Re: Idiotic imams and khutbahs

salaam charmi

> oh, yes, i agree that a range of tactics and methods are required
> ...to accomplish change.  ;)  i surely didn't mean to try to say how
> people should write or speak.

you might be surprised to read the letter I wrote. Very gentle and soft. 
But that too is strategic (which is not necessarily manipulative).

> none of
> us are wrong for viewing the world differently, but i think we move
> into being wrong when we try to manipulate other people to think like
> us, especially if we're willing to choose to hurt people to get what
> we want.

Its not a question of 2 different views on an issue. Its a question of 1 
person being wronged vs the person who wronged her; its a question of 
an attempt to silence someone; its a question of an attempt to virtually 
excommunicate someone from the Muslim community - even though 
such a thing (supposedly) doesn't exist in Islam. By us telling the 
wronger that HE did wrong - whether we do it gently or we shout at him 
that he has behaved stupidly and unislamically - is not manipulative 
and it is not equal to the wrong that he did.

> i don't see this power struggle as being any different than all the
> class, and gender, and heritage, and prestige, and status, etc., etc.,

At one level it might be regarded as a 'power struggle'. But at another 
level that label makes it seem as if the 2 players in this struggle are 
equal and what they have said or done is equal. Clearly, it is not.

> this is not about god or religion or islam, it's about power and
> control

for me, everything is about God :)

> oh, i also think br sanjay's comments that our "real" community
> exists, for the most part, everywhere other than the masjid is, sadly,
> accurate.  (ok, maybe he didn't quite say that.. ;) , but i'm saying
> it.

Thats contextual and pesonal. For some this might be (painfully?) true. 
For others not so.

na'eem