Sounds like a cop out from engaging the haters. Then again, I doubt you would be able to debate them.

‘...I doubt you would be able to debate them.’ Lal B…

Hate is a dead end street! How could you debate a thing like that. Debate requires open mindedness…not closed mindedness, which hate is.

Whatever, this is not the space for it. I’m too old to engage the haters. I must reserve my energy for fights that will actually change things for the good. Why run in place? I do not have the energy nor do I have the patience. Nice part about getting old, maybe the best part about getting old….being able to say “Get off my porch!” in a curmudgeon’s voice and not feel guilty. You young people go fight about it someplace else. This website is for real change and dialogue among Muslims, non-Muslims can listen in and chat with us about us and our goals, we welcome them and value their friendship (Sitaram is our friend!) but this website is primarily for us to sort out our issues, not theirs.

Haters aren’t trying to engage. It’s hard for me to see that they might really have some goodwill and really expect someone to stop believing/practicing because vitriol spewed forth out of their monitor. Engagement seeks mutual understanding. Engagement doesn’t try to provoke anger and defensiveness, although maybe it would prod a little bit to get someone to open up. Note, I am not Muslim anyway, but I have tremendous appreciation for this site and its inhabitants, and I continue to marvel that Laury even asked me to blog here. And I, too, like Sitaram.

hakim baker
qalandar quaker (joke)

I think we have to give people the benefit of the doubt first, but when they squander that let them go but also let them know they are welcome should they decide to want to talk.

Hakim, now don’t freak out, but I think you are Muslim in the broadest historical sense of the word. In the sense that as a Religionist, I would consider your religious identity to be one mode within Indigenous American Islam.

I’d like you even if you weren’t though. You and Sitaram are tops! I’ve got no issues with non-Muslims for goodness sake. Ilan and I just wanted this to be a place where we could talk to each other without having to explain ourselves or defend our faith or anything like that. I am thrilled non-Muslims want to join in!

I feel that a joke would be instructive at this juncture.

The joke I shall tell you is a Jewish joke, but I think it contains a lesson for every religion.
Jewish folks get quite a chuckle out of this when they hear the unexpected ending.

A rabbi booked passage on a ship which sank. The rabbi, only survivor, swam to a small island which had trees and fruits, and the minimum to sustain life. Many years passed, and finally, another ship passed and spotted the rabbi.

The captain came out to the island in a little boat to rescue the caste-a-way.

The captain saw a small wooden building nearby, and asked the rabbi what it was for. The rabbi said, “Oh that is my synagogue where I pray each day.”

Then, the captain looked way across the island, and saw another small wooden structure. “And what is that building, way over there?” The rabbi answered gruffly, “Oh, that! THAT’s the synagogue I would not set foot in.”

We all have some need to build such a structure for ourselves on our little islands.

Hallaj, the first Sufi martyr, was martyred by orthodox Muslims who could not see eye to eye with Hallaj.

When I was exploring Christianity in my youth, I once spoke to a Baptist minister in New Haven. He told me how he sneaked down to peek into the Presbyterian church to see for himself how they were DANCING in the church!

Well, I think we all get the point of my little joke.

The proper response to a fool is silence.

Ya Haqq!

Hating Muslims in America is like saying you like pizza or something. It’s such an easy position to take that when someone acts like they’re some kind of straight-talking rebel against the PC status quo who dares speak out against the elephant in the room….It gets wierd really quickly and I immediately feel like “Dude, why are we invading the middle east then?”