I tuned into this series of documentaries and I am must say they were interesting. Navid Akhtar’s piece in particular was very relevant and I imagine that people like me up and down the country identified with his findings and could draw direct comparisons to their own communities. I had hoped for a more fuller program about this subject. For those who have been following my blog will know that this is a pet “peeve” of mine, masjids that do not serve the needs of the coming generation and are completely stuck in a sub-continent mentality. One thing I found rather amusing was when one of Navid’s interviewees from mosque committee blamed Navid (and by extension the rest of us) for not going to mosque to learn Urdu and Arabic! What some of our older generation don’t realise is that our masajid are not set up to handle the teaching of Arabic beyond reading the script but without meaning. And I personally think that teaching Urdu at the expense of teaching Arabic as a language is a waste of mosque resources. Whilst Urdu is very rich in religious literature, I doubt that many people who would learn Urdu from a mosque will use this skill to approach religious material. I fully acknowledge that Urdu is important to preserve our cultural identity but not at the expense of our religious and spriritual progression and our identity as British Muslims. Let’s face it no matter where we have originated from, we are here to stay and this is as much our home as anyone else’s.
wa’as-salam
Mas’ud
www.masud.co.uk