I am an Extremist Muslim

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
In the Name of God/Allah, The Compassionate, The Merciful

That's it. I have had enough. I am making the announcement:

I am an Extremist Muslim.

That's right. I'm an extremist. You see, there seems to be only two types of Muslims (sometimes a third), as revealed by the "dialogue" on "terorrism" in this country. There are Extremist or Fundamentalist Muslims, and there are Moderate Muslims. The third group which we don't hear about as much are Liberal or "Progressive" Muslims but usually this group is placed in the "Moderate" category, often with the line blurred between what a "Liberal" is and what a "Moderate" is.

Now, if you are a Muslim, you may wonder how I could say that I am an Extremist when the Prophet Muhammad (God's peace and blessings be upon him) said that there is no extremism in Islam. To clarify, I am not considered an Extremist by Muslims (except by maybe some of the really liberal ones) - but if I were to be analyzed using the standards that have been employed in our national discussion on terrorism and in the U.S. in general, I am most certainly an Extremist.

In order for me to elucidate how and why I am an Extremist I must explain to you the understanding of these words in the "Dialogue" on "Terrorism" in this country, as I shall refer to it henceforth.

In our national "Dialogue" on "Terrorism" - the chat and clamor of our various newspapers, magazines and TV drama-news series - an Extremist Muslim is essentially someone that thinks a little differently from most Americans. How can I say this? How can I say that this country, with all its remarkable and unprecedented tolerance, cannot accept someone within its midst who thinks a little differently than most of its citizens? I answer, sadly, that the tolerance for difference is a rather shallow one, and its depth has been decreasing steadily after WTC. You see, in the U.S., if you wear long flowing African or Arab clothing, it's OK. If you worship a different god, it's OK. If you value the community over the individual, people may not like you that much, but it's OK. If you want to go to gatherings where you dress in wonderfully divine little outfits and shake your tamborine in the air while dancing in a circle with your friends (how delightfully cultural!), that's OK. If you believe that the public schooling system is useless and you want to home-school your child, even that's OK. But you know what's not OK?

What's not OK is to have the type of faith practicing Muslims do. Muslims have something called "iman" which is different from "faith" or "belief". When Moderns use the word "faith" or "belief" there is usually an implication that while "I believe/have faith in something to be true" that in reality that belief is flying in the face of some real facts. Faith or belief essentially -and often subconsciously- amounts to nothing more than private opinion for Moderns. "Iman" is solid, objectively true, fact. When a Muslim translates, "I believe in God, His Messenger and the Day of Judgement" from Arabic, s/he is saying, "I recognize the objective and fundamental truth of the existence of God, the validity of the Prophet(s) and the reality of the Day of Judgement", not, "I personally believe that God exists, but that's just my personal view." In addition, "faith" in the Modern context -a private view of an individual- is exactly that: private. It should stay within the hearts and minds and homes of the those who adhere to it, and then should be transported to a house of faith on the weekend and for important events in life and be brought out during times of calamity. Other than that, to have faith involved in one's life or society to a greater extent, is often problematic. Now if we take all this to its natural conclusion, we find what is particularly disturbing for the Moderns engaging in the "Dialogue" on "Terrorism".

What if you have a person who belives - who has Iman - in the fact that God's power is the only real power in the world, and that this life is nothing more than a place to prepare for the real life in the Next? You see, it's OK for a mainstream Christian or Jew or anyone else to believe in God, His supremecy and the Afterlife due to the fact that the manner in which the Western world's history transpired left religion in a state where the vast majority of its adherents needed to place their understanding of their religion under the yolk of modern thought. Thus the Afterlife and proximity to God stopped being the reason for people's existence and more often than not a pleasant thought that, once one dies, no matter who they are or what they did, they will go to "a better place". The Muslims, thank God, never had to go through an "Enlightenment" or any other type of euphemism where they traded in their sacred view of life and the world for the paltry offerings of a new secular meaning to life and the world (while I talk about the word "Enlightenment" negatively here, given the negative accretions of the Church, an Enlightenment was at least necessary for societal advancement, and probably inevitable, in Western history - whereas the situation was quite different in Muslim history). We actually believe that this life is nothing but a testing ground for the real life to come - a field in which to sew good deeds and harvest the fruit of ultimate proximity to God in the next life.

For the Muslim though, acknowledging the transient nature of this life compared to the Next does not entail isolating oneself in worship, but rather making one's everyday life and living for God and in accordance with His Will as revealed in the Qur'an and by Prophet Muhammad (God's peace and blessings be upon him). It means changing oneself for the sake of God, loving and taking care one's family for the sake of God, serving humanity for the sake of God, and sacrificing for the sake of God. God is on always at the top of our priorities and at the forefront of our minds and hearts. A Muslim's very faith, his/her very world view, values, and the fact that their worldview and values are often seen actively in their lives -in the form of devoted prayer five times a day, fasting for a whole month, covering oneself in a way others do not cover, abstaining from unnecessary interaction between the genders, not caring for the latest clothes, the latest cars, the latest fads, and doing many other things that go against the grain of mainstream trends and norms of modern society- can be very strange and sometimes very threatening to Moderns. The fact that Muslims do all those things and believe in those things' Divine authenticity with a firmness in belief not seen in the West for quite some time, exacerbates people's concern (although in reality they have nothing to be concerned about).

Now unfortunately, a small segment (yes, believe it or not it is a small segment) of Muslims have decided that they would like to interpret the Qur'an and the sayings of the Prophet (God's peace and blessings be upon him) any which way they would like. Their personal wishes, molded by their environment, comprise the framework within which the criterion for the validity of a particular interpretation resides. I am referring to two small groups of Muslims, those that truly terrorize people through violent acts, and the "Progressives" - the ones that are so loved by the FBI, CIA and the general public. Specifically, however, I am referring to those who feel that they can take justice in their own hands and deal it out however they personally feel best - in the process killing hundreds of non-combatant lives (and maligning a beautiful and balanced religion.) It is of course in great part due to these people that Moderns have become even more sensitive to Muslims. Due to their actions, the tolerance for our genuine difference has decreased. Actually, I would venture to say, that due to their actions, the apparent tolerance that was shown to us melted away to show, in those more civilized, a concern with a willingness to understand, and in others, intolerance, distrust, a feeling of being threatened, and prejudice.

In their eyes, in many eyes, I am an Extremist. Not because I am in the aforementioned small, violent segment (I am actually vociferously opposed to that), but because of everything else I discussed... and I'm quite proud of that.