The Religious Authority H.E. Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah was asked about the state of deterioration that the Islamic and Arab worlds is witnessing, he answered:

We agree with those who say that one of the reasons of backwardness and deterioration of the Islamic and Arab worlds lies in the wrong understanding of religion that made it in the minds of a lot of people a set of rites and traditions that no longer seeks the dynamic truth. Islam has considered that recognizing this dynamism, as well as seeking knowledge, as one of the religious duties that are ordained on every Muslim.

But we have at the same time to look for the reasons of this deterioration, the most prominent of which are the political lines of the rulers in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Those rulers have prevented their peoples from any movement, out of fear for their thrones, thus becoming the champions of ignorance, since they believe that any progress in the various fields of knowledge will be accompanied by political change.

Islam is therefore not responsible for this state of deterioration in the Arab and Muslim worlds. It was Islam that made civilization for the world in the previous centuries until it was said:  “the Islamic civilization is the mother of modern civilizations”. Nevertheless, there are two factors that hinder the progress of the Muslims and the Arabs.

The First is the wrong understanding of religion, while the second is the regimes that sponsor and promote this understanding, since it allows them to continue to exist and provides additional means to besiege those who call for reform and change.

Thus, we emphasize the importance and necessity of becoming integrated into the modern industrial world, but we wonder if the regimes are ready to work in this direction. Moreover, we would like to ask about the mechanisms that will be employed to reach this goal, especially after most of these regimes have yielded to the American dictates, with their main goal of preventing the Arabs and Muslims from possessing any source of strength, whether scientific or military, especially with the accusations of being terrorist or of seeking to own weapons of mass destruction ready to be used against them.

That is why we call for popular movements in the Arab and Islamic worlds that seeks to get out of this fatal stagnant situation that prevents our nation from interacting with it causes, especially in view of what they are preparing for to Iraq: an invasion that will rape what is left of the nation resources and end any political independence it may still have.

This stage is one of the most critical stages in our history, and unless the Arab street acts quickly a catastrophe is awaiting us all.