Of Intellect
and a Hijacked Eid
By Siddique Malik
Louisville, KY
By
the time, this article triggered by the recent
hijacking of Eid-al-Fitr in Louisville, Kentucky,
is published, it would almost be time to celebrate
Eid-al-Adha. Nonetheless, the issue raised in
it deserves readers’ attention.
On the afternoon of Thursday, October 11, something
happened in the Muslim community of Louisville.
This event might seem negligible, but it gives
a significant insight into the intellectual lethargy
which today afflicts many Muslims worldwide.
This day marked the 29th day of Ramadan. According
to the rule followed for centuries, if the new
moon in not sighted at sunset on the 29th of Ramadan,
Muslims are expected to fast for one more day
before celebrating Eid-al-Fitr, making the fasting
month of Ramadan 30 days long.
Based on scientific calculations associated with
lunar movements, all major Muslim organizations
in North America had declared Saturday, October
13 to be the Eid day. Yet, a gang of local Muslim
clerics declared Friday, October 12 to be the
Eid day. And they made this declaration on the
afternoon of October 11, when the sun was still
up and there was no way the tiny new moon could
have been sighted. They did this to show "solidarity"
with distant Saudi Arabia which celebrated the
Eid on October 12, ignoring fellow Muslims in
adjoining areas like Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee,
etc. and even in Elizabethtown, Frankfort, Lexington
and other Kentucky towns, who were rightly set
to celebrate the Eid on October 13 and did so.
But this act of mental enslavement to backward
Saudi Arabia was really not what bothered me;
you cannot expect enlightenment from the backward.
What bothered me was the fact that many Muslims
in Louisville decided to accept this wrong decision
simply because it was made by a group of self-declared
"keepers of the faith". This blind submission
shows the ease with which many Muslims can be
manipulated by a few megalomaniac clerics. Looking
at the greater picture, this surrender mentality
highlights the reason that the Muslim world seems
incapable of eradicating extremism and upholding
logic.
The tragedy is that most of those who chose to
accept an abrupt announcement from the local sympathizers
of Saudi Arabia were well-educated professionals:
doctors, engineers, scientists, educators, businessmen,
accountants, etc. All they had to do was consult
the scientific calendar which clearly said that
the new moon was to appear in North America on
the evening of October 12, making the following
day, the day of Eid. There was no need for confusion
or being misled.
Almost every immigrant Muslim in America is obsessed
with just one thing: How to raise their kids to
be “good” Muslims. But their women
spend most of their time in the shopping centers
looking for the latest fashion or at the hairstylist
shops trying to take advantage of the hair-dyeing
technology that can easily drop 20 years from
one’s visible age. Their men are busy watching
cricket games or Bollywood movies. They have outsourced
the important job of teaching their kids religion
to the local clerics. No body knows what kind
of ignorance is being implanted on young minds.
When these kids are old enough to ask logical
questions and expect such answers and ask you
why on an absurd announcement from a mullah, people
jettisoned their Eid planning, you would no longer
be to able to satisfy your kids’ curiosity.
They might very well conclude that to be a good
Muslim, one has to be illogical. This would hardly
make them “good” Muslims. They would
become sitting ducks for the exploitative and
manipulative clerics of which unfortunately there
is never a shortage.
There is a clear alternative and it is based upon
logic, knowledge and fearless analysis. This the
only way mullah-ism would become irrelevant and
inconsequential. Most of the problems faced by
Muslims are self-made problems based upon the
lack of ability to think outside the box, all
four corners of which are possessed by the mullah
who feel emboldened by intellectually coward Muslims.
I am tempted to present the translation of a couplet
by the famous Urdu philosopher-poet, Doctor Sir
Muhammad Iqbal:
Even when there are thousands of reasons to
be fearful, the tongue should be a friend of the
heart (meaning you should fearlessly say what
is in your heart).
This has been the way of saints from the start
of time.
The good news is that not all Louisville Muslims
were fooled by the above-mentioned mischievous
act. Some of them celebrated the Eid-al-Fitr on
October 13. Logic is thus not a complete alien
to all Muslims. But logical Muslims must speak
loudly and clearly against the illogicality and
ignorance perpetrated in the name of Islam. This
has connotations beyond Eid; world peace and the
future of your kids might very well depend on
this fortitude.
I present the translation of another couplet
by Iqbal:
I (Iqbal) have not lost hope in my desolate land.
Only if this land could attain a little dampness,
it would become overly fertile.
If this intellectual dampness is not provided
by today’s Muslims, I can sadly assure you
that the future of Muslims would be much worse
than their present. Regardless of how many years
of age could you shed from your visible age or
who wins the next cricket game or the voluptuousness
of certain Bollywood actresses, you must fulfill
your duty to the future.
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