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The features of the International Cultural Map

If one examines the cultural map of today's world, one cannot fail to notice that most of the contemporary cultures originated from Greek and Roman heritage or intermixed with distorted Christian or Jewish teachings, or sprang from ancient Eastern heritage based on Buddhist and Zoroastrian teachings. Like Western and Eastern Marxist cultures (even in the aftermath of the collapse of Marxism), Western liberal culture also sprang from Greek and Roman heritage. All in all, the history of the great system of thought that is now prevailing all over most of the modern world has its roots in the ancient heritage of Athens and Rome. But as we already know, this heathen heritage is not related to divine teachings at all.

The cultures which prevail in this age express in many ways the spirit of the modern Western civilization which lays a heavy emphasis on technology (as a means of control) instead of emphasizing elucidation, and widening the scope of understanding and communication among people. This has led to a marginalizing of contemplative, critical and aesthetic orientations in the human soul. This one-way focus (which ill its essence is a supremacy of the instrumental mind) means that the human being does not use all his human potentials (critical, aesthetic, etc.) in organizing society. This kind of focus puts a great deal of emphasis on directing along the right path the requirements of administrative, economic, and political systems which are expected to increase man's control over reality. Naturally, all this leads to a weakening of man's life, and guidance becomes a sort of "colonization of life(27)."

All contemporary cultures draw from modern Western civilization which discarded religion from life and removed it from thought, lite, art and cultural creative work in general. Western civilization is a technological civilization which emphasizes such values as profit, competence,  achievement and progress at any price, material or spiritual. It  believes in the survival of the fittest, and disregards many of the  traditional values, such as kindness towards the weak, noble-mindedness, piety, and kindness towards others(28). It is a  merciless civilization that breeds ruthless cultures.

Amid these clashing waves of cultures, the Arab-Islamic culture acquires particular significance because, whatever its nature, it is founded on prophecy, a divine message, a call for doing good and an appeal from a sound human nature. However, the Arab-Islamic culture has not been spared from the influence of today's cultures. Sometimes this influence may reach a point more or less closer to the sources and origins. But in most cases, this negative influence manages to strip the Arab-Islamic civilization of some characteristics of its identity.