Abdul Malik Mujahid

The Muslim community is once again under attack in the United States, this time in the wake of an alleged foiled attack in Garland, Texas on an event by Islamophobe and a designated hate group leader Pamela Geller. Here are some talking points you and your organization can use.

Well.The Prophet banned revenge as he built his peace sanctuary in seventh-century Madinah, establishing instead the rule of law. Peace was his goal, which he achieved by developing alliances between Muslims and Madinah's non-Muslim Arabs, Jews, and Christians.

The United States has a system of challenging hate speech through a socio-political process which isolates and shames hatemongers. This is what was done to the KKK. That is how anti-Semitism and racism were ultimately deemed unacceptable in the mainstream media.

While striving towards personal development, we must also consider what we can do for Islam on a collective level and what exactly we need to do, mapped out in small but concrete actions. Here are a couple of ideas for the coming year. 

Criticism doesn't harm unity. Instead, it makes it stronger because Muslims then work together to solve problems for the benefit of the community.

Islamophobia is today's accepted form of racism. It will require Muslims to fight hard against it. Muslims are neither solely responsible for its creation, nor will they be able to fight it on their own. It is a collective responsibility for all bridge-builders of the world.

This is about an amazing Muslim woman I hardly knew. She was born 63 years ago in Pakistan in the same neighborhood where Malala Yusufzai was born. Today, hundreds of people showed up for her funeral prayers on less than a day’s notice.