A Sermon to Share

It was an opportunity to bring Faris for the Friday prayer. This Mesjid has quite a good mix of jemaah, mostly Indonesian and a fair share of other ethnics and also the native Dutch i.e. tall and lanky white Dutch. Giving a sermon is always tricky to accomodate all. Although the main medium is bahasa, the imam would also translate that into Arab and Dutch. On a few occasions one of the native Dutchman would give a sermon, obviously in Dutch and English.

The sermon today was regarding social integration. There is now so much anti Islamic sentiment in the Western world. If we look carefully, it is due more regarding cultural dislike rather than Islam itself. There is always a misunderstanding between what is Islamic and what is cultural oriented behaviours. The failure of not only migrant muslims but also the ummah as a whole to shake off anti Islamic cultural affinity is quite sad. One example is blood revenge for family honour which in a way attribute to the acceptance of suicide bombing in some cultures. Then there are groups which literally translate the hadiths and Qur'an to the extreme - as an example everyone except muslims are to be avoided socially and to be looked down. Equally for us, many of our own cultural practices also need to be looked at carefully. Lets not keep culture just for the sake of keeping a rich heritage but to review them whether they contradict with our religion. In past there were a few strong fatwas putting religion first before culture but lately we seemed to be turning back and culture is back in the heart of everything. So much so when we are not doing well, someone would say that at least on the bright side we still managed to preserve a strong culture!