Total Pageviews

Monday, June 05, 2006

Khawaja Syndrome

"…Tamara ..mmm..I gave her your phone number if you don't mind. I think you can really help her" my friend hesitantly reported to me. "Well, we could not get your number to her, so here is a number you could call her on" another enthusiastic friend said. this got me thinking !

Now from the top! Yesterday there was a lecture in one of Amman's Mosques and after a lecture a new Muslim telling the story of how she became a Muslim. She was a Jew, an American Jew, I did not go so my friends decided to give her my phone number. This part is actually alright, I mean yes I do speak English and yes I can offer help and guidance on religious issues. But the whole deal of her telling her story to the people in the mosque seems odd to me.

The odd part for me is for a (New) Muslim to give a lecture to (Veteran) Muslims, most of which are pious people to start with!! Shouldn't this be the other way around?! The new comers are the ones who need to learn more not us! Yes it's uplifting to hear this kind of stories, but the problem is with Muslims that don't have enough pride in their own beliefs, we should be happy for her and not happy for ourselves. We still regard the Khawaja ( Westerners) as better than us and thus when any of them adopts any thing in our lives like Islam, we are happy because we get a sense of comfort in the idea that its not only us who believe in Islam. its the Khawaja Too.

This is not the only proof and manifestation of our inferiority complex…there are many!! For example a lady I know was offered a Job in a Gulf country, but the catch is that is if she goes as a Jordanian with her Jordanian passport, she will get five times less than if she went with her American passport!! Can you believe that!! She is the same person regardless of the passport she carries. This is yet another manifestation of our inferiority complex; the question is when will we start respecting our selves and each other!! Rather than blindly and mindlessly seeking the approval of the Khawaja.

Grrrr this makes me so angry !!

That's all for now!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

A very promising blog Tamara, keep the good juice flowing…

Back when I was studying in England, I used to also find it rather blunt how some members of the Moslem community highly viewed converts & cherished them & the stories they had to tell! To the point that some (of the converts) got infuriated by the almost babysitting attention they got whenever they’re among their Moslem peers.

Methinks its due to the fact that we have got used to tossing our faith around to be taken for granted, as if it was a privilege that can be inherited over! Little do we appreciate the necessity of consensually establishing our faith & willingly adhere to its teachings in practice & away from it being a utopian abstract.

Perhaps what lures the pious & practicing born-as Moslems to hear from converts is the fact that they reminds us of the things we fundamentally lack in our creed, yet it’s utterly fatalist to seek validation in our faith from their stories, but rather view them as examples of the normal manifestations of how instinctual & universal Islam is.

Tamara said...

Thanks Basem for the kind words …

I totally agree with you. In my opinion the pool of Muslims have been born into Islam. and have never considered it or given any deeper thought into what it means.. These people that do not know any thing deeper than prayer (which in fact is really deep) but not in the way they do it. by only reciting the words and do not know half of what it means or represents or even most of the ground rules…..other parts of the belief they don't even consider EVER ! and mindlessly follow any beard

These people I don't get surprised by …but educated young Muslims, excelling in their lives as well fall pray to that and seek acceptance in the negative form, these people consciously chose to practice Islam. These are the ones that give me the hope in new Muslim generations, and those are the ones it really hurts to see take their creed for granted.

Thanks again for visiting my blog…

Osaid Rasheed said...

We have to change so many things !!