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In The US, Imams Do More Than Just Lead Prayers
The complexities of being a Muslim in the West means that imams need to counsel, manage, and lead their communities, not just lead prayers.
By Shahed Amanullah, July 4, 2003
Tradionally, imams have had only one duty - to lead prayer - and usually the person in the room who knows the most Qur'an stepped up to the plate. But in the US, imams are finding themselves called upon to be everything from a counselor to media spokesperson. To that end, Muslim institutions are trying to organize training sessions to make sure that today's imams can meet the unique needs of American Muslims. ''You are at a crossroads,'' said Muslim political scientist Muqtedar Khan to an audience of US imams at one such gathering. Imams need to decide ''whether you're going to end up becoming office managers at the masjid or becoming leaders of your community.'' Without standardized training for imams in the US (rather than importing them as has been done in the past), some Muslim leaders fear that the community will splinter into small groups. ''We don't want the Muslims to end up with 700 determinations of Islam,'' said Florida imam (and trainer) Muhammad Musri.
Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.
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I applaud the call for Imams to be more than just leading the prayers or becoming Khatibs during the Friday prayers!
Imams need to be multi-talented leaders who can be counsellors, da'ee's who practice what they preach by going down into the masses and help the people who are facing all kinds of discrimination in their lifes!
Imams need to be knowledgable in the latest technologies and be able to implement the usage of multimedia in their dakwah to the Muslims.
Mosques should use the IT advancements to arouse the interest and attention of the congregation!
Imams could awake and hold the attention of the jamaah by using Multimedia projectors and screen visual and text images inline with their Jumaah Khutbas and be presenters instead of just being orators or khutba readers!
Person to person communication skills should be their forte and they should not come across as being too holy moly where the ordinary muslim or muslimah can't seek their counsel without prior appointments.
The Imams should be people friendly and emulate Rasulullah SAW in caring for the Ummah and not be aloof or just interact within their exclusive circle consisting of just the mosque officials.
We always see the Imams of the Muslim world come across as unsmiling, stern, ultra conservative persons who seem to have something stuck in their bowel systems and not approachable!
It's high them to give them either mental laxatives to loosen their self imposed restrictions of mixing uninhibited with their congregation and release them into the folds of the Ummah!
- Posted by klmuslims (Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia) on February 18, 2006 at 11:01 AM
Typo error on last paragraph!
It's high time to give them either mental laxatives to loosen their self imposed restrictions of mixing uninhibited with their congregation and release them into the folds of the Ummah!
- Posted by klmuslims (Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia) on February 18, 2006 at 11:08 AM
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