Folks let us remind ourselves of the Islamic concept of husn adh-Dhann - roughly translated as "having good opinions" about our brethren. Lately, and far too often, on this website I'm seeing accusations flying around like this:
- You did X because you're sectarian!
- This is intolerance!
- You want to suppress the truth!
- You/The community downvoted me because you don't like me! (or my views)
usually in response either to comments or to edits or upvotes or downvotes or to moderator actions.
These types of accusations are not healthy. I don't recall a single case where they were actually warranted, and yet these comments keep appearing.
I know we are all passionate about our views and feel strongly about them. But do keep in mind that this is a "common area" where there are other people with other opinions, and it's our job to play nicely with them. If someone answers or leaves a comment or suggests an edit you don't like, try to understand where they are coming from rather than assuming in a knee-jerk fashion that they're out to suppress your opinion. It's usually a misunderstanding or some other innocuous thing. It may be about presenting your point more clearly, or about adding a citation, or about on-topicness, or about hewing to the SE guidelines, or any of a number of other things.
If you've tried to understand why they're saying what they're saying and still don't agree, then engage them on that issue and explain clearly your viewpoint, nicely. Then leave it there. Be as eloquent as you can in explaining where you're coming from and why you did what you did rather than falling back upon the canard of mal-intention accusations on the part of the person you're engaging with. Honestly, such accusations only arise because the poster doesn't have a coherent and substantive response actually engaging the matter!
As moderator I will be adopting low tolerance for accusations of ill will, malice, sectarianism, agenda-pushing, truth suppressing, whatever else. If you have solid proof of any of these, you're welcome to approach any of the moderators privately and we will take action when required, in sha' Allah.
