I understand the frustration and pain that the Muslims have been feeling as of late. For the last month, we've all been bombarded with images of innocent people being killed and our politicians just don't seem to care. Why is that? Before we jump into your standard conspiracy theories and “Jews control everything” garbage, let’s actually analyze our own behavior, as a community:
1) We claim that politicians don't care about us, right? How many of us vote in midterm elections or primaries? How many of us are politically active? Before this recent chain of events, how many of us had even attended a protest or written a Congressman? I know I hadn't. We showed complete apathy to what is going on in the world, until about a month ago. Until we are willing to participate in the political process, we will always be ignored. We need less Muslim doctors, engineers, accountants, franchise owners and more Muslim journalists, reporters, politicians, writers, public speakers, activists. We literally don't have a voice. And if we don't have a voice...THEY DON’T GET TO HEAR OUR SIDE OF THE STORY.
2) Bashing Obama (or any other politician) for not standing up for Palestine is stupid. There has not been, nor will there be for at least the next decade or two, a Commander-in-Chief that is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. There is simply no way to get that far up in the political system, in either political party, with those beliefs (e.g. Ron Paul). Politicians are not altruistic public servants...they are diplomats. I'm not saying that they are evil or immoral; I'm just saying that they won't sacrifice their political careers for a self-absorbed population that doesn't even vote. They are a part of the system, and if you want them on your team, you have to learn to play their game and speak their language. (On a side note, I have a lot of respect for that Muslim government official that resigned in Britain a couple of days ago).
3) Why does the American population protect the interests of the Jewish community? They're only about 1.5-2% of the population of the US, yet their community's needs are always addressed. No, it's not a Jewish conspiracy funded by caramel macchiatos and diet colas. And if you want to say it's because the Jewish community has more money...go visit Dubai, Qatar, or Kuwait and tell me which religious community has more money. It's because they know the game. They vote, they lobby, they back political candidates that they know will protect their interests, while we rally behind third party candidates that don't have a shot in hell. They play the game and Muslims refuse to.
4) 80 years ago, no politician cared about women. 50 years ago, no politician cared about African Americans. 15 years ago, no politician cared about homosexuals. Now, those three interest groups are some of the most powerful forces in American politics. Appealing to women, African-American, and LBGT voters is VITAL in order to get elected. How did they accomplish this? By unifying, getting a single voice, and making things happen. When was the last time the Muslims had a leader that they could rally behind? The only Muslims I see in media are those progressive apologists who write books like "Islam: Please Like Us."
5) Muslims are not unified. We are constantly arguing among ourselves. Forget the fact that all the sects of Islam isolate themselves and are always disagreeing: even within Sunni Islam, we are constantly arguing. The only time Sunnis get along is when they bash Shias, Ismailis, or Qadianis...WE CAN'T EVEN AGREE ON WHAT DAY EID IS. When was the last time you saw Christians arguing about what day Easter is or Hindus arguing about what day Diwali is? Until we get unified and let go our small differences for the great good, no one is going to take our concerns as a community seriously.
6) We need better community leaders. Period. Our current leaders are more focused on photo-ops with politicians than pushing for the advancement of the American Muslim. They were standing with Sheila Jackson Lee at every Eid prayer and now she's standing with Israel. The first time I met Tom Delay was at Synott Masjid and I had no idea what a corrupt Islamaphobic bigot he was at the time. Looking back, I cannot believe we let that Devil anywhere near a masjid. In addition to that, our current leaders bring too much tribalism from the countries they come from. “Arabs eat outside meat.” “Pakistanis don’t know how to read Arabic properly.” “Turkish people pray weird.” our current leaders are focused on representing their small sects (Braelvis, Deobandis, Salafis, Sufis) rather than unifying. Instead of combining ideas and learning from the diversity of American Islam, we just stick to our old ways and argue about whether you can do wudu with socks on or not. Our community leaders refuse to evolve. I only pray that our next generation of leaders is better. We don't need more masjids to represent every division of Islam there is...we need people to come together, not break apart into their comfort zones.
7) Stop posting random articles from random no-name websites. The Internet is full of false articles, photo-shopped pictures, and propaganda and NO ONE is verifying the links that they are posting. I'm ashamed at some of the ignorant things I've seen Muslims post in the last month.
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