I look around and it seems that very few in the Muslim community are thinking long term. Were reactionary, defensive, and far more interested in symbolic countering of colonialisms, imperialisms, orientalisms, and other isms, than any substantive growth. Heres the drill-- Something happens, *press conference*, Islamophobia, *press release*, bombing happens, *go on Fox News*, internal criticism, *call that person a sell-out/Uncle Tom/feminist/Zionist/normalizer/progressive/Mipster/colonized/puppet. Its been this way since 9/11, so for all the pseudo-activists and pseudo-scholars and pseudo-experts posting we dont need to mention 9/11 anymore we have nothing to apologize for, mashallah divestment inshallah, but screw ISIS-- weve still got a lot of growing up to do, and our collective contentment, smugness, and stubbornness will blow up in our faces (pun regrettably intended). If we cared half as much about the Islamic State criminals hijacking our religion and symbols in the name of terrorism, or the worst humanitarian disaster of our lifetime taking place in Syria-- with our own country allowing it to happen-- as much as we did about Gaza, wed be in the streets protesting till were red in the faces. But we really dont care, and theres no rational or religious explanation for it. Weve regressed for the most part and plateaued at the leadership level so much in the past four years.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 19:29:08 +0000