Sometimes words do not fit, but nevertheless are used to describe matters that need understanding. This leads to confusion for those using them, it is doubly annoying if we use them ourselves to describe ourselves.
Time and time again folks have argued about the use of alienating language and categorisation to mutilate the meaning and essence of this world. For example the meaning of the word 'moderate' in the context of government speaking about Muslims they would like to breed. This term is seperate from a more religious rendering of the levels of faith, which from low to high are Muslim, Mu'min and Muhsin. These levels (and others) are in our teachings and in our common sense. I pity the fool who brings up their child/institution/country according to the going politically expedient definition of moderacy from those who dont wish us the most blossoming of times.
And so onto 'the community', because that is why i'm writing this post. Its actually a millet. Historically the millet system was used for different communities to organise themselves during the Ottoman times. Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani wrote about the millet, distinguishing it from qaum (nation) in that it had a religious commonality running through it. Maulana Madani was one of those sages who we probably should have listened to before partition. Yahya Birt writes on him here.
I like it because i think it can help believers in the Occident to finetune their selfanalysis on their own terms. It originates from our own traditional ways of thinking about collective life. It is even mentioned in the quran, apparently 15 times. You can use it to describe a school of thought or a creed.
There is no unified muslim community here, think of Prophet Noah's Ark but with slightly different demographics. Theres a diversity in ancestral geography, kinship, religiosity, taste and class patterns that on one hand is amorphous, without structure, but looked at from a different perspective, is perfectly normal considering Our cosmopolitan history. Understanding this millet, this rapidly formed and immigrated millet, with simplifying policywonk doublespeak is not going to work or get the best out of it.
The Millet in the UK doesn't really know itself too well. University was a good, pretty ramdomised knowing point. Religious institutional life also, but that tends to be more of a localised thing. Allow the web. This getting to know itself will take a lot of time, but it is... as the dude said 'inevitable'.
