While some laughed at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's initial statement about a complete ban of all Muslims coming to America, Muslims should take it seriously. Whatever else Trump's statement might convey about himself, his supporters and the painfully divided Republican Party at present, it should personally challenge everyday Muslims about their faith and role in foreign affairs.
For instance, when do Muslims at local, national and global levels step forward and boldly question rogue interpretations of the Quran and other sources produced by out-of-step Islamic scholars? Why the reticence when such interpretations only feed further misunderstanding among us all?
Poisonous translations of works by Islamic scholars including Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir and Hassan al-Banna (among others) have not been challenged. While their scholarly work merits some appreciation, their innovations, insertions of questionable interpretations and cherry-picking of facts have had and continue to have a negative impact on how Islam is perceived today. Contemporary Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf writes: "This insidious disease has a source and that source must be identified so we can begin to inoculate our communities against it."
What's perplexing: None of their works ever stated that Islam is not about dictating to others how to live. They never stated that the true meaning of Islam is living your life the way you want and letting others live their lives. As matter of fact, most religions call for a similar concept, "Live and let live". Instead, their interpretations of Islam, as Mike Ghouse argues, infected the true meaning of the religion and what it stands for. They offer a calculated exclusion of the truth. I beg fellow Americans to look beyond this veil.
To fellow Muslims in our community and elsewhere in America, I add: If you truly care about explaining Islam based on accurate information, not twisted interpretations, then step forward and demonstrate all-American courage in speaking out. Come out from behind the walls of mosques. Get to know the community with all its diverse faiths.
Should self-respecting Muslims these days blame non-Muslims who see Islam as a threat? No, we should not, because there are elements within the Muslim community who say one thing and do another. Some claim to be inclusive, yet deep inside harbor ill feelings toward Christians, Jews and others.
Revel in diversity: Some Muslims, even here in my state of Texas, do not want to interact with Christians. I ask: If you do not care to meet, learn from, and befriend Christians and others, then why are you here? If meeting non-Muslims is so bad, why are you living in a predominately Christian nation? How can you have this double-standard that you ignorantly justify in the name of Islam?
Allah -- Arabic for God -- is no enemy of Christians, Hindus, Jews, gays, Buddhists, atheists, pagans, Shias, Sunnis, Ahmadiyyas and others. Too many Muslims have reduced the universal god of all to a private god owned solely by them and acting solely for them. This is simply wrong. And the consequences lay before us in the daily news of bombings, shootings and friction between the faiths, here in the land of liberty and beyond. Those consequences fuel much of the talk we now hear on the campaign trail.
How can misguided Muslims claim Prophet Muhammad is a mercy to mankind when the likes of Asiya Bibi, Youssef Naderkhani and Lena Joy, among others, have been charged with blasphemy and apostasy and sentenced to death? No wonder skeptics of Islam have difficulty seeing the Prophet Muhammad in benevolent guise. What ignorant Muslims refuse to acknowledge is that apostasy and blasphemy laws are not rooted in Islam. These laws are nothing but fanciful concoctions.
Muslims need to reject the old way of thinking, challenge the ignorance that have spread across the Muslim world and infected its way of thinking. Otherwise, the act of worship is nothing but a mask that shields the ignorant, the radical, the extreme and the misguided among us.
And to those Muslims, whether in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or even in the United States, who claim Sharia law is God's divine law, I say that's nonsense. And that's because anything that is divine is, by definition, flawless -- and Sharia law cannot be divine by any stretch of the imagination.
Works of God and man: To those Muslims living here in the United States, I point out that you do not have to look far to see how our own mighty U.S. Constitution -- deservedly acclaimed and celebrated the world over as the inspired creation of an enlightened set of men in America -- is nonetheless a human effort that has been amended 27 times to correct the flaws and shortcomings. Even today those on the right and left talk of amending it further. No less than the governor of Texas proposes a series of amendments.
God has blessed this great nation of ours. We are a free and brave people, something symbolized by Army Capt. Humayun Khan. If Muslim reformers among us cannot take responsibility and demonstrate equal courage to fix the problems in the way Muslims have understood Islam, then we contribute to the problem and have no right to complain when others criticize Islam.