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In today’s world, where the role and responsibilities of an individual, family, community, and nation are intermingled, the right and wrong are blended and tough to classify, the religion and purpose of life are misunderstood. Every corner of the world is burning with flames of injustice, inequality of economics, racial disparities, persecution of religion, ethnicity, to name a few in general and in particular the Muslim world, more specifically Somalia.

Somalia, a tiny country in the Horn of East Africa with rich of natural sources, once used to be called the “paradise of Africa” has lost itself in the eyes of the international and local community. A war has been going on for about 18 years, and children who were born at the beginning of the civil war have kids now. Many Somali families/parents fled with their children from this hostile environment, in which no one no longer knows who is to blame for committing this calamous crime. Many of these families fled to many parts of the world, and many of them chose to come to Minnesota, United States of America, to have a basic life of education, freedom, and food and shelter for their kids. Many needs such as education and work were acquired, even though many negatives arose, and outcomes did not come as was expected.

However, what is going on with the lives of Somali youngsters for the last couple of months has been shocking and outrageous to many of us. This year alone seven Somali boys lost their lives in shootings from other local Somali boys. The number of drop outs in schools is high rocketing among Somali teenagers, robberies and other mischievous actions are unimaginable to be mentioned here. Jails are filled up by Somali youngsters and studies show the number of Somali youngsters in jails have increased in double digits since the last couple of years. Many others are lost in the middle, hanging outside with no value in this life. Lack of parental care and communication, positive role models within the community, failure of public school systems to accommodate their needs, to be named of few, are to blame for these causes.

As the community grieves the loss of these young men, and uncertain future of many others, the community encounters another dreadful dilemma, in which is yet not known for its bases. Somali young men have gone back to Somalia to fight in the civil war. There are many stories about this episode among the community, media and the general main stream. However, there are no clear answers to some basic questions such as why they have left, how, and who was behind it thus so far, but I am sure the law enforcement and FBI will investigate this case and get to the bottom of the story. Somali people have had enough difficulties already abroad and back home, a whole society with no functioning government for about two decades, one can imagine how serious the conditions of such people are. Everything, including the rule of law, has been eradicated because of lack of order everybody does anything he or she wants.

The only thing that we have, which we are proud of is the peaceful religion of Islam, and if this becomes true (Somali young men have gone back to Somalia to fight in this so called ‘holy war’), it will be a catastrophic and another loss for Somalis, because Islam was misunderstood completely, either by these students or the recruiters who have taught them as the two are interconnected. It is hard to believe the reasons of why one should put an effort and energy to jeopardize the lives of these young boys and perhaps their relatives and the community at large if any. They should spend their time and money to help them to go to school, be obedient to their parents instead, so that they can help themselves later. This is absolutely a despicable action, which is against the aims and objectives of Islam. After one has taken care of his or her self including education, work, and etc, the basic principle of Islam, one should take as their next step to take care of his or her community. By ‘community’ we mean and define as where one resides. It is a religious obligation on one to help his or her neighbor. According to Islamic tradition, the land belongs to God, so the people that live in the land have to obey the land and the people. God said, “Verily, the land is for Allah)

This means whether one lives in Somalia, U.S.A or any other country for that matter, Islam obligates him or her to work hard to promote the common good in the community that one lives in. In Minnesota, and Twin Cities, we have many homeless, sick, elderly people who need our immediate assistant.

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) states numerous times for helping ones neighbors and the followings are some examples of his hadtihs.

 In a Hadith related by Abu Hurairah (r.’a.) the Prophet (pbuh) said, “By Allah, one is not a true believer, By Allah, one is not a true believer, By Allah, one is not a true believer (three times). He was asked ‘Who?” Upon which he replied, “The one whose neighbors do not feel secure from his or her mischief and evil.

In another Hadith, related by Anas (r.’a.), the Prophet (pbuh) said “One has not affirmed faith in me (i.e. One is not a true follower) who eats to his or her satisfaction and sleeps comfortably at night while his or her neighbor goes hungry – and he or she is aware of it.”

Another hadith narrated by Abu Shurayh (r.’a.) that the Prophet (pbuh) said “Whoever believes in Allah and the final day (Day of Judgment) it is essential that he or she does not harm his neighbors and whoever believes in Allah and the final Day it is essential for him or her to entertain his or her guest with kindness and generosity and whoever believes in Allah and the Final Day it is essential that he or she speaks what is good or otherwise remain silent.”

 It is reported, on the authority of Ayesha (r.’a.) and Ibn Umar (R.A.) that the messenger of Allah (pbuh) said “The Angel Jibra’il (A.S.) counseled me so frequently regarding the rights of the neighbor that I feared, he too would be declared an heir.”

These are just few hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), in which he emphasized the importance of helping our neighbors. If we put our resources together and prioritize our work and most importantly understand our religion and follow it truly, we would be able to help and satisfy whoever needs help. One of the biggest challenges we are encountering these days is misunderstanding the religion of Islam. When the concept and principle of Islam is misunderstood, when YouTube becomes a primary teacher, when only appearance is emphasized, when there is no hierarchy and respect for actual scholars, when there is no control and everybody becomes an imam, we get ourselves into where  own periscope of Islam, which in return becomes bid’ah, an innovation to the religion.

The ideology which promotes hate and violence is not part of Islam, no more than excessive and deviation from the path of majority of Muslims, but unfortunately in these days many people use the name of the religion to fulfill their political agenda and to promote their hate crimes to the society. And if the Muslims do not stand shoulder to shoulder to stop this virus idea, it will create more problems. This corrupted ideology has a tie and is sister to the idea of (khawrijtes) who killed the Islamic caliphate, Ali bin Abi Talib (r.’a). This type of extremism, who put much emphasis on people’s appearance and based on their corrupted description makes anyone who does not fit their portrayal out of the religion will not make any benefit for Muslims nor to others. When the world becomes one room with sophisticated technology, internet with YouTube and Facebook, this ideology is taking the minds of the younger people who have no ability of knowing who is who.

Islam is a religion of moderation, it is not and has never been nor it will be to far and extreme to the right nor to far and extreme to the left. It is a religion of peace and mercy that tells its followers to respect the elders, to be kind to the youngsters, to feed the needy, to cloth the naked, to educate the ignorant, to welcome the guests, to forbid evil, and tell and encourage the good. These are the core values of Islam, which we need to apply to ourselves and to implement to our daily activities. Therefore, a Muslim person should be a productive and active citizen who contributes to the common good. It is a time to  establish Islamic curriculum that teaches people self responsibility and development”, in other words, we build people from the grassroots, teach them how to succeed in their education in both Islam, school, and other subjects, to be obedient to their parents, help needy people, to be truthful and not lie, to be law abiding citizens, to be active in the community they live in, to keep their Islamic identity, and to treat people as to how they want to be treated, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, because Prophet Muhamed (pbuh) commanded us to do so.

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