Debt and Empire

As the US and Great Britain try to extricate themselves from their economic mess, they continue to borrow money and pile on the debt. This, inevitablely has consequences. Eventually the world will be reluctant to give them more money to fund their imperial policies (ie Iraq, Afghanistan, NATO, over 700military bases around the world) and if they do they will demand much higher interest rates for 2 reasons. Firstly, as their creditworthiness deteriorates foreigners want compensation for the higher risk they are undertaking. Secondly, the US government will print money, as they are doing now, to fund various debts, which ultimately leads to inflation. To account for this again foreigners will demand much higher interest rates. The combination of high interest rates and inflation will lead to stagflation and lower standards of living for Americans. Ultimately, these imperial powers will have to curb their foreign adventures and their facade of economic dominance will crumble quickly as Asia and countries with natural resources rise to fill the vacuum.

2 articles on their credit ratings.
Great Britain
US

Strong Iman

Yesterday I was watching a segment on Egyptian TV of Sheikh Mohammed Al-Shawrawi, a famous Egyptian Islamic Scholar during the 20th century. He has authored many books on Islam but what really struck me about the segment was during the 1967 war where the Muslims were routed by the Israelis. He was in Algeria during that time and the Sheikhs around him what would he do next and he said lets go and pray 2 rakkahs shukr lillah. The people around him were flabberghasted for that meant to them that he was happy of the outcome.

He said we always have to have faith in Allah and this is Allah's decree. Allah could have made it more disastrous for us but he did not so we should thank him. Also, this is a wake up call to look at ourselves and quit blaming the West and Israelis for our failures. We should look at this disaster as a warning from Allah. We have deviated from ahl al sunnah and this is the consequence. During the 1960 Egypt was with the USSR, the non-aligned movement and socialism, etc but where was Islam. Look at the consequences. Now we are with the West/US/IMF/World Bank and look at us now. Or look at the Palestinian movement with its secular/nationalism movement. Yet we continue not to learn from the past.

These calamities should be used to reexamine ourselves. We should ask why has Allah decreed this upon us and quit blaming others. We should look the Allah and get closer to him, for it is he who put us in this position and only he can remove us from this position.

Sheikh Shawrawi's prayer demonstrates a true and humble servant thanking Allah for his compassion and mercy on the Ummah for he knew it could have been much worse.

Friends

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