THE NATURE, THE SCOPE, AND THE ROADMAP OF THE NEEDED CHANGE (1/2)
This is the first of two articles that discuss the scope of the change needed in our community to be at the forefront of the changed needed in our country. The process is nothing short of rebuilding ourselves into a relevant group that has asignificant positive impact on America. The opportunity to make this change a smooth transition through existing entities has passed. Rather, vanguards must chart a new course and proceed in parallel to existing operations that provide some essential services and programs to segments of the community. This is because our community evolution was very sluggish/slow and its response and adaptation to the major changes and developments that took place over the last two decades were inadequate.
Many existing entities and activists will eventually join the movement of change, but it is unrealistic and unfair to expect them to lead the change while sustaining existing operations.
The change that we seek is societal. However, these articles discuss the change that the Muslim community needs in particular to become relevant and at the forefront of the needed societal change.
Questions that beg for answers:
Are we doing or seriously trying to do what Allah assigned us and expects ? Is our contribution to the country significant? Is it all that the country needs or all that we can offer?
Are we really on the map? Are we really relevant? Is our voice being heard? Are our stands taken seriously? Are our activities purposeful and impactful?
Are we trying to do what needs to be done or do we just want to do something irrespective of its impact and relevance? Do we compare ourselves with those who do nothing and find satisfaction, or do we compare our work with what should and could be done and challenge ourselves?
Is there a cause that drives our community and our institutions or a vision that guides them at any level, from sub-local to national. By ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ obviously, I don't mean lofty mission and vision statements that decorate impressive brochures and websites. Rather, I mean a compelling and galvanizing mission and a sound, integrating, challenging, and expansive vision for America that is shared among members of our community and that knows no limits. And I mean a mission and vision that are actually being lived, pursued, and fulfilled, and our performance is evaluated accordingly.
Obviously, in asking those questions, I don't consider the focus of law enforcement on our community as proof of relevance. The same applies to soothing statements and gestures by public officials, and to shallow outreach activities and meetings.
Relevance simply means having an impact and making a contribution. Our relevance is determined by the significance of our impact on society and our contribution to its welfare.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that our community is driven by such a mission and guided by such a vision. Is there a sound strategy and competent leadership in place to get us there?
Situation that calls for urgent/swift and fundamental/sweeping change:
In spite of the good intentions and the hard work of scores of activists and organizations, our current situation and work seriously compromise our chances to qualify for Allah's pleasure (which requires striving to meet His expectations and to do His work) and jeopardize our future. Thus, we are required to have serious in-depth reflections and debate that lead to swiftt and sweeping changes.
Honestly, I see a huge and alarming gap between where we are (and what we are doing) and where we should be (and what we should be doing) given Allah's expectations, our great mission, the daunting challenges that our country and our community face, the opportunities that our country offers, and the performance of comparable communities. Unfortunately, not much is being done to bridge this gap; many are yet to accept the gap itself or to accept the responsibility for bridging it. People are in denial, are unwilling to face the brutal reality, and/or lack the needed resolve and ambition to drive the process.
I truly hope that we accept this obvious but brutal reality, and divide our efforts and resources between managing the status quo (to keep things running) and charting a new course to get out of deadlock and move to the next level. And I hope that the debate in our community focuses on the scope of the change and how to affect it, and at the same time discuss how to keep things running during the long overdue and inevitable transition.
My firm conviction is that our community needs to be rebuilt around the commitment to the divine mission and to America. The founding paradigm that guided the community up to this moment was very limited and limiting, and has simply served its time. A while ago, the community reached the low ceiling of that paradigm without beginning the transition to a new phase. As a result, the community got stuck in transition and has beenspinning its wheels and going nowhere. It has been largely doing more of the same and struggling to manage the status quo: maintaining or at best expanding existing activities and facilities, or starting new but similar ones. This is simply because there isn’t much growth, development, relevance, or impact that could be achieved within an exhausted paradigm. Also the community lacked a rallying cause (after the campaign to establish Islamic Centers), and its leaders and organizations lacked expansive vision and high aspirations. As a result, the community got stuck in a type and level of activism that was built on a weak and vague intellectual and strategic foundation, and not result-driven.
Such horizontal expansion, only spreads out the inherent deficiencies of the community, and mollifies our people in their state of denial, thus eclipsing the brutal reality, and stifling any real debate or change. The whole situation sits well with a community that has low aspirations and an unhelpful heritage that has been encompassed with mediocrity, irrelevance, and failure.
Currently, as a result of confused identity , limited ambition, and lack of inspiring vision and leadership and inclusive forums, the majority of community members and families are isolated and disengaged, and are just trying to get by.. Many of them are lacking in spiritual and social vitality, and are desperate for meaning and purpose in their lives.
The community was built around service-providing organizations and centers that are sustained by few activists and donors, and offer some basic programs that serve a small segment of the community. In this paradigm, people are being told to be a good Muslim, to attend the activities, and support organizations whose mission is unclear, whose vision is limited, and whose forums are not inclusive. Beyond this, organizers and organizations don’t have much to offer. As a result, the general public is neither inspired nor empowered to contribute more than the minimum time and resources.
Organizations within the paradigm described above are usually focused on masjid congregation who are treated/served as guests or customers. There is no mission to drive the organizations or their members. Organizations either implicitly or explicitly are presented as substitutes for individual initiative and effort. This should come as no surprise because most first-generation American Muslims come from nations where they used to rely completely on their governments, and did not have a significant civic or entrepreneurial culture.
The nature and the starting point of the needed change (paradigm shift): the central role of the individual and the importance of the intellectual and strategic dimensions:
Although the organization and operation of the community leave a lot to be desired, the change the community needs is neither operational nor organizational. It is not about better management or more activities or bigger facilities. What the community needs is a paradigm shift and a breakthrough that cannot happen by working within the same prevailing paradigm.
Like every fundamental change, this one must originate in the intellectual and strategic spheres, especially because our community’s intellectual and strategic foundations were limited andsince our community’s founding no significant intellectual and strategic efforts were witnessed.
This situation is not likely to change as long as the chronic intellectual and strategic void persists, and the community continues to lack a driving cause and force to transform it into a mainstream movement. Indeed, the next level that our community must (and hasn’t been able to) move to is that of a mainstream mass movement whose members have a cause and a country to fight for.
The transformation of our isolated, fragmented, stagnant, and largely irrelevant community into a vibrant and relevant mainstream mass movement requires a lot of intellectual innovation, strategic planning, and a driving cause to rally all. However, such a great transformation may only happen through the reformation of the individual and the family and requires revisiting the fundamental questions of identity (who we are) and mission (what is our role and what are we trying to achieve). Because the community must be redesigned for a very different role in very different circumstances, its building blocks the individual and the family, must be shaped and cemented in a different way.
We seek to make this community not only mission-driven and country-focused, but also individual and family-centered. Individuals and families must be committed to the divine mission and to America, and should be inspired and empowered to fulfill the mission in their immediate environments, in cooperation with their fellow citizens (Muslims and non-Muslims). Individuals and families who take care of themselves and their circles/environments, may integrate their efforts to fulfill the mission in society at large.. This new paradigm is centered around fulfilling the mission rather than organizing activities, on the country rather than the community, and on the individual and family rather than organizations. The new paradigm directs individuals, organizations, activities, programs, and the whole community towards fulfilling the mission in society at large and towards the betterment of the country, starting with their immediate environments The purpose of the new paradigm is to commit our fellow citizens (Muslims and non-Muslims) to a life mission that galvanizes their latent energy and channels it towards the greater good. It is about inspiring and empowering our fellow citizens to be more civically aware, concerned and engaged, and to embark on a life journey of self-development (to realize their full potential) and civic engagement (to maximize their impact and the social cohesion). This focus on inspiration, empowerment, self-development, and civic engagement also aims to make our community much more vibrant both spiritually and socially.
For Muslims (particularly practicing Muslims), Islam shall be the main source of inspiration and empowerment. This, in turn, requires that we rediscover and embrace the authentic version of Islam as a divinely-inspired life mission that translates into a lifelong journey of self-development, outreach, and civic engagement to increase social cohesion and serve the greater good. An essential component in the rebuilding of our community is to reintroduce Islam as a life mission that is civically oriented although its source and ultimate goal are divine. That’s how the proper understanding of Islam seamlessly fuses the religious and civic elements of our identity and mission. In contrast, the prevailing version of Islam isolates the individual and the community from society, and isolates the individual, literally and psychologically from the community. No wonderwhy the vast majority of our community members are socially isolated and civically disengaged, and lack any sense of mission or belonging in both society and community . And without a sense of mission and belonging, people have no incentive to challenge themselves to become active nor to make a contribution.
We have no choice but to move to the next level (evolve) by giving this community a cause and a country to work for, something that is much larger and more worthwhile than building facilities and organizing activities to preserve identity. This in turn requires:
1. Confrontation of the brutal reality (thorough and in-depth analysis of our history and our situation)
2. Proper and relevant understanding of Islam (as a mission) from the sources without limiting ourselves to any work that was done in a different era or a different part of the world, no matter how great it is.
3. Clear, genuine, and coherent American Muslim identity.
4. Solid commitment to the divine mission and to America.
I am trying to advocate this message and start this debate so that we start make the big and difficult paradigm shift before it’s too late. In the next article, we will discuss why the needed change cannot and maybe should not happen through existing entities, nor can it happen gradually because the community has been stuck in transition for quite some time. We will also discuss why it is unrealistic, unfair, and possibly unwise to ask activists, who are organizationally constrained and are consumed trying to maintain their organizations to champion the needed change.
