A Letter to All Muslims

I share a simple message.

It is one of change and understanding.

It is one of encouraging all Muslims in open dialogue.

A dialogue that is not regulated by taboo and tradition, but by truth.

It is a small request – I don’t think it is too much to ask.

I believe we are free to ask the questions in our mind,

to seek answers rather than be afraid of the way we will be received by others.

We are all free to seek knowledge

to realize truth for ourselves,

and the freedom to refuse to settle for the answer that that is just simply Allah’s will.

It is not a heretical act to understand God,

but often, this is how an inquiry into Islam is perceived.

I believe that Muslims need to stop segregating themselves based on ethnicity & nationality,

economic status and education,

between sects and tribes.

These divisions are false and man-made.

I believe the educated Muslim has a duty to help lift up the one that is struck by poverty

and mislead through influence.

I strongly believe that if Muslims can organize on a global level against cartoons about

Islam, then so can we for the countless times someone is killed in the name of Islam -

for the beheadings of humanitarian relief workers,

for those innocent lives stolen in reprisals,

for the Muslim who is killed simply because he is Shiite or Sunni, Kurd or Arab…

It is not that there is no Muslim Ummah, or that we are not united…but that we show

strength only when Islam is criticized.

Yet we remain silent when honor killings occur on a daily basis over the smallest act of

independent thought.

We remain silent when we see corruption in our own community.

We remain silent because we believe that is what is expected of us…but by whom?

We remain silent because we have not realized our potential,

Our potential, if we begin to seek truth above tradition.

How is it that we can take time off work and drive four hours for a protest against the

words of a foreign leader, but we do not raise our voice when the words in our own family betray God…

or when our actions betray humanity.

I do not believe that this is all we are -

only that this is what we have COME to be for so many reasons.

What we are to be remains to be seen.

Will we rise to be stars that illuminate the world

or will dim our light, one by one, each time we remain silent as the world around us

descends deeper into darkness.

The choice is ours to make, but what choice will we make?

That answer lies only within you.

- HSQ