The word modern, according to merriam-webster.com can mean something that is “involving recent techniques, methods, or ideas. However, this word in some circles and in the Western media has come to signify “non-Muslim” or non-Islam. 

You see them in the media all of the time, non-practicing Muslims (or even those people that have gone out of Islam) that are held up as representatives of Islam and as moderate and modern Muslims.  They’re definition of being Muslim is someone who conforms to the dominant trends and ideas/ method of living of the current society, even if they are against the teachings of Islam. 

But to them, their innovations or lack of practice of some aspects of the religion is alright because they are being “progressive” and living “moderately.” A prime example that is well known by Canadian Muslims is the MCC--a group that called for banning the niqab in late 2009. 

So what does this have to do with your life? This debate is a very important one for Muslims living in the West, young and otherwise. It is questioning our way of living and it is presenting to us a choice--are you Muslim and backwards or are you Western and modernized? 

It is obviously a false choice because the refined life of the Muslim (in religious practice, character etc.) are the exact opposite of barbarism. And secondly because there is no conflict in being “Western” and being Muslim if the definition of being Western is living in a certain geographical area and having certain values about freedom from oppression and promoting human rights. The Muslim is one that enjoins good and forbids evil, with anyone who does the same. Those two ideals are in no way contradictory to Islam, in fact it is Islam and Muslims that effectively implemented them in societal structures, as a result of Divine Guidance, long before the UNDHR in 1948.  An example would be rules of engagement in war that protected civilians. 

Any issues between being Western and being Muslim occur when the definition of Western is limited by those who consider themselves the ideal of the Westerner (ie. The WASP), who would like to eradicate ideas of belonging that do not fit his own. 

And that is what is occurring now. “Naturalized” Muslims that are born and/or raised in Western countries that are devoted to Islam are being challenged about their identity. Propaganda is unleashed against them in order to make them feel either inferior in religion, lifestyle and citizenship. It is not because of any inherent contradiction that exists but because of the knee-jerk  reaction of those in control of the status quo that do not want the ideological “purity” that they have held for so long to be challenged or changed in any significant way

You see them in the media all of the time, non-practicing Muslims (or even those people that have gone out of Islam) that are held up as representatives of Islam and as moderate and modern Muslims.  They’re definition of being Muslim is someone who conforms to the dominant trends and ideas/ method of living of the current society, even if they are against the teachings of Islam. 

But to them, their innovations or lack of practice of some aspects of the religion is alright because they are being “progressive” and living “moderately.” A prime example that is well known by Canadian Muslims is the MCC--a group that called for banning the niqab in late 2009. 

So what does this have to do with your life? This debate is a very important one for Muslims living in the West, young and otherwise. It is questioning our way of living and it is presenting to us a choice--are you Muslim and backwards or are you Western and modernized? 

It is obviously a false choice because the refined life of the Muslim (in religious practice, character etc.) are the exact opposite of barbarism. And secondly because there is no conflict in being “Western” and being Muslim if the definition of being Western is living in a certain geographical area and having certain values about freedom from oppression and promoting human rights. The Muslim is one that enjoins good and forbids evil, with anyone who does the same. Those two ideals are in no way contradictory to Islam, in fact it is Islam and Muslims that effectively implemented them in societal structures, as a result of Divine Guidance, long before the UNDHR in 1948.  An example would be rules of engagement in war that protected civilians. 

Any issues between being Western and being Muslim occur when the definition of Western is limited by those who consider themselves the ideal of the Westerner (ie. The WASP), who would like to eradicate ideas of belonging that do not fit his own. 

And that is what is occurring now. “Naturalized” Muslims that are born and/or raised in Western countries that are devoted to Islam are being challenged about their identity. Propaganda is unleashed against them in order to make them feel either inferior in religion, lifestyle and citizenship. It is not because of any inherent contradiction that exists but because of the knee-jerk  reaction of those in control of the status quo that do not want the ideological “purity” that they have held for so long to be challenged or changed in any significant way
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Comments

Reader

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:06:27 pm

I think it's completely stupid that a Muslim group would ban a Muslim practice.
I can't even..
I mean, sure your life is your life and you don't have to wear a niqab but BANNING it... Makes it seem more like they're trying to change Islam around.

 



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