War in Afghanistan

October 7, 2003 - Middle East Affairs Journal - Washington, DC

American Muslims After 9/11

Bellow is the interview conducted by Tanya O’Connor with Dr. Louay M. Safi, Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, on Tuesday, October 7, 2003, for the Middle East Affairs Journal.

Threats

What are the external threats to the future of Islam and the Muslim Ummah in America?

We can definitely see that in America there are groups that don’t wish Muslims well. We have already heard a number of leading evangelists attacking Islam very viscously and accusing Islam of all types of crime. And while these attacks reveal the ignorance of a few evangelical ministers of the Islamic faith, they, nonetheless, are a source of concern to American Muslims, given the fact that these views are spoken by people of great influence and high authority. American Muslims are greatly disturbed when they see little efforts by mainstream leaders to rebuttal the misrepresentation of Islam. So one group that has really been trying to take advantage of post 9/11 situation is evangelists. The other group consists of right-wing Zionists, who stand firmly behind Sharon’s policies of continued occupation and systematic marginalization of Palestinians. Some American Zionists, such as Stephen Steinlight of the Center for Immigration Studies, have argued openly that the Muslim presence in the United States, and the increased political involvement, of American Muslims is a threat to American Jews, as it is likely to hinder the latters’ efforts to maintain a positive image of the Jewish State.

As far as Americans are concerned, those who have been in touch with Muslims, those who have a significant Muslim minority in their midst, have shown a lot of sympathy and support for Muslims. I can tell you from personal experience, living in Northern Virginia, that there has been a lot of support after 9/11. So Americans who interact with Muslims know that American Muslims are, by in large, law-abiding citizens who wish there country well, and who are concerned for its future, and are working hard to improve social conditions. Those who have not been in touch with Muslim communities and have been influenced by negative media, require more attention by Muslim communities and leaders. Muslims should reach out to them so that they could have a better understanding of who American Muslims are and what they believe in, and what kind of values they espouse. And I am certain that if this is done, people will discover that Islamic values are really the values that most Americans care about.

What are the internal threats to the future of Islam in America?

The internal threats to Muslims come from coreligionists who have not been able to reconcile their Islamic identity with their American identity. They are a small group out of the total American Muslim population, but they tend to create more noise than others, and consequently they tend to have higher visibility than others. I think Muslim leaders should make it clear that the American and Muslim identities are not completely separate, but do indeed overlap. A good Muslim can be a good American because at the core of Islam and the essential components of the American identity lies a set of shared values: honesty, integrity, concern for the common good, hard work, and the desire to help people in need. These are both American and Islamic values and we need to really emphasize this fact.

We have definitely a small group of people who are under the delusion that Islam and America are irreconcilable. These tend to be new immigrants that haven’t really interacted with the larger community, and they are people who generalize out of few cases, so there is a lot of prejudice in their behavior. They have come to this country because they wanted more freedom of religion and expression. To me this is an irony because while they could see that they are freer here than in any other part of the world, they continue to espouse some of the prejudices they developed prior to coming to America. And it is incumbent on national Muslim organizations and community leaders to reach out to new immigrants and engage them in dialogue, and to try to impress on them the need to reconcile their Muslim and American identities. It is true the new measures enacted as part of the Patriot Act tend to enforce old prejudices, but I do truly believe and hope that these are temporary measures grow out of exaggerated fear, and are bound to be rejected by most Americans.

How can Muslim leaders do that?

Through dialogue and open discussion. We should use Friday sermons to explain and expound the Islamic values of tolerance and respect of religious diversity. I’m not suggesting that community leaders should impose these values on new immigrants. I’m rather suggesting that we have to speak out and stress those values and make them known to the Muslim community in general, and recent immigrants in particular. I would definitely be against those who think they can use force and intimidation to pressure people to adopt their views. Intimidation and silencing opposing views always result in radicalizing the opposition. You can’t really force people to agree with you. You can prevent people from engaging in violent acts, but when individuals espouse distorted views, the most effective way to deal with distortion is to reason with people and demonstrate the source of such distortion. And you have to isolate extremists and fanatics by making the community aware of the true teaching of Islam. This way people can see that the views of the fanatics are outside the mainstream interpretation of Islam.

Already many organizations are doing just that. If you look at the themes and discussions at ISNA Annual Convention, the annual conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, or other organizations like CAIR and MPAC, you can see that Muslim leaders have started to address issues and raise Muslim awareness. We have to continuing doing that and hopefully improve on it.

Opportunities

What opportunities are there to ensure a better future of Islam and Muslims in America?

Muslims have a great opportunity to education Americans about Islam. There is currently a great interest in this country to learn more about Islam and Muslims as a result of the tragic event of 9/11. Muslims should step in and start really responding to the current desire of many Americans to learn about Islam, and to educate the public. But Muslims, I think, need to do more than that. They need also to start going beyond their own communities and become more concerned about the well being of others, by contributing positively to improving the life in America. I think Muslims today have the opportunity to further develop democracy in this country. This country, as we all know, was founded on the democratic values of equal freedom and dignity, and the rule of law. Those values of democracy, as we all know, were not realized immediately. The early founding fathers, while speaking of equality, held slaves in their households. It took a lot of struggle by the African American community to push this country forward towards realizing its ideals. Again the early American community, despite its emphasis of equality of all people, didn’t give women the right to vote. It took a lot of struggle on the part of women to push this country towards realizing its ideals. We, as Muslims, can see today that there is still bigotry in this county and hidden racism. I believe Muslims must confront racism and bigotry, and must lead this country further to get closer to its ideals of equality and equality dignity of all people. We do see that there are groups in this society that are trying to use the horrible event of 9/11 to take away many of our civil liberties. I think Muslims should lead the fight to defend civil liberties for all because we all know that those who abuse civil rights and civil liberties start by targeting a particular minority, but soon they use the same tactics against the rest of society. I believe Muslims today have the opportunity to defend the basic values of this society, which are, after all, values that Muslims care about out of their faith and their moral commitments.

What are the highest priorities for Islam in America?

The greater part of Muslims in this country arrived here in the last three decades as immigrants who came in pursuit of various goals. Some of them came to improve their economic conditions, while others came to pursue their higher education or escape persecution in their land of birth. They were attracted to live in the United States because of its open political system: because of the freedom and equal opportunities they experienced here, and so they decided to adopt this country and to become Americans. It seems to me that it is incumbent on Muslims to strive to become true to their values and by that I mean to become a people who really defend the transcendental values that they believe in and share with Americans of other faiths: the values of respect of people, of honesty, of hard work, and of serving the community. I believe Muslims have the obligation to continue striving hard to realize those values and improve the conditions of the American society.

What I also see is that Muslim Americans unlike others have also the experience of living in societies that have been deprived. Being now American, we should all work hard to ensure ultimately that what became possible in America could become possible worldwide. And rather than allowing some of us to adopt the ways of the dictators of the third world, I think we have to make our model enjoyed by others. A model of a society where different religious groups can live side by side working together in peace and harmony, and who respect each other. The American society of today is made of peoples who represent the entire world. There is hardly any race or ethnic group that is not represented in this country. You can see that in a system of law and mutual respect, everyone contributes. Can we as Muslims reason with our fellow Americans and try to make this model the world model, enjoyed by everybody in the world rather than adopting the ways of the dictators by cracking down on the civil liberties in the name of security?

Can you elaborate how Muslim Americans can achieve the two objectives you just spelled out: (1) improving the overall conditions and (2) ensuring that the American model of cooperation among religions and ethnicities under a fair set of rules?

On the first objective, Muslim communities need to establish foundations and organizations that provide services to the community at large. We need to move ahead to pay attention to fellow Americans living in the inner cities. We have many medical doctors and businessmen; we need to use our resources to advance the conditions of people in need. Providing for the needy and neglected is an Islamic duty; we have to extend our help and services beyond our small communities. We need, for instance, to set clinics in inner cities to help people in need regardless of religion and ethnicity. We need to look outside ourselves. If we are truly dismayed at the level of poverty in the inner cities we should overcome the racial barriers that perpetuate the dismal conditions in inner cities.

On the second objective, Muslims have to become more active in the media; we have to encourage our youth to go into media professions. We have to take a more active role in political life so we can be part of the national debate. We have to educate fellow Americans about US foreign policy and what is doing to the rest of the world so that, hopefully, we can propose a more humane foreign policy that does not put US economic interests over the dignity of others, and in the process leads to the loss of both. That's what Muslims should do.

Muslim communities must encourage our youth to go to public service. Often Muslims encourage their children to go into professions that provide a comfortable income. That's fine but at the same time we need to encourage our best and brightest to go to public service. By that I mean we need Muslims who take part in the political process, run for public office, participate in the government services, go into the military and help to defend our country against aggression. We have to encourage bright young Muslims to go into the areas of law and journalism. These are areas that Muslims pay little attention to but these are important in order to make sure that the Muslim community is not abused and taken advantage of, and also in order to help convey some of our experiences to the larger society, and to advance our American ideals of democracy as well as make the world safe for democracy. By the way this was US foreign policy objective that was articulated early in the last century by Woodrow Wilson. Now I see that this has been reversed; now the objective of current US foreign policy is “making the world safe for America,” which is really the wrong approach. Such an approach would not make the world safe for America, but would rather increase resentment of others toward the United States. Many peoples see today that we only care to advance US interests even when these are detrimental to the well being of other societies.

Strategies

What are the best strategies for the above selected goals?

Muslim communities need to establish foundations and organizations that provide services to the community, not only to the Muslim community but also to the larger society, those who are in need. I think we need really to move ahead and try to pay attention to the plight of the people in the inner cities. Muslims can make a difference. Muslims have been blessed in this country by having large numbers among their members who are working in good paying jobs and having good income. We have many medical doctors and a good number of business people. I think we have to use our wealth to advance the conditions of people in need, particularly in the cities where there is a majority of Muslims. We should try to provide programs and support to those who are needy. We all know these are Islamic duties. Zakat, the religiously mandated charity that we pay, I think we have to pay it beyond our small communities and share with the rest of society. We need also to establish clinics that serve those who are in need. In short, what we need to do is to look outward beyond our own communities and see that our responsibility is to serve those who need our help and make their life better. Help them get education. I’m really troubled by the presence of the poverty zone in our inner cities despite all the surplus we have as a society. We have not dealt with this problem. I see a bit of racist undertone there and I think Muslims who believe, as part of their faith, that all human beings are equal must take the lead in this area.

What are the best means to influence the political agenda in America?

We have to become active on different levels. Different members of the Muslim community can participate in different aspects of political life. We are poor in think tanks. That's for sure. We know that in this country policies are developed and advanced by think tanks. We have not been able to either participate actively in establishing think tanks or support the development of Muslim think tanks. I would like to see both. I would like to see us, again, becoming more active, directing our youth towards those services. So far, the Muslim community has become more involved politically in the sense of voting. But that’s not really true participation, that’s only the beginning. To participate politically you should be able to keep in touch with your representatives, follow their voting record and understand the positions they take on issue of interests to Muslims. You need to call them, set meetings with them to discuss areas of agreement or disagreement. I don’t think we are doing that now.

Direct actions and demonstrations may sometimes help in voicing our views, but I would like to see Muslims reaching out to other groups within the American society. I would like to see them forming coalitions and working with others who share with them their concerns and are interested in the same issues. I don’t think Muslims should work in isolation from the larger society but become more involved, and bring their own experiences and their own views to bear on the national debate

What are the best means to influence legislation in America?

We know that influencing legislation has two elements: (1) formulating well thought positions on policies, and that is done through think tanks. Muslims should have more presence in think tanks and should establish their own think tanks when their views are not accommodated in the ones that exist; and (2) becoming more organized in terms of our ability to bring those points to Congress, which would definitely requires more participation of Muslims. To do that, we need to train our people. Many Muslims today, a large number of them, have the background of immigrating from societies where participation was not part of political experience. So there is a need for training, orientating, and helping people develop political skills in order to interact effectively with the American political system. I would like to see more involvement in local government. I am proud to note that in our area of Northern Virginia we have a Muslim lady, Afeefa Syeed, who decided to run for Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. I think this is good. We need to have more involvement in the local politics. After all, as the old saying goes, all politics is local. We have to pay attention to that and balance our national involvement with involvement at the local and state level.

What are the most important issues for Muslim action?

There is little understanding of our views on gender, abortion, race relations, etc. We as Muslims have to express our views because we don’t have a monolithic views. What we have to do is to further the best course that advances our own understanding of how Islam relates to the day-to-day life. I am against the notion that Islam advances one set of understanding--historically there were many different schools of thought, and various communities within the Muslim historical society had even embraced different sets of laws, so one can talk about Muslim society formed historically of different legal communities.

Through our individual and collective efforts, we can make a difference. We have to advance goodness, compassion and when we do that we are advancing the cause of Islam.

What are the most effective means to strengthen the Muslim Ummah in America?

The best thing we can do to strengthen the Muslim Ummah in America is to ensure that imams are well educated and well trained. We need to pay more attention to bringing Islam to deal with modern issues. Because of the decline of traditional Islamic education, we find now that many of the imams are only educated in Islamic sciences and have little exposure to sciences that help them analyze modern society and understand it better. I think we have an obligation to make sure that we provide the right training, the good courses that will develop well rounded imams that are not only capable of explaining the text of Islam but also relating the text to the context in which they live. Some of our imams have come from Muslim countries where they were educated. I think we have to develop our institutions so that when they come here before they are certified to become imams they are given the orientation to know the nature of this society, a bit of its history and political organization so that when they deal with public issues, they don’t do that out of ignorance but out of knowledge and understanding.

What are the best means for national coordination of Muslim action in pursuit of Islamic goals in America?

We should be grateful to God that through His grace we were able todeveloped over the last two decades a good number of national and local organizations. I don’t think we need to aspire at this point to have a central decision making. I don’t think this is something we have to strive for. We have to maintain the independence and flexibility of Muslims organizations, and at the same time provide a setting, say a national convention, where different organizations get together to debate issues, and where Muslim leaders get together and discuss views and understand the positions advanced by others. Currently this is happening in a limited way. Perhaps the largest gathering is the one organized by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). ISNA Annual Convention brings about 30 to 40 thousand participants and hundreds of organizations to interact with the participants. I would like to see more involvement at least we need to have to make arrangements during those types of conventions to be able to debate issues honestly and encourage open discussion so that we can all have a better understanding of what Muslim organizations are doing, and be able to comment in a more systematic way on their performance.