WHO WERE HISTORY'S GREAT LEADERS - TIME, JULY 15, 1974
The
world famous "Time" carried the above rubic on its front
cover. Inside the magazine were numerous
essays as to 'What
makes a great leader?' 'Throughout
history, who
qualifies?' TIME asked a variety of
historians, writers, military
men, businessmen and others for their selections. Each gave his
candidate according
to his "light" as objectively as is humanly possible,
depending on one's own awareness and
prejudice.
WHO
KNOWS DR. SALAZAR?
It
is my habit and pleasurable duty to take non-Muslims on a guided tour
of the largest mosque in the
Southern Hemisphere - "The
Jumma Masjid" Durban.
On
one occasion I was hosting a Portuguese couple, a husband and wife
team. At some stage during the
discussion the Portuguese
gentleman said that "Dr.
Salazar was the greatest
man in the world!" I did not
debate the point with him as I personally knew little about Dr.
Salazar except that he was a one time dictator
of Portugal albeit to many a
great benefactor to his nation. My poor visitor was, however,
speaking according to
his own knowledge, point of view and prejudice.
MUHAMMAD
(PBUH) AN NOT BE IGNORED!
Among
the contributors to the "Time,"
it seems that none could ignore Muhammad (pbuh).
WILLIAM
McNEILL, a United States historian,
of the University of Chicago, records:
"IF
YOU MEASURE LEADERSHIP BY IMPACT, THEN YOU WOULD HAVE TO NAME JESUS,
BUDDHA, MOHAMMED,
CONFUCIUS, THE GREAT PROPHETS OF THE WORLD ..."
McNeill
does not go into details, nor does he give us any explanation as to
why he placed Jesus (pbuh) first
and Muhammad (pbuh) number three.
Perhaps it was by force of habit. It is very likely that McNeill is
a Christian.
However, we will not argue with him. Then comes -
JAMES
GAVIN, described as a United States
army man, a retired lieutenant general. He says - "AMONG
LEADERS WHO HAVE MADE THE
GREATEST IMPACT THROUGH AGES, I WOULD CONSIDER
MOHAMMED, JESUS CHRIST, MAYBE
LENIN, POSSIBLY MAO. AS FOR A LEADER WHOSE QUALITIES
WE COULD MOST USE NOW, I WOULD
CHOOSE JOHN F. KENNEDY."
The
General does not say much more, yet we have to salute him. It calls
for tremendous fortitude to pen the
name Muhammad before that of
Christ (peace be upon them both). It surely, was no slip of the pen.
JULES
MASSERMAN, United States
psychoanalyst and professor of the Chicago University, gives us,
unlike the
other contributors, the basis for making his selection. He gives us
his reason for choosing his greatest
LEADER of all times. He wants us
to find out, what we are really looking for in the man, the qualities
that sets him
apart. We may be looking for any sets of qualities. As in the case
of Michael H. Hart, he was looking for a
person wielding the MOST Influence.1
However,
Masserman does not want us to depend on our fancies or prejudices: he
wants to establish
objective standards for judging,
before we confer greatness upon anybody.
He
says that "Leaders must fulfill three functions--"
No.
1 THE LEADER MUST PROVIDE FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THE LEAD ...
The
leader, whoever he is, must be interested in your welfare. He must
not be looking for milking cows for his
own greed like the Rev. Jim
Jones of Jonestown, Guyana, of the "Suicide Cult" fame.
You will remember him
as the man who committed suicide together with 910 of his followers,
all at the same time EN MASSE!
The
United States Government was on his trail and he was on the verge of
being caught for certain felonies. But before they could apprehend
him, he thought it wise to eliminate himself, together with all his
followers, so that
no one would be left to testify against him. He laced lemonade with
cynide and inspired his devotees to
drink it, and so they did and
they all died in disgrace! In the meantime, it was discovered that
the Rev. Jim Jones
had salted away fifteen million dollars and stacked it in his own
account in banks throughout the world. All his victims were his
milking cows and he was exploiting them to satisfy his own lust and
greed. Masserman's hero must be found to benefit his sheep, his
flock, and not himself
No.
2 THE LEADER OR WOULD BE LEADER MUST PROVIDE A SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN
WHICH PEOPLE
FEEL RELATIVELY SECURE ...
Unlike
the Marxist, the Facist, the Nazi, the Neo-Nazi the Ashkenazi,
[The Jews from Germany, Central
Europe and Eastern Europe, mostly
from Russia who are in unlawful occupation of Palestine. There is
something prophetic in the name
itself - the Jews are doing to the people of the occupied territories
exactly what
the Nazis did to them. What an irony!]
the Zionist, and their
fellow-travellers, Professor Masserman, in his brief essay in the
TIME magazine, did not spell this out. But his beliefs and feelings
are abundantly clear. He is in search of a Leader who will provide a
social order free of self, and greed and racism: for all these
"isms" carry within
them the seeds of their own destruction.
There's
still with us much sorrow and sin, Injustice, Oppression, wrong and
hate. Still does Arrogance deaden
Conscience, Rob struggling souls
of e'en the crumbs Of Pity, and make, of loathsome flesh And
crumbling dust,
fair-seeming Idols For worship. Still does Ignorance blow A mighty
Horn and try to shame True
Wisdom. Still do men drive
Slaves,
- - Protesting smoothly the end of Slavery! Still does Greed devour
the substance Of helpless ones within her
power. Nay, more, - -
the
fine Individual Voice Is smothered in the raucous din Of groups and
Crowds that madly shout What they
call Slogans New, - - Old
Falsehoods long discredited ... Abdullah Yusuf Ali
No.
3 THAT THIS LEADER MUST PROVIDE HIS PEOPLE WITH ONE SET OF BELIEFS
It
is easy to talk of the Fellowship of Faith and the Brotherhood of
Man, but in South Africa today, there are a
thousand different sects and
denominations among the Whites (people of European descent) and three
thousand among the Blacks (of
African descent). The White Churches in my country are Spawning
"Black"
Bishops, fast, but in the first
three hundred years of European conquest, they did not produce a
single Black Bishop.
Even now, the Black, the White, the Colored and the Indian cannot
pray together in most of the
Dutch Reformed Churches. The
hatred between the Christian sects was aptly described by the
Christian Emperor
Julian, who said: "NO WILD BEASTS ARE SO HOSTILE TO MAN AS
CHRISTIAN SECTS IN
GENERAL ARE TO ONE ANOTHER."
Sayed Amir Ali in his "Spirit of lslam,"- page 1 ii.
With
the foregoing three standards, Masserman searches history and
analyses Louis Pasteur, Salk, Gandhi,
Confucius, Alexander the Great,
Caesar, Hitler, Buddha, Jesus and the rest;
finally coming to the conclusion
that - PERHAPS THE GREATEST
LEADER OF ALL TIMES WAS MUHAMMED, WHO COMBINED ALL
THREE FUNCTIONS. (and) TO A
LESSER DEGREE, MOSES DID THE SAME
We
cannot help marveling at Masserman, that as a Jew he condescends to
scrutinize even Adolf Hitler, the
arch-enemy of his people. He
considers Hitler to be a great leader. His race, the mighty German
nation of 90 million
people, was ready to march to destiny or destruction at his behest.
Alas, he lead them to ruin. Hitler is
not the question. The question is
why would Masserman, as an American Jew, a paid servant of the
Government proclaim to his
countrymen of over two hundred million Jews and Christians that not
Jesus, not
Moses but Muhummed was "The
greatest Leader of all times!"
ACCOUNT FOR THAT!
To Be Continued....
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