ISOC AGM

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

This year's AGM shocked me as I could see how people in ISOC are thinking. Some people don't want a more liberal ISOC that welcomes non-Muslims by sacrifying some important views. That is ridiculous! I can't accept that, at all. If homosexuality is haram in Islam, how can you tell people it is ok??? If drinking is haram in Islam, how can you tell people sometime Muslims do drink and it's ok for the sake of socialising???

People have to learn the importance of dawa, yes, I agree but not to the extend of LYING, also not to the extend of hiding the truth. If the truth is the truth, it will prevail. If you try to hide it from a non-Muslim, one day, he or she will discover the truth anyway, and that makes thing worse as he or she might think why you didn't tell him or her in the first place. Also, lying is not going to help a non-Muslim to learn about Islam or get nearer to Islam, why? It's simple. If one day, alhamdulillah he or she becomes a Muslim and realises that it's haram to do so and so that you have told him or her it's ok, what would he or she think? Think about it before you want to tell a so-called 'white lie'. Lying is haram anyway.

Don't misunderstand me as a person who likes to label everything as just halal and haram. There are 5 categories. Every Muslim knows it. My point is intention doesn't justify the mean. Dawa is a good intention but it doesn't mean that whatever you do to reach that goal will become halal automatically. Carrying out a less halal (or makruh) mean can mean the loosing of barakah (blessing) in what we intend to do. Of course, carrying out a haram mean can mean adding sins for yourself.

I completely shattered by what was said in the AGM and pray that this is not the opinion of most of the ISOCers. If this is so, I think ISOC is trying to exclude people who want to learn more about Islam and become more practising. Being in Cambridge which is full of wine and mixing around, ISOC becomes a sanctuary for me. It is a place where I can socialise in an Islamic manner. If that isn't going to be the ISOC which I think it should be, there will be no point of building the ISOC, unfortunately to say so. I sincerely pray that ISOC will not go into the opposite direction because with stronger faith & reliance on ALLAH, with more practice and worships that ALLAH will help us in all aspects of our lives including making dawa or welcoming more people into ISOC. If people don't believe in this, I really wonder in which position they put ALLAH in their hearts and their lives...

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.