The muslim world is in a state of fear.
Fear of the uncertainty, where are we heading to and what the right actions should we do. From the never ending conflicts in the middle-east to the terror attacks in Europe by the self proclaimed “Islamic state” which appear from nowhere. All these series of events, greatly affects the innocents not the offenders.
The guy with beard who is just a clerk might have to shave his beard in fear to face insults and avoid conflicts. While the girls with hijab might facing discrimination and false accusation for carrying bombs in her hijab. The world might see the muslims differently, and so do the muslim will never see the world the same again. Eventually, these innocents are the most affected. And its happening.
Its real!
There is for sure no antidote for uncertainty, but what should we do? Do we have to stay silent and do nothing?. Or are we need to stand up shout our voice?
Living in a country which Muslims are the minority, I do understand the pressure of facing questions on my religion. Some do have questions on Islam , but some are questioning Islam. The pressure of being questioned, especially on “Islamic terrorism” sure is painful to bear at some point but getting angry will not changing anything.
- Instead of getting angry of the questions you got, why don’t we thank them. Appreciate their questions. Say to them, ” Thanks for asking about Islam”, and try explain to them the right definition of Islam. Tell them the truth. Its up to them to accept our explanation or not, at least we have done our responsibility.
- Reply their stares by a bright smile. If you can, greet them warmly.
- Behave and never do anything dangerous or suspicious. Show to them the real way muslim live. We eat, study, play football like others too!.
- If anyone asked about Islam and you did not know how to explain beautifully because of barriers (Such as language), introduce them to those who can. For example in Korea, we can show them the Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon, where they can asked the native Korean Muslim to explain Islam clearly.
I believe, my brothers and sisters have plenty of good suggestions on how to react to this kind of situations. You may leave it to the comment section.
Those insane groups of terrorist will never stop using Islam as an scape goat but if each of us never stop showing to the world the true Islamic way of life, we will be able to make a change. This is the time and chance because the world are looking at us, show them the real Muslim character don’t let those ISIS or ISIL freely misrepresents Islam .
This picture below shows me left, standing beside a Mexican man (middle) and my friend Syazwan (right), The Mexican man came to the mosque with us and went inside our mosque to see how muslim pray, later had lunch with us and gladly he is still alive, nobody kills him although he was in the middle of hundreds of Muslims!