Your precise, and yet also compassionate, academic writing elevates the discourse, which is exactly what we need. Thank you for your commitment to community.
I’m all for analysis and critical review of how organizations function, and you have made some interesting points articulated by many others, publicly and privately. Issues of resource depletion, salary, impossible expectations, lack of training, strategic planning etc. are all on point.
However, I’m not one to assign labels, especially when they are pejorative and paints with a broad brush (despite the caveats). Our communities have survived because of the creative ways in which we engage, and one of these in the current period is to engage scholars, speakers etc. with appeal to the demographic that we are most concerned about. Sometimes our local imams may not have the expertise or the strategies to engage sisters or youth - hence what you have pejoratively referred to as DM. I think the term does a disservice to the good work many of these Imams/Scholars/Speakers do and presupposes a negative connotation with respect to their intentions.
I would like to see a fact based analysis of how many of these so called DM’s don’t have their own communities and only thrive online as you have suggested, or are even only financially motivated.
Even those who have a virtual presence primarily create a “community” where many people benefit.
FYI here’s a definition of a Mercenary:
“A mercenary is a professional soldier hired to fight for a foreign army or private group. Unlike regular soldiers, they are driven primarily by financial profit rather than political loyalty, patriotism, or ideological beliefs.The term also functions as an adjective to describe someone whose actions or motives are entirely motivated by money or personal gain.”
I think the creative ways we have created are a response to the times we live in, both socially and economically. Socially, we live in a consumeristic environment, so to pick and choose, while enjoyable is focused on short-term individual experiences and not long-term collective benefit. The short-term gain of getting the shaykh you enjoy doesn’t necessarily create community support needed over one’s life and doesn’t necessarily help other than one’s self.
A lot of DMs have their own communities and are doing fantastic work—remember, this is an insider’s critique—but being a DM is different than having a contract with 1-2 additional communities you visit monthly. Everyone I have spoken to would prefer to either stay in their community or have a contract/relationship with 1-2 more because they will be building for the longterm.
Jazakallah khair. I read the article you referenced and it’s a beautiful take on how a community comes into being. May Allah grant us all the blessings of a wonderful community anchored in faith.
I agree and it’s true what I said in the last paragraph could have been expressed better. I didn’t mean any offence to the author who is an imam after all and has made a commitment to serve the community far exceeding my own pathetic efforts.
💯Thank you for your reply (Farhad Khadim) to this article.
This re-purposing of terminology: ‘genocide’, ‘mercenaries’, and that disgusting website that seems to have captured American males, in the context of community structure, dawah, and imams respectively is really bizarre. It speaks to some serious psychological issues, trivialises the evil that these terms signify and somehow juxtaposes them with our deen; inviting to the way of our beloved prophet; and our ulamaa.
How bizarre and completely unjustified!
Here is an author who I don’t know but who is presumably an imam, effectively calling imams prostitutes, dawah speakers mercenaries and equating what he sees as structural problems in the community with the murdering of innocent people!
All the while the most vile and demonic people on the face of the earth are doing just those things - and mostly, though not exclusively - their victims are Muslims and their target is Islam.
Please brother/imam, Abdul-Malik Merchant, consider carefully your phraseology and your choice of words and context, weight it against your own knowledge of the deen before writing in such a careless way.
This articles choice of words is in really bad taste and is from an epistemology alien to the discourse expected from people of knowledge. Even if the actual points you are trying to make are valid, this is not the way to make them.
I wonder if the problems you are alluding are exemplified and maybe even personified by you yourself as an archetype of a generation of religious leaders in America.
Thank you and this was the exact point I was trying to make with respect to phraseology. We do the opposite of what the Quran enjoins us “stringent with the rejector of faith, merciful amongst themselves.”
I would however not endorse what you have written in the last paragraph as that would make me complicit in what I am speaking out against.
There has to be a way of taking our leaders and ourselves to account that is aligned with our values and principles as Muslims. I remember the quote of Omar Mukhtar “they are not our teachers”. We have Adab, and it behooves us to be true to the framework of Adab that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) ﷺ has taught us.
Your precise, and yet also compassionate, academic writing elevates the discourse, which is exactly what we need. Thank you for your commitment to community.
Some good insight here and the use of OnlyImams is now a patent you hold.
Funny enough, I know the brother who owns the url lol
I’m all for analysis and critical review of how organizations function, and you have made some interesting points articulated by many others, publicly and privately. Issues of resource depletion, salary, impossible expectations, lack of training, strategic planning etc. are all on point.
However, I’m not one to assign labels, especially when they are pejorative and paints with a broad brush (despite the caveats). Our communities have survived because of the creative ways in which we engage, and one of these in the current period is to engage scholars, speakers etc. with appeal to the demographic that we are most concerned about. Sometimes our local imams may not have the expertise or the strategies to engage sisters or youth - hence what you have pejoratively referred to as DM. I think the term does a disservice to the good work many of these Imams/Scholars/Speakers do and presupposes a negative connotation with respect to their intentions.
I would like to see a fact based analysis of how many of these so called DM’s don’t have their own communities and only thrive online as you have suggested, or are even only financially motivated.
Even those who have a virtual presence primarily create a “community” where many people benefit.
FYI here’s a definition of a Mercenary:
“A mercenary is a professional soldier hired to fight for a foreign army or private group. Unlike regular soldiers, they are driven primarily by financial profit rather than political loyalty, patriotism, or ideological beliefs.The term also functions as an adjective to describe someone whose actions or motives are entirely motivated by money or personal gain.”
BarakAllahuFeekm for your response.
I think the creative ways we have created are a response to the times we live in, both socially and economically. Socially, we live in a consumeristic environment, so to pick and choose, while enjoyable is focused on short-term individual experiences and not long-term collective benefit. The short-term gain of getting the shaykh you enjoy doesn’t necessarily create community support needed over one’s life and doesn’t necessarily help other than one’s self.
A lot of DMs have their own communities and are doing fantastic work—remember, this is an insider’s critique—but being a DM is different than having a contract with 1-2 additional communities you visit monthly. Everyone I have spoken to would prefer to either stay in their community or have a contract/relationship with 1-2 more because they will be building for the longterm.
Essentially, as I have argued in other places (eg., https://www.khawatir.blog/p/cultivating-community-the-juice-is), I am advocating what’s best for both parties, clergy and community.
Jazakallah khair. I read the article you referenced and it’s a beautiful take on how a community comes into being. May Allah grant us all the blessings of a wonderful community anchored in faith.
I agree and it’s true what I said in the last paragraph could have been expressed better. I didn’t mean any offence to the author who is an imam after all and has made a commitment to serve the community far exceeding my own pathetic efforts.
💯Thank you for your reply (Farhad Khadim) to this article.
This re-purposing of terminology: ‘genocide’, ‘mercenaries’, and that disgusting website that seems to have captured American males, in the context of community structure, dawah, and imams respectively is really bizarre. It speaks to some serious psychological issues, trivialises the evil that these terms signify and somehow juxtaposes them with our deen; inviting to the way of our beloved prophet; and our ulamaa.
How bizarre and completely unjustified!
Here is an author who I don’t know but who is presumably an imam, effectively calling imams prostitutes, dawah speakers mercenaries and equating what he sees as structural problems in the community with the murdering of innocent people!
All the while the most vile and demonic people on the face of the earth are doing just those things - and mostly, though not exclusively - their victims are Muslims and their target is Islam.
Please brother/imam, Abdul-Malik Merchant, consider carefully your phraseology and your choice of words and context, weight it against your own knowledge of the deen before writing in such a careless way.
This articles choice of words is in really bad taste and is from an epistemology alien to the discourse expected from people of knowledge. Even if the actual points you are trying to make are valid, this is not the way to make them.
I wonder if the problems you are alluding are exemplified and maybe even personified by you yourself as an archetype of a generation of religious leaders in America.
Thank you and this was the exact point I was trying to make with respect to phraseology. We do the opposite of what the Quran enjoins us “stringent with the rejector of faith, merciful amongst themselves.”
I would however not endorse what you have written in the last paragraph as that would make me complicit in what I am speaking out against.
There has to be a way of taking our leaders and ourselves to account that is aligned with our values and principles as Muslims. I remember the quote of Omar Mukhtar “they are not our teachers”. We have Adab, and it behooves us to be true to the framework of Adab that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) ﷺ has taught us.