Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim
www.muhsin.in
muhsin234 (Twitter)

“What is your name?” Muhammad. And all eyes would turn around.

It often starts just like that, for to them, every Muslim is a potential threat, a terrorist. It is extremely awkward, if not annoying, to someone like me who was born and reared in an almost 99% Muslims community. Hitherto I didn’t know that being Muslim means that much and weighs that loads; some feel even reluctant to disclose their belief. Muslims living in multi-religious and non-Muslims majority societies today have a lot of stories to tell. The story is sometimes nasty in conservative, religiously touchy and volatile places like India, where I presently reside. Although home to about 200 million Muslims, it was discovered in a recent survey that some of them have to masquerade as Hindus to sustain their businesses. This happens due to the schism, and sometimes animosity, between them and other faithful, particularly the majority Hindus.

But why all the fuss and the buzz, you may ask. Generally identity, especially religious one, is highly polemical and extremely abstract. For instance, my ‘Muslimness’ is neither determinable based on my appearance and gait, nor proportional to my humanity and humane. Despite the whopping population of more than 1.5 billions worldwide, hundreds of millions of Muslims live in shambles due to the raging religious stereotype, which results to marginalisation and sometimes worse, as aforesaid. Needless to say, the reports of suicide bombs and other terror acts allegedly perpetuated by some miscreants calling themselves Muslims is a commonplace today. Al Qaeda, IS/ISIS, Boko Haram, etc are household names around the world. But this can’t and shouldn’t, nonetheless, justify the unjust treatment of others who can equally be victims of those murderers.
[center][img]http://4.bp..com/-M09shwpoRCY/U8pORStoTsI/AAAAAAAAAdw/lQ1MfWE2NBc/s1600/Truth.jpg[/img][/center]
Wait and ask yourself: how many Muslims are engaged in such dastardly activities? The aforementioned figure is just tentative, for the population of Muslims is, against many odds, rapidly growing. So, obviously, had the larger population of them been involved in “terrorism”, no part of the world might have been in peace, for nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim. There is no denying that the threat poses by the ‘bad guys’ among them is alarming, but not as the media would want us to believe. Muslims do not have monopoly on fanaticism. We have Christians in C.A.R, Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, Hindus in India, Jews in Israel, etc. but Muslims remain virtually the only culpable faithful. One cannot be a Muslim, a practicing one, until somewhere, someone overtly or covertly degrades him, or calls him an extremist or terrorist. What is wrong with the choice of being? I am Muslim, so let me be. Don’t infringe my individual rights. I will not do yours, either.

Do you know that extremism has no place in true Islam? Ironically however, the few who subscribed to it always make the news headlines, while others who are paragons of moderation and peace loving lots are barely heard of on the mostly western and western-influenced media. This modern world owes much to Muslims as they have a very long history in developing it. Malise Ruthven in his “excellent little book”, Islam: A Very Short Introduction published by Oxford University Press explains that:

“No one need doubt that, at the level of civilization, an unprecedented degree of knowledge, excellence, and sophistication was achieved in Islam several centuries before the Renaissance occurred in Europe, or that, as many scholars have noted, much of the groundwork for the scientific and philosophical thought that would flourish in the West was laid in Muslim lands” (Ruthven 2012:17).

He further notes that Muslims have excelled in virtually all other fields the world today boasts having—medicine, mathematics, astronomy, optics, architecture, poetry and philosophical thoughts, among others. Going by this alone should have made being Muslim something to be so much proud of, but the exact opposite is often obtained. Of course, one is allowed to do certain things to protect oneself under threat, but it’s no more than paranoia many a times. Be it as it may, I, for once, wouldn’t subscribe to what I couldn’t perform or display before others. You are still "the" Muslim unless you renounce your belief and join them, which equates to preferring the terrestrial over the Celestial, the temporary over the permanent.

A few days ago, somebody called me a Boko Haram (BH) member on Facebook for my being a Nigeria and Muslim in response to my criticism of the Egyptian president, Abdul-Fatah Al-Sisi. Saying a word against Sisi is tantamount to siding with the ousted “Islamist” president, Morsi and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. There’s nothing more wrong than that. Unbeknown to him, there’s a world apart from their ideology and mine. In fact, BH fights everyone, and anybody like me, for I study and teach what they try, with all their force and efforts, to prohibit—Western Education. Yet somebody is here calling me their member. How ignorant of him? How senselessly stereotypical are people nowadays?

I have got two calls: First to my fellow Muslims. Don’t forget who you are. Your undue moderation or apologia cannot purge you away from your identity. Don’t join the bandwagon of hundreds of thousands of ‘cultural’ or ‘nominal’ Muslims, to whom the religion is only an identity to distinguish them from others. These people are practically non-observant of Islamic tenets, which is primarily to submit to the One God alone and what He revealed to Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). You can, however, choose to do what you want. Allah says: “There’s no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way…” (Qur’an, 2:256).

The second call is to my non-Muslims readers. Allah says: “Oh humankind! We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other…” Qur’an (49:13). Therefore, any informed Muslim understands this wisdom of our being created differently; however the difference is not to divide us but that we may know each other. Let us embrace peace, mutual understanding and respect. Let us not forget that we are individuals with dissimilar, sometimes opposing, views, taste, impulse, desire, etc. Psychologists irrefutably say that no two individuals are exactly the same, not even identical twins. Thus, if some ignorant Muslims do something wrong, blame them, not the entire Muslims population, nor their religion.

No doubt Islam is nowadays a subject of mockery, misinterpretations, and the like. Three things caused that: 1) misconduct of a few of its followers, 2) sheer ignorance of its content and the earlier context and background, and 3) the exaggerating effect of media, especially those owned by anti (not “non-“) Muslims. BUT don’t let yourself be carried away by any of these. Don’t just believe in a single story, for that is dangerous.

#Excellent piece.

maclatunji: #Excellent piece.

Thank you. Belated Ramadan Kareem.

muhsin:

Thank you. Belated Ramadan Kareem.

Ramadan Kareem to you too.

Barakallahu laka brother, a very educative article.

I enjoyed reading the cartoon too

Nice write up. Kudos!

sino: Barakallahu laka brother, a very educative article.
I enjoyed reading the cartoon too

PassingShot: Nice write up. Kudos!

Thank you gentlemen. May Allah better the conditions of the Muslims worldwide, ameen. May He guide and protect us all, ameen.

Ramadan Mubarak.

sino: Barakallahu laka brother, a very educative article.

I enjoyed reading the cartoon too

The cartoon caught my attention

sino: Barakallahu laka brother, a very educative article.

I enjoyed reading the cartoon too

The cartoon caught my attention.
An interesting read!

Trying to bounce back,me too will do something spetacula.

muhsin: Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim
www.muhsin.in
muhsin234 (Twitter)

“What is your name?” Muhammad. And all eyes would turn around.

It often starts just like that, for to them, every Muslim is a potential threat, a terrorist. It is extremely awkward, if not annoying, to someone like me who was born and reared in an almost 99% Muslims community. Hitherto I didn’t know that being Muslim means that much and weighs that loads; some feel even reluctant to disclose their belief. Muslims living in multi-religious and non-Muslims majority societies today have a lot of stories to tell. The story is sometimes nasty in conservative, religiously touchy and volatile places like India, where I presently reside. Although home to about 200 million Muslims, it was discovered in a recent survey that some of them have to masquerade as Hindus to sustain their businesses. This happens due to the schism, and sometimes animosity, between them and other faithful, particularly the majority Hindus.

But why all the fuss and the buzz, you may ask. Generally identity, especially religious one, is highly polemical and extremely abstract. For instance, my ‘Muslimness’ is neither determinable based on my appearance and gait, nor proportional to my humanity and humane. Despite the whopping population of more than 1.5 billions worldwide, hundreds of millions of Muslims live in shambles due to the raging religious stereotype, which results to marginalisation and sometimes worse, as aforesaid. Needless to say, the reports of suicide bombs and other terror acts allegedly perpetuated by some miscreants calling themselves Muslims is a commonplace today. Al Qaeda, IS/ISIS, Boko Haram, etc are household names around the world. But this can’t and shouldn’t, nonetheless, justify the unjust treatment of others who can equally be victims of those murderers.
[center][img]http://4.bp..com/-M09shwpoRCY/U8pORStoTsI/AAAAAAAAAdw/lQ1MfWE2NBc/s1600/Truth.jpg[/img][/center]
Wait and ask yourself: how many Muslims are engaged in such dastardly activities? The aforementioned figure is just tentative, for the population of Muslims is, against many odds, rapidly growing. So, obviously, had the larger population of them been involved in “terrorism”, no part of the world might have been in peace, for nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim. There is no denying that the threat poses by the ‘bad guys’ among them is alarming, but not as the media would want us to believe. Muslims do not have monopoly on fanaticism. We have Christians in C.A.R, Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, Hindus in India, Jews in Israel, etc. but Muslims remain virtually the only culpable faithful. One cannot be a Muslim, a practicing one, until somewhere, someone overtly or covertly degrades him, or calls him an extremist or terrorist. What is wrong with the choice of being? I am Muslim, so let me be. Don’t infringe my individual rights. I will not do yours, either.

Do you know that extremism has no place in true Islam? Ironically however, the few who subscribed to it always make the news headlines, while others who are paragons of moderation and peace loving lots are barely heard of on the mostly western and western-influenced media. This modern world owes much to Muslims as they have a very long history in developing it. Malise Ruthven in his “excellent little book”, Islam: A Very Short Introduction published by Oxford University Press explains that:


He further notes that Muslims have excelled in virtually all other fields the world today boasts having—medicine, mathematics, astronomy, optics, architecture, poetry and philosophical thoughts, among others. Going by this alone should have made being Muslim something to be so much proud of, but the exact opposite is often obtained. Of course, one is allowed to do certain things to protect oneself under threat, but it’s no more than paranoia many a times. Be it as it may, I, for once, wouldn’t subscribe to what I couldn’t perform or display before others. You are still "the" Muslim unless you renounce your belief and join them, which equates to preferring the terrestrial over the Celestial, the temporary over the permanent.

A few days ago, somebody called me a Boko Haram (BH) member on Facebook for my being a Nigeria and Muslim in response to my criticism of the Egyptian president, Abdul-Fatah Al-Sisi. Saying a word against Sisi is tantamount to siding with the ousted “Islamist” president, Morsi and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. There’s nothing more wrong than that. Unbeknown to him, there’s a world apart from their ideology and mine. In fact, BH fights everyone, and anybody like me, for I study and teach what they try, with all their force and efforts, to prohibit—Western Education. Yet somebody is here calling me their member. How ignorant of him? How senselessly stereotypical are people nowadays?

I have got two calls: First to my fellow Muslims. Don’t forget who you are. Your undue moderation or apologia cannot purge you away from your identity. Don’t join the bandwagon of hundreds of thousands of ‘cultural’ or ‘nominal’ Muslims, to whom the religion is only an identity to distinguish them from others. These people are practically non-observant of Islamic tenets, which is primarily to submit to the One God alone and what He revealed to Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). You can, however, choose to do what you want. Allah says: “There’s no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way…” (Qur’an, 2:256).

The second call is to my non-Muslims readers. Allah says: “Oh humankind! We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other…” Qur’an (49:13). Therefore, any informed Muslim understands this wisdom of our being created differently; however the difference is not to divide us but that we may know each other. Let us embrace peace, mutual understanding and respect. Let us not forget that we are individuals with dissimilar, sometimes opposing, views, taste, impulse, desire, etc. Psychologists irrefutably say that no two individuals are exactly the same, not even identical twins. Thus, if some ignorant Muslims do something wrong, blame them, not the entire Muslims population, nor their religion.

No doubt Islam is nowadays a subject of mockery, misinterpretations, and the like. Three things caused that: 1) misconduct of a few of its followers, 2) sheer ignorance of its content and the earlier context and background, and 3) the exaggerating effect of media, especially those owned by anti (not “non-“) Muslims. BUT don’t let yourself be carried away by any of these. Don’t just believe in a single story, for that is dangerous.

Have you ever found out the reason why Boko HARAM SAYS WESTERN EDUCATION IS A SIN?Ok,Lets assume it is,what stops us pursuing the education in it pure form how the earliest Muslims did it before it got stolen by the west,as we all know, there was great advancement in the Muslim worrld those years,we need to be careful in what we say concerning education,as majority of Muslims are amiss of what is truly going on.May Allah guide us and save us from Ignorance.

uplawal: Have you ever found out the reason why Boko HARAM SAYS WESTERN EDUCATION IS A SIN?Ok,Lets assume it is,what stops us pursuing the education in it pure form how the earliest Muslims did it before it got stolen by the west,as we all know, there was great advancement in the Muslim worrld those years,we need to be careful in what we say concerning education,as majority of Muslims are amiss of what is truly going on.May Allah guide us and save us from Ignorance.

Ameen, Sister.

kemiola89: The cartoon caught my attention The cartoon caught my attention.
An interesting read!

Really? I am glad to know that. Thank you.

Wot is the danger of a single story
[img]http://www.?aff=391[/img]

Am not a muslim so I won't comment

But that cartoon tho

Boko harams are on a bombing spree.... Looks like they 've completely ran out of quran pages to memorize.... So they are extremely bored ! Lmao.

ok we don hear!

d










TV Presenters Str!p Down To BRA & Undies During #WorldCup Show (PHOTOS)
>>> http://www./entertainment/tv-presenters-strp-down-to-bra-undies/

I have a feeling the author this piece was partly inspired by chimamanda

END TIME THINGS

K

Not all muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are muslims. Dats a fact. Proven and tested

uplawal: Have you ever found out the reason why Boko HARAM SAYS WESTERN EDUCATION IS A SIN?Ok,Lets assume it is,what stops us pursuing the education in it pure form how the earliest Muslims did it before it got stolen by the west,as we all know, there was great advancement in the Muslim worrld those years,we need to be careful in what we say concerning education,as majority of Muslims are amiss of what is truly going on.May Allah guide us and save us from Ignorance.

[size=16pt]ARE U AWARE SHEKAU USES A SAMSUNG GALAXY?[/size]

WESTERN EDUCATION IS BAD INDEED, BUT THE PRODUCT OF THIS SAME WESTERN EDUCATION IS AWESOME!!!!
Lets stop fooling ourselves here

If it looks like a dog, runs like a dog, eats like a dog, barks like a dog... It could be a turtle. Yeah, calling it a dog is a single story. *rolling eyes off thread*

Religion of Peace. Allah-akbar.. may allah expose and forgive those who are trying to bring his name into disrepute.

Alhamdullilahi, I will rejoice till end of time for being a Muslim, this epistle is very interesting & touching for those who has the knowledge.

Allah causes whomsoever He wills to stray in error, and sets whomsoever He wills on the straight way.
Al-Qur'an 6 verse 39

Jazakum llahu khairan

kstyle2: Not all muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are muslims. Dats a fact. Proven and tested

you have said it all,nonses blood suckaz

Oh, am happy its not easy for ppl like u to live in non-muslims Areas.
As if its easy for a non-muslim to live in a Muslim community.

It happens everyday. I was in a bus in jos and a call came in. I picked and said ''assalam alaikum'' and all eyes turn on me and i was like ''kilo de''. May God nt make their actions discourage us from being who we are.

Let me read..

Oro buruku toun terin

Nice but don't av to read it.