American Muslims:
Bridging Faith and Freedom
By
Muqtedar Khan
Review by Shahid Sheikh, Ed.D.
Executive Director
American Educational Research Institute
New York
Dr. M.A. Muqtedar’s book, “American
Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom,” was
published in 2002 to dispel American public’
widespread negative perception of Islam and Muslim
here and abroad after 9/11. Additionally, the book
is a quest for self-comprehension by a Muslim-American
scholar through introspection combined with a re-examination
of traditional topics related to Islam and the Muslim-Americans
with an ultimate outcome being the defining and
then forging of the Muslim-American identity.
Throughout the book, therefore, Khan
raises many intriguing questions, for instance,
is Islam compatible with the Western democracy?
What are the prevailing political and religious
trends among the Muslim-Americans? What political
and religious roles should Muslim-Americans play
vis-à-vis the United States and the Islamic
world? How do Muslims perceive the United States’
foreign policy vis-à-vis “the growth
of Islam and the welfare of Muslims everywhere?”
With unusual candor, Khan discusses many controversial
topics as well, such as, Muslim feminists and the
role of mosques in the lives of Muslim-Americans,
particularly women.
Given the exigency to put together
an instant book aimed at the masses, Khan takes
up a wide array of topics and provides a plethora
of basic information about Muslim-Americans combined
oftentimes with keen observations and brilliant
insights. The limitations of space, however, hinder
him from providing thorough, exhaustive and enlightening
discussions on almost all topics. Skimpy outlines
of important arguments and oftentimes premature
termination of crucial discussions makes the reader
oftentimes feel as if he/she is reading “Muslim-Americans
for Dummies” instead of a scholarly work by
an academic.
Another striking weakness of the book
is that Khan does not buttress his personal perceptions,
observations, generalizations and conclusions with
research or documentation. This apparent lack lends
flaccidity to the entire work especially when he
candidly discusses controversial topics and puts
out difficult-to-swallow opinions and analyses.
A superficial analysis and the lack
of argumentation through documentation probably
have been caused by two factors. First, Khan was
totally unprepared for this book about Muslim-Americans
because he was not a serious scholar of Muslim-Americans
per say prior to 9/11. One can easily sense Khan’s
discomfit with his chosen topic: he exclusively
devotes only two chapters to Muslim-Americans in
which he very briefly discusses their lives in terms
of religion, politics and socio-economic issues
and concerns. He leaves out the political history
of the Muslim-Americans, fails to acknowledge the
sacrifices and contributions of the African-Muslims
and for that matter indigenous Muslims, and totally
ignores their immigrant experience, the inevitable
clash of cultures, the conflicts and pangs of assimilation,
the tangled ties between generations, an indelibly-etched
identity crisis, and, most poignantly, the erstwhile
worsening Muslim civil rights conditions. By not
even acknowledging their existence, Khan abandons
his impartiality, which makes the book almost skewed.
In the subsequent six chapters, however,
Khan visibly gets animated when he veers off to
his favorite topic and academic forte -- international
affairs. Here, he very comfortably discusses American
foreign policy from a Muslim scholar’s perspective
but couches the contents and phrases as the spokesperson
for the Muslim-American community in an apparent
attempt to be true to the book’s title. Second,
though not much reliable research is available on
Muslim-Americans, Khan chooses not to make use of
whatever is available.
No doubt Muqtedar Khan has the rigorous
training, superb analytical skills and intellectual
stamina to write a thorough and well-researched
scholarly work about Muslim-Americans. Let’s
hope that he revises “American Muslims: Bridging
Faith and Freedom,” into one such book in
near future.
(The writer is the executive director
of the New York City-based American Educational
Research Institute and the moderator of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Muslim-Americans.
He can be reached at aeriusa@hotmail.com. )
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