As-salaam wa-alaikum, brothers and sisters.
This is a re-release of a bonus episode of the 17 Verses podcast, originally from June 20, 2016, shortly after Muhammad Ali’s passing and the Omar Mateen Orlando shooting spree. I’ve still released a Qur’anic recitation for today so feel free to download that episode as well.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about peace and loss and violence and the myths we teach each other about the existence and lives and beliefs of the “other”. Muhammad Ali’s life, the devil quoting scripture… how do we reconcile ourselves, live our Deen and in Peace.
Excerpts from the Podcast
Muhammad Ali passed away. An entire nation celebrated him. A deranged mentally ill Muslim man shoots up a nightclub in Orlando. An entire nation erupts into a firestorm of blame and fear and hatred.- I can’t denounce Omar Mateen’s actions strongly enough!
- Have we learned nothing from Ali’s life or from our scriptures, & the better angels of our nature?
- In Islam, faith alone is not enough. Faith must be joined with good works. It is in the living, in the doing that we can attempt to find Grace.
- The violent obscure those whose beliefs are lived out peacefully in the lives of millions of the faithful. Imperfectly, yes.
- Muhammad Ali said that he tried and strived to be good but that it wasn’t his place to judge himself; only Allah could do that.
- Look through my Facebook wall, google CAIR or ISNA or even the local Mosques in Pittsburgh and you’ll find Muslims denouncing extremism. We have been for years (so have people in the Middle East).
- The Middle East equal less than 1/3rd of the worldwide Muslim population. Their struggles get all the headlines because of oil wealth but they are territorial and political; religion is a façade to cloak their centuries-long vendettas.
- It is likely that the geopolitical forces at work in the Middle East are far more significant than an individual power’s to denounce them. But we’re still trying.
- People like to Islamsplain at me that my Islam not true Islam as if the interpretations of the violent are more authentic.
- The Devil may quote scripture to suit his purposes but only the faithful who practice the full measure of it can bring a religion into being in a way that will withstand the whips and scorns of time.
Links
The Case for Making Fun of ISIS by Jenna McLaughlin (Mother Jones) (March 6, 2015)
Iran Hosts Anti-ISIS Cartoon Competition (CNN) (May 31, 2015)
Investigators Say Orlando Shooter Showed Few Warning Signs Of Radicalization (NPR) (June 18, 2016)