The influence of the ulema?

Posted under thinkers, ummah by rahma

In recent years, members of our ulema have come out with quite a few statements and declarations that express opinions on living in the west, relationships between muslims and terrorism.   Unfortunately, I can’t see what effect these declarations have on the ummah.

I’ve previously blogged about the Salaam 100, and I’m sure that most blogosphere muslims have read the Amman Message.   On a more recent blog/online oriented level, we have the Sunni Unity Pledge.  These messages are all well and good.  In fact, I whole heartedly agree we should be making statements such as these.  But, what happens after the statement?

 Just today, I stumbled upon the Topkapi Declaration, which was signed last year at a conference attended by some of the biggest names there are - Sh. Ali Gomma, Sh. Qaradawi, Sh. Hamza Yusuf, Sh. Nuh, Sh. bin Bayah, Mufti Ceric, Tariq Ramadan, among others.  How did I find out about this document?  Not in some message board exchange about it’s implications, or even an old blog post.  No, I found it while looking at pictures of the Shayook at the Muslims in Europe conference. 

 We remain committed to working to ensure that the voice of the peaceful majority of Muslims overcomes that of the tiny minority who seek to promote distorted misinterpretations of Islam. We join our voices to those of scholars from across the world to say that we reject the cancer of terrorism. We pray for the guidance of those to whom extremism and violence may seem an attractive route.

Why isn’t this document more widely discussed?  Why haven’t we worked on some way to get this message out in our words and deeds? 

In quasi related news, check out this picture.  So much ilm in such a small space.

The whited out blob is Sh. Nuh, who doesn’t want to be photographed