One of my former students reached out to me recently in regard to his fathers fasting. He didnt know what would be the best way for his father to complete his daily fasts. He is an elderly man and is far away from any family or friends. He hardly speaks with anyone, let alone sees anyone face-to-face. The young mans main concern for his father had to do with his inability to know when to start and stop fasting. His father, like many other Muslims, was and currently still is forced to live in solitary confinement. He cant see the sun to know whether it is up or down and the guards at his facility wont tell him. So he, as his son described it, is just trying the best that he can. This conversation resonated with me in a lot of different ways. Aside from the reality of unjust incarceration of hundreds of men and women living in a post-9/11 world or the fact that the experiences of people fasting vary quite drastically, I am more inclined to seeing a gap in our leadership in the Muslim community, and wondering when we will begin to fill it. Organized evil will always triumph over disorganized righteousness. This is truth, whether we choose to accept it or not. We can have good intentions all we want. If we have no plan, we will continue to be mistreated, our civil rights will be non-existent, and we will find ourselves sitting at dinners where we are verbally slapped in the face by the hosts and will have no real recourse other than to fight with each other afterwards on social media. Congrats -- you won the war on Twitter. How about we sit down and figure out collectively how to win the war that is being waged against us in the real world? Unlike most minority groups living in the United States, the Muslim community has no federation or established systems of networks of any kind. On a local, state, or national level, there is virtually no communication or strategy being employed whatsoever. Moving aside from building coalitions external to the broader Muslim community, the development of intra-community coalitions is necessary. I wouldnt undermine ones resolve to be at the table with other groups. But it shouldnt come at the expense of us sitting at the table with each other and it very much so is starting to. We are divided in every possible way that we can be. Racial, ethnic, cultural, gender-based, socioeconomic, and political divides are just the tip of the iceberg in the very little it takes for us to justify not sitting at the table with those who differ with us in perspective or to be dismissive and delegitimize each others leadership. A Muslim can be a woman and be a leader. A Muslim can be black and be a leader. A Muslim can have an accent and be a leader. If you think otherwise, you are foolish and need to be silent.... My Day 17 #RamadanReflection for Huff Post Organized Evil vs. Disorganized Righteousness. Read it in full at huffingtonpost/imam-khalid-latif/ramadan-reflection-day-17_b_5589179.html
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 03:01:01 +0000
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