The Middle Eastern world is innately iconoclastic (Paulician Christianity, Islam etc.). Yet, modernity has led to an inversion of this intrinsic trait, whereby it primarily attacks the cultural body and hastens the process towards a dysfunctional state -- Cultural Bankruptcy.
Converted "Orientalist" Eldon Rutter on the demolition of Jannat Al Baqi:
"All over the cemetery nothing was to be seen but little indefinite mounds of earth and stones, pieces of timber, iron bars, blocks of stone, and a broken rubble of cement and bricks, strewn about."
Knud Holmboe description of the Bedouins who captured him during their resistance against Italian colonial rule in Libya. Before releasing him, they entrusted him with a message for Sidi Idris al-Senussi in Alexandria, asking him to convey that, "we are fighting to the last man."
which hitherto made of him a very valuable human being."
— Knud Holmboe (Ali Ahmed el Gheseiri), Desert Encounter: An Adventurous Journey Through Italian Africa.
"The European race introduces Western civilization in the Orient, and tramples down the culture which already exists. And while civilization and its factories advance the cancerous sores of civilization follow.
The native artisan, who no doubt is an artist in his own sphere and who is content with very little, learns to become a materialist. Just like the greater part of the population of Europe, he becomes discontented, degenerate, drinks spirits, and neglects his religion,
@muslimmelange Many later interpreted this as a reference to Selim I entering al-Shām. After his conquest of the region, the grave of Ibn ʿArabī was rediscovered, which many regarded as the fulfillment of the prophecy. This was among the reasons Sultan Selim held Shaykh IA in such high esteem.
@muslimmelange In Shajarat al-Nuʿmāniyya (a work attributed to Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, though its attribution is disputed), it is reported that the following prophecy appears: “When س enters ش, the grave of م will be found.”
Perhaps one of the saddest moments was today, when I handed my father a tasbīḥ and he gently said, “I already have the best one,” as he reached for the tasbīḥ my late grandmother used. Perhaps one can feel the weight of those words, and all that lies behind them, in his eyes.
Lord God, with all the forms of Your perfections, in all of Your manifestations, bless and grant peace to our lord and master Muhammad, the first of the lights which emanate from the ocean of Your Essence's magnificence;
By his eminence, Lord, be kind to us in all movement and all stillness, in every look and every thought. Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of power, above all that they ascribe to Him; and peace be upon the messengers; and praise be to God, Lord of the worlds! [Q.XXXVII. 180-182].