Muslim Americans:
Galvanizing Post-Persecution
“There is a
tide in the affairs of men which, taken
at the flood leads on to fortune”.
Shakespeare had this strange knack for
timeless wisdom. The key in this particular
wisdom is all in the timing: predicting
that small window of opportunity and
onto boundless joy.
The time for Muslim Americans to change
their lot may well be now. One event
on one day in 2001 has set Muslims eons
behind and it feels like we are Neanderthals
trying to cope in the 21st century.
Kudos to the Spanish Muslims for issuing
a fatwa denouncing Al-Qaeda. My pride
was short-lived however for the American
media did not report it at all. And
there’s the rub: there is much
complaining about the silence of Muslims
the world over about 9/11 and when Muslims
do denounce, the West is looking away.
The perpetrators of 9/11 may well have
engineered a grievous human tragedy
in the name of Islam and for the sake
of Muslims. The extent of their intent
backfiring ought to earn it first place
in the Guinness Book of Records as The
Greatest Backfiring Ever. Whilst the
perpetrators in their psychotic mindsets
revel in the scale of the destruction
that it wrought, ordinary Muslims the
world over and especially in the West
suffer day in and day out. Some rot
in the inhuman cells of Guantanamo Bay,
others in jails across the land and
yet others at the hands of overeager
airport personnel perusing no-fly lists.
This guilt by association is more tenacious
than Krazy Glue and is unlikely to un-stick
any time soon. It appears that being
a tax paying, productive citizen means
nothing, being an Ahmed or a Husain
is all that counts. Even if “
we are with you, not against you”
were tattooed on the foreheads of all
American Muslims, it would not cut it.
A recent report by the Justice Department’s
Office of the Inspector General has
found “a disturbing pattern”
of discriminatory and retaliatory actions
against Muslim inmates by wardens and
guards at American prisons. This was
reported in 2003 but no disciplinary
action has been taken against any warden
to date.
The very first Muslims were brought
to America as slaves in the late 18th
to early 19th centuries. After that
there were three waves of immigration
of Muslims to the United States and
it is safe to say that all these waves
pursued the American dream. The first
from Syria and Lebanon between 1875
and 1912, the second wave after World
War I around 1918 was also from the
Middle East in contrast to the third
wave that came from South Asia and Eastern
Europe between 1947 and 1960. The early
immigrants were migrant workers, peddlers,
miners and factory workers, as opposed
to the third wave of Muslims many of
whom were well-educated and settled
in urban areas.
Many a story is told of the name-changes
that occurred at immigration, across
the board, even to non-Muslims, and
unpronounceable Arab and Polish names
were demystified into Johns and Smiths.
Current day America retains this xenophobia
and Mahjabeen is Marge and Mohammad
is Mo. Its eight million American Muslims
are divided interestingly into four
even quadrants: 24% are African-American,
26% are Arab-Americans, 26% South Asians
and 24% all others. The rest of America
may be graying, not Muslims; whilst
67% of the American adult population
is over 40, 67% of the Muslim-American
population is under 40.
In the arena of education, 67% of Muslim-Americans
have a Bachelor’s degree whilst
only 40% of the American population
does. As the level goes up to Masters
degrees and doctorates the gap widens
even more. And with the penchant especially
of South Asians to channel their children
into Medicine, one in ten Muslim-American
households have a doctor. Reminds me
of an illustrative joke by Azhar Usman
a Chicago based comedian. An older Pakistani
gentleman was going on about how the
Muslim community is in dire need of
people in the media, in journalism and
law. “ Uncle what do your children
do?” asked Azhar. “They
are all doctors, mashaallah!”
was the dichotomous answer.
Interestingly we have the bucks too.
According to the 2000 US Census, the
average American income was $42,000
per year. 66% of US Muslims earned over
$50,000 and a whopping 26% earned over
$100,000. The commonest occupation was
student at 20%, engineers 12%, physician
or dentist 10%, homemaker 10%, programmer
7% and corporate manager and teacher
6% each.
Muslim Americans are underrepresented
in occupations that make public policy
or influence public opinion, and very
few pursue print/TV/film media. They
are also unlikely to be in state legislatures
and courts where laws are made and practiced.
Bush’s “you are either with
us or against us” is a verbalization
of the unsaid in America: that all of
us must jump into the melting pot and
coalesce into a formless gruel. At the
socio-moral level, and due to the strong
definition given to our lives by Islam,
Muslims have traditionally not been
able to take the above stated dive.
The moral restrictions regarding modest
attire, dating, premarital sex and single
motherhood as well as the tenacity that
Muslim Americans practice these with,
can create a significant issue, not
to mention the balance of power struggles
between parents and children in many
a Muslim household.
The magnetism of the material invariably
wanes and many American Born Confused
Desis reached adulthood ensconced in
the American dream. And having arrived
it is only human nature to look beyond
the material. The coming of age of this
second and third generation of Muslim
Americans coupled with the ironic impetus
of 9/11 has created a moment in time
ripe for the development of the Muslim
American social, religious and political
identity.
Mosques dot the American landscape from
sea to shining sea. It’s time
that our architectural dreams take the
form of hospitals and nursing homes
with a Muslim Board of Trustees, but
dispensing care regardless of race,
gender or religion.
Participating in the political process
is the indispensable medium for full
expression of our citizen status. The
American Muslim Political Coordination
Council orchestrated the bloc vote in
2000 and it is sad that Muslims look
at that event with the jaundiced eye
of the glass as half empty for the bloc
vote helped Bush into power and post
9/11 the persecution of Muslims shows
no signs of slowing down. It is important
to see the bloc vote’s historic
galvanizing power and how it united
a very disunited, argumentative and
politically puerile group. The vociferous
protests caused the renaming of that
group and now it is the American Muslim
Task Force on Civil Rights and Election
(AMT-PAC), an umbrella organization
of ten national Muslim organizations.
We must avoid micro-nationalism and
calling ourselves Pakistani-Americans
or Egyptian-Americans. Identification
with and promotion of the common thread
of Islam engenders clout and exerts
numerical pressure.
Muslim Americans per the 2000 Census
Bureau have the secrets of success:
number, youth, education and wealth.
Every American Muslim household must
be a member of the vital three: the
American Muslim Alliance, which is the
force behind the AMT, the Council of
American Islamic Relations or CAIR,
whose mandate is protecting our civil
rights and ISNA, Islamic Society of
North America for all things religious
or spiritual.
Participating in the political process
is, by far, the shortest and most effective
route to full expression and acceptance
of the way we are, not the way they
want us to be: a persecuted and petrified
minority. This is the tide that Shakespeare
referred to; we must seize the moment,
not just for ourselves but also for
our children’s children’s
children.
(Mahjabeen Islam M.D. is a physician
practicing in Toledo Ohio. Her email
is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
