Edit: It is kind of unfair that I posted this as an answer to one old meta post rather than as stand alone post. I might eventually make a separate post out of this, but I'd like to at least note that the following is in regard to a general problem, not just the user that opened this meta question. In fact the user that originally posted this has since posted a follow up with a completely different tune. That should reflect on them personally more than my comments below.
At the same time this does still apply to this site and many of its users. I stand behind what I have said.
I understand you want your site to graduate and you are frustrated that is not happening faster. Discussing the reasons for that and orchestrating change to make that dream a reality is the right thing to do. That being said please allow me to make an observation as someone not directly involved in this site but who has quite a bit of experience with SE sites in general including helping to pilot one of the religion sites through successful graduation. I've been reading through a number of recent meta discussions and see a trend. And it's not a good one.
For the sake of making sure the point is made I am going to say this bluntly, but please believe me when I say my motivation for this is not to rag on you or run your site down. I'm suggesting something from experience that I think will help you. You can choose to read this as offensive or choose to read it as an attempt to suggest a constructive way forward. While not a Muslim myself I do live in the Middle East and am well versed in the issues faced by religious study and dialogue in real life as well as the specific issues that Stack Exchange sites face.
All that being said here is my observation. The attitude I see exhibited in this post is part of the problem, not part of the solution. It's not just this post either, I see all over your meta right now.
Seriously when it comes to the issue of whether a community like this one is healthy (and ready to graduate) you have the problem and the solution mixed up--your talking about the problem as if it was a solution and the solution as if it was a problem. Your moderators aren't perfect, but they have been chosen by the SE specifically because they have demonstrated some understanding of the principals that SE sites work on. In fact I think you have a pretty good selection of pro tempore mods. The problem is you aren't listening to them. The problem is not that the "mods are far from the community" the problem seems to be that a large portion of the current community has wandered far from the basics of what makes SE sites work and a lot of you are all blatantly ignoring perfectly good advice from your mods.
I know some of what they have to say is counter intuitive and different from what most internet venues do, but those very things you are actively rejecting are what make most successful SE sites so good. Ignoring and even working against your mods is no way to work toward graduation. On the contrary its a fast track to failure and getting shut down. Is that what you want?
If you want to graduate you are going to need to stop trying to make this like every other internet forum and stop trying to be all things to all people. Instead you need to step back and make the effort to learn what makes SE sites unique, figure out how to apply those things to your subject matter and focus on just those things. Among other things this will mean all of you pitching in to promote a broader understanding that not all questions are automatically good for this site. You need to do less objecting to everything your mods do and start getting behind them as they try to pilot your site towards graduation. They won't always be right but discuss it with them and try to understand the things they explain rather than just fighting them on every point.
Stop being part of the problem and start helping with the solutions. Support your mods! Show some appreciation for their efforts even when you disagree. Listen and learn from them what you can.
The same goes for the high rep users that are doing things like voting to close. You can disagree with them sometimes but respect the fact that they are volunteering their time to improve the site and even when you disagree work with them to try to work out what is best for the long term needs of the site rather than trying to insist all questions are to be blanketly approved even when they have aspects that work against what this site set out to be.
