Bombed out schools, damaged blue domed mosques and bullet riddled hospitals have become common sight in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of US troops stationed in both countries walk through the ancient bazaars of Baghdad and Herat with pharaoh like haughtiness; their Humvees drive through narrow streets, leaving behind smoke, dust and often blood. This brazen occupation of two Muslim countries is accompanied by a full fledged reconstruction effort in their political, economic and social systems.

Thus pork chops and wine are on the menu in the famed Kabul restaurant. Abundant pornographic material is available in Baghdad. Casinos and bars are operating in Basra. These are merely the outward signs of this awful reorganization of societies through social engineering. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, similar results are being achieved through petty dictators installed or kept in power by the United States.

This well organized plan of ‘Americanization“ of Islamic societies is far more dangerous than the military occupation, because the military occupation is visible whereas these efforts aimed at inner transformation remain hidden until results have been achieved.

This large scale destruction of the Islamic fabric of Muslim societies is being carried out through two main channels: hundreds of pseudo non-governmental front organizations and a new educational system. In some countries, the US has overtly established women’s rights groups that advocate an American brand of freedom and rights for women; in others, it has funneled millions of dollars through existing complaints government into social action programs, which aims to westernize these traditional Muslim societies.

Early signs of success of these efforts are now visible all over the Muslim world. Pakistan, for instance, was a deeply religious polity under a decade ago. Then it was unthinkable for a shopkeeper to have obscene material on the shelves. Today, almost all big cities are literally awash with such material.

Anyone returning to Pakistan after sometime would be shocked to see how the country has changed. Bars, pornographic material, western food chains, even large scale gambling have made inroads into the main shopping centers of Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Faisalabad, and even Peshawar where the traditional pashtun religiosity has given way to a flood of Americanization sponsored by the states.

This is not to say that Pakistan and other Muslim societies were ideal of Islamic values before the recent flood of westernization. Vices have always existed in all societies, but it is the extent of acceptability of these evils that has seen sea change. Even traditional middle class areas of major cities are now hubs of western-style shops, selling all manners of pornographic material openly to spoiled young men dressed in sleek clothing, with an air of foreignness about them. This new generation of men and women is the product of two transforming currents that have literally drowned these societies. The first is the social change brought through funneling of millions of dollars into westernization of these societies through import of ideas and ideals.

Food habits were changed by the arrival of Mc Donald, KFCs and burger kings. Fashion designers captured the imagination of youth through slick clothing. And a massive social transformation of human relationships and social customs were achieved through technological devices ill- suited for traditional societies.

Cell phones are now the biggest crush in Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries. Every young man and woman carries or wishes to carry these little devices which have little utility for them except for what is contrived through the transform social customs. Television connection now brings hundreds of foreign channels right into the bedrooms and drawing rooms of these families and drown them in western cultural norms.

Along with this huge transformation, a much more insidious process of change, this originated in the 1980’s has started to produce results; the new educational system which came into the Muslim world through privatization of schools nationally. These schools were modeled on the British and American models; within a short time they became the most profitable business they prepared their student for O and A level British examination. The curricula of these schools are invariably based on the British and American models and come with a heavy dose of westernization.

These schools mushroomed all over the Muslim world with such force that the established educational system was pushed into the background it was already a deteriorating system, with poor educational standards, worn-out physical facilities and a demoralized staff . The entire estate-owned system became the haunt of the dispossessed, with the emergence of the new schools, which soon expanded into colleges and universities. These inevitable extensions emerged with the same rapidity with which the lower grade institutions have emerged.

Capitalizing on the soaring demand for high school graduates, these colleges and universities catered to the needs of a middle class hopelessly trying to stay afloat in a sea of change. This middle class belong to a previous era when moral values, rather than modern trends and material success, were the criteria of respect and honor. But the parents had no choice; as they wanted their children to acquire modern education leading to respectable jobs the only option open to them was these pseudo western schools which they could hardly affords. They sacrificed everything to send their children to these schools and collages only to find out that the education which they had provided their children had made them aliens in their own lands.
The first generation of student of this educational system can be seen now in work places. These men and women are so uprooted from their land, customs, religion, traditions, value and languages that they are utterly foreign creatures in their own countries they have only a functional knowledge of the local languages; this does not bind them to the literary and cultural traditions of these languages. They prefer to speak an idiom that is replete with foreign words and phrases. Their eating preferences, their dress code and social interactions are all caricatures of what has been fed to them as western culture. Their aspirations: to go to England or America as soon as possible.
This generation of young man and woman has emerged in the Muslim world merely half a century after its so-called freedom from the colonial yoke. It is the first post independents generation and its integration into the large scale westernization being achieved through social engineering of another kind will alter the Islamic character of Muslim societies within the next decade unless corrective steps are taken on an urgent basis.