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American Muslims, Before and After September 11, 2001

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American Muslims, Before and After September 11, 2001 can states, Saudi Arabia, and various American Muslims, Persian Gulf states). South Asian Muslims are almost all from India. Pakistan, before and after September 11 , 2001 Bangladesh and Afghanistan, with a largely-shared subcontinental history. While Arabic-speakers often dominate in The history of Islam in the US has been changed dramatically by mosques and education<!-1 settings, south the events of September I I, 200 I. The directions now being taken Asians have a higher socio-economic pro­ reverse earlier tendencies on the part ofAmerican Muslim political file and are arguably more privileged in organisations to narrow the boundaries ofthe community and to American society.6 The second striking feature is the vig­ emphasise foreign policy issues at the expense of domestic ones. · orous organisation-building at the end These new directions, however, broaden the boundaries of of the 20th century, as political goals. American Islam in other ways, drawing more widely on the leadership, and sources of support within religion's rich, long-standing traditions of humanistic and legal the emerging American Muslim commu­ scholarship. Importantly also, the directions now being taken are nity changed rapidly. We can see four major stages of this politicisation pro­ being strongly shaped by non-Muslim politicians and the media in ces·s. First came the gradual evolution of the US, in an interaction between American Muslims and the state a 'Muslim' category from within the 'Arab' that is, perhaps paradoxically, drawing Muslims more closely one. In the 1970s and 1980s, as media into national political Life. coverage negatively stereotyped Muslims and as Muslims became the majority among Arab immigrants (following the KAREN LEONARD sion in the US, ·chose Islam as an alter­ 1965 changes in US immigration law), nativetoChristianity and to white America; scholars and the media began to focus on I . many of the movements were or are sepa­ 'Muslims'. The continuing civil rights Background: Before ratist ones.3 The fascinating· intellectual movement drew attention to the separatist September 11 history of these early 20th century African groups within African American Islam, as American Muslim movements is only now African American Muslims won legal vic­ .rapid survey of the American being set out clearly.4 The long process of tories which have benefited all Muslims Muslim ·community' at the tum of drawing these African American Islamic in America,7 but the African American A the 21st century highlights three movements closer to dominant Sunni and Muslims and new immigrant Muslims were features. First is the internal diversity, non-American traditions was staned by not yet working together well. making it difficult to achieve· any real the Ahmadiyya movement from India in The second, third and fourth stages came sense of community. One attempt to 1920, when its missionaries began provid­ at theend of the 20th century. In the 1980s, categorise and count Muslim Americans ing English translations of the Qur'an and the inward focus of national origin com­ puts Africa.n Americans at 42 per cent, teaching about the five 'pillars' of Islam. munities broadened to r~ch out to other south Asians at 24.4 'per cer.t. Arabs at But much remains distinctively 'Ameri­ Muslims and the American public. Immi­ 12.4 per cent, Africans at 6.2 per cent, can' about these African American Mus­ grant Muslim leaders and organisations Iranians at 3.6 per cent. south ·east Asjans lim communities. Marked by a history of began advocating citizenship and partici­ at 2 per cent, European Arn:!ricans at 1.6 prejudice a!ld exclusion. they often reflect pation in mainstream politics in the US, percent.and 'other' at5.4perc.ent. Another ambivalent or antagonistic views towards abandoning a stance which had_assumed puts ·Americans' at 30 pc:r cent, Arabs at · the US gove~.1ment, Christianity, andother only temporary residence in the US (and 33 per cent. and south Asians at 29 per racial or ethnic groups, including Muslim sometimes labelled it dar ul-Jmfr, the place cent. 1 There are also differences of immigrants. Most African American ofunbelief). 8 In the third stage, in the 1990s, belief and practice bet ween Sunni and Shi' i Muslims argue. that ·asabiyah • or group south Asian Muslims assumed leadership and then among sectarian groups like the solidarity must be given priority over the positions in the newly-organised American Ithn~ 'A shari (most Irani Shi'i), theNizari 'ummah' or the universal Muslim com­ Muslim political coalitions(seeAppendix I). lsmailis (Shi 'i followers ofthe Aga Khan). munity at this stage in African American often taking over from Arab Americans and those whos~ Islamic identity is Muslim life, and they do not accept the and reinforcing the expansion of goals contested likt" :he Ahmac!is and Druze. customs or authority of immigrant Mus­ and audiences.9 The fourth stage, in the Then tht>re are the Sufis. whose charis­ lims. These 'new Muslims' prefer to in­ late 1990s. was a move away from non­ mati:: Su:i:li leaders teach mysrical terpret texts for themselves rather than be American Islamic influence and sources strands or i•la1:.: the Sutis in the US are guided by the 'new Americans'.5 offunding.10 AftertheGulfwarand rising from ''cry r. ·ve-r'e backgrounds and many The largest immigrant groups, Arab and Islamophobia in the US. foreign funding are Eurc-.\1,1eri1an convens.2 south Asian Musiims. contrast with each was minimised and 'outside interference' ·int. thrt..e major American Muslim other. The Arabs are far more diverse in was unwelcome. Immigrant and African groups - African Americans. Arabs and terms of national histories and colonial American Muslims moved closertogether. south Asians - are very different from pasts, coming from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, The third striking feature of the Ameri­ each other. African American Muslims. Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco (and, in can Muslim community at the end of the drin n by a history ofsla~ry and oppres- smaller numbers, from other Nonh Afri- 20th century was the prominence of new Economic and Political Weekly June 15, 2002 2293 spokesmen and their attempts to define the Before September 11, 2001, the stance were initially silent, hoping that Muslims community in ways that emphasised their ofthese political leaders of American Islam had not been responsible for the murder­ own role and marginalised spokesmen and wasoverwhelminglyoptimistic, 16 proclai­ ous attacks. Bush began meeting with groups less like themselves. By this, I ming that American Muslims would play religious leaders almost immediately21 and mean that. while some 'imams' in mosques a major role in 'reconstruction' of the US. visited the leading mosque in Washington. and scholars of 'fiqh' (Islamic jurispru­ A physician from Pakistan wrote about Standing on the White House lawn on dence) in the US continued to exemplify religious and family values, saying "Mus­ September 20 with the president, Shaykh high standards of Islamic learning, those lims believe in the same values for which HamzaYusuf, one of six religious leaders in leadership positions in many mosques this country (the US) was founded ... they and the only Muslim to meet privately and in the increasingly-powerful political feel closer to the founding fathers than with the president that day, lan:iented that coalitions were typically medical doctors, what America has become... " 17 Indeed, "Islam was hijacked on that September 11, engineers. and other professionals, men many felt that American Muslims would 2001, on that plane as an innocent without classical training in Islamic his­ also play a special role in leadership of victim".22 tory and law. Yet it was they who were the international Muslim ummah. Thus A clear pattern emerged as the White speaking, authoritatively and publicly, on one man wrote that Muslims could Hous~ and the American media learned issues ranging from citizenship and voting make 'an essential contribution to the more about American Muslim leaders and to marriage and family law. According to healing of America· by becoming more organisations. Scholars and others outside one fiqh scholar, "In the United States the visible and ceasing to 'cast doubt on the the Muslim political organisations gave field of 'sharia' is fl ooded with self­ compatibility of Islam, democracy and advice to Muslims, .and the leaders of declared experts who inundate our dis­ human rights'; furthermore, arguing that American M_uslim political organisations courses with self-indulgent babble and Muslims in North America had a 'head found themselves on the defensive. The 'gibberish .... those who are unable to diffe­ start' over those in Europe, since most government and media looked to Muslim rentiate ... the fundamentals of Islam from already were or were becoming citizens leaders who would 'denounce fundamen­ its particulars."11 While a National Fiqh and could therefore participate in public talist hatemongering'23 and they found Council was set up by ISNA (the Islamic life, he said: them, often outside the organised Ameri­ Society of North America - for this and Mµslims all over the world are look.ing can Muslim political community. Ameri­ later acronyms, see Appendix I), it was with high expectations toward the ummah can Muslim leaders were caught in a situ­ "overwhelmingly composed ofnaturalised in the US and Canada. Its dynamism, fresh ation that was difficult from the beginning Muslims", men who knew little about US approach, enlightened scholarship and and continues to be so. Proclaim their family law and inheritance rights, accord­ sheer growth is their hope for an Islamic loyalty to the US and tempering their ing to an African American Muslim Renaissance worldwide. Perhaps the previous! y stron'g and outspoken criticisms mujaddid of the 15th Islamic century scholar, l2 and the council has not been of US foreign policy, they have been accepted ac; authoritative by all immigrant and the second millennium of the common confronted with the American bombing era will- be an American Muslim, Muslim scholars either.
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