People don’t become zealous without good reason. Fanaticism is born of years of deprivation, years of rights being systematically trampled, and years of watching others live comfortable lives while being indoctrinated to believe they are lesser beings.

The colonial projects spanning centuries across the world have been demonstrations of unadulterated raw power concentrated in the hands of a few elites who inculcate one class to believe they were inherently more worthy than another. The others—debased, humiliated, dispossessed, and murdered—who belonged to some of the oldest and most sophisticated civilizations in the world, were branded “terrorists” when they dared raise their voices in resistance.

Colonialism, however, operates as a multi-faceted instrument of control, ensnaring both the oppressed and the oppressor in its mechanisms. Colonialism operates as a multi-faceted instrument of control. The injustice perpetrated against the so-called “terrorist” is blatant and undeniable. Yet the simultaneous hidden agenda against the “more worthy” is of equal magnitude. While they may enjoy luxury in material possessions, their capacity for introspection has been systematically undermined. These manipulated masses have been conditioned to believe in their own superiority, yet they remain incapable of bearing life’s fundamental rigors. They are indolent, perpetually seeking shortcuts, and utterly oblivious to the burden they impose upon society. Even more troubling is that, rendered so credulous by design, they cannot perceive how their imperialist governments have manipulated them.

This manipulation manifests through institutional structures designed to maintain control while creating the illusion of progress. From a doctored educational system to a financially predatory healthcare apparatus that dispenses pharmaceuticals with cascading side effects, ensuring its perpetual operation; from a fundamentally flawed economic structure to manufactured social divisions—the entire structure lurches on the brink of collapse. Among the manifold tools of control employed, social media has proven the most potent. Initially weaponized for the benefit of those in power, the tides have turned, and inconvenient truths are beginning to emerge from the ashes of colonial legacy.

Yet there exists another dimension to the genocidal and grotesque realities we witness on our screens today. While there is already considerable discourse around collective desensitization. It has become much easier for us to scroll past the most gruesome video and laugh at the next one’s ridiculous comedic elements. Perhaps we have equated knowledge of current affairs with desensitization. Watching news play like a movie has hardened our hearts. Gone are the days when people read the news for awareness. While everyone is falling into this trap of false peace-of-mind through distractions, it is the younger generations that we should be utterly fearful for. Parents preoccupied with appearing “cool” rather than exercising responsible guardianship represent the most pressing concern.

For years now, very young children have either been granted access to smartphones or given devices of their own. I have received the most bewildered reactions for refusing to allow my twelve-year-old daughter her own phone. Why is there so little collective alarm about the neurological damage this inflicts? Generation Z has already been documented as the first generation to demonstrate intellectual underperformance compared to millennials—a finding that should be profoundly disturbing. While millennials were desensitized through violent video games, this already compromised generation is being subjected to images of actual dismembered bodies, real children in positions of extreme vulnerability, the real-time detonation of explosives, and the concurrent, shameless deceit of global leadership. What lessons are they internalizing?

In the face of this moral crisis, Islamic tradition offers profound guidance that stands in stark contrast to the moral degradation of our age. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) emphasized the sacred responsibility of parenting: “Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock” (Sahih al-Bukhari). This custodianship extends beyond mere provision to the cultivation of moral consciousness and intellectual discernment in our children. The Quran instructs believers: “O you who have believed, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire” (66:6)—a protection that encompasses not merely physical safety but the safeguarding of hearts and minds from corrosive influences.

Furthermore, Islam places the capacity for moral discernment at the center of human dignity. The Quran repeatedly calls upon believers to reflect, question, and distinguish truth from falsehood: “Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and dumb who do not use reason” (8:22). This divine imperative to think critically stands as an antidote to the blind acceptance and manufactured consent that characterize our current reality.

We stand at a civilizational precipice where the instruments of oppression have evolved in form but remain unchanged in function. The children inheriting this fractured world are being conditioned not to question, not to feel deeply, not to resist—but rather to consume trauma as content and accept deception as the natural order. If we fail to comprehend how profoundly we are shaping the moral and intellectual consciousness of the emerging generation, we will have achieved what centuries of colonial brutality could not: the complete extinguishing of the very capacity for moral outrage that makes meaningful resistance possible.

Imperialism has been impeached and is taking its final breaths, but it clutches on with a grip that ensures it takes down everything within its reach before it finally drowns. Within its final breaths, it is birthing a new form of control in the shape of disorder. One that ostentatiously brags the demise of accountability and justice—a declaration to the world that accountability was always a sham meant for the lower classes of society and those whose conscience miraculously allowed them to lose the plot of the elites. This should be an anchoring point in our lives, that removes all curtains and proves that true justice lies only in the hands of Allah Al ‘Adl. And if the lines between right and wrong have been blurred to this extent today, it is a frightening outlook for the future generations to come. Yet again, Allah Al Hakeem (The All-Wise) prepared us and has provided us with multiple dua’as that use the word zurriyyah which means offspring.

The question before us is not whether this decaying system will ultimately collapse—it is whether we will cultivate a generation possessing the critical faculties, ethical grounding, and imaginative courage necessary to construct something more humane from its ruins.