“The Believer who mixes with people and is patient in the face of their offence is preferable to the believer who does not mix with people and is not patient with their offence.”
“A Muslim is the one from whose hands and tongue other Muslims are safe.”
“If you see Haram get rid of it with your hand. If you cannot, then fight it with your tongue. And if you cannot, then reject it from your heart, and beyond that is no faith.”
- Prophet Muhammad (saw)
CNN reported tonight as “Breaking News” that Faisal Shahzad allegedly stated that his actions were in response to feeling that Islam is under attack. I happen to find that statement laughable. I do agree, Islam is under attack, but in my opinion it’s Muslims like Faisal Shahzad who are attacking Islam. It is people like Faisal who see the world through blinders and seriously believe that their actions somehow represent the values and teachings of Islam and the rest of us are false.
These people, time after time show that they do not have their fellow Muslims at heart and could care less about how they represent Islam to the masses. If they were sincere Muslims they would seek the greater Jihad and not the lesser Jihad as a means to change their environment. They would vie with one another in good works and repel evil with good. These are the teachings of Islam and the words of Prophet Muhammad (saw). But these are not the ACTIONS of Faisal and those who subscribe to their wicked ideas.
The problem is what do we do about it? Do we as Muslims of conscious and faith, who prefer the Greater the Jihad as oppossed to the lesser Jihad, sit back shaking our heads, condemning with our mouths, hating with our hearts, and do nothing with our hands? Do we continue to wait until another Faisal comes along before we issue another press release or statement?
I believe that we have to act with our hands. Not in a physical all out war as that would make us no better than those who terrorize in our name, but produce fruits and works that overshadow their evil and overcome their desire to define who we are as a community of believers. We have to take a stand, reject leaders who defend these actions, open the doors of the Mosques, and stay in front of the message. Right now the youth do not seek the Imam or the community for guidance, their guidance comes from everywhere else. They follow the message that will captivate, inspire, and call them to action. If our places of prayer and education are as stale laboratories lacking passion and inspiration, that’s part of the problem. The other part is not having those leaders in place that are willing to produce things for their community. Isolation is not the answer.
We need competent leadership who are not afraid to speak out forcefully against these evil teachings and practices. We need competent leadership who aren’t afraid to challenge the naysayers who will say that Islam is not a religion of peace or encourage our brothers and sisters to blow themselves up. We have to have institutions and places that serve the needs of the people both Muslim and non-Muslim. Where are our afterschool programs, daycare centers, schools, universities, etc.? These are the traditions and values of Islam, but today they don’t exist.
If we really want to identify the enemy of Islam we need look no further than our reflections. Every moment we waste not in service to humanity and our ummah, ensuring that all are safe, sheltered, and protected we go against what Islam requires of us. Every moment we ignore our duties to God to be the shining example to mankind, we become an enemy of Islam. Every moment we tolerate this plague to fester and enter the minds of our people like Faisal Shahzad, we become the enemies of Islam.
We could go on for years blaming non-Muslims, the West, and Israel and it wouldn’t solve a thing. The real question we should ask ourselves is “If we were doing all the things Allah (swt) commanded, and our countries and lands were a shining and true reflection of the example of Muhammad (saw), would non-Muslims, the West, or Israel even matter?”
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#1 by kat on May 15, 2010 - 1:12 am
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You might want to start by promoting the values of tolerance, decency, and respect in American society. These are not just “Islamic” values—they should be “American values” too as that is what the U.S. was supposed to be founded on—-instead, Americans are focused on “freedom of speech” that promotes desrespect, intolerance and hate!. —-all those “draw Muhammed day” stuff that Americans are into in the name of free-speech disguising the actual motive of Islamophobia.!!!!
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#2 by Malchediel on May 15, 2010 - 5:16 am
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The blanket of “islamophobia” does not apply to ALL people. I agree, there are those who do not understand what islam is and what it represents. But to blanket the rest of who do know is really quiet unfair.
I am not islamophobic, I do not fear islam, muslims, mohammad, nor the satan you refer to as allah.
KAT — YOU should be out advocating and promoting the values of tolerance, decency, and respect.
I know you would but islam does not teach that – as handed down by muhammad and others who wrote about him and his “orders”. Those who truly wish to follow muhammad and HIS teachings as handed down by allah, cannot preach, nor teach those values. THAT is the simple truth of the matter. islam is to subjugate and force it’s will on the people… of course, if they cannot be forced, they are to be killed.
THAT is islam. It’s a shame that people are sucked into this hate filled and murderous “religion”…
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#3 by Robert Salaam on May 24, 2010 - 3:14 pm
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Incorrect, the irrational fear of Islam or the mentality and actions that support it, would make you a victim of the mental disease of islamopobia, the very fact that you equated two Arabic words Shaitan “Satan” and Allah “The God” purposefully proves the point. As any Arabic speaking Jew or Christian would inform you, Satan is not Allah. The rest of your colorful commentary just verifies your affliction.
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#4 by Paul Susac on July 27, 2010 - 11:35 am
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Robert,
First off, let’s take a look at the idea that “Islam is under attack” - Did you know that Christians are frequently offering the complaint that”Christianity is under attack” and Jews complain that “Judaism is under attack.” I have an idea about why this is- a religion that views itself as “under attack” does a better job of defending itself against competing ideologies. Also, when people view themselves as besieged they tend to cling all the harder to their cultural identity.
Look at the Jews. Judaism has survived for thousands of years precisely BECAUSE it view’s itself as the underdog. The fact is that at some times in history Jews have been persecuted, and at sometimes they have occupied positions of privilege, but the narrative remains “we are the downtrodden” because this keeps the Jewish culture intact.
Your whole whine that “Islam is under attack” is pretty much standard fare for jingoistic authoritarian religious ideology. So welcome to the club.
Malchediel: It’s not fair to paint all of Islam with the brush that you do. Certainly it is part of the Islamic ideology to kill non-believers, just as it is part of the Christian ideology to do so. What do you expect from a religious tradition that is founded on the idea that a “godly” man would offer his own son as a human sacrifice (Abraham). All the Abrahamic faiths have some truly horrible moral teachings. Islam is not exceptional in this regard. Parts of Islam are actually very nice.
That said, the parts that are horrible really are horrible, and it is bullshit for Robert to start crying about “islamophobia” as if it is a medical condition. The truth is that there are lots and lots of parts of Islam that are moral teachings, and there are lots and lots of parts of Islam that are immoral teachings. The fundamental problem with Islam is not that it’s immoral.
The fundamental problem with Islam is the idea of God.
The idea of God is the idea that there is a divine authority who defines morality, and that by following this divine authority, one is made moral.
Once you have this horrible horrible premise, you have the recipe for disaster. Once you believe that the goodness of your leader defines the goodness of your actions, you can commit any atrocity and feel justified in doing so. This is what makes Islam evil, but it is no more evil than Christianity or Judaism for all of that.
Of course many of the doctrines of Islam are particularly horrible:
Killing non-believers
Killing apostates
Destroying all art that depicts human beings because it is “idolatry”
Dismemberment as a punishment
The idea that men have the right to punish and discipline their women, up to and including corporal punishment.
These are horrible dehumanizing doctrines, but I could make a similar list for the other two desert religions. All three faiths have some horrible beliefs, because all three faiths get their version of reality from a magic book, and all three magic books have some truly weird ideas in them.
How strongly these doctrines are practiced is a matter of fad and fashion. In some parts of the world (like with the Taliban) these doctrines are strictly followed. In other parts of the world (like with Robert) these doctrines are quietly ignored and brushed under the rug. What determines these ideological fashions are mostly economic and political realities on the ground.
But what makes them exist in the first place is the idea of God. It is because of the idea of God that thousands of people get their hands cut off. It is because of the idea of God that men will feel justified in beating their wives. It is because of the idea of God that large swaths of the Islamic world have NO art that depicts human beings – think of that – think of a child being punished by his parents because he drew a picture of his family at school. Somewhere in the Islamic world, I’m sure that is happening right now.
Once you have the idea that following a divine authority makes you a good person, morality becomes divorced from human suffering. Anything becomes morally ok, so long as someone declares that God ordained it.
The reason that “islamophobia” is a bullshit term is because there is nothing irrational about fearing Islam.
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