Re: Non-Desi View on Ummah post 9/11
Serendipiti:
Interestingly enough, pre-911, I never thought of viewing the few Muslims I had ever met and become acquainted with as part of a mass. Nor do I refer to or categorize the people I know as "the Christian," "the Jew," "the Muslim," etc. Even after 911, it would never have occured to me to categorize Muslims as a mass rather than look at each person individually..... until I came to Gupshup and started hearing about the ummah and Khalifah.
Soon, I found many, many Muslims advocating the concepts of ummah and khalifah who adopt the attitude that anything done to anyone who is Muslim is done to all Muslims and it is done to them because they are Muslim. These same folks seem to ignore or excuse any wrong done by one Muslim to another Muslim no matter how great. They treat any perceived wrong (no matter how small) done by a non-Muslim to any Muslim as being anti-Muslim. I find that these Muslims treat Muslims as a mass rather than as individuals much more than I would ever have thought to do.
I do find that when Muslims generalize themselves this way that it has a tendency to encourage non-Muslims to generalize them as well. Thus, if Muslims embrace terrorists or other fanatics who happen to be Muslim as brothers and sisters of the ummah, how can these same folks be heard to complain when some non-Muslim generalizes and thinks of the Islamic ummah as embracing terror?
** I would prefer to think that for the majority of Muslims, the most important characteristic is not ones Muslimness or lack thereof. Rather (to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther King), the most important thing is the content of a person's character. I think the whole concept of ummah as expressed by some is that the worst Muslim is better than the best Kuffar. ** If that is or becomes the prevailing view of the ummah, I think the rest of the world will simply generalize all Muslims into one mass, try to isolate them and prepare for the coming Clash of Civilizations.