Changing the Tide

I'm watching a video of Sh. Hamza speaking at an ICNA conference in March. And Sh. Hamza addresses some of the issues that I've been thinking about recently, more so because of a recent chain of posts and comments on a fellow-law student's blog. Sh. Hamza speaks directly to the role of Muslims in the United States, and how we, as Americans, must be active in propogating the view of Islam the people do not see. He shares a particularly troubling statistic - a recent Gallup poll showed that when asked what they liked about Islam, over 50% of Americans either said nothing, or that they did not know. Sh. Hamza hit the nail on the head when he said - as a community, we have failed. I whole heartedly agree that we are not doing enough as a community to change the tide here in the United States. Here is my transcription of one portion of Sh. Hamza's lecture that I want to emphasize:

We are a historical community. We are a part of a historical process. We are here for a purpose. We are in the United States of American in large numbers, and we should be utilizing that fact. We have a job to do, and that job is about reconciling becauase we don't want a planet that disintegrates into more war and more hatred, into more violence, into more conflict, into more human suffereing.

We don't want that. I don't want that for my children.... I don't want them to ever have to witness carpet bombing. I don't ever want them to be at the end of some type of weapon of mass destruction. Or see children blown up. I don't want them to see that. Anyone that wants war, is a war mongerer. And our Prophet (sws) was a Prophet of peace. He came to bring peace, he came in the midst of immese cycles of violence in the Arabian Peninsula. And he ended those cycles of violence, he ENDED those cycles of violence. He DID NOT generate them. He ended them. And that was a part of his historical role, he was a prophet of peace as much as Jesus was a prophet of peace. ... as much as any prophet that has come, they called to peace. They called to salaam. And thats what the Prophet said after every prayer - give me peace, let me live in peace, let me die in peace.

Sh. Hamza continues to give an emotional and stirring lecture, which can be found in its entirety here.

The fact that our Prophet (sws) was a Prophet of peace has not been communicated. His merciful character has not been communicated. There are all too many people out there to hijack Islam, and if we do not work towards communicating the true message of Islam there is no one to blame but ourselves. We can point fingers till our hands are stiff - but it will not change the fact that other people, who often do not understand Islam, are doing a better job of marketing Islam as a violent religion than we are at communicating the true Islam.

I pray that Sh. Hamza can reach out to more Muslims around this country to convince them to work towards this goal, inshaAllah.

Let us change the tide ...