Re: Khawarij- open discussion
salam alaikum brother thanks for replying ......as you have rightly pointed out this is the dilemma which is causing the biggest problem amongst the muslim world today not just terrorism itself which is a symptom rather than the cause of the disease
what practical steps we can take in our local communities you think which can cause some bridging of the gulf between the two extremes ?
Peace Das Reich
If we live in the West we already have an advantage over those Muslims living in the Muslim countries.
In the West we need to study hard all of those cultural and social traits that can be seen to benefit mankind. When I mean study it has be more than skin deep. For example the fact that democracy is seen as good doesn't necessarily mean it so, we only need to look at the way the system manifests itself to realise its pitfalls. However, democracy is essential to reconcile the spectrum of views. Islam permits view formulation only by those who are qualified and thus the process of democracy is undertaken within the confines of the elite i.e. scholars, who present their views on a basis of evidence and context. It then becomes the leaders decision to take, i.e. the ameer can overule the predominant opinion, but it is generally understood that the opinions must be heard and the decision chosen should be from amongst the presented opinions, unless of course the leader is a scholar and has a basis for his own opinion.
Coming back to the answer ... we need to embrace the good elements of the society we live in. There are many good elements. We can go in to welfare helping the elderly and invalid, we can go into social work helping the disadvantaged and children from broken families, we can create resident associations and attract our neighbours to join them and be symbolically seen as their representatives. It will be so much more effective if this is done whilst maintaining an Islamic identity, i.e. hijab, beard, rules of conduct and behaviour should all be Islamic. Only then will they connect the dots and see that at the grass roots level the Muslims are the pillars of the community and not the people hyped up to be according to the media. The media are correct as far as the populous do not question them. If we are silent Muslims i.e. not seen in our communities then the media have a free reign.
We need to become teachers in state schools. It is important to have Muslim schools for those parents who wish to make their children into scholars of Islam, however, it is also important to have integration of Muslim children in state schools and Muslim teachers in state schools. The values one grows up with will reflect the values of his/her teacher. So well learned religious Muslims need to make a concerted effort to be employable in state schools.
This is the vein of thought that is required for turn the situation around inshaAllah.