I’m a Muslim. Surprise. Quite happy to be one. Like my islam.
So, whenever I see a positive article on Islam or Muslims, especially in these times, I feel the requite rush of pleasure. Then I think about the article, and realize that more often than not it attempts to divide “good” Muslims – the subject of the article – from “bad” Muslims – the ones you normally read about.
In many ways, it is a failure on our parts, as Muslims, to take responsibility for the acts of our brethren. Some acts are reprehensible, but to deny the fact that they were done by Muslims means we deny part of the spectrum of Islamic thought. I think, at some point, we need to acknowledge that violence has played a part in our tradition, as it has in so many other faiths, and shift the tenor of the debate into the alternatives to violence that have framed Muslim history for so many centuries. We need to make our heritage vibrant again; we need to make discussion, discourse, disputation, argumentation, logic and rhetoric the songs of our lives. We need to understand that by denying someone else’s Islam, we are being as dogmatic as those we seek to reject.
But I digress.
So, I hate to love those types of articles. Occasionally though, I find a good one, that talks about Islam in a positive way, and subdues the us and them rhetoric. While not perfect, this article is a pretty good one.