The Glass half full

I am sure that everyone who reads this will be familiar with the story of the cartoons and the impact it is having on, not only the world scale, but I think more importantly,on the hears and minds of common Americans. It seems that it is irrelevant who started what and why. What is relevant is the impression it is leaving on the minds of Americans when they see, almost literally, daily news reports of riots, killings, and burnings by Muslims around the world.

This past weekend, our community here in Bellingham had the opportunity of hearing just that; the thoughts of non-Muslim Americans on this issue and ditto what I said above. The event we hosted was entitled “Caricatures of the Prophets: Islam’s view on free and blasphemous speech”. By all accounts, the event was a success with over 60 people in attendance (remember that this is a small town). But more interesting to me was a few observations of the event:

1) If a Muslim begins to speak about these events from a historical perspective, i.e. it started in September ’05, Muslims tried to talk to the newspaper, etc. they will get no where. Most Americans don’t care. What the do care about is, again, the hate they see on the TV sets every day and they feel it is a grave over-reaction that only speaks to the point of the cartoons, that Muslims are violent. This was actually mentioned by one of the participants
2) We as Muslims, in general, even here in the US, need to take a “chill pill”. During the Q/A/Discussion that followed the talk, it was apparent that the non-Muslims in the crowd were the ones asking the questions, and the Muslims in the crowd were the ones getting upset, raising their voices (I had to ask two of them to sit down), etc.
3) It might have been stated before, but most Americans are hungry to learn about Islam, and in general, have no way of learning it. As the speaker was going through his presentation, he only focused the last 5 minutes or so to the topic of the cartoons, and spend the rest of the 40 minute speech just speaking on Islam, like an Islam 101 course. I was thinking throughout his speech that he wasn’t addressing the issue and that people afterward would nail him on that. To my surprise, they didn’t and were thankful that he explained Islam
4) Finally, after asking a few people around the country, I have come to realize that there is no good material, to speak of , that one can pass out to non-Muslims to give them the jist of Islam. Yes, there is the Qur’an, but most have no time to read it cause it is so thick, and the language is intense as well. If anyone does know of a really good one, please let me know. In this regard, I am contemplating coming out with a short DVD that explains the basic tenants of Islam and then on-line, breaks them down for people to download and view. Any thoughts from anyone?

Thinking and writing about this event two days later, I think that even in the hurt that the Muslims are causing around the world by killing, burning, and rioting, can be seen as an opportunity to teach people about Islam. Being on a few mailing list from around the country, I have noticed that there has been no serious effort to use this to our advantage and spread the message of Islam. It doesn’t take much because again, people are interested. The event we put together is a clear example; it took only two people to organize it and with Public Service Announcements and some postings of fliers we had a packed crowd.

I hope people reading this will take this to heart and do their own activities. On our part here in Bellingham, we are making the intention to do these events once a month as an opportunity to educate and build bridges.

Till Next Time,
Babi