Re-building the Islamic nations: Dr. M's challenges from the cognitive semantic viewpoint

Abstract

The three-day World Conference of Islamic Scholars (Multaqa Ulama Sedunia) ended up with the adoption of resolutions to "further champion the cause of Muslims" (NST July 13, 2003: 6). This conference witnessed the keynote addressed by Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who urged Muslims to master the so-called "earthly" knowledge to restore Islam's glory. The address discusses in great length the attributes of the past Islamic nations at their great heights, the causes of their collapse, as well as the do's and the don'ts that Muslims should abide by to showcase to the whole world what Islam truly is. Among the do's and the don'ts mentioned in this "prescriptive" speech were "catch up and surpass their detractors" (the do's) and "sink into weaknesses and backwardness" (the don'ts). This address was described as "thought-provoking" and "psychological" by many international Islamic scholars (NST July 13, 2003: 4) as it puts forward challenges to the Muslim community all over the world. For a speech to be both "thought-provoking" and "psychological", the expressions used must appeal to the collective minds of the society. Thus, this study is carried out to look at the expressions used by Dr. Mahathir in the keynote from the perspective of cognitive semantics. This paper discusses the Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs), namely the kinaesthetic image schemas, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, to see how the expressions to re-build nations can be "thought-provoking".