Mahin, SIM and Mort talk to Imam Marc Manley about working as an Imam for American masjids, race relations with the Muslim Community and touch on Muslims embracing liberalism.
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Imam Marc Manley worked as a Muslim educator in subjects ranging from the Arabic language, philosophy, and creed, to spirituality and self-purification. He was formerly the Muslim Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania.
He currently serves as the Religous Director of the Middle Ground Muslim Center based out of Upland, California.
Twitter: @manrilla
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Assalamu alaikum.
I am a revert, I myself was strongly attracted to the salafi mindset at one point, at this point I wouldn’t identify myself as anything, I am “Muslim-Muslim”. I can definitely understand the attraction to it and the reasoning. We are searching for something close to the sunnah, close to what we envisioned as being close to the sahaba and we are disappointed when we first encounter the Muslim community as a whole. In the long run, the focus has to be belief not focused on legislation. Anyways.
To my revert brothers/sisters, be warned this is correct. You have to be prepared to stand your ground. We have a high rate of apostates amongst reverts, I just wrote an article on this issue recently, you have to toughen up a little. Do not expect the community to hold you tight, they might, but ultimately you are going to be alone and sometimes being around the community makes your deen more difficult. You’ll see cultural practices so often overriding Islamic practices. You’ll get people telling you that you are extreme and others telling you that you are not strict enough. You will find that some people assume you are ignorant of your deen and yes it is insulting, suck it up buttercup. You are caught between two worlds and that is okay. Alhamdulillah for every struggle.
This issue of convert care needs to be addressed, an entire episode could go after this, but actions need to be taken.
One one hand, I’m glad Mort is on this show because it shows how dumb people are when approaching this topic and Imam Marc Manley acted with class in dealing with him. On the other hand, I just cringe so hard whenever he speaks. Read a book dude ( The New Jim Crow) and maybe watch a documentary (13th).
Replace all the statements you just made about black people with “Muslim” and see how bigoted you sound.