Imam Luqman Ahmad Mosque Without Borders


By Imam Luqman Ahmad. Muslims Play With their Own Emotions! Contrary to popular Muslim belief, the media does not play with Muslim emotions. News and commentary is not a game to them; it is business. What the media does, is profit from Muslim emotions. They are in business to make a profit and Muslims are a great source for news, commentary, and media sponsored debate. Our issues are all over the place and there is plenty to profit from. Just visit any major book store and the shelves are stocked with books about Islam, Islamo-Fascism, Islamic Terrorism, Islamic Reform, Shariah, American Muslims and everything that relates to Islam and Muslims. Coverage of Muslims and Islam is big business, and everyone is taking advantage of it and profiting from it except every day average Muslims, especially indigenous African American Muslims.
The mega media conglomerate Fox, is owned in part by a Muslim and Muslims from the Gulf S6tates have billions of dollars invested in Western Media. Many Muslims come to America for the expressed purpose of making money, so to many of them, manipulating Muslim emotions is just another way to make money. Many if not most African American Muslims do not have Imams, have sporadic and unfocused agendas if any, and are not active contributors in Muslim congregations so emotional response to the media is about the only form of Islamic activism they know.
The irony is that even when responding to a media generated issues most of our activism is limited to simple getting mad and venting our anger, or perhaps we’ll mount a protest or call for a ridiculous boycott, (which usually only lasts for about a week or two). There are a billion Muslims in the planet, and with all the wars, conflicts, ideologies, groups, fatwas, acts of stupidity, and sensationalizing events concerning Muslims, the media as well as selected Muslim organizations and political leaders, have an unlimited selection from which they can tap into Muslim sentiment, and profit from it, and we by our actions, encourage them. Political Islamic Organizations, are more powerful, better financed, and have farther reach than any religious institutions in Muslim America. Almost all of them are funded, managed and run by immigrant Muslims and their own political agendas. Even their Islamic agendas do not include the indigenous American Muslim community except to the degree that they can be utilized to serve the purpose of these organizations or some foreign Muslim group like the insidious Hizbul Tahrir, or to the degree that they can be marginalized.
In many ways, the media benefits American Muslims by debunking many of our fantasy plagued, over romanticized views of the Muslim world. When we cheered the Taliban in their pursuit of an Islamic State in Afghanistan, the media helped us see what an Islamic State run by undisciplined Muslim maniacs, and religious fanatics who care little about justice, would look like. While American Muslim converts embrace the modern salafist ideology and turn on each other in the inner cities of America, media coverage of the carnage of Muslim on Muslim killing in Somalia, give us a glimpse of what modern salafiyyah would looks like when armed and financed. True, much of the media coverage about Muslims is selective and focuses on Muslim rage, and killing.
However, if Muslim rage, and killing were not so prevalent, the media would not have such an abundance of it to cover. Even where there isn’t any rage, it can be summoned up instantaneously by the publication or broadcast of a cartoon, or negative statement about Islam or Muslims. If there is no available rage on hand, then there is an abundance of Muslim stupidity all over the place to cover. Some national Muslim organizations depend upon negative media portrayal of Islam and Muslims in America to raise money and help perpetuate the American Muslim victim mentality by which these organizations legitimize themselves as self appointed leaders and defenders of Islam and Muslims in America. This helps pay for conferences, trips back and forth overseas, and publishing materials that tell hone grown American Muslims what to think, what their priorities are, and how to look at themselves.
The Political organizations determine our religious priorities in he United States have decided that fighting Islamophobia, and being obsessed with the image of Islam in the media is their number one priority. It is written in our scripture that everyone will not be guided to Islam, “And unto Allah leads straight the Way, but there are ways that turn aside: if Allah had willed, He could have guided all of you.”, 16:9 . So there will always be people who take issue with Islam and the Muslims. Thus, in making islamophobia our number one enemy, national American Muslims political groups and advocacy organizations ensure that they will always have a place in Muslim America, even if it means sacrificing the future of Muslims in the United States.
It is not in their interest to improve the image of the American Muslims, which is why they antagonize anyone who criticizes Islam to ensure that their opposition to Muslims and Islam will intensify. This is also why anti-Islamic sentiment has increased in equal proportion to the growth and influence of political Islam in America. The sad part of it all is they are bringing the entire Muslim community into this arena of insanity. As poll after poll shows that American Muslims are increasingly paralyzed by fear, insecurity and worry about the potential of backlash against Muslims, we can take comfort in the fact that although our fear has no spiritual benefit for us whatsoever, there are Muslim American Organizations who are making a tidy profit from it. We can scapegoat the media until we are blue in the face. However, at the end of the day, we are engineering our own destruction.
Imam Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad
imamabulaith@yahoo.com