FORTIFYING FAITH
-How to protect Muslim youth from disenchantment from religious faith
Maryam Sakeenah –
Given the uninhibited freedom of the social media, ‘ex Muslims’ who openly profess their abandonment of Islam are now influencers with sizeable following in their dark, clandestine worlds.
The mainstreaming of Western post-Enlightenment thought with its secular-liberal ideas of individualism and permissive values has had a profound influence on the media and through education.
What are Muslim societies up against?
In most of the Muslim world, education is structured on an agenda of intellectual neo colonization, instilling quintessentially Western values into vulnerable young minds.
The evolution of the feminist movement into its contemporary radical, libertarian wave and its enthusiastic espousal of the LGBTQ rights movement has defiantly crashed into the very fundamental premises on which religion rests.
Vulnerable, exposed and defenseless against these raging winds of a disfiguring change, Muslim youth are widely questioning Islam, and tragically even abandoning it by droves.
Muslim societies face an unprecedented crisis of faith and a Herculean challenge in dealing with these raging tides. It is a crisis that requires entirely new, thoughtful and creative ways to save the faith of young Muslims.
Traditional Muslim clergy and academia is as of yet scantily equipped to grapple with this, often letting young people feel there are no answers to their questions, or that there are no avenues for them to raise their questions and be understood.
Islamic scholars have with them treasuries of scholarly work- discourses addressing some of the intellectual challenges to Islamic philosophy and theology. Yet this precious resource is completely inaccessible to young people seeking answers, because of its sheer archaic style, format and language. It no longer resonates with contemporary youth.
Is there a way out?
- Access to content of scholars addressing youth issues exclusively
Serious effort therefore needs to be invested into tailoring and adapting these works to make them easier to navigate for young minds raised on digital technology. New content also needs to be generated to address specific, burning questions of the day.
It is only fair to acknowledge some Muslim groups already working on these lines with some success: the Yaqeen Institute in the US by Imam Omar Suleiman has proven to be a breakthrough, bringing together academics and researchers equipped to address contemporary issues with religious insight and provide clarity and guidance to young people in a language they understand. Crisp infographics on controversial aspects, short video-based clips addressing common modern dilemmas and questions as well as research work of quality are its trademark, enabling many Muslim educators and truth-seekers to benefit.
Closer to home, the Youth Club has effectively used social media to provide simple, clear guidance on issues of the youth as well as controversial debates over different aspects of religion.
- Religious groups abound in Pakistani universities, but need direction and grounding
These need to be de-politicized and de-radicalized, and finally revived on the patterns of the MSAs (Muslim Students Associations) in Western universities. MSAs in the West have been extremely resilient as umbrellas of faith-based solidarity in hostile environments.
- Parents have to understand and train themselves on dealing with youth issues
Muslim parents are often unaware of the severity of challenges faced by young people, as a result of which there is an absence of vital communication. Young people find themselves braving the storms alone, growing distant from parents who do not understand the struggle.
Parents need to keep themselves abreast of social trends and phenomena that affect their young ones. It is effort well spent. They also need to demonstrate a lot more empathetic understanding of their struggles.
- Empathetic listening should be cultivated
This is mainly the job of parents and also teachers of teens and young adults. This means not passing moral judgments on their conduct, but showing support and providing reassurance as they try to navigate their difficult journeys in increasingly complex times.
- Open and tolerant communication needed in religious families
Religious families tend to over-discipline in their anxiety to compel children to keep to the straight. Imposing of too many rules and engaging in moral policing and judgment are counter productive. Excessive criticism, suspicion and unnecessary restrictions on young people make them feel mistrusted and disrespected for who they are, making it easy for them to betray that trust. Such parenting often ends up reducing religion to a set of prohibitions to be irrationally imposed.
Instead, parents must focus on planting the seed of recognition and love for Allah (swt) and the Prophet (sa) from the earliest ages, and setting a personal example of living passionately by faith, relishing its peace and deep inner contentment. Once the seed of love is planted in there, it will work its wonders, casting its light on their path.
Parents should also be ever ready to talk about difficult, taboo subjects with young people. They should be ready to hear young people express doubt, ask difficult questions, share their inner struggles. Just to let them know that they are understood and taken seriously.
A group of young boys at an Islamic school were asked about their spiritual struggles for this article. They shared how they are put down and asked to stay quiet, or rebuked for being disrespectful if they raise any question about religion.
As a result of this, they had stopped asking, and labored alone under the weight of those questions, not knowing who to ask, or whether there even is an answer.
It is not possible to insulate and protect young people from the influences and ideas that challenge the fundamental premises of religion. However, we can help them hold on to faith in spite of this, by assuring them that there are answers, and helping them look for these in the right places.
- Take it from the experts
If parents feel ill equipped to talk about these issues, they should seek help from experts. There is a lot of content available online from Islamic organizations based mostly in the West, responding to rising Atheism.
Muslim Debate Initiative, IERA (Islamic Education and Research Academy) in the UK, and the Yaqeen Institute in the US provide access to such content. Speakers like Mohammed Hijab and Hamza Andreas Tzortzis possess expertise in the subject.
Parents of young people must also protect them from the negative influence of peer pressure by providing them with opportunities to be part of religious communities in the area. Maintaining ties with other Muslim parents with kids the same age, frequenting Masaajid in the area and organizing spiritual and social activities for young people will help them develop a support group helping them stay connected to faith. Bonding with a community provides positive reinforcement, affirmation and hence confidence in one’s identity and values that are shared by the group.
- Walk the talk
The talk with young boys from religious households also revealed something deeply shocking and painful- they shared how while growing up they witnessed that the values taught to them by their parents were contradicted by the parents themselves in their own lives.
This seemed to suggest that these values that were imposed and shoved down throats by elders were impossible to be upheld and practiced, and had only been there as a means of exercising control over children.
This is a damning verdict from young people on our own inadequacies as we compel them to follow a religion we do not live by ourselves. The strongest and most effective argument for faith is living by faith passionately and resolutely, and sharing how one’s faith is one’s most treasured asset, compass, healing and refuge. Embodying and personifying this understanding is the strongest influence on our children.
When our lives become living contradictions of the values we preach, our young ones are repelled and driven away from the faith we reduce to an empty shell or a baton for enforcing control and exercising power.
