Imam Zaid Shakir Authentic ?

W-Salam Brother,

People have assumptions and they turn to Scholars and people of knowledge based on assumptions.

1) USA is pretty liberal and many American Muslims are seriously affected by the propaganda so as soon as they see a Muslim with a Sunnah Beard, they instinctively turn away

2) There are not many Ulama in USA, what we have are Imams which is some dude/dudette who has read a few books and can quote Arabic (wrongly and in a bad accent). It is common to listen to "English Khutbahs" in USA where the Imam is struggling to read the verses of the Qur'aan and then translating it wrongly or badly

There is a different class of immigrant Muslims (from India/Pakistan) who went to USA in the 60's. Most of them were university graduates and professionals from cities who were more influenced by Jamaat-e-Islami and their like rather than traditional Ulama. Their sons/daughters are simply influenced by their parents and following a similar path.

The same is true for Australia and New Zealand.

Our Ulama and religious people need to adopt a different tactic to appeal to this sort of crowd.

Immigrant Muslims (from India/Pakistan) into UK were primarily villagers who came and worked in factories and in their lives Ulama & Masjid Imam paid a vital part and their sons/daughters are simply influenced by their parents and life from back home.

The same applies to Canada to a large degree.