It is ironic that though they have born much of the blame for the dastardly deeds of September 11, 2001, this crime has affected no group in America as negatively as it has Muslim Americans. Not only did Muslim Americans die on that day, they have since suffered psychological and emotional trauma as no other group of Americans has. No other community has been more maligned, disrespected, misrepresented, harassed, intimidated, misunderstood or rendered suspect -- not only by private citizens acting on their First Amendment rights, but by military personnel, public utilities, government officials and agencies, indeed, even presidential candidates, who either openly express anti-Muslim bigotry or display a conspicuously high tolerance for such.
And yet, ironically, all of this has begun a slow but steady and long overdue process of shifting the Muslim understanding of America and thus of themselves as Muslim-Americans. Prior to 9/11, America was for far too many Muslims essentially an ideological playground. From the pulpit of the Friday prayer, e.g., one could hear some of the most mindless and irresponsible rhetoric reflecting fanciful pipe-dreams of post-colonial payback or civilizational redemption. This was possible, of course, because America itself was the land of unalloyed freedom that allowed for the expression of views that could never be uttered as such in the Muslim world. At the same time, America was the land of absolute opportunity. There was no unearned privilege, and there were no victims; there were only winners and losers, those who worked hard and played by the rules and those who didn't. America's newest "model minority" could readily avail itself of all the opportunities born of America's successful pursuit of her ideals (freedom, equality, etc.). But they took almost no interest in America's historical failures (with the lone exception, of course, of foreign policy). What had happened to African Americans, Native Americans, Jewish Americans, Chinese Americans and others said more about these groups than it said about America as a democratic project. Race, in this context, that quintessentially American understanding of difference, was simply the odd obsession of a few bigoted whites and a majority of hypersensitive blacks. As for the challenge of American socio-cultural reality, this could be easily met by reproducing the conventions and cultural practices that had worked so wonderfully "back home."
All of this is now slowly but surely changing. Muslims are now painfully aware of the consequences of their words and gestures, and this has imposed a healthy and welcomed degree of discipline on Muslim American discourses. Nor are Muslim Americans any longer blind to the reality of victimhood; they now know that bigotry and prejudice are real and operative; and they know that both must be confronted! This has made it increasingly difficult to ignore the role and centrality of race in American identity formation and the production of "problem peoples." At the same time, as the cultural conventions and practices brought from "back home" reveal their impotence in the face of American forms of delinquency, Muslims are assiduously engaged in the pursuit of specifically Muslim American expressions of socio-cultural values and institutions.
This is the future of Islam in America, pregnant with opportunity, fraught with danger. Whether Muslim efforts will result in crass assimilation, principled indigenization or a combination of the two remains to be seen. What seems certain, however, is that 9/11 has opened a new era. And it will be impossible for Muslim-Americans to return to the pre-9/11 age.
Muslim 9/11 Reflections: Islam In America 10 Years Later
Amin G. Aaser: I Am a Muslim Because of 9/11
Too right that was a fantasy.
Second, is those who are muslim and not terrorists who have remained largely quiet in regards to 9/11 and other extremist muslim behaviour.
I have to say I can't recall a single prominant muslim even attempting to distance their version of islam from the version the terrorists embrace. I know it's probably happened, but with a billion people following this religion, how come so many sit back and allow it to be hijacked by extremists?
After all, even 95% of christians will denounce jerks like abortion clinic shooters.
Just seems odd to me.
============
Translation:
Muslim leaders have realized that publicly announcing their desire to see America ruled by Sharia law--sometime in the future--is not wise.
At the same time, as the cultural conventions and practices brought from "back home" reveal their impotence in the face of American forms of delinquency, Muslims are assiduously engaged in the pursuit of specifically Muslim American expressions of socio-cultural values and institutions.
=============
Islamism is not selling well in America. We may have to jettison some egregious aspects of Sharia law in order to colonize this place and bring it into the Umma.
But we have to be on guard against assimilation--that is, accepting as supreme law the foundational principles of liberal democracy that conflict with Sharia law.
This is the future of Islam in America, pregnant with opportunity, fraught with danger. Whether Muslim efforts will result in crass assimilation, principled indigenization or a combination of the two remains to be seen.
==============
Assimilate only to the minimum extent possible. Try not to flaunt the superiority of Sharia culture to American culture. The natives might get all delinquent on you.
Smile only with your lips.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Or, it could be taken in a positive way, thanking God for correcting their errors.
It all depends on one's inner state and attitude.
============================================================================
Oblongato: "I would like to point out that the concept of gods has changed over time, with a clear pattern of development that, combined with the total lack of evidence of the existence of any gods, strongly suggests that man is the creator of God(s) and not vice versa."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the Qur`an, human life began with a complete consciousness of God and His Oneness, for Adam was taught all the Divine Attributes through which man knows God.
The Pontifical Man knew God very well and treated this entire cosmos as a theophany.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Qur`an is very clear about this:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) SAY: “He is the One God:
(2) “God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All That Exists.
(3) “He begets not, and neither is He begotten;
(4) “and there is nothing that could be compared with Him.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are not our words.
You or anyone else is free to take these words whatever way they like.
=============================================================
NOTE: I used to post as "tolerant", but that account has technical problems, which HP tech. support has not fixed in many days. So I have created this new account, "still-tolerant"
I repudiate Christianity (and all religions), but I don't pretend otherwise.
Many Christians do grow in their levels of consciousness to recognize unity in Divinity, that is, they go beyond the level of Reality where it exists as three and discover what is termed as "Beyond Being".
P.S. I used to post as "tolerant", but there is a technical problem with that account so I can no longer post as "tolerant". Consquently, I have created this new account, "stil-tolerant".”
The 9/11 events may be related to the current "Islamophobia" but not entirely the cause of the same. After 9/11 most people were ready to believe that these were an isolated group of extremists. They were also feeling guilty about the various nefarious deeds of the Government and the Defense Contractors, and thought these were flaming Muslim anger toward us.
But, since then Americans have learned more about Islam, and continued terrorist acts and the unfolding of the Islamization of Europe are the roots of today's "Islamophobia." The rise in Islamophobia is well-documented in recent polls.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leopold Weiss (1900-1992) was a Polish Jew who converted to Islam as a young man and came to be known as Muhammad Asad.
In his book, "The Road to Mecca", he presents an interesting theory about the Western civilization's historical prejudices against Islam that might give us a clue to the causes of the current level of Islamophobia in the West by a few nutcases.
[CLARIFICATION: I am not ruling out Muslims' own behavior for Islamophobia]
He states that a person’s most formative years are when he/she is young. Civilizations consist of people, so civilizations also have their formative years when they are young.
He then traces the Western civilizations’ formative years to a century before the Crusades and theorizes that the West’s negative attitude towards Islam is because of the Crusades.
Ref: "The Road to Mecca" by Muhammad Asad pages 4-9.
======================================================================
P.S. I used to post as "tolerant", but there is a technical problem with that account so I can no longer post as "tolerant". Consquently, I have created this new account, "stil-tolerant".”
Any time we, as free Americans, exercise our constitutional rights to speak out against organized religion, the religious leaders claim this kind of made-up, BS, lie; whether it's Islamaophobia or Christianophobia or Anti-Semitic, or whatever. If there is any group that needs to be criticized on a daily basis, in every form of media, it's organized religion and their primitive beliefs.
If you don't agree with what I say, don't put a label on it, prove me wrong, discuss it, have a debate, but Don't try to shut me up, I will not yield
I thought I would never read a book as ignorant and unbelievable as the Old testament; then I read the Christian Bible; and I thought this is even More ignorant and unbelievable. Then I read the Quran, and wow, it was just as ignorant and unbelievable as the first two. How can any logical person believe this primitive, myth and superstition based load of BS?
Thank you for pointing to that unflinchingly, and may we all move ahead in peace together.
It's a proven historical fact that secular societies thrive, while religious societies do not.