Whether or not we should go to the #WhiteHouseIftar is not my issue (although I think its completely unacceptable to go). My issue is that we never unite on an issue. We never take a stand and send a message. We send a hundred different messages. And one message undermines the other, thus completely defeating the purpose of any of the messages being sent. I want to share a story that my good friends father told me. He had come to the US as an immigrant like the majority of our parents did. He opened a grocery store in an area that was predominantly Jewish. In an attempt to tend to his customers, he increased his inventory with Kosher items out of convenience for them. After the good response, he decided to put the word Kosher on the sign for his store to let potential customers know that Kosher items were being sold inside. A week or two after that word was added to the sign, business started to become unbearably slow. It came to a point where there were barely any customers at all, in comparison to a very prosperous start. Somehow, my friends father got in touch with a Jew in the community and asked him what had happened. The Jew said that my friends father and his business had been boycotted. He explained that every weekend, the Jews of that community would group together and discuss the current events of their community. Who opened a business? Where did they open it? Who is going to school? Where are they going? Who needs help? All of these questions that have to do with the community were discussed on a weekly basis; and in that meeting decisions were made and no matter who differed and who agreed, EVERYBODY acted upon the final decision! In that meeting, it was brought to the attention of the community that my friends father had opened a business and placed the word Kosher on it. It is part of procedure that in order to be eligible to simply put the word Kosher on the sign of your business, a fee of a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars is to be paid to the local Rabbi to approve the store as truly Kosher. Because such a procedure had not been done, they assumed it as false advertising and immediately, EVERYBODY boycotted that grocery store until it was run completely out of business. This story made me gain so much respect for Jews and their organizational skills. THAT is how you make change. And that is exactly what is missing from the Ummah today. Whenever we decide that we want to do something, unfortunately, we are faced with the obstacle of public opposition from our own people before we even get to others. Not just that, but even if there is something we all agree on, it takes FOREVER for all individuals to actually act upon it. Weve been screaming BDS for years and I still see people purchasing products that support Israeli Occupation (but thats another topic). We really need a coalition of some sort where all local public figures are subscribed to a forum lead by the leading religious Scholars and Political Activists who can foster private conversations online about all relevant issues, and issue a final decision that all should support. At that point, whoever does not abide by our official statements does not represent us. I think this should be headed by trustworthy leaders like Sheikhna Omar Suleiman as well as Sister Zahra Billoo (CAIR) and others. In order for our voices to be heard there needs to be one public voice, not many voices shouting over each other leaving us completely misunderstood. والله المستعان...
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 10:58:25 +0000
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