Assalaam walaikum,
When a boat is about to sink and we have run out of buckets it is time to be creative.
Chill out people. Chill out.
The youth of the US who are Muslim need to find imams who are approachable. They need someone who has had similar experiences as they have had. The imam made a joke, a cultural reference to a famous and talented singer. Subject over, next item on the agenda.
What the responders are missing are the eyes of the youth. Islam has to be gentle for the youth. They have enough issues in the daily lives at school. The poor youth are subjected to 25 year old white female teachers who are scared of them. Remember, in the US it is color based. Muslims are non-white.
I did not make up the rules.
We now have imams who are born and bred in the US. They do not have the cultural issues of foreign born imams. They are young and have a sense of the reality of living in the States. They are not inoculated in their culture.
Islam is not being sold short. The brothers are in need of role models. And the US culture is not as closed as the Arab world. We make jokes here. We take it easy.
What I see in the responses are those looking in the picture and have little clue of the condition in the picture.
Thanksgiving: Muslims can always fast on Thanksgiving. It is on a Thursday, always.
Good post....