1. Best way to escape the media-sound-bytes-silly-issues agenda of MCC is to make a pro-active agenda for community participation.
2. There is no religion without a clergy. Instead of bothering ourselves with clergy in Iran or Afghanistan or Saudi or Egypt, we should have our academics talking to Canadian Muslim clergy.
3. If a malicious or ignorant accuser accuses us of condoning 'terrorism' and is unaware of the issues surrounding 'terrorism' and prefers to adopt the neocon non-definition which makes every anti-US/Israel militant group a terrorist - it is best to ignore the question. It is much better to use the phrase, 'we are absolutely
against the killing of civilians for any political goal or for creating political pressure'. That is the best definition of terrorism, and avoids falling into the trap of the media-implied definition and having to start a sentence with ' . . . it depends on the definition of terrorism...'
4. Regarding Hizbullah, it has been declared a 'terrorist' organization by Canada and by law, it cannot be supported materially and no Canadian citizen should do that. However, it is NOT against the law to report on their actions in war, their political and social activities, their approval ratings, their shortcomings etc. If a US TV commentator can quip, 'Give Hizbullah the task of rebuilding New Orleans' - I am sure we can do the same in a humorous and funny way.
Also, Russia does not deem Hizbullah to be a 'terrorist' organization and that should be raised as a reminder of the relativity of national laws.
The facts are the facts - there is no law against facts. Hizbullah is a militia created to defend the country because the Lebanese government was weakened by decades of civil war and the only alternate was for Lebanon to become a client state of Israel. Hizbullah is fully supported by, and is represented in, the Lebanese government.
Regarding any accusation of being 'Hizbullah supporters' We should only reply with 'amusing', 'hysterical', 'inconsistent' and 'hypocritical' depending on the accuser's tone. None of us supports Hizbullah, but nor can be verbally blackmailed into vilifying it without justification.
5. We should try to set up a rapid-response conference call between all bona-fide major Islamic organizations in Canada, in order to respond to events that require an urgent and consistent response.
6. We should NOT fall into the illusion or trap that the only 'progressive' Muslim is the one who hates clergy, hugs homosexuals, dates, drinks, and hates all Islamic governments and militias. We should not bother with issues of personal morality - that is true 'progressiveness'. We should educate clergy, ignore divisive political issues, and guide Canadian government's foreign relations with Muslim countries and organizations - without judging their morality or 'progressiveness'. We have all had incidents when we need the clergy for a funeral or a wedding or matchmaking for children, or for social necessity.
Put another way, our membership will be transient and tiny and only reactionary if we do not reject the MCC approach to 'progressiveness'. In order to have deep community relationships and a true evolutionary progressive approach, built through education, involvement and respect, we do not need identical-thinking clones, and we cannot exclude people based on their thoughts.
