A better way to repel Lady Gaga and co

We are living in bizarre times for sure. It becomes so difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood and good from evil, among other things. With all the attacks that we face, little by little we lose our humanity and the natural state we should have been in. These are times where Prophetic guidance has become more important than ever. Because it distinguishes clearly between truth and falsehood, good and evil, and in turn gives us back the humanity that we have lost.

Lately, there has been a buzz on the banning of Lady Gaga from holding a concert in Indonesia. Spearheaded by a group who call themselves “the Islamic Protector Front” (FPI) who threatened the concert if it was to be held, the organizers succumbed and canceled the SOLD OUT concert. The New York Post said that in total there were 52000 tickets, and all of them were SOLD OUT. So obviously there were a lot of people who wanted to go to the concert, and they have the right to do so. I’m not saying that it’s right… But if you want to have your opinions respected, you have to respect the opinions of others too. If you want to have a debate, have a good and healthy one too.

It breaks my heart to see something like this happen at a country in which Muslims are a majority. It shows the lack of quality that the Muslims have (me included) in understanding the religion properly. And with this, I mean from both sides (the supporters and the opposite).

If only we were decent Muslims that have a teensy weensy bit of knowledge on the religion, this whole Lady Gaga incident would never have happened. First of all, (even non Muslims see this) the singer is clearly not in the best state of mind. She does things that boggle the normal mind constantly (in a negative way unfortunately). And secondly, it is so obvious that many of her lyrics (which I have only heard a little by the way) insinuate towards adultery, and we are strictly told to stay away from such acts. And as a result, the tickets wouldn’t be SOLD OUT like it was.

On the other hand, if only we were decent Muslims, we would be able to react towards these situations in a better way. Not once was it reported that The Prophet (PBUH) shouted towards other people, not even in war! Yet we shout and condemn people to go to hell while we don’t even know what God’s decree is. It’s frustrating to see these so called “protectors of Islam” raising such banners. Many of the Prophets best companions were once opposing the Prophet, fought him (PBUH) in war, yet the Prophet had the patience to invite them to Islam and educate them. If only he (PBUH) was harsh and uncompassionate, they would have turned away from him. But out of God’s mercy, he (PBUH) was patient towards them.

Summing it up, with this whole “Lady gaga” banning saga, we can see that we are a sick nation (ummah). We’re sick enough to empty our purses to go to a music concert rather than feed the millions of poor people in our country, and we’re sick enough to let our akhlaq (good character) be compromised to reach a certain goal (which in this case is to ban a mere singer to perform).

There is no victory in this banning.

What’s the point in banning Lady gaga when we have a TV at home that plays the same kind of music and performances all day long? How are we going to tell our children to not go to such concerts when we ourselves are disconnected with them and don’t have a meaningful relationship with them? How do we expect to know what is good or bad for us if we have no (and are not interested in learning about) prophetic knowledge on the TRUTH of things?

So for Muslims, all of us need to rethink what we believe, get better education on our religion, and make a deeper take on the things that we face. In the ideal condition, even if Lady Gaga and co came to do a concert, nobody would even bother coming because of the obvious lack of benefit that they will get. People would have much better and more beneficial things to do instead.

May God make us people of essence and be able to see beyond the mere spectacles that are offered to us each and every day