Opinion: "The Rage Game, Rethinking Muslim Methods"

March 3, 2006

Source: Muslim Wake Up!

http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2006/03/the_rage_game_r.php

On March 3, 2006 Muslim Wake Up! ran an opinion piece by Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad, an imam and freelance writer on the East Coast (USA), on the recent cartoon controversy. Ahmad writes, "Anyone who hasn’t capitalized on the recent malicious caricature portrayal of the Prophet (SAWS) to express their outrage, promote their organization, get their name in the paper, pontificate the loftiness of Islamic ideals, start a membership drive, do a little political posturing, or to open dialogue, or defend the Prophet (SAWS) has missed their opportunity. The issue has now officially become a non-issue. There was no fatwa or official sounding consensus of scholars declaring cessation of protest. On the contrary, the media puppeteers, knowing what motivates Muslims to action, simply turned off the cameras and directed them to another venue. Muslims are well trained to tailor their activity on the basis of subliminal media directives, and it looks like we were duped again. In other words ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been had. Or as al-Hajj Malik Shabaaz (Malcolm X) used to say, bamboozled, hoodwinked, flimflammed.

Of course there are those in denial and that’s to be expected. After all, Islam is our universal adapter. All we need to do is preface an action with; 'this is for the sake of Allah' or, 'this is for Islam', or, 'this is in defense of Islam' and it assumes immediate legitimacy irregardless of whether it’s fair, Islamic, prudent, or in agreement with the shariah. Since as Muslims, everything we do is ostensibly in the name of Islam, for Islam, for the Muslims, for Allah, in defense of Islam etc., we are never wrong about anything, ever. Perhaps this is how we justify suicide bombings where the innocent (including women and children) are casualties. If the world was unaware how sensitive Muslims are about our Prophet (SAWS), then our recent response not only erased any ambiguity, it showed how malleable the global Muslim community has become."