I refuse to be a hyphenated Muslim...

Me, I don’t mind what religious order, movement or jurisprudence one approves of. Whether Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’I, Hanbali, zahiri or whatever it is, I wouldn’t question anyone’s motivation. If Wahhabism or Ahl al-Hadith is your movement, we’re good still. If Tijaniyya, Qadiri-ya, Muridiyya, progressive or liberal Islam is what you hold with, I still have no bones about that. In fact I respect the fact that you believe in something.

If you want to be a Christian-Taliban, a Muslim-Catholic, a Nyabinghi-Buddhist or a Bobo-Hindu, it’s your call, but for myself, I refuse to be a hyphenated Muslim.  I am a Muslim seeking peaceful existence through submission to my Creator and that’s it. If you bring a good vibe, I will listen to you and that’s because I love to learn, but the decision to act upon or refuse to comply with what you say is entirely mine.

I don’t deal with chicken hawk spirituality. In fact my favourite quote on religion was said by his imperial majesty and he was not a Muslim, so that’s how tolerant I am. In an attempt to urge people not to “interfere in the realm of God” he said: "No one should question the faith of others, for no human being can judge of the ways of God." 

How I wish all of today’s religious looking people were as openhearted as children and with no ridiculous cause to wrong one another. I am sure we wouldn’t have been in this clusterfuck that we are in today. This is what I woke up with and thought I should say it.