Improving the Image of Muslims

I know you can't really preoccupy yourself for trying to improve your image with the people, who are persecuting you and who are oppressing you. You can't. This is a mistake. It's a serious mistake Because they're persecuting you and they're oppressing you because of their qualities, not because of your qualities. It's not because of anything about you.

And no matter what you try to teach them about you, no matter how much you try to make your image acceptable to them, they'll still have those same qualities. They'll still have the qualities that are making them oppress you in the first place. This what you have to understand, it's their qualities, not yours. And the only thing acceptable to them is for you to be underfoot. The only thing that they will accept for you is to be dominated and to be subjugated.

So you'll find that the only way to improve your image with those people, with the with your oppressor, is to appear compromising, and to appear obsequious, and to appear weak. That's what it means, for them to have a good impression about you. It means that they have to have an impression about you, that you actually accept, being dominated. That you accept, being subjugated, that you accept being oppressed. That's what a good image of you means to them, and to prove to them or convince them that you pose no threat to them.

That you're compromising, that you're accommodating, that you bear no animosity towards them in any way. That's what they want from you. In other words, they want you to become a partner in your own subjugation. They want you to internalize your own inferior rank relative to them. And when you start trying to project yourself and present yourself as docile, as passive, as compliant, then that's exactly what you have become.

You have become a a partner in your own oppression, and you have internalized your inferior status relative to them. And after you've done all of that, like I said, it's not going to lessen, or decrease your oppression at all. Because in fact, all you have done is participate in rationalizing it yourself. You've participated in justifying it yourself because you haven't called it out for what it is. That's why I said the persecution and the oppression has nothing to do with the qualities of the persecuted.

It has nothing to do with the qualities of the oppressed. It has to do with the qualities of the prosecutor. It has to do with the qualities of the oppressor, not the qualities of the one that they are oppressing. And when you think that the answer to the problem is to improve your image with them, well, you're acting like it's your responsibility. Like you're the one to blame for their actions.

No. They have to be called out for the injustice that they are committing, the wrong that they are doing. They have to be confronted as the criminals that they are. I mean, you act like being oppressed and being persecuted is, something to be ashamed of. Like you made a mistake.

Like your reputation is being tarnished by being subjugated. No. The one who's doing the oppression, the one who is, committing the prosecution, the one who is subjugating your people is the one who should be ashamed. They're the ones whose reputation is in tatters because of what they're doing. You act like you have to make amends for being brutalized.

Now you've got it backwards. As long as you care about what these people think about you, then you will, inevitably try to get on their good side. And as far as they're concerned, the heel of their boot is the good side when it comes to you. That's where they want you. They'll only be comfortable if that's where you are.

So if you're trying to get on their good side, then that's where you'll be. The only place that they want you is where they can look down on you. You don't need to worry about trying to cultivate or curate an image that they will accept. You need to cultivate an image that they will respect. And that means not being where they can look down on you, but where you are looking at them, dead in the eye, face to face, toe to toe, like men.

I mean, if you get trampled underfoot because you're already lying down, well, it's your own fault. And if you're already lying down, then you'll never even know if the one who's trampling you would have ever even been able to knock you down in the first place, if you're already laying down. Now you need to stand up, because it's a lot easier to trample someone than it is to knock someone down, And if all they're used to doing, is trampling on people who are already laying down, then if you stand up it's a lot more likely that they'll back down, rather than knock you down. And okay, the West may have had the power, in the past to knock us down. But I think they've gotten so used to us being down, and just trampling on us, and keeping us down, that they don't even have what it takes anymore to knock us down if we stand up.

In fact, I think that's what we're seeing right now. All around the world. The Muslim world is standing up. Africa is standing up. The global South is standing up, and we're all standing up at the same time.

And the West is backing down. They're backing away. They're withdrawing, And they should.