It was a beautiful evening, the kind of night that calls you outside to watch fireflies, but the place was packed.
Since 9/11, Muslims in Connecticut and beyond have taken a proactive approach to discussing their faith. Otherwise, as Mansoor says, the void is filled with haters like Pamela Geller (the flamboyant anti-Islam spokeswoman for haters everywhere) and, more recently, the presumptive Republican candidate for president.
That June evening in South Glastonbury, just as Mansoor had just finished his basic introduction to Islam, a woman leapt to her feet to shout about how horribly she thought Islam treated women, and then she went to leave. As she stormed her way out, an audience member asked if the woman would at least stay for the talk, to which she replied that Mansoor would only be sharing propaganda.
And isn’t that the way of all haters? They drop and leave. You see it on social media all the time, the sharing of false and hurtful information that with purpose and conviction sounds almost plausible. It’s how Candidate Drumpf built his following, and it doesn’t take a social scientist to draw a thick line between the hate speech of politicians (and their cohorts’ complicit silence) and precisely this kind of local action.
We would not allow such haphazard “scholarship” in relation to Christianity or Judaism or any other belief system with which we are familiar. So why is it OK for Islam?
Fortunately, Mansoor doesn’t get tired.
“There was a need for the Muslim community to stand up at the different vigils, at Berlin Mosque, on NPR, on Fox,” he said. “It’s vitally important we are out there explaining Islam. In our absence, that vacuum is filled by hatred.”
source : abna24
