How can we improve islamic image in western countries, certainly fitwa against coke because there logo on mirror issue is not helping. Any ideas ?
loooong story...making it short:
we'd have to help out our islamic countries.....(via money,education,health), which will help them regain economic control which in turn will raise their level of 'status' in the world.
this cannot be done (easily) b/c of a word that was given birth a long long time ago-politics! we've got our leaders all hooked up to teh superpowers ....they are all sold out....so even if try uniting the islamic countries, we would have to watch out for our lives.
Its not impossible, but i dont see it happening in the near future.
In my humble opinion, we need to consider in what time line Islam was introduced by Nabi Muhammed. Before him men were like animals, they just pickup women, keep in their home over 30, 40 women, so our holy prophet asked them to cover women just to protect from those kind of uneducated and evil men. If today in western world if we ask our women to wear burqa so are we saying todays men are also as bad as 1400 years ago??
ITs a sad thing but let me tell you one thing. In west media runs the whole show, you like it or not. If a story is some thing about ants getting killed by cars are interest they will run it 24 hrs a day and people here will make it a big deal ( GOT my point). To christians and jews we the muslims are evil, go wach some christian chanel or listin to a radio. Only thing we can do a should do is make our selfs close to Allah and fix us and our families then allah will give us every thing.Do not try to improve the image. It does not matter
Of course it matters - being the target of bias and prejudice can hurt even the most humble of folks. You cannot expect heroism from the masses.
what i ment it is not a good idea to put all your time in to, just improving the image
Image does matter, we can slowly go back to true Islam. We should read original Islamic book written in Arabic not just following second and third hand translation by some unknown Ulema. Muslim means he who submit to allah. Nabi Muhammed sealed (finished)Islam but Islam was started in this World by Nabi Muhammed before there was anyone. So we should not stuck with only keeping beard and wearing burqa following strict sharia. We all claims to follow Nabi sayings but how many of us get up in middle of night pray like He did upto 40 years of his age in Gare Hira. Quran never said pray 5 times of day in fact it says in words twice a day, or two ends of the day. We need to use common sense and interpret Quran for todays world and not be a Joke in todays world
PPL when i say image. i am talking about just doing it to look good in front of goras. Not the image Mohammad SAWS talked about.
[quote]
Originally posted by Original Muslim:
Quran never said pray 5 times of day in fact it says in words twice a day, or two ends of the day. We need to use common sense and interpret Quran for todays world and not be a Joke in todays world
[/quote]
Surah Al-Room
17. So (give) glory to Allah, when ye reach eventide and when ye rise in the morning;
- Yea, to Him be praise, in the heavens and on earth; and in the late afternoon and when the day begins to decline.
And in another instance, which I will quote later, Allah SWT tells Prophet SAW to pray at night, meaning Isha. So Allah SWT does mention all 5 prayers in the Holy Quran.
And I dont know what you mean by interpreting Quran for "todays" world. Because the interpretation of Quran is supposed to be the same today as it was 1400 years ago. If it were to be different, Allah SWT would send down another prophet to tell us that. But thats not to be the case. What Prophet SAW brought to us was the final word of Allah SWT, meant as a message for humanity then, now, and forever.
In this day and age, we do not live our lives the way Quran tells us to live them. But thats a weakness of our Iman. We cannot justify our own weakness by calling it a modern interpretation.
Well first of all our bad image is 99% our own fault. Muslims are seen as a joke.. if they are not going around commiting acts of terrorism they are fighting amongst themselves and condemning everyone to hell.
The politicians are not ever gonna change.
The most we could do is to be more active and elect the right people next time.
On a personal level we can all start being better people. Namaz and Rosa is all good, but you should go out there and interact with people. Be genuinely kind to all people regardless of their faith or race.
Being muslim does not mean isolating yourself from the rest of the world. This is the main reason we have such a bad reputation. Fine there are terrorists doing all kinds of horrible things in the name of Islam but the only other time you hear of a muslim is if they get all worked up over stupid stuff like this coke thing.
I mean you can't say 'look what lies they are always making up about us'... cause unfortunately these things are all true. However you can demand that they use the right terminology and stop generalizing to make it look like all muslims are like this. Even more important they should also explain that these types of acts are totally against the teachings of Islam and have nothing to do with it.
So yeah, the media is partly at fault..but if no one were doing all these terrible things to being with and if we actually spoke up everytime they did try to mislead the public well people would have no reason to believe what they hear then, would they?
How many of you have non-muslims friends? Do you ever talk to them at all? Nevermind 'we must befriend them to teach and preach to them' that's stupid. Since when? Muslims have lived peacefully amongst people of other faiths before..why not now? If you actually let your neighbors get to know you they'd see what Islam is really about by your actions.
Now before someone mentions it, and I know someone will...I'm not saying to compromise your faith. Do what you can for your community and your fellow man. The problems of your neighbor are your problems too. We are all creatures of God and He has created us equally. No one is better then anyone. Being muslim does not make this so either. Only Allah knows what we really are and it is He who will judge us.
There is always more you can do than simply being a good Muslim -
- Complaints about the media? fine, become the media - study journalism, and become a reporter for those media outlets that cover your story interests
- Complaints about the politicians? fine, become a politician. But you need community support, so, find a group of friends, and become active in your local Democratic or Republic parties. That small activity can become a grassroots effort to become a major part of those parties. The Jews realized this after WWII. Desis need to realize this too.
- Like Waqas said, become a better part of the community. Encourage and promote interfaith activities, and let those who can help you learn what you are really about.
I'm going to try and keep this short. See Allah has choice this religion Islam, and he is going to protect Islam. So u guys worry about ur self and only way to protect Islam is that u work on your self; improve yourself as an individual and be a model for others, especially the non muslims around u.
Bye for now and have a very nice Eid holidays.
khud achay ho jao…
sub kuch acha ho jaye ga!..
u complain abt otherz..lacking unity when it comez to islam..how much are u united?..sunni..shias..wahabi..etc. har koi apni hi taan alaap raha hai!..if u cannot agree on this base then how will u improve ur image as a single ummah!..
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/nook.gif
Qatra Qatra Deriya Bunta hai..
Waqas72 and Astrofan, I agree with everything you say.
I have always thought one of the best ways to impove the image of muslims might well be the creation of a utopian Islamic state that follows the teachings of Islam exactly.
I could be wrong, I am sure you all would have an opinion on this.
People might say that we have this in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, but I would respectfully disagree.