Speaking Out Because I Must

I’m in the middle of work.  Blogging has to take a back seat to paying the mortgage, and packages have to be set out for the post office or Bob in Omaha will be sending me an irate email asking me why he hasn’t received his widget yet.  So here I am, in my office, plugging away distractedly at work while watching CNN and obsessively checking Facebook every five minutes.  My husband is across the room packing and listening, too.  Occasionally one or the other of us makes a disgusted noise in response to something said on TV.  It’s not a good day.

Yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three of his staff were killed by RPG fire as they tried to leave their embassy.  The crowd outside the embassy there, and another unruly mob outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, were puffed up into a froth by a video, a stupid, useless, anti-Islamic video that had been posted to youtube by fools.  Fools directed by fools.  Someone, some Muslim, some person or people claiming to follow the same religion as I do, fired a rocket into the car to kill a man who had absolutely nothing to do with the video and who would have himself soundly condemned it, had he had the chance.

I am so god damned tired of this.  Sorry, I just can’t find any literary way to put that.  I am so god damned tired of Muslims allowing themselves to be manipulated by a god damned low-budget stupid YOUTUBE VIDEO.  This low-rent video was put together by a few bigoted individuals who should have been ignored.  Instead, they have found fame in infamy.  Their worthless little film was used by “radical Muslims” to pull the strings of ignorant puppets, to whip up a crowd into a frenzied mob, to incite people to murder.  I am shocked but not surprised by the film.  I am horrified and really, really pissed off at my Muslim brothers.

I want to take each person who stood screaming outside of those embassies and shake them.  What are you doing?  Why are you protesting against the entire United States, symbolized by the embassy, for the actions of a few?  Actions that were not known about, were not supported, were not endorsed by the US government or by the vast majority of Americans.  Why are you standing out there screaming, shaking your fists, scrawling “Allahu Akbar” on the walls, burning, tearing, destroying?  Why are you so concerned with one little video?  Don’t you have something more important to do?

Islam does not condone blasphemy against any prophet, be that Muhammad, Moses, or Jesus, peace be upon them all.  As a Muslim, I condemn the people who made or supported this video and ask Allah to guide them or break their backs.  But I have no plans to seek out these fools, or kill any Americans, or Israelis, or anyone else for that matter.  See, I’m kinda busy.  I’m kinda busy working to support my family.  I’m kinda busy teaching my kids to memorize the Qur’an.  I’m kinda busy writing blog posts and articles and teaching people what Islam is all about.  And now I’m MORE busy because I have to take time from teaching what Islam IS to try to convince people of the truth of what Islam is NOT.  Islam is not terrorists crashing planes into skyscrapers.  Islam is not husbands beating wives.  Islam is not RPGs blowing up ambassadors.  How can I get to the IS when I’m so busy with the ISN’T?

I don’t have a lot of time right now because I have a life.  You young men (mostly men, though I’m sure there are some women, as well), go the hell home.  Go to school, go to work, go to the masjid and pray.  Pray for guidance.  Pray for Allah to help you be productive in your life.  Go read a book. Go learn your religion.  Because if you believe that all your problems are the fault of the US or “the West”, then you’re a damn fool and you need to go home and educate yourself.

There are no outside enemies who are hurting us worse than we are hurting ourselves.  As long as schoolgirls in Afghanistan fear acid attacks, as long as a widow who wants to remarry fears death at the hands of her son if she does, as long as billionaires are financing ego-stroking skyscrapers while orphans are starving, as long as heroin smugglers are hiding their product in the corners of mosques and markets, as long as girls are sold into marriage to pay of debts, as long as children are being abandoned to popular culture, as long as we Muslims are not living according to Islam, we will be the worst human beings in the world.  It’s not the U.S, it’s not the U.N.  It’s not the satellite dishes or the fashions or chemtrails or anything else.  It’s us, damn it.  We’re falling short.  We are not living correctly according to the Qur’an and Sunnah, we are not fulfilling our roles as the Khalifahs and role models for this planet, and as a result Allah has removed His blessing from us.  Our problem, not theirs.

So, that’s my gut reaction and that’s what I’m going to say and I’m sure I’ll get some strong reactions.  I’m tired.  I’m sad.  I’m angry.  I’m Muslim.  Tomorrow maybe I’ll be more uplifting but today it’s just not in me.  Now I’m going back to work because this lady in Toledo wants her bread machine.  Salaam Alaikum.