It's good to get things out in the open. But sometimes the truth hurts.
It certainly hurt to hear that, according to recent TIME and CNN polls, most Americans oppose the Park51 project, a proposal to build a mosque and community center on private property about two blocks from Ground Zero.
For some Muslim Americans, the vehement opposition to Park51, the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory, comes as no surprise. It is just one of many Islamic centers across the country that have drawn the ire of ignorant and fearful people in recent months.
For most of us, though, the tirade of anti-Islamic sentiment against this particular project has made for a disheartening past few weeks, depressing news during a holy month that's supposed to be about light and hope.
There are logical arguments to refute opponents: the First Amendment; the strip clubs and liquor stores sprinkled around the so-called hallowed ground; the fact that Muslims pray in the Pentagon, which was also a target on 9/11.
But logic is not going to work when emotions run so high. We need another strategy.
A few numbers jumped out at me in the TIME poll: 61 percent of respondents said they're against the project. And 62 percent say they don't personally know a Muslim American.
Hmm.
Is it possible that the people who don't know any Muslim Americans are more likely to oppose Park51?
If that's the case, perhaps there is a really simple way to resolve this mosque hullabaloo.
Perhaps you need a Muslim friend. Not a token one, Ã la George Costanza out to prove his affinity for black people after his boss challenged it, but an honest-to-goodness, plain-Jane Muslim-American friend.
That's who I am to one college pal of mine, who wrote me this week. He says (and I share with permission):
I grew up in a Jewish family and I remember my grandparents generation of relatives, who had survived the Holocaust and remembered the struggles Israel faced in its earliest years, held some pretty ugly stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims. I came to [college] not necessarily believing their views, but certainly not questioning them.
You were the first true Muslim friend I ever had and you played a big part in influencing my views on Muslims and what Islam stands for. I have to thank you for bringing to me my first Ramadan dinner and letting me get to know you. Any American who is not part of the small group of religions that have never faced persecution, intimidation, or torture and comes out against this mosque in the name of "sensitivity" is a hypocrite.
So how exactly does one buddy up with a Muslim American? Through the time-tested methods of friend-making. Encounter someone somewhere -- work, yoga class, Facebook -- and strike up a conversation. Find common interests, hang out and talk about them. Maybe Islam will come up all the time, or part of the time, or not at all. The point is social integration.
It will take extra effort on your part and mine. It's a strategy we need to apply here in Qatar, where misunderstandings and stereotypes abound between the minority (15 percent) national population and the country's sea of expats.
But the results -- aren't they worth the work?
The World Trade Center crumbled just weeks before my nineteenth birthday, when I was a sophomore in college. As a Muslim American, born and raised, I hated uttering what became a tired refrain: that 9/11 was -- is -- my tragedy, too.
I have a daughter now, and it's my hope that she never has to prove how American she is, simply because of her religion. Perhaps if more people had Muslim friends, she won't have to.
So let's resolve America's "Muslim problem" and stick to our constitutional guns on the issue of religious freedom by striving to understand our Muslim American neighbors as they should be understood -- as normal people who simply want what you'd want, a space to practice our faith, teach our children and converse with our communities.
Follow Shabina S. Khatri on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dohanews
The accommodist mentality prevalent among immigrant Muslims and their children is naive,unrealistic and wrong. Islam has always enjoyed a favorable position amongst most African-Americans due the African-Americans Muslims stance on holding their ground. Their never tried to accommodate,befriend or hide what they stood for and believed in. They did what they did and didn't care what others thought.
The accommodist model that sister Shabina has outlined in this article comes from a deep rooted belief that they don't belong and feel the need of approval of others to validate their self worth. Many immigrant Muslims and their American born children live and work in white middle class suburbia. From their daily experience of work and school they constantly being bombarded with evidence that they are the "other". No matter how hard to try to fit in within the "American" (White) model by hiding or denying their reality. They know that they could never be accepted truly as "one of them". So it's no surprise when many of these people have deep seated need to be accepted and approved of by their so called "peers".
Muslims don't need to "befriend" non-muslims they need to be more clear about what they stand for and not be intimidated into saying or doing things that go against the principles of Islam.
The Silver Age of Judaism was Muslim Persia (modern Iraq and Iran) according to Jewish historians. The Golden and Silver Ages of Judaism were not during the period of Jewish rule in Judea and Samaria nor under the Babylonian rulers nor under the Romans and Greeks nor in Europe under the Catholics. It was under Islamic rule.
There was absolute liberty of conscience for the Christians under Muslim rule in the Middle East; they kept their most important Churches and built new ones; the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem has always been a Christian place of worship, the only thing the Muslims did in the way of interference with the Christian's liberty of conscience in respect of it was to see that every sect of Christians had access to it, and that it was not monopolized by one sect to the exclusion of others. The same is true of the Church of the Nativity of Bethlehem, and of other buildings of special sanctity.
I remain troubled that the leader of their religion spread their religion by murder....
Jesus told his followers... put the sword away.
Mohammed, in grotesque contrast, told his followers to unsheath them and dip them in blood...
The contrast remains stark (despite Jesus claimed followers typically following Mohammed's method in settling the own political issues...)
"Important information about Rauf:
Imam Faisal 'Abd Al-Rauf's book What's Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West was published in Indonesian in 2007 with a different title: Seruan Azan Dari Puing WTC: Dakwah Islam di Jantung Amerika Pasca 9/11.
TRANSLATION:("The Call of Azan from the Rubble of the World Trade Center: Islamic Da'wa in the Heart of America Post-9/11")."
And people like Ice Star are the 'some of my best friends are Black' sort, mistaking knowing a person's name as knowing a person.
Who my son's date?
What neighborhood I live in?
Who I work with and eat dinner with five nights a week?
I have a problem with Mohamed and his teachings.
Other than that, I am also not a huge fan of the personality cult.
Influential? -- Sure.
Role model? -- Uhm, no thanks.
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
We arrived at Khaibar, and when Allah helped His Apostle to open the fort, the beauty of Safiya bint Huyai bin Akhtaq, whose husband had been killed while she was a bride, was mentioned to Allah’s Apostle. The Prophet selected her for himself, and set out with her, and when we reached a place called Sidd-as-Sahba, Safiya became clean from her menses; then Allah’s Apostle married her. Hais (i.e. an Arabian dish) was prepared on a small leather mat. Then the Prophet said to me, ‘I invite the people around you.’ So that was the marriage banquet of the Prophet and Safiya. Then we proceeded towards Medina, and I saw the Prophet, making for her a kind of cushion with his cloak behind him (on his camel). He then sat beside his camel and put his knee for Safiya to put her foot on, in order to ride (on the camel).
Volume 5, Book 59, Number 523:
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
The Prophet stayed with Safiya bint Huyai for three days on the way of Khaibar, where he consummated his marriage with her. Safiya was amongst those, who were ordered to use a veil.
Above Hadiths show that Safiya was (aged 17) and beautiful girl, when Muhammad ‘married’ her she had no choice but to submit to Muhammad’s lust, despite the fact that her husband and adult male relatives and tribesmen had just been killed.
I apologize for calling those who oppose the Park51 project ignorant - in retrospect, that is not a fair statement. Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. In fact, for some reason or another, there are many Muslim Americans who oppose the center's construction (another example of how diverse our community is).
If any of you would like to attend an iftaar this Ramadan, please get in touch with me and I'll help you find someone in your community to contact. Thanks again for getting involved in this discussion!
Shabina
Thank YOU for commenting that Muslim-Americans, as any other group in this country, do not speak as a monolithic voice, and there is room for different opinions and views.
Time to put aside polarizing differences, respect each other, and try to find a common ground on these issues that benefit all Americans in this diverse society that we have.
This one shows that your diagnosis of what the most significant factor in the number of those who have listened to the screamers is right
http://people-press.org/report/542/muslims-widely-seen-as-facing-discrimination
And this one should shed some light on what the true nature of those screamers is
http://pewglobal.org/files/pdf/262.pdf
In the words of T.S. Eliot: "Humor is also a way of saying something serious."
However much we tout universal values and common ground, there will always be a line between religions. This line is usually more acute and a barrier where religion/s define "every move" in daily life . I grew up a "bad Hindu" in Muslim Malaysia, but I was proud of my "failings" as a "pure" Hindu because it allowed me the freedom I needed to mix with others, including the Muslim majority. If there is a sadness I still hold, it is that I was never able or allowed to cross the line in respectful terms in closer social relations with my Malay-Muslim friends, that "I was born with". It takes two to "tango" and a lot of liberal feelings to allow for increased crossing of the line.
As far as the so called "Ground zero mosque" controversy is concerned, Racel Maddox (hail to mayor Bloomberg and ex-mayor Ed Koch, both of the Jewish faith) is 100% correct in that this was a manufactured political and racist campaign to define Muslims as "others" and keep them as 2nd class citizens. Someone is forgetting that Islam is the fastest growing religion among Black people in US and a major religion in Black Africa.This "racist" industry here is alive and well and so we must be equally vigilant in our opposition to it.
But quick on the heels of my compliments the author comes the wish that all people here would apply the advice to the various groups they revile.