بسم الله الحمد لله و صلاة و سلم على رسول الله و على آله و سلم
The morality preached by both Muslims and Ahmadis is generally the same. Both communities are affected by a pervasive, attractive and in many ways deeply negative culture that tends to leads them away from the noble teachings that they are imbued with.
The result is an entire generation of youth who, even if their identity as Muslim or Ahmadi, still engage in the harmful and sinful behaviors of their larger cultural context. The leadership of these respective communities feel obligated to call their youth back.
Here are their approaches:
The Official Ahmadiyya Approach
- Mirza Masroor threatening to “kick out” young women who find it difficult to cover: Video available here. And if you “challenge” him, you’re a hypocrite.
- Spying and gossip about wayward youth (Leaked reports here)
- Public humiliations and ex-communications for people who engage in sinful behavior, justified in Tariq Magazine (Full Transcript here)
- Ban Facebook: The exact statement is “The practice of making and maintaining individual facebook pages/accounts is not permitted.“ http://www.alislam.org/egazette/faq/facebook-policy/
- “Desi Uncle knows best” immaturity to modern problems.
The General Muslim Approach
Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan gives a wonderful presentation where he illustrates the Crisis of Faith and Confidence affecting the Muslim community. I’ll be honest, he’s brutal. If you’re an Ahmadi looking to bash Muslim communities, you’ll find plenty of fodder here.
But listen to the maturity and the depth of thought this one Muslim presents that puts Mirza Masroor’s lack of intellectualism to shame. For example, regarding Ahmadiyya’s “Ban Facebook” approach, Khan argues that Facebook is not the problem, it is merely a symptom of a larger problem. By simply banning Facebook, you will merely create an “Everything is haraam” mentality.
Instead, his solutions are:
- Create A Culture Around Strong Friendship
- Create an Open Forum
- Internalization, Then Islamic Knowledge
- Psychological Crisis Among Older Youth
- Studying Islam in Secular Universities
- Equipping Our Youth to Leave Being Defensive
The full talk is available here:The transcript is available here (Thanks MuslimMatters!)
And this is just one example, other organizations, institutions and individuals are rising to the challenge to address these problems.
Conclusion
Both the Muslim and the Ahmadiyya communities are facing the same crisis. One of them addresses it by ex-communications, public humiliations, spying, banning Facebook, and the “Holier than Thou” approach. The other deals with the root problems and posits positive, constructive solutions, and calls back wayward Muslims.
Which do you believe in?
و صلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على آله محمد
?