We have to be able to integrate the old and the new, right?
The old, always things that we’re coming with, new vibrant ideas, and they’re threatened by these new vibrant ideas that might shape the very existence of what this organization or what the society was built on. But, the only thing it is, is that, to be honest with you, ideas become stale. I-ideology become stale. All we’re trying to do is to create those ideologies and re-energize them.
But then I thought to myself, “Hey, it’s an ideology, it’s not a person that dislikes me
For example, um, we have a lot of young intellectuals in our Muslim community, and it was always older people becoming part of committees, whether it’s, uh, a grant committee, whether it’s investigation committee. Um, the PAC that we have, like I said, we have two schools and board of education. They would always be predominantly older people. Accounting, the finance department, older people. So we actually sat one day and I said, “Did you guys ever think why nobody ever applies?” They’re like, “Why?” and I said, “Because you’ve created such a big gap between the old and the new that, when they wanted to be heard, you weren’t listening. And now when someone else is listening to them, you’re asking them, ‘How come they’re not talking to us?'” And that’s shed – that put a big light bulb into our organization and all organizations in the Muslim community and abroad.
Um, this happens in many uh, organizations where people are very, uh, hesitant about passing on that torch, uh, to the younger generation. And it’s still work in progress for us.Um, you know, like I had aspirations to become the president of my association, uh, a couple of years ago. (more…)