One of the pitfalls for any ethnic group or religion to be constantly in the news- mostly in a negative light- is that most of their members’ valuable energy is consumed trying to defend or react to newspaper headlines. Muslims often find themselves in private conversations or on TV shows easily unnerved by what they see as consistent vilification of their faith. The truth is we Muslims have been mostly reactive and our defensiveness has deprived us of a vital quality: constructive self-criticism. We don’t need to wait until some disturbed Muslim beheads his wife to denounce domestic violence from the pulpit; we don’t need to wait until another brainwashed Muslim blows himself up in a crowd to feel outraged; and we certainly don’t need to wait until a reporter calls us up for a quick emotional quote to balance their story. Our actions can be self-imposing. I've met many Muslims recently who have moved beyond the debilitating position of the victimized Muslim and they all agree we often are dragged to react to the news. You can try to build new spaces where Muslims tell their day-to-day stories far from the headlines as in magazines like Islamica, Emel, Muslim Girl and others, but ultimately we know that we will be sidetracked and provoked by events out of our control. I know how double standards in journalism can generate utter disgust, particularly when ignorant reporters heavily covered the recent beheading of a Muslim woman by a Muslim man, but said very little about the non-Muslim man who just a few miles away stabbed his wife to death 41 times and nearly decapitated her head "by a slice to her neck." But should our energies all be spent on responding?

We need a new generation of Muslims who are not only seen reacting to a tragedy or constantly defending their faith. Sure, shortsighted journalists will call on you only after tragedy hits, but we need to grow and evolve if we wish to become relevant beyond our immediate circles. We need leaders, religious and otherwise, who won't only tell us how great we were as a civilization, but how we can contribute to today's world. The only way we can do that is to bravely take stock of what's wrong with us and turn our anger and guilt into dynamic action. I'd like to hear more imams yell at Muslims who don't read, who don't create, who simply consume. I'd like to hear imams tell Muslims that creativity and innovation are the only things that can lift us out of our cultural slump. Stop telling Muslims that music is haram, that watching non-Muslims play soccer on TV is un-Islamic, that reading controversial books will make your faith weaker, or that Satan will make any innocent contact between a man and a woman deviant. Find solutions and inspire people to bring the best out of them, not for themselves, but for others, including non-Muslims. The negativity is bringing us down, but we must first of all agree that something is terribly wrong and someone needs to shock us out of our denial. Here is an incredibly frank and rare attempt from a Bahraini intellectual Dhiyya Al-Musawi on Abu Dhabi television. The language might seem heavy handed to some, but that's what we need to wake up.