Disgraceful. I was reflecting the other day what a poor example of Islam most of us Muslim in the west set. This is also true for some of our Muslim brothers in Muslim countries who are wealthier.
Several travel vloggers who travelled across Muslim countries, including Pakistan converted to Islam. One of the ladies who converted cited the kindess of the working class in Pakistan as a huge influencing factor. All of those who travel across Muslim countries cite the kindness of people and the hospitable nature of our societies.
Yet here we are, in the heart of the western world and most of us are focused purely on chasing money. The ones of us who make the headlines do so for crimes. We don't set the example of the Sunnah in our lives. We might have beards, but we don't have smiles. Our tongues might utter praise of Allah, but our heart chants for the dollar.
I'm not saying we all become hermits - a huge part of the attraction of Muslim society when it was on the rise was the fact it was successful and the success could be seen, as it was invested in learning, culture and engineering (architecture, sewer systems, street lights). I do think we've not done enough to engage with the communities we live in, to show them our positive behaviours. Instead we have retards like this Nice attacker.
It's changing, but all to slowly. In my city in the UK Muslim charities are actively involved in helping the homeless, running food banks, fundraising for natural disasters abroad. Unfortunately its a drop in the ocean, there is so much we could teach people.
For example, community based lending - "committee". Communal funeral insurance "death commitee", cooking from fresh ingredients - nearly all of our women do this, yet up and down the UK a lot of people struggle without this basic life skill. We could be teaching classes. Another great strength we have is willingness to work in self employment. Nearly all our restuarants, barbers, grocery shops, mechanics etc are not chains - they're small businesses. We have expertise in our community in making these businesses a success. Why aren't we running local equivalents of Chambers of commerce? They could help our own people as well as others in our communities. We've missed a trick in a big way.