The “Real Issue”

All we Muslims do is complain, complain and complain. I hear this on TV, I hear it in seminars and I read about them in papers. Most of the message deals with complaining. Most of us are all blaming everybody else except ourselves in the world. Whether we are talking about Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Middle East, or any other part of the Muslim world.

I have heard people cuss, moan and groan at the policies of Americans, Indians, British, Israelis and anybody else we can point our fingers on. What are we trying to achieve here? Are we going to solve our problems by pointing fingers? If this is true then we need to change their direction a bit. Point them to ourselves!

Regardless of whom we blame, we are at fault of doing the same things as we accuse someone else of doing it onto us. We accuse people of using and abusing the Muslim ummah. Don’t we do the same thing to our brothers and sisters? We accuse people of raping. Just look inside our countries, cities, neighborhoods, etc. and see how many rapes are occurring everyday.

We accuse people of discriminating. Just look at our governments, countries, cities, neighbors and you will understand discrimination. We accuse people of dividing our ummah. Just look at our countries, governments, countries, cities, neighbors. Who is dividing who? We can’t even agree on what day the Eid or Ramadan will start. And they tell me that there is only one moon. This can go on and on and on…

If we are claiming these guys to be the devils then we should not cuss, moan and groan. After all, what do you expect from devil? Do you expect them to be fair and just? Wake up people!! Let’s clean our house before we tell someone else to. Let’s talk about what is wrong with us first and then figure out the solutions. Let’s do Jihad, as the Pakistani President Musharaf has suggested, on Iman, education, poverty, hunger and the like. We need to strengthen our base through these measures so we can be strong and stand up to the devil’s of this world. Otherwise, we will keep blaming someone else for our miseries.

For our children’s sake, let’s look at the “The Real Issue”.

Mr. Waseem Sufi is a Pakistani-American executive based in Livermore, California.