Question

American Muslims form a line when buying, say, a bus ticket. Yet, you don't find any GI Jamilas suddenly jumping out to tell people how to form a straight line. It just happens. Amazing, isn't it?

I'm wondering, what causes certain American Muslims to suddenly feel the power of God to such an extent that they must dictate order to the rest of the society? Do they not feel ashamed in the way they oppress other people? Why is ‘common-decency’ a non-issue to most of these negatively- charged- anger-breathing –knuckleheads?

These people who hide in masjids and muslim schools are powerless on the streets, because on the streets they must adopt the dictates of common decency that the rest of the society follows. You'll hardly see a man who stops women at a masjid door (for whatever sick reason) acting in the same arrogant way when he's working in the public sector. There, he’s just an Average- Karim!

In most cultures, people who rule our masjids (and masjid doors) would be considered uneducated, ignorant, and uncultured. In Pakistan, for example, these people would be called Jahil, which means ignorant, & sometimes synonymously, illiterate as well.
That’s correct, illiterate, as opposed to learned sages who must oppress others in order to spread the light of Islam. You, just don’t see a man telling a woman where she belongs in the public domain. In fact, in Pakistan, I can have the man beat up who speaks to me in a disrespectful manner. All I have to do is belch a quick. “ Bachaao!” (Help!). A group of men will gather around me and beat the living day lights out of the man who was trying to approach me. (I think, this needs to be seriously appropriated into the American Muslim Culture). But, I digress.

Back in college, I remember this one guy, who decided he didn’t like pictures, so he took a marker and destroyed all the 'Discover Islam' posters that had a female face on it (strangely, he didnt destory the male visage). Not liking pictures is fine, not liking females is fine, but destroying public property is a crime. And that is not fine. We could’ve easily wasted months on theoretical discussions on whether picture – formation is haraam in Islam or not but we instead to focus on social –responsibility and the need for the community to uphold a certain level of common –decency. It worked!

But back to the main concern: How is it that people are getting away with this lack of common decency or professionalism in Muslim Institutions? Why aren’t we attacking this from the angle of social responsibility instead of wasting time with entertaining their mindless arguments?