By: Ahmed Kilani
Source: MuslimVillage.com
I recently took part in a ideb8 organised by the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy Australia (ISRA). The topic was “Are the problems Australian Muslims facing mostly external or internal?”. I was debating on behalf of the team arguing that the issues are mainly internal. Here is a copy of my full speech (was edited on the night due to time constraints).
“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” Quran 13:11
Ever since Iblis refused to bow to Prophet Adam (Peace be Upon Him – pbuh), all the prophets have suffered opposition and oppression. It’s part of their test, like its part of ours.
Prophet Nuh (Noah) (pbuh) lived for hundreds of years and only had less than 20 followers. He never gave up and said “this is too hard the system is against me”.
Prophet Musa (Moses) (pbuh), was ordered to address Pharaoh, the ruthless ruler of his time he didn’t say “let’s boycott and not talk to him, what a waste of time, he is just going to use us for political reasons”.
There are many more stories we could cite, none more relevant to us than the numerous examples and injunctions given to us in the Quran and Sunnah as presented by the two previous speakers on my team.
No one can deny the forces of evil exist. Attacks and undermining of good by forces of evil against humanity has been a constant since the beginning of time. But how we respond to them is the key. Do we react in a fashion that perpetuates the evil or do we can combat them by modeling the Prophet Muhammad’s methodology (Pbuh)?
The other side have come up with no practical solutions to the problems we are facing. All they can do is critique on an social political ideological basis with no practical solutions based on Islam or anything else.
Listening to them is like going to a doctor who can list all your symptoms, but has no effective medicine to give you.
But Alhamdulillah we have the medicine in the Sunna and Sirah of Rasoul Allah (pbuh) in that we have the ability to impact upon our social environments in the way WE conduct ourselves. This doesn’t mean we sell out our beliefs or turn the other cheek. It means we focus on combating evil with good so as not to inadvertently perpetuate more evil. You put out a fire with water, not by throwing more fuel on it. And this starts with focusing on ourselves.
Focusing on fixing ourselves is of course a never ending lifetimes work that will only end once we reach our grave. But this doesn’t mean that we neglect everything else. Although we focus on fixing our own faults, we also need to concurrently work on our families and then our communities. The Prophetic manner means we don’t hide in the corner of the mosque and make dua while the world is burning around us. We get involved to make changes.
Sometimes when you are trying to make massive changes it may feel like your a tiny stone that is being dropped into an ocean. What effect can I have you may ask?
You must never discount the fact that although small at first, your actions could be the start of a ripple that will eventually turn into a tsunami of goodness that will wash away and cleanse any evil that stands in its way. We have all witnessed and heard numerous stories of how one inspirational individual can change the lives of millions. You could be that person!
I believe the Ummah is in its current state, in Australia and globally, because we are being humiliated by Allah because we are not united in heart and actions in upholding true Islam as we have been instructed to do.
We have lost our way individually and hence collectively. Allah promised us that if we lose our way, he will send upon us oppression and humiliation. This is part of our test and a means of our cleansing.
I strongly believe that our main problems ARE internal! Internal as individuals and then manifested collectively as a community. Yet they sit there like a huge elephant in the room that nobody ever dares talk about.
Although what I have to say may upset a few people, tonight I am going to talk about it. Without going into precise details, here is a list of some of the most pressing internal issues I believe we are facing as a community.
The Internal Problems
Many of our so called peak bodies and leading organisations are dysfunctional at best and corrupt and full of nepotism at worst. Why is it that in 2014 when 75% of the Australian Muslim population was either born here or came under the age of 5 – clearly having the identity of an Australian Muslim – do we still have community organisations that are controlling most of our main infrastructures in Mosques and Schools still based on and run by ethnic tribes?
Fights over leadership and control of mosque committees that treat Imams with little respect are also sadly not uncommon. Nepotism and corruption amongst some of our community organisations prevails, with one of them spending millions of dollars of community money on lawyers fighting each other, whilst key grassroots projects are struggling for crumbs.
Community leaders/Imams being out of touch with day to day realities or being unable to communicate properly is another problem. Worse still are the unqualified “Sheikhs” giving dangerous advice. Going away to study for 5 years and suddenly they are back handing out fatwas like flyers after Jummah prayers.
Although many organisations are in the process of transforming themselves, many organisations are so out of touch with the grassroots that they have become irrelevant, yet they control tens of millions of dollars of important community assets.
The “old guard” having no transition plans and holding onto the reigns of power has created another problem highlighted by the new phenomena of over $20m of new mosques being built within 10km of each other in the last 18mths in Western Sydney alone. This mentality of building “bricks and mortar” instead of investing in much needed social capital and infrastructure is a sad misallocation of hard to come by funds. It is to the point where the community has fundraisising fatigue.
Is it any wonder that many members of the community sadly have little respect for our community leaders when they themselves appear to have little unity of purpose amongst each other and have lost touch with the day to day issues facing the average Australian Muslim.
While this building boom and battle for leadership and influence has been going on, hardly anyone is addressing the essential and urgent needs of the community.
Let me name a few key areas that are in desperate need of attention that are sadly being neglected or not adequately supported. These problems are again due to us having internal issues as individuals and then manifested collectively as a community.
Drugs and alcohol – one of the silent major internal problems of our community that hardly anybody in the community wants to seriously address or talk about. This is becoming a huge problem with certain sections of our community and has lead to huge problems in family breakdown and law and order issues.
Domestic Violence and the Mistreatment of women – another massive issue that is not being adequately addressed. Who is supporting women who are victims of domestic violence? Our divorced, widowed and single convert women? Where are the women’s refuges and support groups to support them? Yes there are a few organisations doing excellent work, but why are they always screaming out for funding and support in order to survive?
No Aged care or disability services and facilities – Although finally there are now plans to address this issue, we need far more than the two aged care centres are being planned. Who is going to care for our elderly in a manner that is Islamically appropriate when families can no longer handle the enormous task of looking after an elderly person that needs 24hrs care? And what about facilities to help the intellectually and physically disabled in our community? Again their have been a few recent initiatives, but once again much more is needed and the struggle for support and funding is ongoing.
Not one Islamic hospital – we have many private christian hospitals, why can’t we build our own Muslim one where females and males can be separated and have only same sex doctors? These of course would be open to all patients, Muslim or non Muslim, but with all the doctors in our community, it would be hoped that our own hospital would one day be a reality.
Recognised Islamic Arbitration – With regards to family law issues, we have no recognised courts of arbitration for family law or inheritance like the Jewish community have had for close to 100 years. This is not about introducing Sharia law into Australia, just the use of the current legal framework to recognise Islamic rulings for important areas such as family law.
Local Educated Imams – No local institute to produce locally trained Imams who understand the issues faced growing up in Australia and can give proper Islamic guidance exists. After all these years why do we have to keep sending young people overseas to study?
Relevant Religious Direction – when is the Imams Board going to produce a guide for Australian Muslims with rulings on issues that face them on a day to day basis as Muslims living in Australia? Issues for example like Halal food (gelatine, alcohol, hand v machine slaughter); Insurance (car, health), Medical (transplants, blood transfusion, organ donation, Halal); Finance (Credit cards, Education fees, leasing, etc)…and the list goes on.
Professional Advocacy and Media Monitoring – No professional advocacy body to defend against actions of over zealous police brutality, media discrimination and the rampant Islamophobia we are now facing that is challenging everything from Mosques, Schools, Halal foods to cemeteries. People like Mariam Veiszadeh, Lydia Shelly, Dr Zachariah Mathews and others having been doing an amazing job to combat it. Yet hey are all unpaid and virtually unsupported, doing this work while working full time jobs. Can you imagine if they were handsomely paid full time what could be achieved?
Political Lobby – No professional lobby group to lobby political parties and harness the Muslim vote. A study conducted a few years ago showed that if Muslims used their votes wisely, their votes could be crucial in the outcome of up to 5 federal seats. This is incredibly significant and I can guarantee you if a full time professional body focused on lobbying and organising the Muslim vote was functioning effectively, no political party would dare blow the dog whistle and use Muslim bashing as an opportunistic vote winner every time they were down in the polls.
Youth Issue
We are also in denial that we have significant problems with a segment of our young men that is effecting the entire community. We represent 2% of the population, yet account for 10% of the crime rate and 7% of the prison population – sadly many of them for drug offences, gun and violent crimes. Why do we have some young people saying “this is Daar Al Harab I can do as I please to the kufar”, “I only follow Sharia law”, “We need to do Jihad brother!”. Yet they have no proper understanding of Islam and lack any Islamic manners. How did we reach this point and what are we doing to fix it? Alhamdulillah yes we now have Youth centers popping up everywhere, but major social problems are still not being addressed.
You can’t be a Leader if you don’t have followers
Although I have been critical of some of our Imams + community leaders, in their defence the reality is they are generally treated with little respect and are paid very little or nothing at all yet are expected to be on call 24hrs a day like an Ambulance service. The Freesabilillah model is the norm when it comes to doing Allah’s work in the Muslim community. It is also hard to be a leader when your community has lost the ability, let alone understands the Islamic principles, of how to be a follower.
The problem is us
We need to stop blaming the police, media, polticians, Jews, Zionists, the masons, the illumanati and realise that we have become what we are due to our own actions! Internal failings in all of us individually and apathy amongst all of us collectively has lead to this. Everyone complains yet only 1% are willing to make a difference!
How you make a difference is by starting with yourself. Like the Quranic injunction from Allah says:
“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” Quran 13:11
The solution is crystal clear. We need to clean ourselves up first and connect ourselves with Allah as individuals, then as families, then as a community, then as a source of guidance to the greater society.
Perhaps it is because we have forgotten that our religion is based on La ilaha IllaAllah AND Muhammad Rasoul Allah. The second part is the key to reaching the first part and we need to emulate the Prophet (pbuh) in an outward form based on a purified inward form. Sadly today Islam is being taught predominantly as a bunch of rituals, rules and regulations with little understanding of the inner dimensions.
As Muslims living amongst non muslims we have to remember that in this age of darkness and tribulation, we have a responsibility to reflect like a mirror the light and beauty of Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
When non Muslims look at us today they don’t see light from many of us, they see darkness. We need to look inward and stop saying that the enemies have conspired against us.
Let us look inward and polish our internal mirrors so when the people look at us they see the light and beauty of Islam and its ultimate living example that we must role model in Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
By Allah if were to polish our internal mirrors, the world will come running to the light we will see reflected from our mirrors. People will be unable to resist the beauty of this light and it will spread through out the earth.
Let us all leave today with the intention to hold up a mirror to our selves and look at what we see. Let us work on polishing our mirrors so that we can become reflections of light in all aspects of our lives with our families, friends, work colleques, and greater society.
Let us have love and tolerance for each other in order to unify our hearts and our heal our community so that we can work sincerely together to fix our many internal problems.
By Allah if we focus on doing this, we will eliminate our internal problems and become a beacon of light and influence for the rest of the society to see the beauty of Islam.
We need to focus on ourselves yet at the same time get involved in our community to contribute to fixing the greater good. Find what interests you and get involved to help out with Muslims and Non Musims in your community.
The solution to our problems is with each and every one of us.
I conclude with words of Rumi, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
NOTE: The team debating for the external team – Amro Said, Hanan Dover, Yassir Morsi won the debate against the internal team – Dr Zachariah Mathews, Aisha Meguid, Ahmed Kilani – by about 55% to 45%
