Muslims living in America “don’t throw bombs, but they create political cover for ideological support of this jihadi movement” claimed David Horowtiz, a founder of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, in an article recently printed in the New York Times entitled “Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School” (April 28). This article documented Debbie Almontaser’s effort to found a public school in New York City where children were taught Arabic in addition to a standard public school curriculum. Her message was clear: she wanted the graduates of this school to be “ambassadors of peace and hope.” It sounds like an ideal vision in this world of conflict, war, and bitter strife, so what was the problem? It was Ms. Almontaser’s religion: she is Muslim.
News of the school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which was sponsored by the Gates Foundation, enraged the likes of David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes. Mr. Pipes interpreted Ms. Almontaser’s desire to open a school as way to propagate the ideas of radical Islam. He told the New York Times reporter that “It is hard to see how violence, how terrorism will lead to the implementation of sharia…It is much easier to see how, working through the system — the school system, the media, the religious organizations, the government, businesses and the like — you can promote radical Islam.” Apparently, any time we as Muslim-Americans want to take part in this society, whether it be by educating the youth, presenting our viewpoints to Americans, or accepting a government job, we are bent on infiltrating and destabilizing American society. Never mind that many of us living in America consider it our country and our home; if we exercise our full rights as equal citizens of this society as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, Daniel Pipes would have the rest of America believe that it is for a nefarious purpose. Instead, we are to remain as second-class citizens, to be viewed with suspicion because of a group of men who hijacked not only airplanes but our religion, who perverted our way of life, and who defied the things we hold sacred: the preservation and sanctity of life, the respect accorded to all of humanity, and the message of peace and love which are cornerstones of every religion, including Islam.
On September 12, 2001, everyone became a self-proclaimed expert on Islam. The people who had no idea where Afghanistan even was (and still don’t!) talked about the Taliban and their oppression of women with undisputed authority. People who had never heard about hijab now had long-winded discourses about sharia. The anger against the terrorists was palpable, and America had its eye—and its military firepower—focused on Osama Bin Laden. Since then, that focus has shifted from criticizing a group of terrorists—who amounted to a tiny speck of the 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide—to attacking Islam itself. This year, that Islamophobia has become more apparent to me than at any other time since 9/11. When people express concerns about Barack Obama’s supposed ties with Islam and demand to know whether he believes in Jesus Christ as the son of God, when a woman like Ms. Almontaser, who has spent so many years working with other faiths, is reviled and attacked for the sole reason that she is Muslim, when Muslims are accused of carrying out a “soft jihad” when we ask for the rights we deserve as citizens of the US, the reality of the prejudice is indisputable.
The message is clear: Americans are not ready to accept us as fellow Americans.
Instead, they label us as foreign even when we espouse more of America’s democratic values than some Americans whose families have been here for generations. Mr. Pipes demarcates the divisions Americans and Muslims by painting all Muslims as extremists at heart. “Are these people who are not using violence but who are not fully enthusiastic about this country and its mores, its culture — are they on our side or are they on the other side?” he said about Muslims in the New York Times. How is opening an Arab-language school showing that Muslims aren’t enthusiastic about American mores? Since when did doing something different become un-American? This country was founded by an extraordinarily different action that defied the greatest empire in the world. This country exists to challenge mores and culture—ever hear about the student riots in 1968 and the Counterculture of the 1960s?
As far as I’m concerned, there are no sides, just false divisions that men like Daniel Pipes create to undermine the unity of this country. I’m tired of apologizing for the misguided actions of others. I know what I stand for, and none of it contributes to a polarizing debate that alienates me from my fellow Americans. I’m a Muslim, and I’m a patriot.
No comments:
Post a Comment