I live in Indianapolis, and apparently, they will soon raise taxes (http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=3469962) to pay for a new stadium that is being built for the Indianapolis Colts football team.

I also work for Indianapolis Public Schools and find it interesting how willing they are to hike the taxes for stadiums while continuing to cut funding for schools (http://www.indianademclub.org/blog/2005/03/22/indiana-politics/46/).

Why is the responsibility of the city to pay for such a stadium? Where does revenue from the stadium go? It certainly doesn’t go back into the pockets of the people. And it’s not as if it’s free to go see a football game. What message are we sending to our children who we’re supposedly not leaving behind?

Bismihi Ta’ala,

I just returned from salatul-Juma’ah (Friday congregational prayer) at the masjid. The person giving the khutbah was someone I had never seen before. Masha’Allah, he was very well spoken in both English and Arabic. It was a very enlightening lecture about iman.

One point that he mentioned that has led me to this afterthought is that many people are attempting to enclose Islam within their own ideologies. We have many “reformers” within the Muslim community, whose agenda appears to be opening a “stale and backwards” Islam into the “pluralism and freedom” of the West. There’s an ongoing discussion at Muslim Message and many other issues, such as women leading prayer, that have sprung from this progressive Muslim movement.

I was going to write about how their approach to “reform” is part of the reason many Muslims have been turned away from them, but it seems one of their own, Muqtedar Khan, has an article about it, in which he writes:

“…There are several aspects of style that seems to bother average Muslim readers. The tendency to immediate mock and ridicule prominent American Muslim leaders and organizations – a song that calls Siraj Wahhaj a fag is often cited. Most people have no problems with criticism, but they object to the complete lack of Islamic adab. Regardless of what ploy MWU editors may use to defend this – “Oh it is under the section satire, or humor “ – the distasteful content speaks or rather stinks for itself. This is not the Islamic way. One thing that many people told me was that they were deeply hurt by the manner in which MWU either dismissed or mocked traditional Muslim scholars of the past and the present. “

I agree that many “progressive Muslims” have undermined their own movement by failing to follow traditional Islamic adab in their arguments. I can also safely state that many traditional Muslims have done the same.

There needs to be serious dialogue between all sides (and I say all sides because many Muslims are in between these two extremes). All issues should be brought to the table so that each group can decide what is acceptable and rational for both and what is only acceptable for one. If this does not occur, the progressive movement will splinter into a sect and eventually be lost within the dusty pages of Islamic history. And I’m not even saying that losing it is a bad thing. Perhaps that will be one of the tests of its validity.

I certainly welcome any progressive Muslim to come to Muslim Message and discuss any of these issues with me and to possibly arrange for our scholars to dialogue.