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The first thing that Obama had was faith - faith in himself. |
Barack Hussein Obama, an African American with a white mother and a Muslim father and step-father, a self educated former community organiser – has become the President of the United States of America. If anyone had suggested anything like this just one year ago they would have been called insane, but yet here we are today.
Obama, the Organizer.
This writing is not about Obama the man or Obama the President. It is beneath us as Muslims to seek favour from rulers of other nations, no matter how powerful we may think they are. Instead this thought is about Obama the organiser. It is about how the battle that Obama has fought is one that needs to take place in each Muslim community and how we, as Muslims, can learn from it.
The first thing that Obama had was faith - faith in himself. It was extremely audacious of him to even think he had a shot at being President, let alone trying. But he did and this points to a very strong personal belief in himself and in his mission.
His vision was bold and it was all encompassing - he offered nothing less than a better world to his countrymen. This is something that Muslim leaders and organizations lack. They do not know why they exist and rarely do Muslim leaders have the self-belief to aim for the stars.
Instead we chase short term goals and narrow minded discussions back and forth while the Ummah collapses around our feet.
Almost as important as believing in himself was being able to transmit this vision to others so that they believed in it even more than he did. It is plain to see that the Obama volunteers who have given up their lives for the last 2 years - without pay - to help get him elected President are powered by a faith that is raw and inspirational. It propels them to work long into the night and week after week.
Compare this to Islamic organisations, which suffer from a chronic lack of volunteers and more often than not are run by a small clique of people with little or no ability or desire to motivate the masses with their vision. Compare this also to the average Muslim who rarely has put in anything near the level of dedication and time shown by the supporters of McCain or Obama for the sake of Islam.
A Possible Brighter Future?
Next, Obama surrounded himself with a team of workers based not on their closeness to him, but on their merits. This meritocracy enabled him to develop a campaign which broke every single rule in the history of American elections.
Money? We do not need your millionaire cheques – we are going to get a million poor people to believe in us and outspend the oil barons and tycoons.
Influence? We are going to ignore the normal hierarchy of politics in the US and go straight to the grassroots and get them to believe in us.
Negativity? We are going to concentrate on the issues and let our opponents negativity drown them.
Muslim organizations however are too busy chasing money from whoever has it, setting up and maintaining rigid hierarchies and indulging in backbiting each other to bring about effective change.
The most impressive thing Obama and his campaign did was to reach out to the majority of Americans who everyone gave up on. He did not go by the conventional wisdom that only the political groups were worth talking to. Instead, he decided to reach out to the vast majority of Americans who felt disillusioned with the political system and made them believe in it again.
He made them believe that a brighter future was possible and he promised them that he would work hard to make it come true.
Today, most Muslim leaders cater for and reach out only to like-minded people. The concept of how to reach out to the vast majority of Muslim students who are alienated from Islam is never seriously considered. We grow happy sitting amongst our own little cliques and seeing the same faces at one talk after another when in fact our hearts and minds should constantly be geared towards drawing the majority of Muslims back towards Islam.
The Change!
The question we need to ask ourselves is simple. We who have the faith of Islam, the vision of our Prophet and the goal of raising the name of Allah higher - then why do we not believe in or work for our faith the way that Obama and his team have worked for their country?
Why do we not have leaders that inspire us and lead us towards unity and a new golden age and followers that are willing to put in the effort to get there?
Why do we not have the same desire to bring about change to our situation and the fierce urgency of now to achieve it?
Allah will never change the situation of a people until they change themselves - and right now it seems that the Americans are doing all the changing. Perhaps that is the most important lesson of all.
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