Source: Duluth News Tribune
By: M. Imran Hayee
Over Thanksgiving dinner a friend asked me a usual question: “What are you thankful for today?”
My answer was rather unusual: “I am thankful to live in the most Islamic country of the world.”
With a stunned face, my friend instantly reacted, “America, the most Islamic country!?”
To alleviate his astonishment I tried to differentiate a Muslim country from an Islamic country. A country is a Muslim country if most of its residents call themselves Muslims but an Islamic country is one where most, if not all, Islamic values prevail, regardless of the size of its Muslim population.
Puzzled once again, he exclaimed, “What Islamic values?”
To elaborate, I highlighted fundamental Islamic values that sadly most Muslim countries are devoid of today but America still embraces.
My first example was cleanliness. Every Muslim knows Prophet Muhammad declared cleanliness equivalent to half of the Islamic faith. The Islamic concept of cleanliness ranges from personal hygiene to environmental well-being. Today no Muslim country — with or without oil money — can come close to the cleanliness standards we enjoy in America. America’s Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control have unprecedented authority and latitude to ensure environmental safety and public health.
After cleanliness, I reverted to charitable giving, which is, in fact, one of the five pillars of Islam. Numerous verses of the Quran urge Muslims to help the needy and feed the hungry. No doubt Muslims around the world are generous in giving, but Americans simply outdo them. According to the World Giving Index, which ranks 153 countries across the globe for their charitable behavior, no Muslim country ever surpassed the U.S. America even topped the list in 2011.
My friend countered, “That’s because America is rich. Every year, Muslim countries raise hundreds of billions of dollars in charity.”
“True,” I acknowledged, “but corruption devours most of it.” I advanced my argument by quoting many verses from the Quran that demand Muslims show the utmost honesty, truthfulness and justice in all worldly and religious matters. However, the behavior of Muslim countries tells an opposite story. Many Muslim countries were ranked in the bottom 25 of 176 countries by the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index of 2012. No Muslim country ranked in the top 25 least-corrupt countries, where America stood at 17th position.
Categories: Americas, ISLAM, United States
Good logic & wonderful defense!!
“Every Muslim knows Prophet Muhammad declared cleanliness equivalent to half of the Islamic faith.” Please note that this statement is for a Muslim and it does not mean that a very clean person is half a Muslim. You have to believe in one God for a start to begin to be a Muslim. Before branding America as an Islamic country you have to see other aspects of its “cleanliness”. I love the US for what it is, a secular state. It does not want me to go overboard in praising it and it does not care if I criticize it.