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Your big questions, my big mouth

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Q & A on Apr 20, 2009

With students at the University of Western Ontario, April 2009

Students who attend my lectures are brazenly pelting me with deep and complicated questions. It’s my fault for traveling the world and delivering speeches entitled, “The Power of Asking Questions – Out Loud.”

Am I an idiot? Before you answer, let it be known that I’m adopting a new title: “The Power of Asking Questions — to People Other Than Me. Thank you, Good-Bye and Good Luck.”

Alright, I know the title is too long. In any event, I can’t run away. Not before the summer.

So here’s one of the questions that I’ve been reflecting on lately. It comes from Poland — and , appropriately enough, it’s asked by someone called Aska. (When you live up to your name, you deserve a response):

“I’m student of International Relations on Cardinal Wyszynski Uniwersity in Warsaw. Your book is fantastic for me - help me understand problem in muslim country. But I have problem with one matter: Islamophobia in Europe. Tell me how we (students, youth, people) should fight wrong stereotypes? I have a lot of muslim friends, I understand what they feel, what they think. I know that there r good muslim and bad muslim, this is same for christian, jew, hindu. But when I talk with my friends & sometimes my uniwersity teacher, they told this: muslim r no good, they r egotistic, they not respect women, they have wrong thinking, islam is destructive religion etc. Soon I will make a speech about Islamophobia in Europe. Please help me present the important & persuasive arguments for my friends & teacher.”

I love the irony: Someone wants me to help her debunk stereotypes of Muslims when I’m so often accused of perpetuating those very stereotypes.

Didn’t Aska get the memo that I’m a self-hating Muslim because I challenge my fellow Muslims to rise above their lazy prejudices?

Is Aska a self-hating Pole for challenging members of her own nation to do the same?

Or would Muslims consider her a constructive member of the human family?

It might be cheeky to pose these questions. But my intent is more profound. If we’re serious about fighting stereotypes of Islam, it’s we Muslims who must lead the effort by allowing diverse voices within our own communities to flourish.

The fact is, reform-minded Muslims exist. But instead of giving them the permission to express their truths, we label them self-haters. Too often, we go even further to intimidate reformists into silence.

Then we tell earnest Westerners like Aska to convince her fellow Westerners of Muslim goodness. To help her, we emphasize that “Islam means peace.”

Reality check: Irshad means guidance. Clearly many Muslims believe I’m misguided. So which is it, people? Am I divinely guided because my name says so? If not, then why should anybody take to heart that Islam is peaceful simply because of its name?

After tossing Aska’s question in my head for a month, I’ve realized this: The answer that she needs can’t come from me; it must come from Muslims everywhere. We have to stop treating ourselves like a monolith and thereby giving non-Muslims a reason to see us that way too.

In my next blog post, I’ll help us get there. At the same time, I’ll help Aska show her friends and teachers a different side of Islam — without sanitizing the very real troubles within Islam today.

Now go ask someone else your annoyingly tough question. I’m just a little busy.