What can muslims do...

In the last few months, I have been reading news from my safe house in Fort Worth, TX. Is India really safe for people of the minority community? Specifically, is India safe for Muslims? History shows that it is not. Will it ever become safe? Was Europe safe for the Jewish people till the fall of the Third Reich. They had to struggle for over thousand years, before there was any perceivable safety. Do Muslims of India, which is nothing less that the Europe of renaissance, have the same time and energy to sustain a thousand more years. The truth is to be left to individuals. However, my belief is that Muslims really don't. It is already a community at odds with every one in the world. When I think about it, it is really hard to digest. I have always known Muslims as peace loving and compassionate. So, let me step back a few miles. This struggle has always existed across history and will always exist. The majority suppressing minorities. Strong oppressing weak. This is human nature. Survival of the fittest. So, how does one survive this. Like I said, only the fit survive.

How do we turn fit? Are we really weak today? Interestingly, every statistic in India indicates that except bollywood, Muslims currently suck at everything. I am not proud to say that, but we have to know the truth. Are we just genetically dispossessed to be like this? Muslims have one of the largest diversity among any religious group in India. We have every gene pool possible. We have people in every field imaginable. This means, we cannot really be weak in anything. Then, why are we really in such a bad spot? We have always felt a sense of community. But on the ground, we don't really function as a community.

Step 1: Unite as a community - Register with your local mosque

This is not going to happen over night. Will some highly charismatic leader appear from the sky and unite us all. The probability is not really in our favor. So, I would pass on miracles for now. Unity has to happen at grass roots level. Do we even have a sense of community first of all. Christians in India, whether observant or not, are registered to a church. The church takes interest in their well being. The full time work of the pastor/priest is to tend to his flock. This is exactly what the mosques must do. Most of our mosques actually have full time Imams. But, why are we not united with our local mosque. Our Imams probably are not trained in leadership. We must have stronger curriculum in Madrasas that train Imams on community organization and building. Secondly, our poor Imams have to work extra to take care of their families. A Roman catholic priest does not really have his own family. So, he can spend all his time in community building. As for our Imams, they must be well provided by the community. This means higher salaries and benefits. Where do we get all the money from? Taxing the members of the mosque as a percentage of their economic status. This will only work if we do take one tiny step which is the bottomline of this entire paragraph. Get your lazy butts out of the couches and register with your local mosque. It will be great if you pray every day at the mosque, but as the first step, first let your glorious existence be known to your local mosque. Take interest in mosque activities. Make sure we are not only organizing Dikr nights, Iftar parties etc but also a session on public speaking for the local youth, a basket ball tournament with neighboring mosque, Age of Empires tournament for all those computer geeks in the community (that was for myself) etc. We have to make the youth frequent our mosque. Otherwise, we will never become a community.

Step 2: Unite as a community - The mosques must unite.

This is a subject that I have little experience on. However, let me just pour a few of my thoughts. The Imams and community leaders of a mosque must unite with neighboring mosques. There must be a district and state wide union of mosques, that must do much more than organizing isthimas. There must be inter mosque dialogues and events that build solidarity between communities. This is how we can identify and nurture leaders who could grow to a national scene and represent us.

Step 3: Strong work ethics, family values and continuous self improvement

Muslims must realize that we are already living on borrowed time. Due to the good work of our ancestors, we still have what little is left. So, we must work hard as individuals to continuously improve our virtues, intellect and wealth so that we can contribute to our families, community, nation and the world as a whole. I have seen so many talented Muslims deciding to only work on the akhirat (Hereafter). If Allah gave you the skills, he means that you must take care of the ones that he did not give it to. We only look at it at a micro level. The big picture is that these individuals must grow into community leaders.

There is so much to write, which I believe I will, as the time progresses and I grow wiser. For now, even I don't follow all that I just preached. So, I will work on filling the gaps there. Let us unite and be useful members of our society and gain the respect that we really deserve. When that happens, we will be seen as a strong society and no one will/can hurt us.