an evening of dialogues

last weekend, we had our first big activity of ms@aau, an evening of dialogues. it was aimed at fostering and promoting inter-religious and inter-cultural communication among the mutli cultural and multi religious communities of aau. apart from the great food (as always) and all the gathering of friends, i came home stronger in my belief that it is us muslims who are more to blame than anyone else for our "misfortune" all around the world today.

the imam of local mosque and a well known sheikh were among the speakers, and my comments on their talk are:

1. we muslims spare no opportunity to blame others, whereas we are sitting down behind the closed doors of our homes, and praying earnestly for Allah to help us.

2. we assert very little or no effort at all in communicating with the people, but expect them to come foreward in integration, neglecting the fact we are the minority here, and thus it is us who should come foreward.

3. we are out of touch with whats happening around us, and are busy with issues of past. e.g. the sheikh was talking about the cartoons, whereas in the society this is an old issue, which people are no longer interested in talking about.

4. we even fail to connect to our very own youth, who will be the leaders of society tomorrow. this in turn arises apathy in them towards islam, resulting in them loosing their very own identity. finally, we end up with a lost generation. our sheikhs cant even speak the language of the people, let alone think like them. (p.s. the latter phrase is my observation and may not be true)

5. one of the most common thing is blaming the media. but what is media? isnt it just a vessel to transfer information? ofcourse the media will carry information that its stakeholders want to tell, not that of others? if we cant accept our newsletters/media to promote other values or interest (e.g. western lifestyle) why then do we cry out loud over others' media portraying us the way they are!!! it is true that media has ethical and moral responsibility, but in this world of might is right, expecting people to adhere to it is nuthing but a fool's dream. (and i actually think, the media isnt doing that bad after all. i dont see ourselves much different from what is portrayed)

!!!yet we dare to dream of a better tomorow!!!