News & Analysis

The West’s Cultural Imperialism

Khadijah Ali

Jumada' al-Akhirah 08, 14442023-01-01

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If the collective west led by the US-NATO combine and their allies are not waging wars of aggression, they are involved in cultural wars against Muslims. The latter is even more dangerous. In the shooting war, the victims know who the aggressor is. In the cultural war, the aggressor comes in disguise appealing to the base instincts of people.

This was most clearly visible in the just-concluded FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar. Even before the whistle for the first match was blown in late November, the western media launched its crusade about the non-availability of alcohol and beer inside the stadiums. Is beer-drinking compulsory during football matches? Western soccer fans are rowdy enough; they do not need alcoholic stimulants to become absolutely obnoxious.

Who is unaware of the rowdy conduct of soccer fans in western countries whether in Britain, France, Germany or a host of others? Is this something to be proud of and must other countries emulate such conduct? France, whose moral standards are pretty low, to put it mildly, does not permit alcohol or beer inside soccer stadiums. Why should Qatar, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, allow such intoxicants inside stadiums just because the world cup is being held there?

After every soccer match in a western country, the stadium is turned into a mess. Beer bottles and cans as well as wrappers of all kinds are strewn all over the place. One team’s fans shout obscenities at those of the opposing side. These often degenerate into fist and beer bottle fights. So much for the west’s manners.

It was interesting to note that the fans of only two countries—Japan and Iran—were seen picking trash from around the seats when their teams played in Qatar. None of the western countries’ fans, whether from Germany, France, England, Wales, Spain, Austria, Australia or the US, to name a few, cared to clean the mess they had created. Are they incapable of learning?

While the raucous about non-availability of alcohol and beer inside the stadiums (it was available outside despite Qatar being an overwhelmingly Muslim majority country) was bad enough, there was another more insidious campaign underway. This related to homosexuality, or more precisely, celebration of it. One is at a loss to find any correlation between soccer and homosexuality.

Qatar is a Muslim country, as are more than 57 other countries. While most of them may not be governed by proper Islamic injunctions or live according to them, there are certain aspects that they follow faithfully. One of them is the question of marriage; it is between a man and a woman. This is what Islam ordains. Muslims cannot and will not accept the patronizing attitude of the west about sexual mores or any other type of social behaviour.

While the collective west tries to impose its sexual preferences on others, the rest of the world refuses to accept them. Western laws are not universal. They are not even consistent. They keep changing with time. Why should the rest of the world, especially Muslims accept the west’s deviant behaviour when their (Muslims’) values are working perfectly fine for the well-being and peace of society?

Take the case of cigarette smoking. This anti-social habit was introduced in other societies by the west. Smoking was presented as being cool. Hundreds of millions of people in ‘third world’ countries were hooked on this poisonous, cancer-causing substance. The west has since moved away from advertising cigarette smoking but the rest of the world continues to suffer its deadly consequences. The entire cigarette-smoking campaign had to do with profit. Western multinationals do not care how much harm they caused to other societies as long as they can continue to make profit.

With homosexuality, it is not about profits per se, but control. This is what is called cultural imperialism. The collective west demands that the rest of the world must abide by whatever it considers to be the norm at any given time. If the west wants to commit suicide, that is their choice. Muslims and indeed much of the rest of the world wish to have nothing to do with it.

The wars of aggression against Muslim countries—some of them still continuing—were launched under the rubric of ‘liberating’ Muslim women. Liberating from what?

Take the case of Afghanistan where the US and its so-called coalition of the willing (or coerced) killed countless numbers of innocent people by spending more than $2.26 trillion. Apart from a tiny minority of women—a fraction of the Afghan women population—got some education. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan women were widowed and left to fend for themselves.

Since the US fled Afghanistan at the end of August 2021, there is hardly a whisper about ‘liberating’ Afghan women and girls. Instead, the US is illegally holding nearly $10 billion in Afghan foreign exchange reserves that is contributing directly to the suffering of the Afghan people—men and women.

The same bloody-minded attitude is practised against Islamic Iran that wishes to remain independent and free from western diktat. Its assets have been frozen and criminal sanctions have been imposed that prevent desperately-needed medicines from being imported. These have affected children and women in particular.

The US and its allies meanwhile proclaim that they support the rights of Iranian women to have ‘freedom’. Such proclamations would sound more credible if the west were to lift its criminal sanctions. Western hypocrisy has no limits.

Let us, however, return to the question of homosexuality. It is presented in the seductive garb of human rights. It has nothing to do with human rights. After all, in many western countries, Muslim women are discriminated against if they wear the niqab or even the hijab. This applies to France as well as to the province of Quebec in Canada. Does freedom only apply to women uncovering themselves but not to cover?

Muslims of the world have a simple message to the collective west: Get off our backs!

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