Most Muslims take their faith and its practice for granted. They think their society is primarily a Muslim society, faith is a part and parcel of it, and the culture of the society takes care of religious practices, in one form or another.
Muslims living in the West are generally speaking doing better both materially and religiously compared to their counterparts in the East. They do have their share of problems, but one finds that the same people who had been not quite as devoted Muslims in their countries of origin have become far more committed to their religion after they moved to Europe, North America, or Australia.
What could be reasons for it? As far as I can understand, there are three reasons that cause Muslims to become better Muslims in the West: Muslims in the West are free, or let’s say relatively free, from the religious strings of their respective sects they are attached to back home. They are faced with challenges in the new society they have chosen to live in and for their survival they find ways of meeting the challenge, seeking help from all Muslims. And they are given to witness many parts of the Islamic principles getting implemented in the West for which they don’t have to face difficulties like they do in their own Muslim countries. However, that doesn’t mean that all is well for Muslims in the Western society.
The fact is that one of the reasons why Muslims can’t follow Islam properly is that they are generally speaking broken into sects in a manner that scholars and their followers are deeply committed to defending their sectarian views at times at the expense of the original message of Islam. Quite clearly it is an evil that ideally should be eliminated completely. The Quran condemns it in many passages but many Muslims are not pushed. It is the environment of the Western countries where Muslims of different nationalities and sects come together to achieve a common mission to defend their faith and religious traditions for themselves and that of their children. Thus what couldn’t be achieved at home is realized in the foreign environment. That speaks volumes of how empty Muslims of the existing times have become.
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“The article was published at dailycapital.pk on 01-MAY-15. We are reproducing here by permission”