslims today often look at the world and see themselves as losers, weighed down by the shattered state of the ummah. Where once Muslims governed vast empires stretching from Andalusia to India, now they find themselves fragmented into weak nation-states, ruled by elites…+ …more loyal to colonial legacies than to their own people. The West boasts economic might, scientific innovation, and political dominance, while much of the Muslim world is portrayed as backward, war-torn, and dependent. This perception becomes internalized, leading many…+

When Muslims critique the West, one common retort is that “China had no problem challenging the West, while we sit back and just criticize.” At first this sounds like a valid point, China has indeed risen as a formidable competitor on the global stage. But this argument…+ …misses the deeper issue: China’s rise was only possible because it accepted the very same philosophical foundations that the West is built upon. To industrialize, militarize, and globalize, China had to internalize a secular conception of man, nature, and God that strips…+

Many Muslims today view discussions about the West, its technology, culture, or global power structures, through a strict binary lens: either you accept it entirely, or you reject all progress and return to “cave-man” living. This binary mindset is the product of colonial and…+ …postcolonial conditioning, where the West successfully framed itself as the only definition of civilization and advancement. For decades, Western powers and their local collaborators presented their systems as the sole pathway out of poverty, ignorance, and weakness. Over…+

Colonialism did not succeed merely because of the superior weapons or technologies of European powers, but because it found willing hands within the Muslim world and beyond, men who conspired with the colonialists for wealth, position, or the illusion of…+ …security. These local elites betrayed their societies by lending legitimacy to foreign rule, often serving as the intermediaries who helped dismantle indigenous institutions, discredit Islamic governance, and facilitate the seizure of land and resources. By aligning…+

Colonialism dismantled the ummah not only by dividing its lands but by uprooting the very mechanisms of governance that tied Muslims to a shared moral and political horizon. The Ottomans and other Islamic polities had systems where rulers were bound, at least in…+ …principle, by Shari‘ah and a broader accountability to the community of believers. European colonialism methodically dismantled these institutions: Islamic courts were sidelined by imported codes, waqf systems that sustained civil society were expropriated, and the…+