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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Fixing the Muslim Mistakes

On Diane Rehm Show this morning, three callers in a row attacked Islam and were building on each other.  Yesterday, a guy in Wisconsin drove his car right into two Somali kids killing one, he was threatening them that he would do so because they were Muslims.  Thanks to the Law enforcement, otherwise these incidents would have been more frequent.  

Islamophobia is growing and the more we “fight” the more it blazes and we cannot be silent either. There is a way out to reverse the trend if we work on it.  It is like the frustration game kids play - a head pops up from surface of the game board, you bang it down with a wood hammer, and another head pops up. This will continue unless we take steps to mitigate it.

The most effective antidote to Islamophobia is to become a part of the society and quit living in silos.  We need to seriously invest our time in building cohesive societies for the safety of all people, and that time comes from cutting our time at Mosques or other activities.  Hold your judgment and think about it, which is indeed the formula prescribed by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

We practice our religion upside down – we attempt to put the roof on the house even before laying the foundation or erecting the frame.

We wear our beards, Muslim garbs or Hijabs to loudly tell the world that we are Muslims. Did we lay the foundation first? Are we the Amins? 

That’s how prophet built Islam – a system to live in peace with oneself and with others. First, he laid the foundation necessary to build such system, he chose to become the Amin of the society; people trusted him, liked him for his fairness and caring and he was just towards all people. He knew everyone around him. He was friends with all, and was a mercy to mankind, was he not? Shouldn’t we be a mercy to fellow beings?  Isn’t that the second foundational Sunnah after being the Amin?

We need to ask ourselves if we have at least a friend or two in each faith, race or other cultures.  If not, why not? Do we participate in events of our friends who are not Muslims? Those few who attend find themselves to be the only Muslim in the entire group. How many times have you discovered that your mere presence has prevented the others from Islam bashing? How many times have you been asked, if other Muslims are like you?  Shouldn’t we be the Amin’s first before we flaunt our Muslimness through externalities? 

Ask those Amins among us, how they have practiced Islam by building a positive image of Muslims, and by being with others just with the first and second Sunnah and without the exhibitive Sunnah.  There are many good examples, and I hope you have your own examples to share.  Dr. Arjumad Hashmi has done that in Paris, Texas, and last night it was a joy to see Dr. Nabil Syed in a gathering of Indian Doctors.  We don’t drink and we had plenty of Vegetarian food, and we don’t have to make a big deal about being Muslims through Halal food and no alcohol.  You can give a lot more examples than me and let’s build on it.

We need to re-set our priorities given our situation.  We need to restart ourselves. Become the Amin first, and then wear all the garb, beard and Hijab we want– you will not stick out, because you have become a part of the society and your religion is not preventing you from being with other people.  God would not have said the best ones amongst you are the ones who learn about each other. If we can learn to respect the otherness of others and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.


On your part, you can do simple things and they are laid out in the following articles:

A Muslim Organization committed to promoting Civic Islam

Insha Allah, I will be heading to Washington DC and start working on Public Relations with a twofold objective to promote the foundational civic Islam and changing perceptions about Islam.  If it is not common sense, then it is not Islam. Would you support this?  All we need is office rent, a paid assistant and expenses to run it.

This will supplement the great work done by CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MAS, MYNA, MPAC and other organizations.

Take a look at these events.

1. 16th Annual thanksgiving Celebrations and Awards Nightwww.ThanksgivingCelebrations.org

2. 8th Annual Holocaust and Genocides event is scheduled for 1/25 in Dallas and 1/27 in Washington DC – www.HolocaustandGenocides.com

3. 12th Annual Unity Day USA is scheduled for 9/11/2015 – www.Unitydayusa.com

4. Quran Conference – www.Quraanconference.com

5. Several Intrafaith conferences, and a lot of work on Sharia is done, all atwww.WorldMuslimcognress.com


Thank you
mike
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post.  All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.
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