I have hesitated writing this article for a long time because I was uncertain as to whether or not I was looking at the full picture. It is always difficult - and unintelligent - when we make uninformed generalizations that can either malign or relegate an entire community to the sidelines. However, I think that the experience - perceived or real - of American Muslims is one that has been authored, endorsed and perpetuated by their own hands.
In the pre 9-11 era, the common rhetoric employed by Imams and other leaders in various communities, was essentially anti-American. Muslims were made to feel that they had betrayed their deen if they claimed to be American. By extension that meant that they could not be both American and Muslim. Some may readily argue that this was largely an immigrant issue. However, I think that this was by-and-large a Muslim (indigenous and immigrant) issue. In various masaajid throughout the city and elsewhere, the rhetoric against America was virulent and fierce. This is easy to understand, because many of our teachers at that time, had inherited the baggage of THEIR teachers. They studied abroad and consequently were influenced by some of the language and ideas that their own teachers foisted on them. Some inculcated and adopted this behavior and language more than others. Some rejected it; but many were influenced by it.
Therefore, if we look at it, we had years of indoctrination into a mentality that Muslims did not belong in America. We, as Muslims, had that idea. We, as Muslims, still have that idea in some circles. When you hear leaders still say that in America, we either need to be doing da'wah or jihad or make hijrah, it is appalling at best. In reality, it is more of a betrayal; a betrayal of our heritage as Muslims and our inheritance as African American Muslims. Now, if we as Muslims have portrayed Islam - and by extension Muslims - as something strange, as something antithetical to America, is it any surprise that those outside the Muslim community are seeing Islam as something strange and antithetical to America?
I know that many will argue that their neighbors do not see them as such. I know that not everyone is included in this generalization. This is a fact. There are communities whose leaders, by-and-large, engaged in an Islam that was more integrationist than separatist. They were the ones with the vision. They were the ones who saw a bigger picture and a broader mission. Their communities and sons and daughters may have been taught and exposed to a different reality and flavor of Islam in America, but were not totally inoculated from the effects of the broader community's influence of treating Islam as something anomalous to America and Americans.
The argument can easily be made that this is not a something that was germinated within the indigenous Muslim community. In fact, let's be specific, some may claim that this did not occur within the African American Muslim community. I would beg to differ. If we trace back some of our roots, we will see that the rhetoric that informed many who became African American Muslims, set up Islam as something that was different from American values and could no co-exist with American values. From the arguments for African Americans to have a separate "space" - economical, social and political - for black Americans within America itself, to claims that America (the same America they lived in) would burn and perish for what it was doing to local and international populations, we see that a clear line was being drawn in the sand. The line illustrated clearly, 'we were different.' It did not simply state that we have a different belief system that could co-exist, it stated that we had a belief system that was antithetical to anything that paraded itself as American, and as such, the two could not live side by side.
If we performed a content analysis on sermons and khutbahs in a pre 9-11 environment and compared them to sermons in a post 9-11 environment, we will see that the vitriol against America has died down significantly. Now, we find that we are now reasserting our right to be here and be accepted. This is in fact a right of ours. However, our shortsightedness in the pre 9-11 era blinded us to how we should have been developing and navigating our Islam and our identity. Any other community that it attempting to establish itself in a particular societybuilds institutions. We attend to the needs - in a holistic way - of the communities we serve. Our attempts to only set up places of worship and no other institutions to cultivate and sustain our own communities speak to the idea that maybe we did not envision ourselves being here for long. Our bodies and minds were here, but our hearts and souls we in the East. As I mentioned, we have seen a shift in the public utterances that we do not belong, but I question whether or not some of our leaders are still on the fence. I question whether or not they still see America (however they define that) to be a place where Muslims do not belong. How do we then move forward?
We have to reclaim the roots of our Islamic identity. If we believe that Islam is an inheritance of every people, irrespective of geographic location, then we cannot truly accept that Muslims should not be in America. Some of us are still mystified and glorified by the vapors of the East. We hold on to this untenable and unrealistic mysticism that Islam can and will only flourish when the 'Ansaar' embrace and accept the 'Muhaajiroon'. A "medina" is not a pre-requisite for our Islam to be established or our identities cultivated. We need to detach ourselves from our own fairytales. We encourage our children to maximize their opportunities here from one side of our mouths, but through the other side, we tell them that America is not the best place for them. We have been giving mixed messages and mixed signals for too long. We have been hypnotized into hypocrisy.
For us to move forward, we need to know and claim our identity. We need to accept the benefit of the East and acknowledge the baggage that it too brings with it. We have to be discriminating in what we take and what we reject from all societies with which we are aligned - culturally, religiously, politically or socially. We have to know what 'our' identity is first as individuals before we can assist, much less lead others, in helping them establish their identity. Our attempts to integrate have to be out of genuine love for this deen, our community and our compatriots. You cannot be of benefit to those you hate: self, community and others.
