N. American
Muslims’ Absence from National Politics
By Abubakr G Shaikh
Westerville, Ohio
The blessed month of Ramadan is over. Muslims
all over the world have celebrated the festive
holidays of Eidul Fitr. This year, Muslims living
in and around the city of Greater Columbus, the
capital and central city of Ohio, proudly celebrated
the opening of the majestic, state-of-the-art,
grand and imposing building of the Noor Islamic
Cultural Center.
The Center is by far the largest mosque in the
State of Ohio. It was a most pleasing spectacle
to witness the mosque filled to its capacity during
the Friday congregations and large gatherings
at the nightly Isha prayers followed by Travih,
the nightly vigils every night of the week during
the blessed month of Ramadan.
The Holy month of Ramadan is the most auspicious
period in the Islamic calendar during which the
believers seek the pleasure of their Lord by fasting
from dawn to dusk, offering extra prayers, the
nightly vigils, giving charity, feeding the poor,
repenting and reflecting on their worldly and
religious commitments, duties and affairs. During
the holy month of Ramadan, one sees large human
confluence in the Islamic centers and mosques,
presenting a great opportunity for the national
community leaders to take advantage from this
event to spread awareness both on community matters
as well as on important national and political
issues which directly impact the welfare of the
Ummah.
It is the basic duty of community and national
leaders to find ways and means to remain closely
connected with the people they represent, disseminate
information and arouse interest and get community
members involved in matters of local and national
importance. The 30-day period of Ramadan presents
a unique opportunity to Muslim leaders to interact
with the community. In the past two years, a new
trend has developed: arrangement of Iftar parties
by small groups of friends, inviting two to three
hundred guests in hotels and halls, which could
serve as another opportune moment in reaching
out to the community.
But our leaders seem to have completely ignored
the most important national event of the year,
the mid-term elections in the United States scheduled
to take place in November. We boast of 7.5 million
Muslims inhabiting the United States, some 50,000
living in Central Ohio alone, who continuously
remain alienated from national politics, let alone
getting actively involved in the national or local
debates or sounding political opinions on major
issues and policies which directly affect the
Muslim community. The grassroots organizations
alone cannot deliver unless the majority of Muslim
communities start to realize the importance of
their participation in national politics by joining
a political party of their choice and use their
platform to voice their opinions or grievances
of the American Muslims . Muslim Americans must
exercise their legitimate right to cast their
votes. To impress upon the members the importance
of community involvement and participation in
national events is the responsibility of our grassroot
organizations. During this election year, our
national leaders have simply disappeared from
the national scene! I have not heard a word of
election campaigning from them, have you ?
Our grassroots organizations are poorly equipped
to establish a constant and close communication
link with the community. A trend of international
brotherhood is creeping in gradually, taking deep
roots in Muslim organizations, which are basically
and essentially constituted and founded to only
serve the needs and calls of the North American
Muslims alone. Past few years have seen that some
of the major organizations have deviated from
their constitutional role and have taken the task
of charity collections for the needs of the entire
global Muslims instead of focusing their entire
efforts and energy on resolving the problems of
the American Muslim Community. There are indisputably
a large number of poverty-stricken Muslims in
North America who can’t afford to pay for
their daily bread, let alone medical bills, household
expenses beside other pressing needs. The news
of broken homes, women suffering from domestic
violence, innocent children -- victims of tragic
circumstance needing fostering or adoptions, hardly
reach us or appear in the national or local news.
It is the duty of our grassroots organizations
to connect the local Muslim community with the
current Ummah affairs and preparing them for the
future nation-building programs. In the words
of Thomas Friedman, the mother earth is flat and
the far flung communities all over the globe are
being connected by wire at the speed of light,
it must not be a great task for our leaders to
effectively communicate with their constituents,
involving them, pressurizing them and preparing
them not only in the community affairs but to
actively play role in national politics. I appreciate
the hard work put in by our community organizations
despite all odds including financial starvation
and handicapped in absence of volunteer force.We
must continue to support them financially and
by volunteering our spare time to lighten their
burden in reducing the management cost and giving
them hand where they need manpower most. Collections
they must do to run their organizations and towards
building institutes essential for the welfare
of the North American Ummah, urgently needed shelters
for homeless, for women and children from broken
homes or domestic violence, fostering and adoptions,
medical aids and clinics, homes for elderly Muslims,
Islamic schools and many other social needs.
There are hundreds of local and international
charity establishments in North America collecting
millions of dollars every year for immediate and
permanent needs of the Muslims around the world
and serving the purpose quite well. Our national
and grassroots organizations need not get involved
in the charity collections for global needs, they
must devote their entire efforts to the national
arena. However, the North American Muslim organizations
must approach and press the local and international
charity organizations to contribute towards running
the American Muslim community organizations in
North America, and lend their support & initiatives
for building basic institutions to meet the social
needs of North American Muslims.
There are also serious risks involved for the
grass-root Muslim American organizations , in
collecting and transmitting the charity funds
to foreign counties. Several charity organizations
were investigated by the FBI, their funds were
seized and offices sealed due to some inadvertent
discrepancies in remitting funds abroad . Our
national grassroots organizations cannot afford
to take this grave risk, nor is such a course
in the interest of North American Muslims.
The mid-term elections are being currently held
and American Muslim leaders and organizations
must make it a point to stress the importance
of participation in national and local elections
…every single vote can make a difference.
The North American Muslims should not isolate
themselves from the national scene and remain
silent spectators and consequently un-represented.
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