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…+

Power is attractive, more than ideology or abstract principles, it’s what drives mass attraction and allegiance. The West’s dominance, both militarily and discursively, has created a pathological addiction to its power, people unconsciously gravitate toward it, admire…+ …it, and internalize its frameworks. Yet the discussion also highlights that this loyalty is conditional: once Western hegemony fractures and a new pole of power emerges, such as a stronger China, people will just as easily shift their orientation. This shift would not…+

Many Muslims today, when they hear someone stress the need for ethics, worldview, and ideological grounding before chasing technology, immediately respond with irritation or mockery. Why? Because for nearly two centuries the Muslim world has been fed a very specific…+ …narrative: “The West is powerful because of science and technology, you are weak because you lack it, so imitate them.” Colonialism didn’t just conquer lands; it conquered imaginations. It created a reflex where technological power is seen as the only route to dignity, while…+

The blind chase after a technological revolution, modeled upon the West’s own trajectory of conquest and domination, is one of the most perilous illusions that has gripped the contemporary Muslim imagination. The seduction of space programs, nuclear arsenals, and advanced…+

https://twitter.com/islamicize/status/1961886506479415531

…weapon systems is premised upon a narrative that equates technological prowess with civilizational dignity and sovereignty. Yet, history itself testifies to the fallacy of this assumption. The possession of nuclear weapons by certain Muslim states has not shielded the…+

Palestine is the litmus test of the global order itself. Decolonial thinkers see in Palestine the place where the mythology of modern progress, of freedom, democracy, human rights, is unmasked as domination and…+ …control. Every missile, every checkpoint, every settlement is not only an assault on the very possibility of an alternative humanity that refuses to live under the dictates of colonial modernity. The fact that Palestinians endure, that they produce…+

Here’s how to dismantle this cope

The claim that “medieval Islamic tolerance” is merely an Orientalist romanticism downplays the clear legal, political, and historical record that shows it was not just an accident of weak state capacity or political fragmentation, it was…+

https://twitter.com/levantophile/status/1955550901592097164

…rooted in Islamic law and governance. From the Prophet Muhammad’s political order in Madinah onward, non-Muslims (Ahl al-Kitāb) were guaranteed a protected legal status (dhimma), security of life and property, the right to worship, and communal legal autonomy. This was…+

Another low IQ reaction to this is the assumption that we should sit with our hands tied and let the world have its way with us

Let me explain again in full detail why that is also the wrong conclusion

It’s a common misreading to assume that critiquing modern technology and…+

https://twitter.com/islamicize/status/1950205120819438004

…weaponry from an Islamic perspective implies we must abandon all progress and remain vulnerable to global powers. Islam has never demanded such passivity. Rather, it offers a model for ethical transformation that is both principled and pragmatic. We can look to the…+

Not sure why so many low IQ reactions to this so let me explain in full detail

One of the most misunderstood yet foundational principles of Islamic civilization is the deeply internalized fear of Allah in matters not only of ritual worship, but of conduct toward all of…+

https://twitter.com/islamicize/status/1950172127942083048

…creation. This taqwā was not a vague spirituality, it governed how Muslims treated land, animals, civilians, architecture, and even enemy combatants. The idea that one could pursue power, wealth, or expansion at the cost of dishonoring nature or harming innocents was…+