What Muslims urgently need is first of all confidence. The identity crisis is a deep one and it is imperative, through education, to develop better knowledge of oneself and one's history, to shape a conscience and intelligence that is confident and serene: that is both sure of itself and humble toward others. Ultimately, self-confidence should be allied to confidence in others.
This process must be associated with a permanent, rigorous duty of consistency; one should not idealize one's values and message and become unable to draw up a thorough critique of the contradictions, malfunctioning, or even betrayals that run through Muslim societies and communities. Critical mind, critical loyalty, active rationality are not only the best allies of deep spirituality but also the conditions for development and renewal. Wherever they are, in whatever region of the world, Muslims should be witnesses (shahid, plur. shuhada) to the richness and positive potential of their message.
To this end, they must contribute to the common welfare, whatever people's religion, status, or origin: the poor, the sick, and the oppressed, in our eyes, should have no religion. Muslims citizens' contribution must be an answer to the outdated discourse obsessed with "integration."
In all the realms of intelligence and action (the sciences, the arts, cultures, societies, politics, economy, ecology, ethics, etc.) Muslim must recapture the energy of creativity and a taste for initiative and risk. Minds and talents must be liberated and women and men must be offered space for expression, experimentation, criticism, and renewal.
Yet they must not forget that many of their fellow citizens (eve of their fellow believers) have fears, do not understand, would like to know more: communication is essential. Choosing terminology, defining concepts, being able to shift one's perspective and show intellectual (and cultural) empathy are important not only from one's standpoint as a speaker but also in the situation of those who listen (with their fears, their history, their references).
Another requirement remains: being consistent and self-critical cannot justify failure to criticize others' inconsistencies hypocrisies. Confronted by powers, governments, or even laws (like the apartheid laws that used to be institutionalized in South Africa), one must retrain one's duty and right to contest. One must be able to resist the betrayal of principles, even when the betrayers are one's own family, one's fellow believers, one's government, or whoever else. One must not remain silent, whether in front of the hypocritical posturing of Western states in reaction to China's repression of Tibetans (whom I have been defending for over twenty-five years) or amid the international community's silence while Palestinians suffer colonization and repression at the hands of successive Israeli governments. [24]
Developing the capacity for empathy, understanding, forgiveness, and reaching compassion for oneself and others (as the Buddhist tradition requires) is another imperative. What this involves is not pity or passive sentimentalism but understanding and forgiveness in action, demanding justice without even forgetting the realm of the heart and of love. [25]
-Tariq Ramadan, What I Believe, p. 87-88
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