The Fundamentals of Analysis. Middle Nation Podcast (E:8)

Welcome to the Mill Nation podcast. This is episode number eight. Most of what passes as analysis among Muslims is little more than propagandistic polemics that just use current events as fuel for ideological rhetoric, usually around the theme of a war against Islam. It is, frankly, just a lot of noise. No one bothers to really examine in any depth what is happening in the Muslim world, how or why, or even actually by whom.

This is the case with any crisis or conflict that may be trending on your social media feed, the Uighur, Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, the Rohingya, Somalia, you name it. There's a lot of emotion, but very little, if any, genuine analysis or serious research. The same honestly applies to most other issues as well, cultural issues, social trends, religious opinions, and so on. Everybody has a lot to say, but no one really takes the time to look into issues carefully enough to understand them rather than just broadcast their knee jerk reactions to them. So let me talk a little bit about some of the fundamentals of doing proper analysis.

Let's say you wanna look at a situation in a particular country. Well, first, you need to undertake a review of that country's geopolitical dynamics. That will include the literal geography of the country, and if appropriate, the region in which the situation you want to analyze is taking place. What are the geographic factors at play here? What are the constraints?

Is this an urban or rural environment? Is it coastal, barren, in the mountains? What? Who are their geographic neighbors? What are the conditions there, and how do these impact the society?

Then you also wanna do a brief scan of the history. What has been going on before the current situation occurred? Next, and this is incredibly important, you need to look at that country's demographics. The median age of the population, the size of the workforce, the ethnic makeup, the rate of emigration out of the country, literacy, and general education levels, so on and so on. All of this will tell you if you understand the ramifications of these figures an enormous amount about the context of the situation you are analyzing.

And even with this, you will wanna look at the demographic history. Has the median age been rising? Meaning that the birth rate has not been keeping pace and a once robust workforce is now declining, taking skills and productivity along with it. Does the country or region have a low median age, meaning its best days may be ahead of it? So on and so on.

These are datasets that illuminate a great deal about what is going on in the country Because you have to understand that policymakers, both in the public and the private sector, are guided by these sets of data. And then, of course, you have to examine the country's economy, not just GDP, but per capita income, household debt, median wages, etcetera. You have to identify what their raw resources are, what their primary industrial sectors are, where do most people work, how does this country fit into the global supply chain, and whose supply chains specifically? What is the level of foreign direct investment, and who is investing? Where and why?

And what are the regulations on foreign investment? And who's writing those regulations? And to whom is the country in debt? How much is it, and since when? What are the terms of any loan agreements that the government has entered into?

What's the role of the IMF or international development banks in that country? If there have been billionaires created over the past decade, for example, who are they and what is their business sector? What is their relationship with the ruling parties in the government? What's the wealth gap and has it been growing? The answer is usually gonna be yes.

Again, the answers to all of these questions will reveal most of what you need to know to understand what is happening in any country and why. Now it's also crucial, of course, to then situate the country or issue within the overriding context of global power dynamics, which I outlined briefly in the last podcast. Because no country exists in a vacuum, and every country is subject to the interests and agendas of the super sovereign floating imperial system of private sector corporate power, the crusaders of capital. Finally, the last step would be to process all of this information through interpretive Islamic knowledge to enable you to identify what it all means and ideally how the situation should be properly and constructively addressed. You'll have to process this information through Islamic values and principles, through our morals, through the sharia and fiqh, and, of course, through the concept of the public interest.

Now one of the other things that you will need to contemplate here is what is Shaytan's role in this situation? What is he doing? Who is he using? And what are the predictable steps in his plan for achieving the outcome we all know he wants to achieve? Because, no, there is not a war between the West and Islam.

There is a war between Shaitan and mankind. And we just have to identify the modalities of how that war is being carried out so that we can determine how best to intervene and respond. Now I know this may seem like a lot of work, and maybe it is. But if you're not willing to do this work, then just know that you are not being helpful or useful if you voice your opinion, and you may in fact be doing considerable harm. So I hope this podcast was useful for you, and I hope that you can apply these methods when you're trying to analyze situations in the Muslim world or the situation of Muslims in any part of the world.