U.S. Muslims and Extreme Social Conservatism

The Pew Research Survey about U.S. Muslims has been making the news on the strength of its findings about Muslim views on violence, discussed here. However, the untold story of the survey lies in the revealing cultural conservatism of the community. Once again letting the right wing dictate the debate about Islam --who limit Islam to suicide bombings and violence-- progressive commentators as astute as Glenn Greenwald are glossing over the cultural isolationism of the U.S. Muslim community. What is condemned and damned when discovered in Christian communities is merely shrugged away when it comes to Muslims.

Fifty-nine percent of U.S. Muslims favor greater --yes greater-- governmental intrusion in morality (whereas only 37 percent of all Americans hold that view). Among Muslim youth, whom the study finds to be more religiously observant, that number is higher.

Merely 27 percent of U.S. Muslims think homosexuality should be accepted at all (in fact, 61 percent want it discouraged; I assume by way of the government).

Only 21 percent of U.S. Muslims believe that when praying, women "should pray in an area alongside men" (more than 60 percent favor putting women either behind men, or behind a curtain).

Out of the under-30 demographic of U.S. Muslims --the ones who hold the more favorable views towards suicide bombing-- six out of 10 consider themselves Muslim first (while only 25 percent consider themselves American first).

Let's see then. The U.S. Muslim community, in a survey that is being widely hailed by American Muslim organizations as evidence that Muslims are mainstream, is actually revealed to favor more governmental morality policing, more ostracizing of homosexuals, and more patriarchy in U.S. mosques. I'm curious, what exactly is mainstream about these views? Simply opposing suicide bombings does not make one mainstream or well-integrated. It makes one sane, but being sane is a floor, not the ceiling.

The U.S. Muslim community's willingness to be seduced by anyone calling for greater governmental intrusion in morality is one of its most damning qualities. It comes from the fact that Muslims have always wanted to see more discussion about religion in the public sphere than less.

Prominent U.S. Muslim intellectuals such as Dr. Robert Crane (who holds the record for being Henry Kissinger's fastest fire), has written numerous revisionist pamphlets about American history to make it more pro-Christian, and thus, more theo-centric, all in order to assure space for Islam in the public sphere. This obsession among prominent U.S. Muslims with accepting (or helping to create) a "Christian" America is unhealthy. Dr. Sherman Jackson, one of the most beloved of Muslim intellectuals, engages in it (he also devises creative ways to make sure that U.S. Muslims don't have to concede to gay mariage). Meanwhile popular U.S. theologian, Zaid Shakir, does not believe America is a Christian nation (gee, thanks), but he thinks this not as a matter of principle, but only because its Christians are not originalist enough (presumably, if they were, he would have no issues with a Christian America). Mr. Shakir is, of course, part of the entire cavalcade of traditional Muslim leaders in the U.S. who believed that secularism had to mean, and couldn't mean anything but, the complete and utter elimination of religion from a society (when, in fact, if we know our Barak Obama or Jefferson we know that secularism and separation of church and state actually protect and perpetuate religion).

The U.S. Muslim obsession to pander to anyone who introduces more faith in the public sphere has led to great embarrassments for its leaders. In 2001, during Karl Rove's introduction of Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives, members of the Muslim contingent were profiled and removed from the White House (prompting the entire contingent to depart as a matter of protest). Now, six years into the most religious-minded presidency anyone can recall, the Pew Research reveals that U.S. Muslims still want to see more governmental intrusion in public morality? When will U.S. Muslims learn?

Addressing this obsession is made more difficult by the fact that leftist commentators, while defending U.S. Muslims against attacks from the right wing using excellent apples and oranges analysis, seem not at all concerned about Muslim views about religion in the public sphere. In fact, many of them believe that since Muslims are so often the butt of right-wing attacks, Muslims are therefore presumptively absolved from upholding liberal principles. Meanwhile, right-wingers who do take issue with such Muslim views do so in such an alarmist, destructive and banshee-like manner that Islamophobia does not take long to follow. Why have commentators on both side of the divide become incapable of having a civil discussion about Muslims? Is there something about the topic that arouses myopia on one side and rhetorical froth on the other? Not only that, where exactly are the voices among U.S. Muslims questioning the community's misguided social conservatism?

The issues about homosexual ostracizing and demotion of women are pervasive and longstanding. Not only that, but the Pew Research does not go into too much detail. It does not ask how many U.S. Muslims are OK with a female leading prayer, nor does it inquire about views on the niqab --the full face covering. Nor does it ask whether there are situations in which certain actions by women --pre-martial sex or an illegitimate child-- are tantamount to exclusion from Muslim communities. Polygamy is also part of the U.S. Muslim culture, but it is not discussed either.

Such issues are not exclusive to U.S. Muslims. Michael Eric Dyson, an African-American intellectual, has often criticized black churches for perpetuating bigotry towards homosexuals and containing entrenched patriarchy as disappointing as the misogyny in hip hop videos. For many U.S. Muslims the existence of similar problems in another minority community often leads to treating their own problems in a fatalistic manner. Is this what is likely to happen with respect to the extreme social conservatism that the Pew Study has revealed?

I hate to say it, but yeah, probably.