WARNING: There is no real structure to what I’m saying here in this post. I’m simply typing thoughts as they come to my head. Everything I state here is based on my own personal opinion. Sorry in advance if you get confused. I’m new to blogging and still in the process of refining my writing style.
We all know we got issues and faults to deal with. Nobody is perfect right? Not you, not me, not even America, the Jews or Muslims in general are perfect. Religion however, IS perfect but the way it’s practiced is not (Yeah, yeah, I know there are probably some shouting WHAT!!?? Islam is perfect?? Like it or not it is perfect, depending on the interpretation). And yes, yes I know a Muslim is happy with being a Muslim and a Jew is happy with being a Jew so how can a Muslim say Judaism is perfect? So wait, if I’m Muslim and I don’t want to be Jewish does that mean there’s something wrong with Judaism. No, not at all, maybe it doesn’t suit me but for that Jewish individual it is the perfect religion and that should be respected. I’m a Muslim, I’m very happy with it and I have no intention whatsoever of converting to any other religion be it Judaism or Christianity. Was that a hateful statement against two very decent religions? The answer is no, it wasn’t.
We are all born having different preferences but essentially we are all the same. If we disagree then let’s disagree in a spirit of true humanity. If every Jew, Christian and Muslim was a truly spiritual and religious person this world would be a better place. Don’t get me wrong I’m not here making negative remarks about Judaism, Christianity or Islam and saying they are bad religions. No, no I’m not. The point I intend on stressing and emphasizing is that, it is us humans that are flawed. We are flawed because we have the gift of choice and sometimes get the temptation to make the wrong decisions. Those wrong decisions are not a result of religious commandments. Never attribute the wrong and negative actions back to the religion of the “practicer”, for every negative action is a sin, and a sin in any religion is the result of not adhering to that religion itself. Islam is pure I believe, and it teaches us to endorse human rights (if same sex marriages are a human right then the hell with them, out of the window they fly in this case). Islam as it’s practiced now is more of a “sociopolitical” ideology as stated by many Muslim and Arab “reform” bloggers out there in the blogosphere. How can you implement the sociopolitical side of the religion correctly when you can’t even follow the spiritual side of it? Before we start practicing the sociopolitical part of the religion, we must put the “spirituality” side of it at the top of the list, for if we have government officials with corrupted souls, they will practice the sociopolitical part of Islam in accordance with their corrupted agendas and self-interests and that my friends is the first and greatest tragedy of all.
At the start I mentioned that nobody is perfect. I emphasize on “is” (now, present tense). I was taught to strive for perfection. I find it funny though since I think nobody can ever be perfect. Nothing worldly is perfect. That’s why life is called life because it’s not perfect. Many Muslims have sort of accepted their reality. They are frustrated by it but feel helpless to change it. They realize things will never be perfect so why bother. I believe this is the second problem. If we strive, we Muslims can change things. The West thinks democracy is the solution and I believe it is but not in its Western version. Believe it or not, a moderate and non-extremist interpretation of the Quran and Islam will lead towards a model very similar to that of Western democracy except with a few differences. I don’t believe a secular government can please the majority if implemented in Muslim countries. Many Muslims equate democracy and freedom with “Western” attitudes towards alcohol, homosexuality, drugs, prostitution, nudity etc. That is the reason they find it difficult to accept and are against it. Here is a poll showing the perceptions of Sudanese people towards democracy. Even I myself find it difficult to accept democracy in this form especially when it comes to issues such as homosexuality.
(Personal opinion: I don’t mind gays just as long as they don’t hit on me, if they want to be gay they can go ahead. I do sympathize with special cases such as those who are born hermaphrodites or have abnormal hormonal unbalance etc. and I think society shouldn’t look down on them. However I am 1000000% against same sex marriages. Married couples have the right to adopt and that’s why my opposition to this is so strong. I believe it is completely wrong for a child to be adopted and have to grow up with either Daddy&Daddy or Mommy&Mommy. It’s just not normal. I don’t harbor any hatred towards homosexuals but this is just a personal opinion on what I believe.)
The best Muslim country in my opinion with a great system of government is Malaysia. It embraces democracy but not in its Western concept. I advice those interested in the matter to explore more facts about the multi-religious/cultural nation of Malaysia further to get a proper understanding of what Islam Hadhari or moderate Islam is really all about. Here is Tun. Mahathir, Malaysia’s ex-prime Minster’s comment on Western democracy.
The Western concept of democracy does have a lot of good in it but there are some factors that make it unattractive to Muslims. The recent cartoon controversy just made democracy even more unattractive. While I do believe in freedom of speech, I also believe it shouldn’t be abused. I was very offended by the Danish cartoons and I’m also offended by the continuous anti-Semitic cartoons in the Muslim world. I am also offended by the fact that the pathetic KKK can still go out in processions and spread their hateful speeches. Those are things I don’t understand sometimes about America. Isn’t there something called hate crime or this is allowed because it’s “freedom” of speech. Democracy is about the majority but what if the majority is wrong and the minority is right? Here is an interesting short Malaysian article entitled “Is Democracy Islamic?” It is very thought provoking specially for a Muslim.
It is important to note that Islam in the current way it’s implemented is inaccurate (Malaysia is the most accurate in my opinion in its method of implementation). Look at Saudi Arabia, the country in which the holiest site of Islam is located. They don’t allow foreigners coming into the country to bring along their bibles and forbid them from building synagogues and churches. The Quran commands us to allow non-Muslims to follow their own religions and not force them to do otherwise. Clearly some Muslim countries claim to be Muslim when in fact they are not even following simple and basic Islamic commandments. Someone might ask why Saudi Arabia is doing this then. Simple… This is their policy for political reasons and not religious ones. Many people judging the issue emotionally will probably say “yeah, good for them, those damn infidels ain’t gonna mess our land with their so called holy buildings… they’re oppressing our brothers in Palestine so why the hell should we be nice and let them build their crap”. Muslims in general must set aside their hatred and prejudice towards the west and start thinking constructively. I do realize it is difficult to do that especially when images of dead/suffering Muslims from Iraq and Palestine are broadcasted almost daily all over the Muslim world on channels like Al-Jazeera. And yes I do realize that many times the dead Muslims shown in Iraq didn’t wind up dead because of American bombs but because of the Shiite and Sunni violence. If you ask me, I think Al-Jazeera should show the good about America once in a while. Hell they should even broadcast Oprah Winfrey too. American media should do the same with the Muslim world. For God’s sake stop making us look so evil. We Muslims as everyone else have a right to defend ourselves but the disgusting and sick tactics of suicide bombings targeting civilians are not the way to go. They are wrong and Muslims must stop supporting and/or sympathizing with terrorists. If some of you were wondering why the Quran contains verses about war and fighting off the non-believers, then I will clarify for you. Every nation has the right to defend itself. If someone comes to my house and tries to hurt my family, I shoot him in the head. Plain simple for self defense but me being pissed and going up to him and blowing him up is completely wrong. During the days of the Prophet, the verses were revealed because Muslims were under attack from the non-believers and didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know if going to war was okay and allowed in Islam. Therefore Allah Almighty revealed those verses and allowed them to defend themselves. Most importantly He Almighty has revealed that we should always resolve to diplomacy and let war be the last option. Not only that but many rules regarding war were laid down including that it be conducted only in self defense and that civilians NEVER be a target. Things have now gotten complicated with advancing technology and all this pre-emptive strike and “the best defense is an offence” technical talk. There’s no need to complicate such issues.
We Muslims must deal with misperceptions internally amongst ourselves and also externally to the West by reforming our mentalities and most importantly engaging much deeper in creative and critical thinking. That’s were the third problem lies. Many Muslims are fed information by the “ullamas”, told not to ask questions and then ordered to strictly follow with the utmost diligence. That’s just wrong. We need more Islamic preachers of the Amr Khalid type. If we are to climb out of the hole we buried ourselves in, we must engage in creative and critical thinking much more. Thinking is the most difficult job to do and that is why so few engage in it. Muslims must also stop the attitude of “go to mosque, be good Muslim, die, go to heaven and enjoy for all eternity”. That is one of the factors why we are generally economically deprived. We have to create a better world and contribute something to humanity as a whole. We must also shed away the general anti-Semitism. If Muslims managed to truly understand the Jewish faith from Jews themselves rather than from radical clerics, things would improve. Allah Almighty allows a Muslim man to marry a Christian or a Jewish wife so why so much hatred? Also until Israel stops its continuous harassment of innocent Palestinians, Muslims will continue to view Zionism as an evil movement. Hamas should also tone it down and cut the crap with targeting civilians. If you want to have a war then purely make it military VS military based and don’t use terrorist tactics. Don’t involve civilians or better still don’t start a war. Furthermore the West should also set aside its post 9/11 hatred for the actions or inactions of Muslims and stop painting us with the same brush. But then again hatred blinds logic and now we have nothing but hatred, hatred and more hatred. As such I’m not naïve to the fact that there will never be 100% peace on this planet. Sinister forces will always exist. That however should not deter us towards striving for perfection even though it may not be achieved. Let’s please set aside the prejudices and the labeling and try to reach out. Keep an open mind. Generalizations, stereotyping and labeling leave no options for improvements or peace. The blogosphere is expanding as you read this. Let us use it as a platform to help set the tone for the 21st century.
Before concluding let me again state,
1. It is us humans that are flawed. We are flawed because we have the gift of choice and sometimes get the temptation to make the wrong decisions. Those wrong decisions are not a result of religious commandments. Never and I mean never attribute the wrong and negative actions back to the religion of the “practicer”, for every negative action is a sin, and a sin in any religion is the result of not adhering to that religion itself.
2. Before we start practicing the sociopolitical part of the religion, we must put the “spirituality” side of it at the top of the list, for if we have government officials with corrupted souls, they will practice the sociopolitical part of Islam in accordance with their corrupted agendas and self-interests and that my friends is the first and greatest tragedy of all.
3. The West must realize that “Western” democracy is not that appealing to Muslims in general. We Muslims however must not completely reject it. Muslim countries should at least start implementing a similar model to that of Malaysia.
4. Muslims must engage themselves more in creative and critical thinking to avoid being “programmed robots”. When such thinking is conducted, it should be done with good intentions that benefit humanity as a whole
Lastly but most definitely not least
Jews & Westerners reading this… Please make some changes
Muslims & Arabs reading this… Please make some changes
It takes two hands to clap. Do you want to start clapping???
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
