The notion of change can be a powerful force - the hope for change even more so. But a drastically bad status quo can make change, any change, for the sake of change itself, look like a very attractive prospect. The downside is that rational thought can give way to emotion.

The status quo in America after eight years of George W. Bush can be justly said to be quite bad: an economy on the brink of a deep recession, a bungled war in the Middle East, another in Asia which after seven years shows no signs of either achieving its objective or ending. This is on top of the increasing wealth inequality and social and moral degradation faced by the American populace. Thus it is little wonder that the American people have jumped on the ‘change’ bandwagon driven by Barack Obama, and in doing so have given him the mandate to drive toward the Whitehouse.

 "Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good teaching. Argue with them in the most courteous way, for your Lord knows best who has strayed from His way and who is rightly guided."  [Surah an-Nahl: 125]

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 was heralded as a landmark event in history; it was considered the wholesale rejection of a way of life and end of Communism. The post – WW2 world was dominated by the competition between the Capitalist free market led by the US and state intervention led by the Soviet Union. Francis Fukuyama considered one of the most important living public intellectuals considered the development of ideas to have ended in his ‘end of history’ thesis as there was no meaningful debate left between Marxism and the market.

August 2008 was the first anniversary of the global credit crunch, during the year the world witnessed the global food crisis some, soaring oil prices and some of the largest and spectacular collapse of major banks and companies around the world and the possibility of a severe recession. Northern Rock in Britain, Bear Sterns in the US, the real estate bubbles in both the US and Europe all crashed in spectacular fashion. Financial crisis has become such a regular occurrence, many in the West consider the periodical market failure as part and parcel of Capitalism, and the Economist in its analysis of the crisis encapsulated this attitude: “excess and calamity are part of the package of Western finance. And still it is worth it.”

They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, and Allah will not allow save to perfect His light, though the unbelievers are averse. (9:32)