the Middle Nation Culture

This is Shahid Bolson. Welcome to the Middle Nation. You know how there's this concept in companies of a company culture or an office culture? It just sort of means the overall spirit of the place, the attitude, the ethos, and it's usually sort of derived from the CEO or the owner of the company or the people in management. Well, social media channels or accounts have a culture too, and that is expressed not only in the content that they produce, but also in the types of viewers and subscribers that they attract and the quality of the comments that you can find in the comment section.

That includes also, of course, what the owner of the channel or the account tolerates in the comment section. So let me just say something about the culture of this channel, the Middle Nation channel. I believe in being positive about Muslims, about their imam, about their sincerity, and about our collective future as an ummah. I don't believe in running Muslims down or disparaging them for their lapses or for their flaws or for their weaknesses. And I don't believe in disowning Muslims over disagreements that don't disqualify them from having a janazah performed for them when they die.

If I am supposed to stand for your funeral prayer, I'm supposed to treat you as my brother in Islam while you're alive. I don't like pointing out people's faults, and I despise exaggerating them. And I don't like to see it done. I don't take kindly to pessimism, fatalism, hopelessness or helplessness, or any expression of contempt for Muslims en masse. I don't respect doom and gloom scenarios about the future of the ummah or anyone who preaches that the Muslims are on the road to ruin.

I have very low regard for intellectual laziness, and I do not tolerate divisiveness. Now having said that, it might seem like a paradox. How can I talk about unity and tolerance while at the same time saying what I don't tolerate? Well, it's simple. What I do not tolerate is any approach that inherently contradicts the culture that I've just outlined.

I e, any approach that seeks to drive a wedge between the Muslims. Any approach that undermines Muslim solidarity and brotherhood. I welcome frank discourse and even differences of opinion as long as that is carried out like grown ups who respect each other as adults and as Muslims. I don't even care if discussion is blunt or confrontational at times. That's fine.

As long as there is the underlying sentiment of respect and honesty. One of the best things about having this channel has always been, from the beginning, the high quality of the comments that I've received and the interactions that I've had with the audience. And that's also made our telegram chat group extremely beneficial and enjoyable. And many of our discussions in that chat group can get rowdy sometimes, but it's always in the spirit of brotherhood. Now another thing that I can't stand is ignorantly dogmatic sniping disguised as naseeha.

You all know exactly what I'm talking about. I call it taquatrolling. It's that sort of passive aggressive ad hominem criticism that thinks any suggestion of inadequate strictness or rigidity is enough to discredit the content of a video, or it's the sort of comment that serves no function other than to highlight the commenter's sense of their own righteousness. I have no patience for that. If you see something in one of my videos that doesn't align with the Islamic opinion that you follow, you can safely assume that I am aware of the opinion you follow.

I just don't agree with it. Now I'm a frank person. I don't always have the most delicate of manners. If I think something is stupid, I'll say so. If I think something is insincere or manipulative or simply wrong, I'll say that too.

I may not always be right, but inshallah, I'll always be honest. The whole point of this channel is to take a realpolitik approach to the concept of ummatan wasata, the middle nation, and to help foster a useful and practical real world application of brotherhood. It's to take a positive outlook and to have an optimism that is grounded in Quran and Sunnah while avoiding naivete, gullibility, utopianism, or ideological harshness. So to everyone who supports the channel and the culture of the channel. And Ramadan Mubarak to you all.

Assalamu alaikum.