IS BEING COOL THE ONLY COOLEST THING TO BE IN MOMBASA?

          

Photo Courtesy: Salem_beliegraphy

By Lubnah Abdulhalim

Well since Mombasa is an amazing island with blue oceans and beautiful scenaries, the immediate first instinct of any person would be 'if Mombasa is not the place to be cool then where else?' but my 'cool' that i mean here is the extended kind which to some would be termed as laziness and irresponsibility. I am a resident of Mombasa myself; of course i wouldn't want to talk ill of our people but truth be said; youth and even some of the elders are misusing the word 'cool' and how to be it.

In a research on community resilience against violent extremism that I personally participated in four different areas in Mombasa, there was this common factor amongst all the four places, which is the behaviour of the youth of Mombasa. It's nice to be cool and to feel nice about oneself but that is totally a different case when a person decides they are too cool to do a certain thing.

So the typical scenario of a Mombasa youth was that of: I wake up at nine or ten in the morning, I go to the table and my lovely mum has already left some good breakfast for me on the table. After eating I will go out and do totally NOTHING sensible but when I come back home at lunch hour, my lovely mum has already covered some food for me. I may be 24 or even above that, I am jobless and probably so is my dad but there is nothing to worry, because this lovely woman in the house will always find a way to provide good food or at least some food on the table even when we don't know how or where she gets the money from. So where is the coolness I am talking about here? You may find that this young man has been offered several jobs but his ego won't allow him to go sweep in the streets or carry cement. come on that is totally not cool right? 'I mean, what if pretty girls come by and see me in shaggy clothes sweating under the hot scorching sun, carrying cement?!' Isn't that the mentality that most youth have? So what they would rather do is wear their lowered torn jeans revealing their inner wear, have a funny 'cool' haircut sit at a maskan, chew miraa and smoke bhang, walk with some swag and have the 'you-cant-tell-me-a-thing' attitude. The best any of these young men can do is wait at the maskan for an attractive classic matatu with banging music so that they can ask for a one round of reckless driving like in 'fast and furious', because to them, that is what is 'cool'.

The reality is that this kind of young men are untouchable in this times because the kind of power and command they put even in their actions has created fear within us. Right now we are having very young boys below 16 walking in gangs, carrying pangas and murdering people and scaring us out like hell because we know they are no joke; that once they raise their pangas up then there is no way that they will let the panga fall down without touching blood. Another not surprising factor that emerges is that most of these young gangs start with a fight over a girl. Then a boy from a certain place is beaten up to death and the others come to revenge and it goes on like that till the gangs become organized groups with full leadership. And this to them is so cool because it is giving them the recognition they want. They want people to talk about them in every corner and be scared when they hear their names and well, they have succeeded in that. Yet when you see them, you would never think that such a young boy can fight you to death.

It is only in Mombasa where you will hear a person saying, 'come on I am learned, how do you expect me to sell water' or such kind of a thing. It is also only in Mombasa where you will hear a youth demanding that their parents give them the freedom they want yet they can't take responsibility of their lives. They want to be left alone so they do evil and harm people yet they still want to come back home and find food ready on the table. And this where we have to admit that the upcountry fellows are doing a pretty good job in raising their children because at a very young age, they teach their children to take responsibility and how to take control of their lives. Whereas for us, that is where we have failed terribly. Our parents have shown us clearly; 'My son, for better for worse I will provide for you even when you have a wife and children, I will cover up your mistakes for you, even if you are murdering and attacking people aimlessly. I will give you the money you need, even when i know you will use it in buying drugs.' And that is the attitude most of Mombasa youth grow up with in these times.

Then we complain when our upcountry brothers come to Mombasa and lead us. But we have no right to complain! These fellows come from wherever they are from, they start from the very bottom; sweeping streets, cleaning toilets, making tea but give them just two years and you will see the same guy already a secretary in the organization. Give him five more years and he will be the manager. Then the Mombasa lad will come to the same organization and be given the sweeping task and he will say, 'I am more educated than the manager. I completed form four while he dropped out of class eight. I can't accept such a job.' Ask him why he will tell you because it is unfair. But they never put into consideration where this manager started from. I have a neighbour from upcountry who is a graduate from pharmacy course yet she opened her own saloon when she didn't get a job. Then try asking a Mombasa educated lady to do the same and you will hear the response, 'That's not my kind of job.' And this where the difference comes from; our fellows have a focus while we don't! We are always comparing our journey with someone else's! "He has a Subaru while I have a probox or, I have nothing that can't be!" We give the lame excuses of 'upcountry people run the country that's why they advance in life' yet we all know that they are not coddled and that's why they never lose neither their cool nor their focus. As for us, we just want the short cut. We want to get employed in an office that will make me the boss from the first day. A job we can brag about and get recognition. When you ask why the response will be, "because it is cool isn't it? to be the boss, to own a nice car, to come in the time you want. If not that then i'd rather sit at the maskan and have a good time." And it is this mentality that has made most of the youth remain jobless, because they want heaven without struggle. They therefore create their own 'heaven' by being in gangs smoking bhang and other hard drugs, harm people, maintain some swag and well, life goes on!

Yet another sad truth is that, even when parents know their children are causing harm, they would do all they can to release their children when they are arrested; even if it means selling their houses and property. Well, understandably, parents will still be parents especially the mothers. In the end of the day, they still want them to be fine and be with them. They will always be protective, but the question is, are they doing any good favour to their children by bailing them out always yet they will still continue to murder and beat up people? Till when will the parents keep pampering grown up youths instead of toughening them up to be responsible youth?

It is at this time where no one should even talk about the children of others. It's scary. Really scary. Today you may be pointing fingers of how lost the neighbour's children are, yet you don't know what surprises your own might bring you tomorrow. We just have to ask for God's mercy and protection; even for ourselves as youth. As the Swahili methali says, 'Ukiona mwenzako anyolewa, chako kitie maji.'

MUSLIM YOUTH IN A CAGE CALLED MODERN WORLD; part 3

MUSLIM YOUTH IN A CAGE CALLED MODERN WORLD; part 3

By Lubnah Abdulhalim

Photo Courtesy: dreamstime.com

We are in the 21st century and majority of the youth are either in love, in a relationship, married, confused or totally lost. This is one of the worst realities of us; the current era youth. Whereas at our age, our parents and grandparents could not dare court a girl, or at least make it public; nowadays that is the trend and actually without it, you are considered out of fashion or old fashioned. This whole ideology of love is actually what branches to a lot of other fitnah like zinah, sometimes drinking, clubbing and drugs, sometimes rebellion against parents and much more. We as the youth have revolutionized the concept of love; some have commercialized it and some have made it seem the filthiest word on earth yet love was originally pure in its earliest form whereby love meant respect to oneself, respect to the girl, respect to the parents of the girl and even respect to the whole world evolving around her. Love originally meant taking the main path to her parent’s house and knock at the door but now the youth decide to take on the short cut and sneak out the girl from her home via the window. This is where all immorality begins and all principles are broken. The youth however have their own many ways of justifying dating and all the impunity related with it, with the Western justification of ‘You Only Live Once’ (YOLO) quickly forgetting the promises God has kept for us for the hereafter. Nonetheless, we can never refute the reality of existence of love. As much as it is controllable, it is, most of the times, unavoidable. But actually the problem of the youth isn’t love but how to deal with it. When a young person goes to their parents and confesses about their love to a particular person, most parents immediately camouflage and become annoyed at the words of their children especially when it is a girl. Our society has made it seem that it is totally okay for a young man to actually talk to his parents about a girl he loves even when he is still very young for the responsibility of marriage. Parents would listen to him and advice him on waiting and all that but now, change the picture, let the girl of the same family same say the same words to her parents and they would be angry and never trust her again etcetera etcetera. The reality is, it has already happened; parents should actually appreciate that their daughter or son didn’t take action in his/her own hands but instead approached them so they can help her out. It is high time parents realized that the technology world is ruining us and that they need to have more of these heart to heart talks with their young ones. When parents keep it formal with their children without finding wise ways of teaching them how to teach them deal with adolescence and peer pressure, that’s when the youth explore the world themselves; totally submerged into the world of fantasy and forever love and dating and all that they see on televisions, internet and social media. This just shows the importance of parents giving room to their children to talk and express themselves freely; this actually saves a lot of trouble onwards. Khadija, Peace Be upon Her was the one who requested for the prophet to marry her, even though she was much older. It is no shame when a girl asks for her parents to do the same for her. The shame would be when we don’t teach our children how to deal with their emotions and what are the limits that should not be crossed.

However, another sad reality is that some parents don’t care or simply don’t mind when they see their sons taking out girls for dates or when they see their daughters preparing to go out; our own parents, who are supposed to be our role models, are drowning along with us.

So in this era of fitnah, the few responsible ones decide to marry early so as to avoid falling in sin. Yet still, even as they marry, they still have the corrupted Westernized ideology of marriage and take marriage like the dating life they see their pals going through and this is how we have several young people are getting divorced as fast as they got married. However, for others who approach their parents so as to marry, their parents tell them it’s too early and that they should wait until they are more responsible or done with studies etcetera; which is true, but nonetheless, the parents fail to realize that stopping their children from marrying or getting married when they want to, may lead to zinah. This is why the prophet p.b.u.h. said that whoever amongst us can marry then they should do so and this is because he knew the amount of fitnah the young people have to deal with.

Our religious have the greater duty as much as parents to help and advice young people on how to deal with adolescence and peer pressure. Most sheikhs actually give lectures about these issues but they rarely give solutions; in fact many just criticize the actions of the youth which in return make them become even more rebellious towards the rulings of deen. Sheikhs have to choose a more gentle approach on how to advise the youth but most importantly, show and teach how to deal with this kind of fitnah Islamically. They have to bring themselves down to their level and talk the same language as we the youth do so that there can be more understanding between the two parties.

The Muslim lady in her hijab is the queen of Islam; the image portraying the identity of Islam, she is mother of tomorrow and the daughter of today. Society has always had this misconception that being a Muslim lady means getting married, having children and taking care of your family, which is totally true. Nonetheless, it is sad that the society is against the idea that a Muslim lady should have dreams or ambitions. It is rather puzzling that the society has the belief that when a Muslim lady is attached to her deen, then she wouldn’t bother venture into the world of knowledge and working and creating change but would just be confined to her husband, children and home. Again, the society have the belief that when a Muslim lady ventures into the world of work, then she is not really attached to her deen which is also totally so wrong. It is by this that a lady with dreams is often found in a tag of war between two worlds; the world evolving her deen and her career. And many would ask this question, ‘how do you balance the two; how do you balance your career and your deen?’ Many think that in order to be an ambitious career lady with dreams then you have to give up your deen and vice versa; which is what challenges the Muslim lady. In the career world, colleagues expect the Muslim lady to dress trendily or shake hands with non mahrams etcetera while in the Islamic world, she is expected to only concentrate in her home and family affairs only. Yet they forget how the sahabiyaat; Aishah, Fatima, Khadija peace be upon them, amongst others were active in all societal issues. Khadijah peace be upon her was a very successful business woman, Aishah peace be upon her was known for her knowledge of deen and memorization of ahadith. She, together with Aishah, Umm Salim and Umm Salit were proficient at nursing the wounded. Different sahabiyat accompanied the prophet peace be upon him on his military expeditions and took part in battles both on land and at sea. Asma’ bint Umais was famous for interpretation of dreams while Asma’ bint Yazid was an expert in making speeches. Khawlah, Maleekah, Thaqafiyah and Bint Fakhariyah used to trade in the oriental oil-based perfumes known as ‘itar (As explained in the book ‘Great Women of Islam by Mahmood Ahmad Ghadanfar). These are but a few of the Sahabiyat; there are many more who took part in both religious and societal issues. It is high time that the society realized that being a career woman doesn’t make her any lesser Muslimah or mother or wife or daughter; the two can very well be balanced. Instead of treading on with such ideologies, the Islamic society should appreciate the Muslim women who are trying to create change in our world; both Islamic and secular world. Muslims should instead create more comfortable job opportunities and environments for Muslim ladies to work within. They forget; teaching a woman is teaching the whole nation yet teaching a Muslim woman can as well be as teaching the whole universe. Let the Muslim ladies explore their talents and imaginations; let them build the society.

The challenges of Islam and Muslim youth could go on and on to fill a whole book due to the seriousness and complexity of the problems. Nonetheless, the general solution for all the named and unnamed problems is for Muslims to come and find solutions on common ground. As much as we have our many differences, we can never miss something of common interest to join us together and join our brains in finding genuine solutions to help Islam and Muslim youth. As Allah (S.W) says in the holy qur’an in surat Imran (103): ‘And hold fast, all of you together, to the rope of Allah and be not divided among yourselves...’ Truly, Allah (S.W) has said it well

MUSLIM YOUTH IN A CAGE CALLED MODERN WORLD; part 2

MUSLIM YOUTH IN A CAGE CALLED MODERN WORLD; part 2

By Lubnah Abdulhalim

Photo Courtesy: wallpaperswa.com

It can be so painful and frustrating when a Muslim youth is neglected not only by the parents, but by the society as well. We have parents who have given their children extreme freedom to the extent that it can just be counted as negligence and recklessness on their side. Most of the times, youths are judged by their character and how they behave when with people but sometimes who is to blame if not parents? The environment in which a youth grows up in really molds him/her to what they finally grow up into. Usually, youth are very vulnerable and especially when he/she misses out on parental love and guidance, that is when we as youth get out of control. Some parents just don’t have the time to listen and talk to their children and young adults. In fact sometimes, it may pass weeks before they see one another because everyone is busy in their own world. They don’t bother to ask or even to care about what is happening in their children’s lives so long as they see them at home with no vivid scratches and wounds then life is good enough for them. But for young Muslims growing up in such a malicious environment, a lot of deep secrets are hidden from parents and if the parents never bother to get close to their children, that’s when the youth find other ways to compensate their parents’ negligence. Some indulge in drugs, some go into prostitution, some just seek love from any man or woman ready to offer them what they need most; which is attention. It is true that some parents actually do offer the parental care and love to their children, but the saddening part is that, these parents are ‘okay’ with how the modern Muslim child is growing into. We have parents who totally see no problem in seeing their young adult daughter go out in exposing clothes or without her hijab, or for some, they totally have no problem if their son comes home with a girl to spend me with. Parents, leaders, role models are letting us, the youth, down. We need to be reminded, we need guidance, we need the love and attention and most of all, we need the support when we are interested in deen. We need more parents saying, ‘it is totally okay if you don’t want to do medicine even though you passed very well, you can go do Islamic studies as you so wish.’ I wish more parents would know that the world doesn’t only revolve around Medicine, Engineering, Law or Business or any other thing they would be proud for their children to take. And that this same world needs more Islamic scholars and academicians and writers. The solution to this is to have both parents and leaders dedicate more of their time speaking to young people; not to harass or condemn for their mistakes or mishaps, but to guide them through their worldly tests and give them the support they need. We need parents acting maturely and setting up good examples for their children to follow instead of joining them in their lost world. 

We are living in such a rotten society and our morality is melting away like how wet clay drips off in our hands. We are living in this current era where homosexuality is now being legalized in different parts of the world, we are living in this era whereby everyone is tweeting #mydressmychoice, we are living in the world of parents raping their children and children raping their parents, we are living in the world of bestiality, the world of children taking their parents to court, the world of corruption, prostitution and drugs; we are now living in the era where impunity and immorality is being mistaken to freedom. It is a scary generation and what’s even scarier is the fact that we are scared how our children in the future generations will be like. The fitnah and tribulations can be overwhelming and sometimes however hard a believer tries to abstain from looking, going and doing, the fitnah; sometimes in human form, sometimes in form of music, or videos or even written words, avails itself to him/her whenever he is, comes to them and lures them into sinful acts. This is the era of jihad an-nafs; the era where one has to battle between his mind, heart and soul; to battle with their desires not to indulge in haraam acts. This can be so tricky especially when we are in the technology and internet era whereby youth are being psychologically and indirectly brainwashed and being convinced without them realizing that they are gradually changing their thoughts and way of thinking. Peer pressure plays a great role in the indulgence of youth in immorality especially issues like drug addiction, prostitution, becoming pornography addicts and things like that. Moreover, a lot of young people don’t know who to approach when they are in agony or in doubt or in fear and this is when Satan lures them into acts like drinking alcohol and use of drugs. Worse still, children are left unsupervised; given iphones at very young age, unknown what kind of friends they have, what sites they visit in the internet, where they get the money to spend, where they spend most of their time or why they come home so late. That same negligence as mentioned above is what influences immorality as well. But what best can we do to help youth overcome the challenges they have having to deal with fitnah face to face and help them abstain from sinful acts? We need guidance from our leaders and preferably, the young da’ees and sheikhs since they can easily bond with other young people. We need sheikhs who would not condemn young people for watching or for that matter, being obsessed with football or any kind of sports or maybe play station. We have to realize that in our era, a young man watching football is much better than the one sitting in a baraza with peers somewhere, doing nothing but having idle talk, or watching pornography or taking drugs. And if we try to stop them from watching sports, then we are giving space to Satan to corrupt their minds with other things. So long as the young men obsessed with football prays five times and fasts and does ibadah, we should actually thank God that sports is what they spend their time in rather than other immoral acts. We don’t need sheikhs calling out ‘young people are adulterers, young people are immoral…’ we need leaders and role models who are approachable, those who can listen to the youth talk about their mistakes without judging them; those who can give proper guidance and counseling. We need Islamic heroes.

Unemployment is a worldwide challenge; not just for the youth but all kind of people. The opportunities are lacking everywhere and many youth are left with nothing to do than extreme idleness which further leads to idle talk and walk. As much as our leaders have continuously ‘promised’ to create more opportunities, the youth have to learn to be independent and create the opportunities themselves. But the problem is not that they can’t create jobs, apart from financial challenges, most youth are just too choosy in the jobs to do. Sometimes one may find a jobless youth and may be offered a job as a super market attendant or maybe as a shop keeper but they refuse the opportunity. Not because it is not paying off well but many Muslim especially as per my own opinion of Mombasa youth is that they are arrogant even when they have no high educational qualifications. You may a form four drop out but still want to be the boss. Most youth do not realize that a journey of a thousand miles start with one step; all they want is to fly and reach their destination without any struggle. Go around the local supermarkets and the number of local youths working as attendants or assistants are either very low or probably none at all. More career talks and especially on entrepreneurship should be organized for youth to learn more on how to make it through their life even when the opportunities are very few. Yet still, they have to be taught not to choose jobs with lame claims of ‘how can I do such a job?! It is not of my standard.’ They have to be taught how to be humble and tackle their egos. They have to be inspired more and given more talks by professors, leaders and role models.

MUSLIM YOUTH IN A CAGE CALLED MODERN WORLD; part 1

                          MUSLIM YOUTH IN A CAGE CALLED MODERN WORLD; part 1

Photo Courtesy: Unknown

By Lubnah Abdulhalim

Putting aside everything else, growing up as a Muslim youth in the current century is a big challenge in itself. Even as an adamant observer, what goes around us is enough fitnah and a test enough to let one drown with the rest of the filthy world. The challenges are so many and yet still, so deep that they keep worsening by the day.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge facing Islam especially the Muslim youth in this era is the confusion, chaos and divisions in deen. What could be more confusing than when our elders have nothing to offer to us than streams and streams of tag-and-war beliefs whereby everyone believes they are more pious than the other; whereby everyone is a sheikh better than the other; whereby everyone is giving fatwas on very important and complex issues of deen, taking it so simply? We have reached to that shameful state whereby we declare fellow Muslims as Kufarrs (disbelievers), and declare that we would never go to such and such a mosque or would never listen to such and such a sheikh. It is a disgrace. So how can we ever even face our enemies when all this is happening within us? How can we ever get the power we want when our weaknesses are so open to everyone that we lost all the respect we ever had? What do we tell these new converts to Islam? After they have believed that they have finally found truth how do we go about telling them that ‘you know, there will be a time whereby you will have to choose what kind of Muslim you want to be; what sheikh you will listen to, which not to, what mosque to go to and which not, what moon-sighting for Ramadhan and Eid you should follow and which not?’ It gets to a point whereby one doesn’t anticipate the moon-sighting anymore because instead of it being a joyous moment, it was made a moon-fighting moment. And so now all we have is young men who are totally ignorant of religion, indulging in debates and insulting sheikhs and saying on what they believe is true. But what is true really? How can we know what is true when our own elders are so engrossed in these divisions that we just found ourselves in? So I hear nowadays the divisions got divided too. It is even amusing yet so sad to hear that we have ahlu sunnah, Khurafi, shiate etc etc…plus the ahlul sunnah are sub divided as well; the salafists and the salafists have also had their differences and sub divided to old salafi, modern salafi and I hear of the super salafi as well! It is really irritating especially when you hear how these sub-divisions talk about each other and insult. How can we even associate ourselves with the prophet p.b.u.h when we can’t do the simplest thing he did, which is to respect the differences we all have? So long as we had nothing like Abubakarism or Omarism then who are we to associate ourselves with groups that were never founded or approved by the prophet or even his close friends who will be with him in jannah? Why can’t we simply declare ourselves as Muslims without associating ourselves with anyone else except follow the prophet’s way p.b.u.h? It is true, nothing can be done to stop these groups and sub divisions from being formed because the prophet p.b.u.h said it himself that during the day of judgment, there will be 73 sub-groups of Islam and only one will enter jannah. In one of his narrations, the prophet p.b.u.h said (sourced from Sunan Abu Dawud): ‘There will be dissension and division in my nation and a people will come with beautiful words but evil deeds. They recite the Qur’an but it will not pass beyond their throats. They will leave the religion as an arrow leaves its target and they will not return until the arrows returns to its notch. They are the worst of the creation.’ This means that it was already pre-fated that we will have this kind of fitnah and differences and that we can’t really join back as one. But what is the simplest that can be done? The prophet p.b.u.h during the battle of Badr, he asked the captives that whoever had knowledge could gain his freedom by teaching ten Muslims from the knowledge they had. So why not do the same? Why can’t we join hands in what we agree on and respect the few issues we differ on? Why can’t we follow this sheikh because he is more learned in this field of Qur’an and follow the other because he is better in fiqh? Why can’t our elders and leaders who are supposed to be role models, sit and discuss these conflicting issues keenly and come with an agreed upon solution? Because that is the only solution available; working together in what we both agree on and avoid all the fuss and chaos of fighting and debating about our differences in beliefs.

And it is just by this fuss, chaos and confusion that young men become extremists and are radicalized with the idea of jihad obsessed in their heads. But do we as young people know what jihad is really all about? How do we want to go jihad when we barely pray all the five prayers in time, when we barely understand the deen, when we don’t even know how to respect our parents? Many of the youth are fanatics of jihad not because they really care about Islam and its power but they just view jihad as a heroic activity; yet the painful truth is that, the youth are venturing into issues beyond their understanding and power. Ali bin Abu Talib reported (as sourced from Sahih Bukhari): the messenger of Allah peace and blessings be upon him said: ‘In the last days, there will be young people with foolish dreams. They will say the best of words in creation but they will pass through Islam just as an arrow passes through its game. Their faith will not go beyond their throats.’ But who is to be blamed in all this? Where were our leaders and parents while their children convinced themselves that jihad is more important than the daily prayers that they skip and the humbleness they never showed to their parents?

The scary part of us as Muslim youth is that we are growing up with signs as of the Khawarij which are mentioned in so many ahadith. The Khawarijite ideology is based upon the following tenets: Declaring Muslims to be unbelievers, rejecting lawful obedience to the rulers and justifying violence against Muslims and innocent people. Ibn Taymiyyah wrote: The Kharijite sect was the first to declare Muslims to be unbelievers because of their sins. They charged as unbelievers whoever disagreed with their innovations and they made lawful the spilling of blood and the taking of wealth. This is the condition of the people of innovation that they invent some religious innovation and then they excommunicate whoever disagrees with them concerning it. Rather, the people of sunnah and the community follow the book and the sunnah and they obey Allah and His messenger and follow the truth. They have mercy upon the creation. (Majmu’ Al-Fatawa 1/278)

Abu Hureira reported: The prophet p.b.u.h said (sourced from Sahih Muslim): Whoever rejects obedience to the leader and divides the community and dies, will have died upon ignorance. Whoever fights under the banner of one who is blind, raging for the sake of tribalism, and is killed will have died upon ignorance. Whoever rebels against my nation, striking the righteous and wicked alike and sparing not even the believers and does not fulfill the pledge of security, then he has nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with him.’ And we are seeing all the mentioned in our current era; we are seeing believers and innocent people die in the hands of their fellow Muslims. And this is the challenge to us all as Muslims. We are losing control of our youth and this reality can’t be refuted. 

As such, in our times we are witnessing conflicts between oppressive governments and rebels. Muslims are stuck between the gunshot of the ruler and the gunshot of the rebel. And if we are not careful, we might fall into the sins of either side of the conflict by legitimizing the misdeeds of an oppressive government or justifying acts of terrorism in response. We should not rush to support one or another side in such conflicts as they are tribulations (fitnah) in which the truth is unclear. Hassan Al Basri, may Allah have mercy on him said: If the people had patience when they are being tested by their unjust ruler, it will not be long before Allah will give them a way out. However, they always rush to their swords, so they are left with their swords. By Allah, not even for a single day did they bring about any good.’ (Tabaqat Al-Kubra 8789). Satan intends to use the alluring call of the Kharijites as a means to drag us into hellfire. We have to resist this by upholding the true teachings of Islam: mercy upon creation, patience with hardships, and justice with our enemies. It is only by understanding Islam in both its inward and outward teachings can we protect ourselves, our children and our communities from dangerous ideologies all over the world. It is true Muslims are being oppressed, it is true we are being humiliated, it is true we are living in misery and maybe we can’t really blame the youth for the anguish and anger that is in them but we as Muslims must maintain patience and work to reform and improve our communities through education, preaching and charity. We must have strategies in gaining back our power without losing our respect in exchange. We have to be brave, intelligent and tactical because in this current era; strength with no brains is meaningless to the society.