Muslims in America: Time for a Movement?
Posted by Ethan Casey on October 24, 2010 · 24 Comments
Walking for Pakistan flood relief, San Ramon, California, October 2, 2010. The walkathon was organized by the group Mashal (www.mymashal.org).
COLORADO SPRINGS – I spend much of my time veering between the worlds of Muslims and non-Muslims in America, and sometimes I wonder if ever the twain shall meet. Recently in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey they did meet, in a moving and encouraging way. They need to meet like this more often.
On October 8, after Friday prayers at the Islamic Society of Central Jersey mosque, fifty or so invited members of the wider community arrived to take part in a conversation with teenagers from the Noor-ul-Iman school (whose students, incidentally, have a 100% college acceptance rate and average 1920 on their SAT scores).
“What it is, is an Islamic education along with our other education,” one student explained. “Being an American Muslim is something that’s very easy to do. The laws in America are very similar to the laws in sharia.”
“We’re Americans,” said another. “We all want the common good of this country.”
“We want our voices to be heard more,” said a third student. “It is our job to go out and educate both Muslims and non-Muslims about what Islam is all about.”
It sure is. In a country brimming with urgent needs and wake-up calls, I can’t think of any task more urgent, or anyone better equipped to take it on than the young Muslims I know who are already helping build a new, improved America for the twenty-first century.
But the most moving moment that day came from a voice of historical memory. A 67-year-old woman in the audience – she later told me her name was Rita – raised her hand to tell the young people that she knew what it must be like for them, as members of a misunderstood and suspect religious minority. Growing up Jewish in America half a century ago, she told them, she had endured “Christ-killer” and other slurs from her classmates. And she wanted to share with the young Muslims what her father had always told her: “Hold your head up high and be proud of who you are.”
In the past month I’ve walked in a walkathon for Pakistan flood relief in San Ramon, California (put on by the wonderful Pakistani-American organization Mashal); heard the all too typical story of a Muslim girl who grew up post-9/11 in small-town Texas; attended prayers at what is provocatively and inaccurately called the “Ground Zero mosque” in lower Manhattan; and had many public and private conversations with both Muslims and non-Muslims in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Colorado. And what I’m seeing are the seeds of a much-needed movement.
It’s time for Muslims in America to hold their heads up high and be proud of who they are. I say this cautiously, because I’m not Muslim and thus not vulnerable in the ways Muslims are. But I’m vulnerable enough; after speaking at a Pakistan flood relief fundraiser at Gettysburg College, I received hate mail (anonymous, of course). And it’s high time all of us who remember and/or hope for an America governed by the better angels of our nature stopped apologizing and reacting to bullies and started assertively changing the conversation.
The ugly truth is that Muslims are the people against whom, in today’s America, it’s considered not only okay but, somehow, even laudable to be bigoted. But it’s not okay. As my late grandmother would have put it, that’s just plain wrong. What’s dismaying to me, as an American, is that I thought we had learned that lesson. But we don’t seem to have learned much from the Vietnam War, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that we’ve also failed to learn – or are willfully unlearning – the lessons of the civil rights movement. Most disturbing is that anti-Muslim bigotry and moral recklessness cut across the American ideological spectrum, from the Quran-burning pastor in Florida to the young woman in Seattle, whose silliness does not excuse her irresponsibility, who now lives in hiding because of the cartoon she published. I drafted this paragraph before the Juan Williams fiasco erupted, and that sorry episode only underscores my point.
What would be the shape and goals of the movement I’m positing? For starters, the civil rights movement offers a model in terms of both moral and political urgency and methods. The parallels are not exact, but it’s not far-fetched to hope that one day places like San Ramon and Monmouth Junction might be remembered the way Greensboro and Selma are (or should be) today. (To learn the relevant history, read the three volumes by Taylor Branch, starting with Parting the Waters.)
One thing the example of the civil rights movement ought to motivate us to do is to get off our rear ends and out from in front of our laptop screens. “Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice,” writes Malcolm Gladwell in an excellent recent New Yorker article, “but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. We are a long way from the lunch counters of Greensboro.” In other words, you can’t make a better America simply by “liking” it. Gladwell drives home the point:
Enthusiasts for social media would no doubt have us believe that King’s task in Birmingham would have been made infinitely easier had he been able to communicate with his followers through Facebook, and contented himself with tweets from a Birmingham jail. … If Martin Luther King, Jr., had tried to do a wiki-boycott in Montgomery, he would have been steamrollered by the white power structure. And of what use would a digital communication tool be in a town where ninety-eight per cent of the black community could be reached every Sunday morning at church? The things that King needed in Birmingham—discipline and strategy—were things that online social media cannot provide.
What is to be done, specifically? I have a few suggestions. It’s time we Americans re-learned how to make genuine political statements. For example, how about an assertively nonviolent Million Muslim March on Washington? If Glenn Beck can dishonor King’s legacy by filling the National Mall with Tea Partiers on the anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, surely we can – and should, and must – honor and reclaim it.
Here’s another idea: National Wear Muslim Garb on Airplanes Day. I’ll do it if you will, and I’m not joking. As any student of King or Gandhi knows, nonviolent resistance is anything but passive. The point is to flush out and shame bullies and bigots, by confronting them. What if thousands of ordinary Americans wore “Muslim garb” through airport security and on planes, all on the same day? Some of the reactions might not be any prettier than Bull Connor’s dogs and water cannons, but they sure would get across the point about who’s violent and who isn’t.
In the August 31 issue of The New York Review of Books R. Scott Appleby and John T. McGreevy, historians of the Roman Catholic experience in America, published a helpful and encouraging article titled “Catholics, Muslims, and the Mosque.” In it they wrote:
Must Muslims unequivocally reject all forms of terrorism—especially those Muslims who wish to promote full Muslim participation in American society? Of course. But if the Catholic experience in the United States holds any lesson it is that becoming American also means asserting one’s constitutional rights, fully and forcefully, even if that assertion is occasionally taken to be insulting.
Such assertion, by Muslims and the rest of us, is long overdue. This is what I mean when I say, as I’ve found myself saying many times in public recently, that I believe Muslims have a historic opportunity to play an important leadership role in American society today.
ETHAN CASEY is the author of the travel books Alive and Well in Pakistan: A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time (2004) and Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip (2010). He is currently writing Bearing the Bruise: A Lifetime in Haiti for publication in 2011. He can be emailed at ethan@ethancasey.com and his books and articles are available online at www.ethancasey.com/books/ and www.facebook.com/ethancaseyfans.
It is quite refreshing to read an article which is so unusually fair/unbiased, openminded and progressive. As a Muslim, a Muslim revert, I know the life on both sides as a non-Muslim and a Muslim. I know with a little knowledge and research on Islam, many would be surprised that their stereotypes of Muslims are baseless and founded on fears and hatred by others. Human beings tend to fear or disassociate from what they do not know or have much knowledge about. Sadly, some prefer to adhere to prejudiced ideas and opinions of the leaders than use their own reasonable, sound thinking in the matter. Hatred is patriotic.
Thanks for this excellent article in support of Muslims and your untiring efforts to help the Muslim causes. I agree that bigots and hate mongers exist in the US, and for that matter in all countries and cultures; they exist among the extreme right wing groups who generally exist at the society’s fringes and are generally the minority. That is the case in the US as well. Having read your article twice, I feel you have taken a rather naïve approach in portraying Muslims as the innocent victim and the majority of Americans as the culprit that bullies the victim. That portrayal is incorrect. As a practicing Muslim, I hold my community equally responsible for being silent enablers by allowing radicals and terrorists to control the Islamic discourse and failing to properly explain our beliefs to the average American who is a moderate and not a bigot or hate monger.
What I am saying is that Muslims, by their inaction and silence, allow radicals to misrepresent Islamic concepts and control the Muslim discourse. It is this misrepresentation that Muslims are unable to refute and explain rationally. These misrepresentations provide fuel to the bigots for maligning Islam. If the Muslims can explain their message of peace in a peaceful manner, a majority of non-Muslims Americans are willing to understand Islam in the proper light.
Getting back to your article, you propose organizing a “Muslim Garb” Day. I hope you are not implying “Muslim Garb” to mean Pakistani shalwar kameez or any regional outfit like the Arab dress, or cap. Personally, I fail to understand the meaning of Muslim garb. Please explain. Secondly, you fail to mention any role for the Muslims to address the concerns that the moderate American have about their beliefs. While it is easy to ignore the concerns of moderate Americans as being based on misconceptions, yet the radical’s actions and the average Muslims’ inaction and silence, reinforce those misconceptions. Muslims must use the freedoms of speech and religion to express themselves and explain the obvious contradictions in their practice and belief. These traits are absent in the so-called Muslim countries. We Muslims emphasize religiosity and culture, rather than religion, in the US and in our countries of origin. In fact in several instances, culture has become part of our faith.
I feel we Muslims are silent enablers of hatred and confusion against us because we have failed to:
1. transition our understanding of Islam from the agrarian-based understanding to the industrial based understanding (e.g., usury is equated to interest, the introduction of sharia that was developed in the 9th – 10th century, jihad, apostasy, blasphemy, advent of messiah, establishment of caliphate, etc. etc.). Sharia was introduced by the Abbasid Caliphate as a uniform and evolving law on the basis of equity, justice and peace. The evolution process was halted and sharia failed to adapt to the requirements of the industrial revolution which changed the global economic base;
2. separate Islam from politics;
3. convincingly explain our beliefs to fellow Americans, including the perceived anti-Semitic verses. Islam cannot be anti-Semitic because Muslims believe in Prophets Abraham and Moses.
4. accept basic human rights in our societies, to the extent that OIC has rejected the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 as un-Islamic and adopted their “Islamic” version. Human Rights in most Muslim countries are pathetic and the global Human Rights Declaration will be no different;
These are some of the issues that prevent Muslims from coming out and addressing the core issues that create resentment among the non-Muslim Americans. I can assure you that a majority of Muslims living in the US are unable to explain the above and several other concepts from the scripture and in a peaceful manner. They shy away from discussing these critical issues intelligently.
Jihad was a violent concept and was openly justified till 9/11. Although open support of jihad has declined post 9/11, the overall concept of a unified Muslim ummat (community), which is based on the principle of violent jihad and dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam) and dar-ul-harb (land of non-Muslims) is still extant. The treatment of non-Muslim minorities, the concepts of apostasy, blasphemy, stoning to death, honor killing, etc., etc., are things that Muslims must define and propagate openly to educate their fellow citizens. Islam is presented as a violent ideology ready to defeat the non-Muslims and take over the world. Just consider the recent examples of Faisal Shezad, Major Nidal Hassan, the five Virginian students who were arrested in Pakistan for seeking jihadi training. These apparently modern and educated Muslims believed that they could not become faithful citizens of a non-Muslim government as propagated by many Muslim leaders or so-called scholars. These examples have come to light and serve to illustrate the confusion in the minds of young Muslims whose loyalties are divided. Not to mention the senseless killings of Pakistani citizens that is blamed on “outside hands” and “non-Muslims” as if only non-Muslims can commit such savage acts. Others condemn these terrorist acts and qualify their condemnation as retaliation for US drone strikes, anti-Islamic policies, and conspiracy theories. This denial of facts and failure to identify and correct the root cause(s) is the real reason for the confusion about Islam that exists amongst non-Muslims, even in India where Muslims have lived for several centuries.
I will relate two recent experiences following the Qur’an burning program announced by the pastor in Florida. One of our friends (an Anglo Saxon and Christian), who lives in Colorado, started an Internet campaign to distribute two copies of the Qur’an for each copy burned in Florida. My office staff, also Anglo Saxon and Christians, takes personal offence when they see anything anti-Islamic in E-mail distributions or in private and public discussions. I share my writings with them and we discuss things in details. I think they can put any Muslim cleric to shame by asking provocative questions.
On 11 Sept 2010, we organized an interfaith event in Portland, OR to jointly condemn the proposed Qur’an burning event in Florida. We were expecting about 50 people because the event was announced very late, on 5th September. More than 500 attendees overwhelmed the organizers which included 17 speakers from different churches, synagogues, and temples. People were standing on the street and on the sidewalks beyond the parking lot. That was a scene worth experiencing. Each speaker was given 10 minutes to express their views and some of the late registrants did not even get a chance to speak. Each speaker spoke on behalf of their community and proclaimed the peaceful credentials of Islam and condemned the Florida pastor for inciting hatred. So that is the other side of the story.
I will repeat myself in closing this post. While I accept the existence of bigots and hate mongers in the US, I maintain they are a fringe minority. It is the Muslims who, by their silence and inaction, have enabled the radicals and terrorists to define the Muslims’ discourse. Your article may invite unnecessary criticism, even from moderate Americans and that criticism needs to be responded to with facts. That is where the general Muslims will fail to deliver intelligent rebuttals. That is the real issue and that is what I am attempting to highlight in my book Connivance by Silence that will be published in the next few weeks.
Ethan Casey’s article focuses on Muslims in America but as an American, my concerns are not confined to only Muslims in America. I am concerned that the very fabric of America that nurtured freedom of religion and attracted the intellectuals of the world is at jeopardy. I am concerned about that American which once provided humanity a chance regardless of color, creed or religion to shine through meritocracy may not be sustainable in the future.
I am also concerned that the extremist elements giving Islam a bad reputation has risen among other religious communities in America; so in the guise of patriotism one can justify taking away civil rights from other American citizens. I am really concerned that the monster that we have created to fight a pseudo-war, will not discriminate as it will attack others countries as easily as it will attack its own country to bring a financial meltdown. We should learn from history that no crime go unpunished. If we are silent and allow a monster to feed in our backyard, rest assured our children will not be safe. I am just really concerned about America.
As a Muslim, I thank Mr. Casey for his wonderful article against bigotry directed toward Muslims that is unfortunately becoming very fashionable in the right wings these days. I wholeheartedly appreciate his support. I also read the comments posted hence far, especially the detailed and insightful one by Mr. Humayun.
I think Ethan Casey writes from the perspective of one who knows that the average Muslim would not commit the atrocities that the extremists are infamous for; and having read some of Arif Humayun’s prior writings, I will presume that he’s writing from the perspective of someone who knows that although the average Muslim does not commit the atrocities called upon by the extremists, he also does little to stand up against such crimes happening right before his eyes especially in Muslim-majority countries and knows so little of his own faith that he’s unable to rebut these crimes based on religious arguments and invests so little time and mental faculty on these issues of life and death that he’s unable to offer even non-religious arguments in favor of human rights, leaving the religious clerics to essentially dictate faith to the masses in accordance with their interests which are inevitably tied to money and control.
Although I believe no one should suffer the indignity of being labeled a criminal unless their personal actions prove otherwise (and not speaking up could just as well be shyness or intimidation or lack of knowledge or lack of realization of responsibility and not necessarily an admission of guilt or approval), I hope that perhaps this hostility on part of bigots will prove a blessing for ordinary Muslims who will be forced to question their personal faith and investigate religious teachings themselves instead of relying on their clerics. After all, it was a prophecy of the Holy Prophet of Islam that a time would come when Islam would remain only in name and Muslims scholars/clerics would be the worst creatures under the sky.
Mr. Casey,
Thank you for the courage to visit Pakistan, write the books and “walk the talk”. I heard your speech at Gettysburg College and was very impressed by your knowledge, passion and fair minded approach to the hysteria in America today. This time in American history will surely be judged as a low water mark in American moral values!
I am motivated to do as much as possible yet, as a first-generation immigrant, very hesitant to be ‘mistakenly labeled’ as a threat. As anyone who has read the book, “Zeytoun” it is possible in our “free” country to take a person who was busy helping to save lives after Katrina – imprison him and break his family emotionally for the rest of their lives.
I fully agree that Muslims have to make themselves heard. That is what I have written in my blog today. so I am copying my blog here.
Muslim in America 2010
Living in America has a very surreal feeling. For a nation that is supposedly politically correct in its dealings, the viciousness and the ignorance displayed by what are considered leaders or pundits etc is disturbing.
The Tea Party Nation sends out emails to tell people to not vote for Keith Ellison, because he is a Muslim.
All Muslims are suspect, because
1. Their religion is a cult
2. They follow Sharia Law ( with no one having a clue what Sharia Law is)
3. Their Prophet is accused of all manner of things – all untrue
4. They build mosques
5. They wear funny clothes
6. They are Arabs—– only a small percentage are
7. They are all terrorist and extremist
8. They cannot be trusted
9. They are different
10. They are scary
11. They want to kill all of us Americans
12. They do not like our values
That is about a dozen reasons, all amazingly stupid. But we hear it all the time. It affects us in every way, our children in schools, our men and women at work, our communities at prayer.
This weekend on Saturday Night Live, they put it beautifully talking about Juan Williams being fired from NPR and hired by Fox as “the first time someone was hired and fired for saying the same sentence”
What is it that is making people live in fear? The fear is whipped up by opportunists to create divisions in society. They are succeeding. The Muslims have to get their act together and speak out. They have spoken, but their voices have been drowned out. We have to speak louder.
I have spent this week trying to get Muslims to commit to vote and make their presence known in their communities. They must vote as a bloc for those politicians who respond to their problems. The Muslim vote should not be taken for granted. Voting is a right given to us as citizens of this country, and we should use this right to make demands for all our other rights, as well.
Thanks, Mr. Casey, for the unbiased article. Muslims definitely need to learn about the struggles of the minorities who were the victims of bias in the U.S. before them and move forward to educate folks and participate in peaceful demonstrations to change their current situation.
Thank you Mr. Casey for this work and other works you have done to help fight the anti-Muslims campaign. We really need fair minded people to stand up and counter the fear mongering and hate mongering being done against the Muslim minority. I hope you will not get distracted by the neocon-style objections raised by Mr. Arif Humayun here. I am sure you have come across similar arguments before so I will not waste the space here with counter-arguments.
I don’t know what Muslims, being such a small minority, can do to counter Islamophobia. Yes, I will hold my head high and proclaim I am proud to be a Muslim, but what can I do beyond that? I think your Muslim garb idea is a good one. The Million Muslim march will be kind of hard because there are only 6-8 miillion Muslims and they are spread all over the country. But, certainly a Million Man march against hatred and bigotry might be possible. And, this can be combined with the Muslim garb idea. And, it does not need to be any particular dress, just some sort of headscarf for women, and a long shirt or cap for Men will do.
And, while Face-Book activism is not enough, it will certainly help if more fair-minded people start writing on various news blocks, it is quite depressing to read AOL or Yahoo blogs on any Islam-related topic. I have also seen NYT and Washington Post blogs which are only slightly better. We need an army of fair minded people to counter the lies which are being spread through these blogs must be countered. If each one writes just a little bit every day then I hope we will be able to counter at least some of the propaganda.
Best Regards,
I am a non-Muslim who got fed up with the bigotry and ignorance in the States – Fed up enough to actually come to Pakistan and find a new job in development to support building a strong, moderate, healthy country that is a valuable ally to America.
Personally, I would like to shake every person who says the fool things like “all Muslims are terrorists” and ask them “and how many Muslims do you actually know?” Seriously. How many people out there are speaking opinions that are formed only by mass media and don’t have a single Muslim acquaintance? Or haven’t read a single balanced piece of literature about the way Islam has been hijacked by a VERY small percentage of the Muslim population.
And, I also posted a link to Ethan’s article on my Facebook page. I can’t talk to everyone I know but at least 1 or 2 more people out there who don’t know anyone who is Muslim might find a new way to think about this important topic. Maybe someone may even be inspired to question themselves and their pre-judged opinions…
It is a very encouraging article at a time when anti-Muslim sentiments are on the rise in this part of the world.
Ethan, please stop being politically correct. Muslims in America are enjoying the best life any one could have yet they present themselves as victims. I hope you read news about terrorists and Pakistani-born U.S. citizens involved in bomb making and blasting the Americans who have given them a good life. World domonation is the Islamic Agenda, not peaceful co-existence. When Muslims commit acts of terror on Chritians and Jews it is o.k becase it is their religious obligation and because people like yourself , the politically correct, explain it away but when any comment , which they think is negative, is made about Islam they raise such a hue and cry. The world today is suffering from Islamic fundamentalism, not Americans. Don’t get brain washed by Pakistanis.
Thanks a lot for sharing such a truthful, courageous and eyeopening passage!
It is moderates among all religions who will be able to defeat all forms of racial and religious bigotry in this great country America.
I totally support your highlighting the Islamophobia and antimuslimism which does not even raise an eyebrow of many people. There are so much double standards in the media when it comes to muslims and that needs to be addressed.
Having said that, my strong personal feeling is that the Muslim march and hijab day may actually become counterproductive. Besides, there is no such thing as a “Muslim garb” as portrayed by Juan Williams. Some muslims wear per their cultural traditions but that does not make it any “Muslim”.
Further, such a march may become inflammatory and provocative. Instead of just a Muslim-only march or day, may I suggest that we organize a march where we welcome all religions and races to join together and celebrate the American values of liberty, racial equality, freedom of religion, religious equality, etc. That would really show the spirit of tolerance and coexistence needed so greatly in the country right now.
Let’s all work together to make such a pluralistic march a reality.
Thank you!
Munir
In the Quran there is a verse that reads, “Why don’t they do what they say, the righteous would do.” No media, not even the current cartel which focuses so carefully on their own objectives, is able to stand in front of a believer or people who live as they say is the right way to live.
Let’s just question ourselves as human beings first: When was the last time we knocked on our old neighbor’s door to just ask if he or she was doing fine? If we lose this kind of momentum, it is a waste of our time to talk about right or left, or Christians and Muslims.
Of course, the present system of economy has made us unable to think and see the big picture, so we need to work from the base and see if we can change our ways of life first. I am hopeful, especially when I see that so many people have stopped using credit cards or decided to live on less and not be slaves for so many worldly things that have taken our mind away. This is true for all of us, not just Muslims. In fact, we will not even be good citizens if we lose the ability to think and give up on our greed in order to be human again. There will not be any war if people are able to think more.