Contents:

(27) Rights of Due Process and Equality Before the Law

• Naïve, Overoptimistic or a Sellout?
• Due Process and Equality before the Law

(28) A Question of Basic Human Needs

• Human Needs vs. Human Rights — Role of Individuals and Societies
• Halaal and Haraam – One More Time

(29) A Miracle in a Hadith

Contents:

(23) Muslims and their Issues and Problems

• Forces that Would Want to Keep Muslims Ignorant and Backward
• Iqbal on Muslim Problems
• Being Human Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
• Cataloguing Muslim Ills:
• More on How Muslims Make a Mess of their Lives
• Even More Muslim Deficiencies
• Knowing and Understanding Issues Is Key to Solving Them

(24) Muslims’ Good Standing with God

• More Reasons for Muslims to be in Good Standing with God
• More on How Muslims Are Good People — Really

(25) The American Turf: Muslims Cannot Afford to Surrender It

• Cacophonists of Hate and Half-Truths in the Media
• Muslims Are Stakeholders in America’s Future — And its Present, not to Say its Past!
• Competing for America’s Soul

(26) The Real Question

• From Before Nine-Eleven

Contents:

(19) Islam, Muslims and the West: The Imperative of Mutual Understanding, Respect, Cooperation and Coexistence

• Islam Is above the Fray

(20) Futility of Anti-Islamism and of Anti-Americanism

• A Four-Fold Formula of National Success and Survival
• A Bit like Timex
• Corrosions in America’s Soul
• Purging the Ghosts of Lynching
• A Faltering Congress
• A Six-Fold Guarantee of Divine Protection

(21) America Created to Protect Religion, Not to Destroy It

• America’s Potential for Good

(22) Kaun Dushman Hai? Islam’s and Muslims’ Worst Enemy

• Issue Salience in the Muslim Mind
• Ignoring the Realities in the Muslim World
• Enemy Is Us

Contents:

(16) Western Wing of the Muslim Ummah: A Fuller Story

• Western and Muslim: Both at the Same Time
• Practical Implications of Tauhid
• Practical Implications of Hijrah
• Working in a Non-Muslim Environment
• Example of Joseph, Alaihis-Salaam, in the Qur’an
• A Joint Muslim-Non-Muslim Platform
• Something Called Istihsan or the Pursuit of Common Good
• A Major Speech on Islam and the West
• A Joint Soviet-American Handshake for Islam and Muslims
• A New Paradigm for Cooperation and Coexistence between Muslims and Non-Muslims in the West
• As Old as the Qur’an
• A Glorious Common Future
• Wishing, Hoping for General Access
• Logical Outcome
• Mystery of the Missing Tapes
• What Drove that Decision?
• An Ideological Alibi for Muslims

(17) Mindless Kaafirbashing

• Generations of Innocent, Defenseless Muslim Children
• Lonely, Heartbreaking Times
• Missing Mission of Taking Islam to Non-Muslims
• Canaries that Won’t Sing
• One Canary with Special Gift of Song
• Cultural Rejectionism and its Negative Effects
• Underprared Muslim Muftis
• Returning to Roots
• A People Created for other People
• Muslims’ Western Qawms

(18) September Eleven: A Wakeup Call?

• Allah’s Way
• Divine Punishment
• An Unmitigated Disaster
• Rewards of Research
• Building a New Future Together

Contents:

(8) Excuse Me, But We Are the West!

• Muslims Built the West Indies
• Muslims Rebuilt Europe
• Colonial and Imperial Legacies
• French-Born, British-Born and Other European-Born Muslims

(9) I Am America!

• A Shocked Reaction
• Mainstreaming Islam
• You are not even a Real American
• What on Earth Do You Mean?
• Self-Hate Masquerading as Bravado?
• America’s New Face

(10) Islam and World Citizenship

• Elementary Islam
• Tauheed – Unity – the Core of Islam
• A World Moving Closer to Islam
• Swimming in Street Clothes
• The 1990s

(11) An Islamic Logic of American Citizenship

• No Crossed Fingers for Muslims
• A Train Called America
• A Choice of Destinations and Directions
• Beyond Fame and Fortune, Looking for a Better World
• The True Promise of America:

(12) The New West

(13) “The Western Wing”

• Grafting a Patch
• Marginals vs. Mainstreamers

(14) Sharing the West

• No Abduls-Come-Lately
• Rejoicing with Divine Expressions
• Forgetting a Fundamental Fact

(15) Ignoring a Beautiful Hadith

Contents:

(4) Muslim Rejectionism in the East

• Question of Sovereignty
• Soft Rejectionism
• Da’wah vs. Demonstration
• Cooperation is Key
• Living Culture
• Attitude Change
• A Throwback to Khairul Quroon
• Rejectionism and Islam Don’t Really Mix
• Impacting the Environment

(5) Muslim Rejectionism in the West

• Stopping Evil
• Another Example
• Scared of Words

(6) Qur’an and Hadith in the Election Fatwa Crossfire

• Who Should Govern Us?
• Underlying Absurdities

(7) Voting and Elections May Be Fard, Do You Think?

• From three to 3 million
• Islamic Way
• Contribution to Civilization
• Human Rights
• Democracy and Political Freedom
• Reading and Literacy
• The Pen
• Clean Living
• Human Equality
• A Matter of Commonsense
• Shortage of Qualified People
• West’s Problem
• Envy
• Flawed Understanding

Contents:

(2) What Exactly Is Haram?

• Human Bondage
• Islam Rescues Humanity
• Fat’h, not Conquest
• Conquest of Compassion
• A Revolution of Mercy
• Abolishing Religion
• Ending Tyranny
• Consent of the Governed
• Humanicide
• Social Empowerment
• Haram – Inherently Evil or Harmful
• Fatwa-Happy Few
• Questions to Ask

(3) What Is a Fatwa, anyway?

• Binding on Muftis, not on others
• Effects of Fatwas
• Lack of Alternatives
• Worth Considering

Waa Islaamaah!

That is what I say: Waa Islaamaah!

It is a distress cry – about the condition of Islam today. Poor, poor Islam! That is what it means: Waa Islaamaah!

And I will tell you why I am crying Waa Islaamaah!

It is a cry of deep distress and anguish, of the soul and mind, at the sad condition in which the most glorious system sent down by God to save humanity finds itself at the hands of its followers, and others, today – so many of whom deign, and dare, to speak in its behalf, no matter how little they may know or understand it.

Or how little they may understand the world in which Islam operates. And no matter how inadequately prepared and equipped they may be to do so.

Not so long ago, I was shown a Fatwa declaring elections to be Haram. It was in UK, I think. I call it a rejectionist, isolationist Fatwa.

But at bottom it may also be an un-Islamic one. For, elections and the fundamental right of choice they represent, is the way of life in Islam – the system God Almighty designed to run his world and which he then sent down at the hands of his messengers and prophets to guide, direct and organize human life on earth.

By seeking to keep Muslims from voting and from elections, this Fatwa rejects participation of Muslims in the political process in the West. And it seeks to isolate them from life around them – reducing Muslims and their communities to small, ineffective, marginalized, disfranchised ghettoes.

Anyone can see that it is a rejectionist, isolationist Fatwa. If some of you are shocked by this Fatwa, so was I. The logic behind the Fatwa was, I take it, if there was any logic to it at all, that elections were a Kafir concoction, opposed to the pure divine way of doing things in Islam – whatever that meant.

I am trying to reconstruct the argument here as best as I can. And then see if it holds any water. [...]