Re: Given all the negative portrayal and understaning
ammis wisdom there, when I was in college we had ppl fighting shia vs sunni, arabs verus everyone else, and I got so sick of it that I just stepped away, ammi said then that if I did not stand up for my ideals and what I thought was right, someone else will and then that is what muslims would be seen as and that is what I would be stereotyped as.
I did not listen and then the rushdi thing happened and it was a huge mess because teh editor of the uni newspaper wrote soemthing on the issue and one palestinan grad-ass sent him a threat as a response...huge huge mess The ppl who fixed it were ppl who were not into that whole groups crap, it was then that all those who were on siodeline decided that we cant step away and have assorted jackasses set the tone.
Honestly the issues that we see, much of it is due to many of us dusting off our hands and saying hey not our problem and walking away and letting rabid loudmouths set teh tone and agenda. whether it is in politics or community organiations or religious organizations. ppl stick around like parasites because they know avg javed does not care or is too disconnected or apathetic to reaslly bother, and if someone does say aomethng that he can be browbeaten and made to yield so business ans usual continues.
one bad situation that i had to deal with is below.
making a change is not always that tough. a local masjid here had a really whack job imam and i got sick of his lameness and told one of the trustees who said okay we will look into it, a few weeks later I asked him again and he had a real attitude when he told me basically to let the 'board' deal with it. I had to just say listen, this guy is trouble n my view, i have told you of this, so if you did nto know then you know now, and I will be reporting him to authorities and telling them that I had previosuly made the board aware of this guy's approach and I may even give recordings (which i never had :D) of this guys sermons to authorities. This gentleman did nto expect someone refusing to back off and got all mad telling me its people like me who are an issue, and I just walked away saying, i told u there is an issue, you told me you will take care of it, you did not and based on this conversation today it seems you think ppl like me are the issue and not people like the imam you hired or ppl like the board who will not do anything,..I will note that in my complaint to relevant authorities as well.
a few weeks later that imam was gone.