What is the state of Muslim identity and fraternity among the global community of Muslims, also known as the Ummah? Whether in the context of counter-extremism and Islamophobia in the West or radical change in majority-Muslim societies, the role of a global Muslim identity that binds the 1.4 billion members of this faith group is always central to these debates. Data is available to use Muslim Americans as an illustrative group to explore the state of global Muslim identity.
A recent study of Muslim American opinion by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center posed a number of questions to members of this community about the extent to which they identify with varying components of their identities. While 69 percent of Muslim Americans say they identify strongly with the US and 65 percent say they identify strongly with Islam, 37 percent of Muslims Americans say they identify strongly with those that share their faith worldwide.
That means 37 percent of Muslim Americans identify strongly with the Ummah. Despite such high levels of fidelity to the United States, Muslim Americans are the American religious group most likely to see US actions as causing unfavorable views of the US in majority-Muslim countries, as opposed to the spreading of misinformation about America in those countries. Muslim Americans are also the religious group most likely to say that the Iraq war was a mistake and to agree with a Palestinian majority on the viability of a two-state solution (an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel).
The data paint a portrait of a community that, while challenged by prejudice and discrimination, is equally confident in its American and Muslim identities. Moreover, the community uses its freedom to voice disagreement or opposition to policies coming from Washington, DC. So why would Muslim Americans have such low levels of identifying strongly with Muslims globally?
The Arab world, as the birthplace of Islam, has always carried significant sociological weight in the development of Muslim identity. As the region enters a new era of its development following the recent spring of revolutions, many commentators are speaking about the role of Islam and Muslim organizations in the future of post-revolutionary countries. Discourse is flowing throughout countries like Egypt about the role of organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-orthodox ideological movements such as some Salafist approaches to Islam. These domestic and sometimes insular debates are important and essential.
Such debates are insufficient, however, as this kind of domestic tunnel vision will likely lead to a loss of opportunity in the search for a way to rekindle the flame of collective identity among Muslims globally. As the Arab world progresses in the development of its communities, cities such as Cairo are beginning to experience a resurgent leadership role among Muslims globally. It will be interesting to see whether a new era of engagement with the Muslims of the West will come to pass.
There are many honorable efforts funded by Arab heads of state and supported with large financial backing to engage in interfaith dialogue globally. However, there is not a single effort to build bridges between Muslims in the Arab world and Muslim Americans. A strong argument can be made that Muslim Americans are an important community with resources to catalyze the progress of majority-Muslim societies.
A partnership with America can start in the form of a partnership with its Muslims. American Muslims can spark a resurgence in global Muslim communal (not necessarily spiritual) identity, but others must engage them. The changing landscape of the Arab world offers a leadership opportunity. The question is whether such efforts will come to fruition amidst the current chaos of change, and whether there is an appetite for such partnership among both sides.
(The writer is a Senior Consultant of Gallup and a Senior Analyst of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the Muslim-West Facts Initiative. This article first appeared in Asharq Al Awsat on Aug. 27, 2011.)
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I think a big problem among American Muslims is a conflict between those who see America as a friend to Islam and free religious expression in general, and those who see Islam in conflict with the US and the rest of the West. For the latter group, an attempt to join the outside Muslim community has taken its expression in ways similar to the Council on American Islamic Relation's Ibrahim Hooper going on Iranian Television and bashing the United States as a cauldron of hatred, discrimination, and fear for Muslims. Attitudes like his ought not to find a comfortable place amongst American Muslims.
If a Muslim is a person whose highest loyalty is to the Umma, some American Muslims would not want membership, others would.
Those in the latter group are not citizens of America in any but a legal sense--they are colonists whose ultimate loyalty lies elsewhere.
This will further eleborate my point made earlier that Galluping 1000 of the 1.4 billion you can only make conclusions or draw conclusions. Now just see for yourself on a simple matter in sports ---- there are about 350 millions Americans and see only 1056 got telephone polled up and then 756 opinionated and the then the conclusion is what you want to be create as much controversy who cares for majority ----- in real democracy even the majority of 1 wins sometimes.
Please come out of your galluping as it is a bigger issue than you can galluped. Period. Just some facts and figures for you opinionations of the famous SP --------BRIDGE TO NOWHERE.
The race is on to see what sports figures can earn the most favor from God.
American Christianity is at the same time both very diverse but curiously constrained. While societal mobility has muted some of the regional differences, it has also created a conservative backlash. Present-day political realities are exposing much of what calls itself to be "Christianity" as little more than a cultural construct, a support mechanism the community uses to maintain the status quo.
Islam has that problem as well. The Religion had been replaced by social devotion, maintaining power and inequity. Social change is impossible if God supports the status quo!
So I am glad for Muslims to be coming here. I think the interaction between Muslims and Christians (and non-Christians, including atheists) is going to be very good for everyone. Change is liberalizing in the long run. Our old, societal-bound notions of Faith suffer stress and fracture. Perhaps whatever there is of faith that is good can break free of its cultural entombment and bring people forward into a new realization of justice and equality.
The conflicts are painful. New versus the Old. Forward versus Backward. Progressive versus Conservative. Spirit versus the Letter. We are at the beginning of a spiritual birth. The Labor will be difficult. But perhaps, with effort, we shall see born a better age for all Faiths.
Insha Allah, we will have some bright, honest, true-hearted scholars spring up right here in the United States in the next decade (or two).
There's an interesting Muslim sect called "Ismaili." They are perhaps the most liberal sect of Islam. They believe in modernization and assimilation into the cultures that they live in. They are very peaceful and are devoted to charitable acts.
The largest part of the Ismaili sect are know as the Nizari. Their leader is Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the 49th Imam of the Nizari Ismailis. His father, Aly Khan, was once married to Rita Hayworth. And her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, is his (Aga Khan IV's) half-sister. The Imam of the Ismailis is seen as both a temporal and spiritual leader. He is both a king and the high priest of the sect.
When Rita Hayworth divorced Aly Khan, she retained custody of her daughter Yasmin and raised her as a Christian. However, Yasmin is still a princess and does extensive charitable work for Ismaili causes.
It all takes time and perseverance. I'm of the opinion America's Muslims need to craft their own identity separate from traditional Muslim societies from abroad.
Of course American Christianity is proving quite a problem on its Fundamentalist side! It seems that we have our own tribal analogs here as well. Racism is prevalent, progressive change is feared and the desire to subjugate others is all to present.
Any faith or focus that encourages xenophobia is wrong.
- Pleas be realistic. their leader married a child while having 11 women at the same time. A warlord and a slave master whose actions are recorded in detail in the hadith and they are told to follow his example. Plus Arabic is the language of heaven and their holy book. How are you going to change that?
- As in KSA or Iran or Pakistan or Somalia?
Please, that is the last thing one should hope for, as a matter of fact its precisely the reason why most Muslims brought baggage's from their home country that only serve to be a detriment for the Muslims society in the U.S.
It is also, the very reason why the Muslims communities in the U.S are hamstrung from reaching out outwardly, since most of their activities are geared toward their respective ethnicity or tradition from "back-home."
It is astonish that people are still accepting Islam, since after visiting their local mosque, they would find very little is discuss about the future of Islam in the U.S. A friend of mine in the Orlando area, who happens to an attorney, has recently accepted Islam, and I have to basically go out shopping as to which mosque we should visit for our Friday prayer.
Muslims in America should focus their effort and attention here in the U.S, and they only way they would become part of the social fabric of this society, is to engaged more with local grassroots and charity organization that is also gear to assist non-Muslims as well.
it's a fantasy. A kind of pretension.
28:86 Thou hadst no hope that the Scripture would be inspired in thee; but it is a mercy from thy Lord, so never be a helper to the disbelievers.
Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle said, "You should listen to and obey, your ruler even if he was an Ethiopian (black) slave whose head looks like a raisin."
Sahih Bukhari 9:89:256
Narrated 'Abdullah: The Prophet said, "I saw (in a dream) a black woman with unkempt hair going out of Medina and settling at Mahai'a, i.e., Al-Juhfa. I interpreted that as a symbol of epidemic of Medina being transferred to that place (Al-Juhfa)."
Sahih Bukhari 9:87:161
Historical as well as textual.
Islamic teachings don't begin or end with what you have cited.
To be blunt, I believe that many feel that Islam has been hijacked by extremists and that the West represents a safe haven to restore the Ummah to what it once was - a stronghold of spiritual, cultural and scientific pursuits where liberties were commonplace. I, personally, would like to see the Ummah be a global, spiritual union putting forth the truest ideals of Islam - peace, charity and a pursuit of knowledge of Allah.
-As though slavery was still an accepted norm, despite the fact that technology, education and spiritual evolution have made the condition economically and morally untenable,
-As though the advances in technology and education never occurred that allow single/divorced/widowed women to support themselves without being servants, beggars or prostitutes,
-As though societies conducted warfare the same way they did centuries ago, etc.
Because Islam currently exists at a variety of levels of socio-economic development, many Westerners like to point to villagers in impoverished, war-torn Islamic countries and say, "See? THEY are that way BECAUSE they are Muslims," not because they are poor and war torn. They don't see Muslim majority countries with improved conditions and a per capita income comparable with the West practice Islam with a different understanding, like the difference between the Christianity practiced in the Middle Ages and the Christianity practiced today.
Some extremism is also a reflection of a crisis of cultural identity, of self-definition, as well.
There is extremism in every segment of society lately - Muslim, Christian, pro-choice, pro-gun-control, etc. It seems to be the norm rather than the exception and it's disheartening.
I'm not certain what the ultimate solution is unless we all choose to be extreme moderates. I think insecurity is the cause of all of it. The world used to be (or at least some of us believe it was) a very black-and-white place where there were good guys and bad guys, right and wrong, etc. Today though, I don't think people are as certain of how right they are in this haze of grey and instead of admitting that to ourselves and others, we combat opposing viewpoints to justify our own.
That doesn't add anything to our perspective and only detriments the other. As a result, I'm choosing to find the outstanding and wonderful aspects of the segments of population that I don't belong to in order to see if I can re-build any bridges that have since been burned. So... Christians, Hindus, Atheists, Republicans, Fascists, etc... seek me out and talk to me. Get to know a Muslim, and find out how similar we are.