Two Messages on the need for Faith, Awareness, and Anger Management
20 December 2010By El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):
May this reach everyone well. This is coming to our
readers from Connecticut.
Last night I participated in an excellent organizing
forum at NYU, organized by a coalition of committed
folk (i.e. grassroots organizations). Insha'Allah, out
of it will come a vibrant anti-preemptive prosecution
movement. (More on this later, insha'Allah.)
There is another side to the struggle against the
never-ending preemptive prosecution scourge targeting
Muslims in America. The other side is internal. The
following commentaries, one from a brother, and the
other from a sister, are reflective of that internal
struggle within the Muslim community.
The brother, Imam Zaid Shakir, is one of the most well
known and respected scholars in this part of the
world. The sister will remain anonymous, as the
commentary she sent was more of a personal message to
me about something that was troubling her heart. (I
will simply note for the record that she is a
committed Muslim, a physician by training, and a
knowledgeable person on religious matters in her own
right.)
The messages of the brother and sister are related. In
my humble opinion, each emphasizes the need for a
greater internal focus on the need for true Faith (in
what ALLAH has given us); Awareness (of what's going
on, and why); and Anger Management (for the most
emotionally vulnerable among us).
There are other dimensions to this internal struggle
as well; issues that touch upon some of the critical
and strategic mistakes being made by far too many
Muslim leaders in America. (Insha'Allah, we will
address this too in the coming days.)
With that said, please read, reflect, and pass along.
In the struggle for peace thru justice,
p.s. to our non-Muslim relatives and friends, know
that there is an internal debate taking place.
As-Salaam 'Alaikum Brother Saalakhan,
I just wrote this piece:
Letter to a Would-be Mujahid
Recent developments have forced me to put some things
on hold to write you this letter. You might ask how I
know you. I have met you at student events, in
mosques, and at conferences. I have listened to your
arguments and I have made my counter arguments.
Oftentimes, my arguments have been somewhat formal. I
figured I would write you a letter, since that is a
lot more personal and less formal. Perhaps this way
you will be more inclined to listen.
To begin with, whenever you are criticized for your
bloody, anarchistic ideology, you point to the bloody
abuses of the American war machine or their Zionist
accomplices. This diversionary tactic on your part
does not impress serious and thoughtful people. It is
simply an abdication of your moral responsibility. It
is as if you are saying you reserve the right to
violate established Islamic principles, such as those
guaranteeing the protection of innocent life, because
the American military or the IDF do no respect
innocent Muslim life. That would be a credible
argument if the American military or the IDF claimed
to be operating on the basis of Islamic principles.
They don't, but you do. I hope, without further
elaboration, you can immediately sense the moral
dilemma you are creating for yourself.
Along those lines, please allow me to remind you of
something else. Your misguided attempts to kill and
maim innocent Americans only make it easier for the
American military to kill more Muslims with greater
impunity. Your actions help to create a political
climate that removes any moral restraint from the
actions of the American military, the IDF and soon the
forces of India's increasingly Hindu nationalist armed
forces. You see, fear is a very potent emotion and
when it is carefully manipulated it can lead to very
irrational politics. That most extreme form of those
politics is called genocide.
Fear can be especially dangerous when it is combined
with another emotion, insecurity. You are so divorced
from reality that you probably haven't noticed that a
lot of Americans are extremely insecure right now.
Especially, the white middle class or what is left of
it. They don't know if they will soon lose their
homes, if they will have a job tomorrow, if their
money will be in the bank next week, if they will be
able to send their children to college or if their
retirement funds will be stolen or totally devalued.
Those insecurities combined with the spectre of the
"Muslim terrorist next door" are a lethal combination
that a group of people called demagogues is exploiting
to justify an all out war on Muslims.
Those demagogues use the fear of you to prevent people
from building the kind of grassroots, popular,
movements that are necessary to challenge the
corporate rape of our society, and from challenging
the destructive logic of permanent war. For example,
remember the growing movement to challenge the new
invasive TSA screening procedures at airports? Did you
notice how it disappeared after the would-be mujahid
in Portland allowed himself to be trapped into the
scheme to blow up the Christmas tree ceremony? Do you
think the timing was accidental? It is a shame that
you and your ilk are so mindlessly complicit in such
schemes.
Now you think the mujahideen can win an all out war
against the Americans. Look at what the mujahideen are
doing to them in Afghanistan. Sorry, but that is not
what all out war looks like. I'll give you a clue what
all out war looks like. Remember a couple years ago
when the Israelis were bombarding the Gaza Strip, and
the Palestinian Muslims, for all of their courage,
couldn't do anything except appeal to outside powers
to stop the carnage? Or a few years before that when
Jenin was flattened? Think of the scale of that
devastation expanded to encompass all of the major
cities of the Muslim world. Imagine America unleashing
a new generation of "tactical" nuclear weapons
designed to be used specifically against Muslim
targets, raining down on Muslim capitals and there is
no Muslim strategic deterrent available to stop it.
AK-47s and RPGs will be of no avail. Imagine the calls
to human rights organizations to stop the slaughter
finding no ears to hear them, because the neo-fascist
forces your stupidity has helped to unleash have swept
those organizations away in its maddening torrent.
I have heard you counter that such an argument is a
manifestation of a lack of faith. God has promised the
believers victory. Indeed, He has. However, it is very
pretentious of you to assume that someone who murders
women, children and innocents with blazon impunity in
the Name of God are the believers that victory has
been promised to. He has promised the believers
victory, but that promise is not unconditional. God is
not going to give victory to people who murder in His
Holy Name.
I applaud your courage, but how it manifests itself
puzzles me. You have the courage to fly halfway around
the world to engage in an armed struggle, but you do
not have the courage to knock on your neighbor's door
to explain Islam to him or to give him your take on
world affairs. I am also baffled at how you can smile
in his face, but are ready to blow him up if he
happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
What calculus do you use to assume he would not be
amenable to your message? What has he done to you to
be the target of your bloodlust?
You claim a refined understanding of Islam, so refined
that you can make grave decisions concerning life and
death, decisions with huge strategic implications –yet
you seem to perceive nothing of the divine wisdom of
your being in this country. You have an opportunity to
be an educator at a time people are looking for a new
way. You have an opportunity to be a guide at a time
people are looking for a new direction. You have an
opportunity to provide a source of spiritual solace at
a time people are confused, angry and afraid. You have
an opportunity to be a fierce advocate for truth at a
time when lies are transforming the image of your
religion and the direction of your country. You have
the skills, the command of the language, the knowledge
of the people to do all of that and more, but you
choose to run away from this battle to join one you do
not even know who the commander is.
Did I say that? "To join a battle you do not even know
who the commander is." No! I didn't say that. Do you
think that if the FBI can send fake mujahids into
mosques all around America to find confused,
vulnerable Muslims, develop fake bomb plots, with fake
bombs, for very real political objectives, the CIA
couldn't do the same thing abroad? No, wait a minute.
Didn't the CIA build the Afghan mujahideen network?
Didn't what's his name, Zbigniew Brzezinski, describe
the Afghan operation as the CIA's finest hour?
They would never use fake mujahids, operating through
fake websites, to recruit confused and desperate
Muslim youth to engage in operations that keep the
climate of fear alive. They wouldn't do that to keep
support for bloodsucking, treasury-draining wars alive
at a time when there is no money for the poor, the
elderly, healthcare, education, infrastructure or
investment in the green economy. No! It's
preposterous. Those would be psychological operations
(psych ops) and that would be cheating. America never
cheats, we're the good guys!
I apologize, I'm tripping. On a serious note, I hope
you don't one day end up feeling as stupid and abused
as young Antonio Martinez or Mahomed Osman Mohamud,
the Somali kid in Oregon, are probably feeling right
now. They have been tricked, deceived, used, and
abused by fake mujahids and then thrown in a dungeon
to rot for the rest of their lives. Do you think your
fate will be any different? Don't be a fool.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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