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A Muslim America?

"We have a problem in the Muslim community"-- Hisham Kabbani, July 19, 2002.

Seems a bit of an understatement to me.

A public opinion poll of a little over 500 Muslim-Americans was conducted by Zogby International and Hamilton College of New York. Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert said that according to the data, about 60% of those polled reported knowledge of, or personal experience of incidents such as verbal harassment, pushing and shoving, and dirty looks. However, Gilbert said that 70% reported that non-Muslims had personally expressed their support to them in the face of post-9-11 incidents. Let’s assume these are valid, representative numbers. He said; “I think we might be able to look back at this period as kind of a turning point in the lives of American Muslims in which Muslims begin to come to grips with their role as American citizens and feel the support of the majority which I think is really there for them." [emphasis mine]

The introduction of Islam into the United States, where roughly 95% of the population claims belief in the God of Abraham, is an amazingly unique occurrence over the past 20 years. We are witnessing a major world religion move into a whole new land for the first time. But even more significantly, we are watching the third sibling of the Abrahamic religious triangle joining its two older confreres. Abraham's wild man exile son of a slave woman is back. To the people here it is completely new, fresh, unheard of before and unimagined. The possibility of revelation after Jesus or Moses never entered our heads. We are hearing the Qur’an with ears like those of Muhammad’s contemporaries who first heard The Message of The Transcendent Unity and felt the divine force of its truths slam into their souls and open their hearts to the infinite creative possibility of possibilities. We are people who hear The Message without centuries of accumulated crust and accretions and myths and legends about the Qur’an, without “schools of thought” or commentaries or scholars or imams. Muhammad’s contemporaries were people who heard The Message and understood with just who they were, what they were, and when they were. And so are the Americans. To each generation is its own test.

Books fill shelves exploring what it means to be an American, asking what is the quality of our national character, or if we even have a national character at all. Are we a salad bowl? A melting pot? A mosaic? We could argue, or we could simply accept the common meaning communicated by these metaphors: Americans are a mix, a variety. Americans are a collection of groups and tribes and people of different colors who are all getting to know each other, and trying to come to common terms by means of mutual consultation. Americans practice no compulsion in matters of religion. How could we when our highest national value is the freedom of the individual to express him or herself, to choose a path in life, and even to change that path in mid-stride and “remake” themselves? This freedom is not to be restricted because of gender, or race, or religion, or national origin, or political affiliation. People are free to believe or not, to practice their religion or not. Its between them and God. People here live the attitude: you have your religion, and I have my religion. You see, the fact is, the United States is the country most like Medina at the time of the Prophet, and is, in fact, the country whose people most closely follow the Qur’an, even though they don’t know it. No one else even comes close—certainly not the so-called “Muslim” countries. Indeed, it could be argued that many non-Muslim Americans in reality follow the Qur'an more closely than many Muslims. And they've not even read it.

Yes! We as a people were born out of blood, and genocide, and chattel slavery. But we were also born out of yearning for justice, for peace and for freedom. We are born out of the dreams of millions escaping tyranny, or limited opportunities, or war, or hopelessness. We were born out of the perennial human optimism and hope for a better life. Who will dare say these are bad things? Who will dare say they are things to be fought against and attacked?

Yes! Americans are known to be crude, and loud, and vulgar, and arrogant, and know-it-all. But we are also the most generous, charitable people on the planet. Warm, open, friendly, with a real concern and a clearly apparent good will. We are astoundingly inventive and productive. Who will dare say these are bad things? Who will dare say they are things to be fought against and attacked?

And yet, both still reside within us: the blood and savagery as well as the optimism and generosity. We see this in the disparity between the people of the United States and many of the disgusting policies of our government. These policies are carried out in our names, but we have the means to peacefully change them so they reflect to a greater degree the basic decency of the American people. After all, more Muslim-Americans were offered support than a bad word or a dirty look by their fellow Americans post-9-11. And the fact is, the Americans recently forced one of their own presidents to resign in disgrace—no coup, no military takeover, no bombings were needed.

And yet, hear the messages coming from the masajid and national groups post-9-11. Do they reflect this decency? Do they reflect the fact that more Muslim-Americans experienced expressions of support than discrimination? Do they reflect the reaching out to us by non-Muslim Americans of good will? They portray us as nothing more than victims of cruel anti-Muslim Americans and a government that may be turning oppressive in the name of security. But that clearly isn’t the whole picture. Can we rise to the challenge of truly participating in, contributing to, and shaping the national discourse of the most powerful country that has ever existed such that the goodness of the American people, and ourselves, is ascendant, perhaps even triumphant? It is certainly what we claim to be able to offer as Muslims. And not just to the States, but to the whole world.

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