The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

Nothing sets one off in the way an arrogant, self-aggrandizing personality does. These personality types make it near to impossible to engage in meaningful dialog. A stream of self-informed consciousness streams from their mouths while they remain impervious to any counter thought.In a recent conversation I had with an interfaith colleague, this was the unfortunate observation of previous speakers that had been invited to partake in a knowledge sharing endeavor. Instead of being open to questions and sharing opinions, they dictate their opinions as religious canon, often at the cost of putting down other faiths. Yes, I am specifically talking about Muslims here - Muslims who have no social graces and lack the “bedside manner” of participating in interfaith dialogs. This points to the serious need for Muslim communities to demand standards from our spiritual leaders and public mouthpieces.

The aim of this post is not to blast any of these persons in specific. In the aforementioned case I am not aware of any specific names and where there have been cases that I have witnessed firsthand, the names will remain anonymous, as it is not my objective to perform character assassination on any single person. But it does beg the question of why are we in this situation and what qualifications do these people have in representing us? I have witnessed firsthand the social fumbling of immigrant imams attempting to engage in dialog with non-Muslims and the results have been something of a plane crash. Many do not even possess the requisite oral skills such as being proficient in English as well as having sufficient background in the culture, history and politics of this country. Simply knowing that Islam is al-Haqq is not longer an acceptable qualification. It is a moot point that one believes that Islam [or Christianity or Hinduism] is the correct religion. If you’re a practitioner of that given religion it is safe to say you believe it’s correct. But the function of an interfaith dialog is not a boxing match where ones debates his or her theology. It’s about exchanging ideas and learning how to educate and be educated. We must never forget that we are there to learn as well. Read more this entry »

I’d like to extend my thanks to Tom and his class for having me back again to talk about Islam at Penn Charter. As with my last visit I am impressed with the caliber of questions the students have to ask. Some were most definitely hard questions to answer. I greatly enjoy these types of engagements where I am able to chat informally with a younger audience and get their perspectives on things. They ask questions in ways that an older and perhaps ill-informed audience might ask. They’re also mildly receptive to by baseless humor, which most certainly helps break the ice! I hope that I will have another opportunity to come back and talk again. Thanks.

American social mores can be quite peculiar. To gain social acceptance in America usually requires some type of struggle to “get in”. Once you do get in, while you might be razzed from time to time, it no longer becomes socially or legally acceptable by the vast majority of the populous to make degrading remarks or actions towards those who’ve “gotten in”. Parties or individuals who seek to do so risk moral condemnation and can be banished to the periphery as ignorant, barbaric and rude. These aforementioned protections are precisely what Blackamericans have earned and it is these rights that are being squandered, more specifically here for the sake of this post by Blackamerican Muslims. And while there are still many of us who are waiting to till their land with that ever elusive mule as well as that reparations check that just never seems to show up in the mail, four hundred years of mournful mistreatment on a part of American society and its government have afforded Blackamericans many civil liberties and protections that, if continued to ignore, may slip away. And if you think your immigrant brothers aren’t jealous, you’ve got another thing coming.

Since the attacks of September 11th, the United States has cracked down on groups or people it believes as being responsible, actively or tacitly, for those attacks. High profile cases in the news covering Muslims [and here we should point out immigrant Muslims], who while flying have experienced increased scrutiny or down-right racist treatment simply because of their religious/ethnic backgrounds and perceived terrorist affiliations. While blacks may be woefully guilty of DWB [Driving While Black], Arabs, Pakistanis and even Sikhs [who aren’t even Muslim] are guilty of FWM [Flying While Muslim]. Read more this entry »

From time to time I take an extended leave of absence from blogging, though by no means am I just resting on my laurels [well, not completely anyway]. But this leave of absence has been a bit different in that it has been due to a number of issues, personal, private and just plain old worldly, that in combination have put in me in cyber-exile, so to speak. Questions of faith, both of an introspective and personal nature as well as larger world views, have occupied me intensely. But I have not been totally idle. I have been gathering my thoughts, mostly in my head, about all of the above and more and am now trying to distill them into coherent topics. I hope to put them down here soon and look forward to your reactions.

I have also been engaged in other art projects, photography namely [the new Marc Manley Photography page as well as a new series entitled Con Frequencia] - even the entry page is different now, reflecting the three major things I’m involved in at this point], and have been dedicating some time to that endeavor as well. But primarily I have been looking upon the American Muslim, in all of his or her permutations and ask, “what are we doing?” “Who are we and where are we going [if anywhere at all]?”, without trying to dump us all into a monospace [as so often the media does]. Ranking amongst these questions are how can we, as American Muslims, reform our practices in terms of man/woman relations [i.e., dating, marriage and the whole shebang]? For they are most certainly in need of reform. Our political voice[s] or lack thereof. And of course, I look to the Blackamerican community primarily as I am not an immigrant. As a matter of fact, I have given considerable thought to the state of Black America in general, regardless of religious affiliation and wonder where Black Folks are headed [again, if anywhere at all].

In the end, all of this mental gymnastics makes me re-think my approach to blogging altogether. If you look at this blog, it has changed over the years from mildly amusing posts about my random life to taking on a more concrete feeling - attempting to tackle a few issues, state some opinions and try to connect with the various communities that I am engaged in [even in that there’s a good post to come - what community/ies do I belong to?]. So again, I will be reexamining my role as commentator and thinking about where I want to drive this vehicle and how I want to drive it - left lane or right? So check back in a few. I will have some posts for your reading pleasure and as always, I look forward to your comments.

Thanks - “M”. Philadelphia, April 9th, 2007.

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