I was thinking about this jihad against islamophobia and anti Muslim hate speech, and to be honest, it really wasn’t making any sense to me. But then I started thinking, maybe I just don’t get it. After all, I’m not the sharpest kufi in the drawer, and if our Muslim leaders say that this is the most important thing that we need to be doing with our time and our money, maybe I better take a second look at it and start asking some questions.
My first question; is islamophobia, and anti-Muslim and anti-Islam hate speech synonymous with each other? Or are they two separate things, or three separate things? Because the people who make the anti-Muslim hate speech don’t sound like they are afraid of Islam or Muslims. Some of them even sound ready to fight. So I imagine they’re not islamophobes; just anti-Muslim and anti-Islam spokespeople. By the way, can we make up a nifty sounding name for the anti Muslim an anti Islam spokespeople? We are after all are Muslims, and Muslims don’t discriminate. We should be fair to the people that we’re doing this jihad against, and give them all trendy sounding nicknames. Maybe for the Islam and Muslim hate spokes-people, we could call them; ‘deen haters’, or something like that. Somebody please pass this suggestion.
I’m still confused about the meaning of the two terms; anti Islam hate speech, and anti Muslim hate speech. Are they synonymous? Because as far as Islam goes; ya gotta love it! But as far as anti Muslim hate speech, we have a lot of Muslims that do that against each other. Sometimes they do more than speech; Muslims have been known to bomb a market place, with innocent woman and children in it, or launch a grenade into a masjid upon unsuspecting worshippers. Is that hate speech, or is that just plain murder. So I guess my question is, since it seems that anti-Islamic hate speech is different from anti-Muslim hate speech, do we want to stop all types of anti Muslim hate speech, whether it’s Muslim against Muslim, or non Muslim against Muslim? Should we focus on anti Muslim hate speech that comes from non Muslims first? Or focus on the anti Muslim hate speech that comes from a Muslim? And just what do we mean by anti Muslim? Does that mean that if you say anything against a Muslim that sounds hateful, regardless of the reason that you said it? You’re guilty of anti Islamic hate speech?
Does someone who has a good reason to speak out against something a Muslim does, or is doing, fall in the category as an anti Muslim hate spokesman? Or is such a case an exception? By the way, is there an anti Islam/ anti Muslim hate speech manual? If it is, can somebody e-mail me one so I can catch up on the jargon of this jihad?
I was wondering something else; if the campaign to stop anti Muslim hate speakers from hate speech is successful, then how will we know who hates Islam and Muslims, and who doesn’t? This could become a big problem down the road, because if we stop the hate speech maker from making hate speech against Islam and Muslims, then all that hate is going to build up and express itself some other way. Americans do something called venting their anger. We express ourselves freely to get things off of our chest. After that, were okay, and everything’s back to normal. We’ve been trying as a nation to move away from hating too much, because you never know when you may need to work with that person, or live next to the person. So we try to let people say whatever they want to say, and if they want to keep on saying hateful things, even if it’s about Islam and Muslims, we just let them. Sometimes people need to say things to keep from doing things. If we stop people free people from expressing themselves, I don’t think people are going to take too kindly to that, and there is a very good chance it could backfire.
I was born and raised as a Muslim in America. There were many people who used to say hateful things about Islam and Muslims. We were the only Muslim family in our neighborhood in Philadelphia, in a section called Germantown. I remember a Muslim woman in Philly who hosted a radio talk show, I’m not going to mention her name but I hope she somehow reads this post. She invited me through a third party to be a guest on her show during the month of Ramadan. When I arrived at the station, we recognized each other as we both attended the same junior high school 12 or 13 years prior. The first thing she did when she recognized me was to apologize for making fun of me and my religion when we were teenagers in junior high. She said: “all the time that we used to laugh at you and think you were crazy with your prayers and your strange faith, you were following the truth, and I was in darkness”.
The Prophet had a neighbor who used to not only subject him to anti Muslim and anti Islamic hate speech on a daily basis; she used to throw excrement on him. The Prophet made no attempt at all to silence her anti Muslim and anti Islam speech. One day he noticed that she was not outside of her house cursing him. He inquired about her and was told that she was ill. Being that she was his neighbor, the Prophet visited her, asked about her health and that mention that he missed seeing her outside. His kindness (SAWS) affected her and Allah guided her to Islam. I guess that’s why the Prophet never bothered to wage war against anti Islamic, anti Muslim hate speech. It seems that there is no guidance in it.
I do have another question. Whose idea was this? Or what is the name of the consulting firm who came up with this ridiculous plan? Because I believe we should get a refund. I want to file a complaint. Who’s in charge of this campaign? I mean who’s the boss, the head honcho, the leader of the pack, the chairman of the board, the imam, or the Amir? Whatever his title is, American Muslims have the right to know who is leading the islamophobia campaign. Since CAIR is collecting the money for it, then CAIR needs to answer some questions. Because I am having trouble understanding how they are promoting civil rights, by trying to curtail peoples constitutional right, not to like Muslims. Notwithstanding, people are given the freedom by God to say what they want, and if they want to speak against Islam and against Muslims, who cares? That’s why we have a Lord to handle hate speech. “Let not their words grieve you; surely we know what they say in secret and in what they say openly”. 36:76 Even if somebody were able to silence all the public hate speech, it will still continue in private.
Another question; can someone tell me how do you know whether or not a person is an islamophobe? Because if people are afraid of you, they don’t usually say anything about it; they just bide their time, until they can do something about it. I’m just trying make sense of the strategy to make people not afraid of Islam and of Muslims, because if I is successful, we won’t have any way of knowing who is afraid of Islam and Muslims, and who is not? Unless we get a secret weapon to look inside hearts to find out who is afraid of the Muslim and of Islam. I haven’t looked that the polls lately but I didn’t see the one that said how many Americans are afraid of Muslims.
As a Muslim, I’m not afraid of Muslims. However, I’m afraid what the bogus, self serving; incompetent immigrant Muslim leadership would do, if we let them have some power in America. I hate the way immigrant Muslim leaders are attempting to take control of the direction of Islam in America without having the slightest idea of what they’re doing, and not even bothering to ask the Muslims who were here first, is this the right way to go about things.
I have another question, because if stopping most important thing that Muslims in America need to be concerned with, does it come before or after zakat and hajj? I mean is it fighting hate speech, give charity to the poor, and then make hajj? Or is it give charity, make hajj and then fight hate speech? Which is first? The economy is getting worse and people need to know how to budget their hate speech money. I’m just fascinated with this hate speech thing. In fact the whole islamophobia phenomena amazes me? It and actually frightens me how so many of us is going for this. But then I started thinking; maybe I’m just not getting it, and why I’m asking so many questions. If someone can help me out here, I will be very grateful.
In the meantime, how about stopping hunger, eviction, and power shutoffs? I’m the Imam of a community in Sacramento California that has poor people. So Instead of wasting money fighting Islamophobia, how about sending it to Masjid Ibrahim Islamic Center? We can make better use of it in ways that are truly legislated in our religion. What an idea!
Imam Luqman Ahmad
Masjid Ibrhim Islamic Center
3449 Rio Linda Blvd.
Sacramento, Ca 95838
abulaith.wordpress.com
Filed under: American Muslims, Black American Muslims, Islamophobia, Muslim converts, Muslim Thought, American Islam, anti-Islam speech, Islamophobia, Muslims in America
Imam Luqman Ahmad 
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