I was just reading John Burns Q. and A. on Islamic Radicalization on NYT and couldn’t help but wonder about the topic.
I think this is a very real issue, not just because the media is giving it all the attention it is, but because as Muslims we should be concerned with what is causing and driving this behavior in people.
Killing innocent people isn’t something Islam teaches and yet people try to twist the religion and give their own interpretations. The problem is that some Muslims can’t distinguish between the need for our community to deal with the issue, and the fact that some are making it about attacking Islam as a religion. To their credit there are those that blame violence on the religion and claim that it is inherent in the religion’s teachings, which is completely false.
We only know of what we hear and read on the news, and only God knows how much of that is the truth and what parts have been fabricated, or omitted. I wouldn’t be as keen on giving this a thought if it weren’t for what’s happening in Somalia, there is a case (unfortunately, like many others in the world) where Muslims are killing innocent Muslims. That is the extreme of contradiction, so all the fuss about infidels and disbelievers doesn’t even apply. Their thinking doesn’t make sense, it boggles my mind to be honest.
I’m no history buff or political analyst or any of the funny titles people give to themselves, lets not forget experts on Islam, Muslims and Middle East that can barely speak Arabic. The point is that if you (a Muslim) were made the head of national security in an imaginary country that has lost victims to attacks by so-called “Radicals”, then how would you deal with them?
What would your strategy be?
Also be sure to check out “Muslim Youth Radicalization Town Hall” its a Webinar taking place on Saturday Feb 20th at 7 pm PST.
Suhaibwebb.com tries to stay at the forefront on the issues that face American Muslims. In recent months, due to sad events that have happened in our homeland and internationally, Muslim organizations have taken a lead in combating what has been termed “the radicalization process” amongst Western Muslims. We have invited leaders from a spectrum of Muslim organizations to talk about this issue; perspectives range from organizations taking the stance that dealing with “Muslim youth radicalization” is part of serving our country and protecting her citizens, to other voices who do not agree with what they have seen as a blanket accusation of an entire community.
This stuff is off the hook. Honest to God it makes u so soft.
a) Proprietorship: An unincorporated business owned by a single individual. 
character, comments, ego, facebook, google, integrity, obsession, self-image, social networks, twitter, vanity, wordpress
Ego Management & Productivity
In A Thought on December 24, 2009 at 10:08 amI have realized that with my increased use of web communications and social networks I have become obsessed with myself.
Call it what you want, but that’s really all it is.
Google, Google analytics, WordPress views, Digg, Delicious, Technorati, Flickr views, All types of Comments, Tweets, RT’s and replies. All of them are just ways of trying to feel out what your value is to others. Although technically it’s not meant to be about you, but rather your business, ideas or content. It sounds like the classic case of ‘she needs to separate herself from her work’ doesn’t it? My mood is affected by this, I get happy when there are comments (positive or negative) or more views.
Having your work recognized and appreciated by others is a good thing, however, it shouldn’t be a goal in and of itself. When I was starting university it used to be all about facebook. The real appeal behind it was the ability to get into other people’s business. Which is really not all that interesting to me anymore. This should come as no surprise, why be bothered with other people when I can obsess over myself? Lately I haven’t been giving that much time to facebook, and for good reason; not much is poppin on there.
Knowing what facebook is all about people add fuel to the fire by airing their ‘dirty laundry’ on there. It promotes a culture of sharing, which isn’t necessarily bad. Users focus on sharing the crazy stuff that they had no business doing, let alone telling people about. So trying to get into the whole fb thing really can lead downhill. For example, I have seen people transition through all the phases of taking off their hijab. First its smaller, then wrapped back, then a hat, then its gone. Me and my cousin used to discuss it, so and so ’7atta sewarha 3aryana fe facebook’ put up naked pictures of herself on facebook. That’s not the gritty part, its the fact that their so-called friends encourage them. They comment on how nice they look, how they look amazing without their hijab. This is Muslims telling other Muslims. So to me, the concept of others opinion of you negatively affecting your actions is represented on facebook at its worst.
I often thought of how it isn’t right to talk about people in a bad way behind their back. Its straight out wrong. So what’s the right thing to do then? I took the advice of a friend that used to message people, privately and try to remind them to do the right thing. Don’t know that it has ever made an obvious difference, but I guess we plant the seeds and Allah (swt) has the control on what comes after that.
I need to train myself to make the most of social networking without them driving me crazy. Obsessing hampers my creativity, thinking and worst of all it poses a threat to the integrity of my work. At the Al-Kauthar class last weekend about the Fiqh of Salaah the instructor told the volunteers that they shouldn’t think anything of what they were doing. Because, things we do in front of other people can rarely be sincerely for Allah (swt), and there is always a chance that we were hoping to get credit from people.
That rings so true especially with blogging about Islamic topics. We want to benefit others with reflections we have on life that maybe eye-opening for them too, but our intentions can come under attack when we allow the popularity/ego/arrogance factor to affect us. In all honesty, I am still working on that. I read every article I come across about making the best of social networking. The catch 22 is that when you put so much focus on how you actually use the social networks, you are really just obsessing again.
Not only is it bad for my character but its also a horrible waste of time. I recently downloaded this program called ‘Freedom’ for mac that cuts off your internet connection for a specified amount of time. I haven’t used it yet, but that’s only because I need to ‘Google’ code and other information when I am designing. I did notice that closing TweetDeck and my email in Firefox, (and other email in Safari) has really helped my productivity. So when I go to the hot-corner that shows all windows I am not distracted by e-mail or random browsing.
Its actually bad for us to have so much information on what others think of us, or to give it so much weight. I’ve considered just closing my twitter, fb, blogs and Flickr but I don’t think I can. A lot of work went into them for one, the other thing is that they are excellent tools when used correctly.
It makes me think of how blessed we are not to know what exactly is in our book of deeds or what fate Allah (swt) has written for us. We would obsess over it and be constantly trying to avoid the parts we didn’t like so much. We would mourn the tough times before they came, and probably never get to enjoy the good ones…
What do you think