An American Muslim Journal

The firing of Juan Williams de-legitimizes anti-Muslim biases - Oh the Horror!!!!

My first thoughts and observations about Juan Williams anti-Muslim comments on Bill O'Reilly's comedy program on Fox last week focused on Juan Williams, the comments and whether they make him a bigot or just a person who said something bigoted (I think there is a difference).

Others focused on the firing of Mr. Williams from his job as a news analyst at NPR.  Within the Muslim circles to which I am privy there was strong support for Mr. Williams firing.  In fact, several people I interacted with online (community listservs mostly) questioned the Muslim Public Affairs Council statement which disagreed with the firing by NPR.

Glen Greenwald's perspective on this little brouhaha deserves more attention.  I didn't look at the situation in the manner that Mr. Greenwald does and I'm guessing a lot of others haven't either.

Mr. Greenwald's essay on the topic of Juan Williams, his fear of Muslims in Muslim garb, his firing, and the rallying behind Mr. Williams and against NPR over the firing is thought-provoking [WARNING: the contents of Mr. Greenwald's essay may be inappropriate for the knee-jerk patriots who cannot stomach self-critical looks at America and Americans].  It argues that NPR's actions threaten to de-legitimize casting of Muslims and of Islam as the bogeymen of our times.  Mr. Greenwald argues that the hypocritical outcry from certain corners of the punditsphere are because, heretofore, stereotyping Muslims was seen as reasonable and prudent [especially so when the phrase "national security" is invoked].

 

Juan Williams' comment was bigoted, but is he a bigot?

Bigot?  Islamophobe?  A$$?

I've heard Juan Williams on NPR many times over the years and never would have pegged him for a bigot.  But his recent comments about Muslims certainly makes him sound like one.

CNN reported that Mr. Williams made a bigoted statement about Muslims on the Bill O'Reilly show. According to CNN.com this is what Mr. Williams said:

"But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous." 

That is a bigoted comment.  But does it make him a bigot?

One errant, insensitive, stupid, narrow-minded comment should not be used to label Mr. Williams with the ugly label of bigot.  I say this because, frankly speaking, I've been where he is now.

In the fall of 1991 I was in a graduate student dorm with my roommate.  Some time in the first few weeks of law school I made a comment that was patently offensive.  I used an ugly stereotype during one of our conversations and as the bigoted term rolled off my tongue I knew I insulted my roommate.

I was careless and insensitive to utter that ugly stereotype.  He heard it but he didn't say a word. 

A few minutes later as we were both turning in for the night I told him I was very sorry for saying it.  Not only did he not confront me as soon as I said it (and he would have been absolutely justified if he had), but he accepted my apology immediately and we've never spoken of it again.  It's been nearly 20 years.  We still keep in touch but I know that he's never held that moment of ignorance and carelessness against me.

I am grateful to him for being so generous with his compassion and forgiveness.  I think that moment remains with me to this day as a reminder in large part because of my friend's willingness to forgive me for it.

Mr. Williams was wrong for making this comment, but he shouldn't be labeled a bigot.  Let's give him a chance to reflect on what he said, and let's give him some time to make a sincere apology.  And if he does, then we should take him at his word and put this matter to rest with his character intact.

 

Muslim Serve 2010 as Public Relations? Bad. As a catalyst for real service? Good!

 

Public service as public relations is a shallow exercise that betrays the revered place of serving humanity in Islam.  If the upcoming Muslim Serve 2010 efforts don’t include a plan of action (and a sincere commitment) for sustained service beyond 9/11/10, then those organizing this effort should stop right now.  If 9/11/10 is just a photo opportunity, then skip it.

Muslim Serve 2010 is a grassroots effort to encourage American Muslims to dedicate 9/11/10 to public service.  It’s premised on a Quranic exhortation to combat evil with good.  It’s a public relations effort timed on a national day of mourning that, by chance this year, coincides with the post-Ramadan holiday of Eid ul-Fitr.  

The motivation to do something positive on this day is completely understandable.  This year, perhaps more than any other since 2001, anti-Muslim and anti-Islam bigotry is raging in pockets around the country.  The hubbub around the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” shows few signs of abating in the coming days.  Random acts of violence against American Muslims like the vicious stabbing of a New York City cabbie are happening all over the country.  On 9/11 a Taliban-esque Christian preacher plans to burn copies of the Holy Quran in Florida.  The Islamophobic inspired criminal behavior is frightening.

A day of service on 9/11, juxtaposed to the Florida Quran burning, will garner some positive media attention.  It may result in some local newspaper articles and a few 15 second video clips on the evening news.  The positive spin, however, will be short-lived and in-effective. 

Americans on the fence about their views of Muslims may re-evaluate the hateful messages in the media as a result of some good works by Muslims as part of Muslim Serve 2010.  But how long will that last? One day of service, even if it’s a coordinated, nationwide effort, is still just one day. 

Muslims’ service for humanity is an antidote for the rabid hatred that infests communities across America, but it has to be sustained service in order to cure this disease.  The service has to be borne of a sincere desire to help others and not simply a feel good activity or, worse, a PR stunt. 

There are numerous Muslim individuals and Islamic organizations across the country that are serving humanity everyday.  Masjid Dawah, UMMA Center and IMAN come to mind.  They are all worth checking out.  They are models of what Muslim public service should be. 

Masjid Dawah is an storefront mosque on Chicago’s west side.  Compared to many other mosques in and around Chicago, it’s not much to look at, but the heart and soul of Masjid Dawah isn’t in its bricks and mortar, but in its daily efforts to serve the people around it.  Masjid Dawah provides  free meals every week to the hungry in the community.  The only criteria is need.  One need not be a Muslim to receive Masjid Dawah’s help. 

UMMA Center is a community resource center in Waukegan, Illinois.  UMMA stands for United Muslim Minority Alliance.  UMMA Center runs a food pantry and provides GED classes and job training for those in need within the Waukegan community.  They work with people in need without regard to religion. Many of the people benefiting most from UMMA Center’s services are non-Muslims. 

IMAN stands for Innercity Muslim Action Network.  IMAN is based in and serves a portion of Chicago’s south side.  It is one of the most well known and well regarded Muslim public service organizations in the country.  One of its most impressive services is a free medical clinic for the residents living around IMAN. Among other things, IMAN provides free access to quality healthcare to the poor and uninsured families. And again, many of the people IMAN serves are non-Muslims. 

Masjid Dawah, UMMA Center and IMAN will be serving the community on 9/11/10.  But that’s a given, since they serve humanity on the remaining 364 days of the year as well.  And that’s how it should be. A long-term and sustained commitment to service is the way to make a lasting and positive impact on those touched by their good works. 

In addition to these three institutions, there are thousands of American Muslims who quietly perform their public service regularly as well.  They don't issue press releases when they volunteer at the local homeless shelter.  There are no cameras when they drop off the weekly collection of nonperishable and healthy foods to the local food pantry either.  It just gets done, and the people who see it know that these are Muslims and the sincere and sustained acts of kindness open their non-Muslim neighbors hearts and minds to a different and more accurate perception of Muslims and Islam.  But thousands in a community of 6 million is not enough and until Muslim leaders and mosques make sustained public service a cornerstone of their religious obligation, the numbers will not grow.

Doing some form of public service on 9/11 is a good start.  But it has to be done for the right reasons. And it has to continue on the next day or the following week or on some other reasonable timetable all year round. 

Muslim community leaders should build on the Muslim Serve 2010 campaign by using it as a starting point for a discussion on how American mosques can better utilize their space to provide services to their surrounding communities throughout the year.

Muslim Serve 2010 as a PR effort is a bad idea.  But used as a catalyst for individual and institutional public service by Muslims for humanity, it is a great first step in the right direction.

God and the Pakistan Flood of 2010

I don’t need sermons that try to soothe my anguish over 6 million children suffering and dying in Pakistan because of the floods.  This anguish is my only connection to the nightmare.  Without it I’d be oblivious to the suffering.

But I am looking to my faith for help.  This flood, like the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan and the tsunami a few years earlier, is killing and destroying and spreading disease so fast and with such ferocity that its simply overwhelming.  In the wake of this calamity I feel a bit of creeping despair.

The other day I saw a photo of children somewhere in Pakistan.  It was painful to see.  These boys and girls were about 4 or 5 years old.  They were sitting around  a flat tray - maybe an actual tray but just as likely a piece of debris -  and on it looked to be some kind of grain.  The children were huddled around the food.  A few of the children had welts on their faces.  All of them looked dirty and tired.  Their hands were scooping up handfuls of the grain and placing them in their mouths.  

Under normal circumstances the children’s behavior in the image might be described as “eating greedily” but not so in this context.  It’s been many hours or more since they last had food and by this point, a week or more into the flooding, even these small children sense the scarcity of food.

I know that I can do this to help and I can do that in my free time.  For example, I can give money for humanitarian relief in the amount of a weeks worth (or even a few months worth) of Starbuck’s coffee without flinching.  And that’s without actually giving up the daily coffee fix.  

But  what I really need to do is step it up a few notches and to do more.  What I need is a call to action that tells me I must step up and that I must act.  

The magnitude of the horror - depicted in photos and videos posted on the internet - leaves no doubt that the scale of the disaster is epic and that the human suffering is staggering.  The 20 million internally displaced Pakistanis, of which 6 million or so are children, need an an enormous relief effort just to sustain them as this “slow tsunami” continues.  If the decision to help remains just an option - a good deed to be done in order to feel good - then will these children get the help they need?  My gut says no.

I need some spiritual guidance.  Faith is important to me and if I can find something in my faith that compels to me act - not just rewards me for it - then perhaps I can really push myself.  I’d like an imam to articulate a call to service that puts this catastrophic natural disaster into perspective vis-a-vis my duty to God and my duty to my fellow man.  Tell me that I personally must do something.  Tell me that I need to give and to work and to put myself into uncomfortable situations in order to help these children who are in desperate need.

So far, no good.  

“It’s God’s Will.”  “Have patience.”  “Pray.”  These are the prevailing sentiments from the spiritual leaders I’ve run across in the mosque.

My response is: maybe, I’m trying and I do, respectively.  But surely they can say more, right?  

I read that an imam in Pakistan explained the floods there in this way: they are a punishment for those who have sinned and a test for those who are righteous.  Really?

Does this mean that the people suffering and dying in the floods are sinners?  And the rest of us - sitting abroad or in Pakistan itself - who are safe, sound and far from harms way are righteous?  No, that can’t be right.

Is this imam suggesting that the Pakistani child whose image haunts me - with his face covered with flies as he looks out with eyes unblinking - is a sinner?  What sin did he commit to earn himself such a harsh punishment I wonder?

God has something to do with the floods in Pakistan, but it’s far more complex and subtle than simply being “His wrath upon sinners”.  A friend of mine, an agnostic from a Christian background, argued that the lesson to be drawn from the flood is that we have a duty to help each other in times of need and that this obligation is based on our shared humanity.

A man who presumably believes in a benevolent God attributes the suffering to the victims’ sins and to God’s punishment while an agnostic finds a far more humane and compassionate lesson.  I’ll take the latter.

I’ll take it because it makes sense to me.  A world in which I have a duty to my fellow man based on our shared humanity - a bond that transcends race, ethnicity and religion - is a world I can believe in.  A duty to my fellow man is a principle I can build a good life upon.  And it’s a frame through which I can internally manage the horror of the Pakistan flood without needing to tune it out (which is so easy to do).  

While very few imams invoke “duty” and “humanity” when making passing reference this Ramadan to the floods in Pakistan, both are well grounded in my Islamic faith.  In fact, I believe that striving to serve humanity epitomizes God-consciousness and that this is the principle God would want us all to choose to live by.  This, I believe, is the connection between God and the Pakistan floods.

Keith Olbermann's insightful commentary on the "Ground Zero Mosque" that wasn't

Keith Olbermann did an outstanding job articulating a range of thoughtful points recently.  And he exhibited an incredible aura of sincerity in his delivery.  I hope all Americans have a chance to watch and listen to Mr. Olbermann's insightful commentary.

Check it out here:

Real leaders would facilitate dialogue between the 9/11 victims' families and Muslims behind the Cordoba Initiative

Nine years ago who would have imagined this level of fear and demonization that is now settling over America?

On the morning of on 9/11/01, sitting in my car on the Dan Ryan expressway inbound from the south suburbs to work in downtown Chicago and listening to the horror unfold on WBEZ (the local NPR affiliate), one of my first reactions to the planes crashing into the World Trade Center towers was, God please don’t let this be terrorism done by Muslims.

We feared a rise in hate crimes against our community.  And sure enough there was an incredible spike in hate crimes right after 9/11. 

Our civil liberties suffered after 9/11 as well.  The curtailment of American Muslim civil liberties had been taking place since before 9/11, but there were a lot of efforts to stop the use of secret evidence and things were looking very good that morning of 9/11/01, but the terrorist attacks made all of those good efforts for naught.  A litany of other civil rights and liberties curtailments in the interest of homeland security followed and many of them had a disproportionately heavy impact on us.

But at the grassroots and among the masses (mostly in the immigrant Muslim community) it was hardly conceivable that American society - post-slavery, post-Japanese American internment, post-Jim Crow, and post-segregation -could vilify a segment of its own community with such fear and loathing as it seems to be doing.

The unimaginable is here.  Newt Gingrich, a leader of the national Republican Party equated Muslims with Nazis.  Little or no attention was paid to Mr. Gingrich’s horribly offensive conflation.  The story remained focused on the “Ground Zero Mosque”.  American society is changing and it’s for the worse.

The debate surrounding the Cordoba Initiative is working to reframe Muslims and Islam as inherently evil. Those leading the charge to demonize Muslims and Islam are discarding any qualifications (i.e., most Muslims are peaceful, etc.), because, as they can see from the public’s reaction (or, more accurately, the lack of one) to the virulently anti-Muslim rhetoric over the Cordoba Initiative, Americans are starting to buy into their hate.

That’s good news for the likes of Rev. Franklin Graham, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Robert Spencer whose respective careers are built upon Muslim- and Islam-bashing.  That’s why they and others like them are so heavily invested in the anti-Cordoba Initiative movement.

That’s an exaggeration you say?  No, it isn’t. Faux-scholars and Islamophobes are regularly courted by politicians and by television and radio “punditainers” for their hateful perspectives on Muslims and Islam.

Look at the network news discussions on issues pertaining to Islam in America.  American Muslim leaders from organizations with long and distinguished records for peace-building and meaningful civic engagement such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council have to regularly debate rabidly anti-Islam personalities like Brigitte Gabriel about Islam and Muslims.  That’s a joke.  It’s like putting an ivy league medical school professor on the air to debate Kevin Trudeau on the physiology of human weight loss.  No reasonable person would see the latter as a credible debate, but amazingly, the former is swallowed whole and without question by millions of American viewers.

Benign sounding groups like “Family Security Matters” and “American Family Association” advance anti-Muslim ideas wrapped in patriotism to millions of unsuspecting readers and poison their minds in the process.  The analysis coming out of these groups are like ponzi schemes with rabidly anti-Muslim writers building themselves and their arguments on facts often out of context, quoting one another as “experts” on Islam and with reasoning that would earn a failing grade in a remedial high school composition class.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  The hate brigades in America are growing stronger each day.

Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Pamela Geller, Newt Gingrich and many other Islamophobes who are rallying against the Cordoba Initiative will continue to spew their bigotry because a lot of Americans are allowing it.

It shouldn’t have to be said but in this bigoted climate let’s state the obvious: an Islamic community center (which includes a mosque facility within it) near Ground Zero has nothing to do with the 9/11 hijackers.  The people who are building the Cordoba Initiative are law abiding and peaceful people.

Does any rational person believe that the FBI, NSA and whatever other national security apparatus we have in place to protect us from terrorism would let criminals operate just a few blocks away from Ground Zero?  Could any reasonable person think this is happening with the Cordoba Initiative?  After all the scrutiny its received?  Really?

Consider this - our government’s efforts have Muslim babies and toddlers on no-fly lists and innocent people are secretly rendered to foreign countries for extended periods of torture.  All of this is done in the name of homeland security by our government or with its tacit approval.  Surely then, this same government isn’t going to let dangerous people sit right under their noses in New York City.

President Obama’s recent comments on the Cordoba Initiative was chum in the water.  The “punditainers”, faux-scholars and Islamophobes are now being joined by a broad range of politicians too. Anyone needing or wanting a ratings boost is jumping on the anti-Cordoba Initiative bandwagon.  Senator Harry Reid is among them.  

Apparently  Governor Patterson is also trying to garner some political capital by attempting to negotiate with the Cordoba Initiative.  Gov. Patterson is reportedly offering public funds to help build the Islamic community center elsewhere.  He doesn’t think building the center in its present location  is the “right” thing for Muslims to do so he’s going to provide taxpayer money to what is partly a religious facility as an “incentive” for the Cordoba Initiative to relocate.  Really Gov. Patterson?  You want to use taxpayer dollars to fund what is partly a religious institution?  How does that work in New York State?

It’s absurd, but absurd seems to be the new normal when anti-Cordoba Initiative folks are involved.

There’s a lot of lecturing going on about how just because something is a "right" doesn’t make is okay to do.  And in this case its not the “right thing to do” because its a Muslim institution.  Setting aside the fact that this is a bigoted view, this “right thing to do” argument is particularly amusing given how many of these same folks addressed a similar situation a few years ago.

Think back a few years to the brouhaha over the publication of several offensive depictions of Prophet Muhammad (saw) in newspapers in Europe and the United States.  Unlike the Cordoba Initiative, the printing and reprinting of those horrible cartoons was specifically intended to provoke and insult Muslims. It was all about asserting the West’s right to free speech even if it meant offending Muslims.  

That was a clear case of “it may be their right to do it, but it isn’t the right thing to do” but a lot of the Islamophobes, and faux-scholars and “punditainers” were playing for the other team back then.  That’s right, when it was about the Prophet Muhammad (saw) cartoons most of these folks were batting for Team First Amendment and their team slogan was “Ethics be damned!”

Unfortunately for everyone, the handful of people who have articulated reasonable arguments around the Cordoba Initiative have been ignored.  Some have argued that there is a sensitivity issue that needs to be considered.  That argument, unlike the rhetoric of hate advanced by the majority in the anti-Cordoba Initiative movement, merits further discussion.

The only legitimate argument against going forward with the Cordoba Initiative as planned is that the families of the 9/11 victims feel hurt by the fact that a symbol of Islam is being erected near (they say “on”) Ground Zero, and they feel hurt because, in their minds, Islam was inextricably involved with the 9/11 terror attacks.

As much as it pains me to hear this argument, I can empathize with the families of the 9/11 victims who feel this way.  That doesn’t mean I agree with them.  It doesn’t mean I think their way of thinking should prevail.  It simply means that I can put myself in their shoes and get a sense of how this project hurts them.

Their pain doesn’t have to be rational for it to be genuine.  And good people regardless of their faith should consider the impact of their actions on others in everything they do.  

The tone in our country vis-a-vis Muslims and the rest of America is unhealthy.  Our leaders need to stop pandering to the hate.  They need to stop saying just enough to provide themselves with political cover.

Here’s an idea: how about promoting dialogue between the two sides with the most at stake?  Our political leaders should be working to bring the families of the 9/11 victims together with the folks behind the Cordoba Initiative to talk to one another.  Do they know one another?  Beyond the news clips, blogs and newspaper quotes, have the two sides heard one another’s points of view in person and directly?  If not, why not?

The Cordoba Initiative isn’t at Ground Zero.  It’s in an old Burlington Coat Factory building two blocks away where even now Muslims are congregating for daily Muslim prayers.  The Cordoba Initiative may or may not have considered including some type of memorial to the victims of 9/11 in their original development, but perhaps, given all that’s transpired, they should.

Grieving and healing from the loss of a loved one - especially in the horrific circumstances of 9/11 - is a painful process.  I don’t know how they feel but I can and do have empathy for them.  But the empathy these families deserve does not give them license to engage in bigotry or xenophobia.  Only a genuine dialogue between these two groups can create a resolution that’s good for the parties and good for America.

Any decision on how to go forward with the Cordoba Initiative should include direct dialogue between the families and the Cordoba Initiative.  If President Obama, Senator Harry Reid, Gov.  Patterson and even Mr. Gingrich want to lead America, then this is the direction they should be taking this controversy.

Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah: Slow police investigation, withheld autopsy report fuel further speculation

Delaying the investigation of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah's death at the hands of the FBI in October 2009 in Dearborn, Michigan is not the way to handle an already very contentious stand-off between the FBI and the American Muslim community.  The Dearborn police department and the Wayne County Medical Examiner need to move their process along and quickly report on their joint findings into the shooting death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah.

The allegations that he was shot over 18 times, that he was handcuffed as he lay bleeding while an FBI dog was flown away for medical treatment by helicopter, and that he was shot while he lay on the ground all suggest an excessive use of force by the FBI.  These allegations also suggest a poorly planned execution of an arrest warrant and a questionable use of tactics (using a dog as part of the arrest warrant execution).

Dearborn-- The Wayne County medical examiner's refusal to release its autopsy report on Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah is fueling concerns in the Muslim community about a possible cover-up of facts surrounding his death, a community leader said Monday...

The county Medical Examiner's Office denied a Nov. 2 request The Detroit News filed for Abdullah's medical examiner report, saying it was not complete...

Dennis Niemiec, a spokesman for the county, confirmed Monday that the report is completed but is being withheld at the request of Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, who does not want the report released until his department completes its investigation. The county will seek more information from Haddad about how the release of the report would hamper his investigation, Niemiec said...

via The Detroit News

This latest disturbing news comes on the heels of an earlier effort at thwarting the free flow of public information in the form of an exorbitant fee (over $1000) being charged by the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office in order to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request for Imam Abdullah's autopsy report.  Frankly, all of this is absurd.

The circumstances surrounding Imam Abdullah's shooting death, including the questionable affidavit in support of the arrest warrant (which chronicled a long list of fiery but protected speech by Imam Abdullah which ultimately bore little relevance to the underlying legal basis for the arrest warrant), make the spectre of an extrajudicial killing linger in the minds of American Muslims and those familiar with the sordid relationship between the FBI and the American Muslim community (as well as with the African American community).

Covering up the excesses of federal agents (if that is in fact the case) will not help.  The truth will come out sooner or later.  In the mean time the circumstances surrounding Imam Abdullah's shooting death are questionable enough to make reasonable people very skeptical of any delays by the authorities and serve to exacerbate suspicions about the heavy-handed tactics of the FBI when it comes to dealing with American Muslims.

Domestic radicalization and FBI-American Muslim Relations: What is the best strategy?

Should the 5 young American Muslims picked up in Pakistan be charged with any crimes in the United States?

"Charging them and throwing them in jail is not the solution," said Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families. "The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community. That will encourage other families to come forward."

The men, ages 18 to 24, traveled overseas just after Thanksgiving without telling their families and were arrested near Lahore on Dec. 8. A Pakistani court this week ordered them held for up to 10 more days of interrogation, but officials say their likely return to the United States could take months. Pakistani officials say the men were in touch with a Taliban recruiter and were aiming to join up with al-Qaeda and battle U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

No one has been charged, and the men's friends and spiritual advisers say they never saw any sign of radical beliefs or activities.

Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, where any criminal case would probably be brought, declined to comment. But law enforcement sources say prosecutors are likely to consider charges that include providing material support to terrorist organizations. Prosecutors face complexities that include whether the men's reported admissions to Pakistani authorities are admissible in a U.S. court and whether any statements were coerced.

Via the Washington Post

Did these 5 guys actually commit any crimes by the time they were apprehended?  What is to be gained by not charging them?  Does a greater prospect of domestic radicalization portend an even more strained relationship between American Muslims and the FBI?

There is an argument for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to be lenient with these 5 young men.  There is a lot to be gained for restraining the full force of the law and instead trading leniency for a more concrete and collaborative strategy that brings together the American Muslim community and the FBI in order to curtail future radicalization within the American Muslim community and to also accelerate the weeding out of those violent extremists who now dwell amongst us.  Also, these men may be good candidates for de-programming or de-radicalization.  With that de-programming comes the opportunity to learn a great deal about what caused them to snap in the first place.

Some of the questions I would like answered include: (1) How did these 5 young men conceal their hatred for America so well?  (2) Was the radicalization an acute event with some particular event causing these young men to snap?  (3)  What kind of religious environment did they have in their home?  and (4)  What kind of involvement did they have in their mosque and how did they view that involvement (were they using the mosque as a cover or did they in fact seek and receive spiritual guidance there)?  These are some of the questions I would like to have answered, because I think answers to these questions will be helpful in understanding the thinking of these young men.

If Holder decides to prosecute them aggressively with the severest possible charges, then we run the risk of these men becoming recalcitrant and opting to use the criminal prosecution as a soapbox for their ideas.  The recent prosecution (and conviction) of Ehsanul Islam Sadequee in Atlanta, GA for terrorism related charges is an example of just such a situation.  Sadequee, a 23 year old U.S. citizen, opted to defend himself, and in so doing, he seems to have squandered his opportunity to defend himself in exchange for sermonizing and speech-making on Islam.

On the other hand, being lenient could send the wrong message to other would be hirabis.  Being lenient on these 5 young men may suggest to other would be violent extremists in our midst to continue with their schemes and plots with greater impugnity.

The one factor that may (should) tip the scale in favor of leniency is the fact that the families actively sought the help of the FBI.  That is precisely the kind of cooperation the FBI wants.  The American Muslim community in the DC area is no stranger to the sordid history of the FBI with American Muslims but they recognized that the FBI is a valuable resources in protecting American Muslims as well as the broader community and in the interest of protecting these 5 young American Muslims, the families reached out.  Thankfully, and possibly as a direct result of this early outreach, these 5 young men were scooped up in Pakistan before they could harm anyone (including themselves).

Sooner or later we will reckon with the fact that we cannot alienate and marginalize American Muslims and still expect to garner this community's support in rooting out extremism within the American Muslim community.  Partnering with the American Muslim community is the only way, short of shredding our Constitution, to combat home-grown hirabah.  This is an opportunity to begin mending fences and building some trust between the American Muslim community and the FBI.

Countering homegrown radicalization: Muslims Must Reclaim the Mosque as a Center of Religious Life

The news of so many home-grown terrorism schemes and plots being uncovered in the U.S. over the past two months is very disturbing.  The men who stand accused of these plots are not so different from me in age, religious observance and socio-economic status but their outlook on life seems incomprehensible to me.  With all due respect to some of our nation's dedicated American Muslim leaders and institutions who continue to downplay the problem, I do think the problem within our community is more dire than we are willing to state publicly.

When we discovered that British Muslims were responsible for the London bombings several years back and that they were born and raised in the U.K. there was a concern in the U.S. about something similar happening here.  With the exception of Hizb-ut-TahrirI could not think of any other Muslim organizations who were openly hostile to America and the West, and since, at the time of the London bombing Hizb-ut-Tahrir was long gone from the local scene (it had been many years since we had to endure their shouts and taunts in the mosques), I felt confident that the radicalization that took place among the London bombers could not happen here.  After all, we American Muslims are far more integrated into American society and comfortable with our identity as American Muslims.

CIVIC INTEGRATION: A BULWARK AGAINST RADICALIZATION

Even before 9/11 but certainly afterward, American Muslims stepped up their efforts to develop and execute strategies for civic integration into American society.  Unlike most other places in the world, the United States' affords many freedoms which empower American Muslims the ability to become "American" on their own terms.  A lot of us are taking advantage these freedoms to carve out our own unique American Muslim identity. 

The youth and the young adults seem to be the greatest beneficiaries of the freedoms.  Unlike places in Europe and even in a Muslim majority country like Turkey where public expression of one's Muslim faith is increasingly being curtailed, in America the freedom of religion still means something, and that allows American Muslim youth to develop a well integrated and stable identity. 

I see this process of integration taking place among the youth in mosques all over northern Illinois.  My own mosque in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs (ISNS), is a good example of this positive development. 

This seamless melding of American and Muslim is particularly noticeable during congregational prayer.  In my mosque you see the youth lining up for the afternoon prayer with us at the end of Sunday school.  These kids are wearing their Bears and Bulls jerseys and the other trendy fashions.  The shoes, left just outside of the mosque's prayer hall, pretty much run the gamut of Air Jordan's to Transformers and Barbie brands and so on.  During breaks in between Sunday school classes kids will sneak out of the building to shoot some hoops or throw a football around.  This is level of integration is free form and perhaps due in large part to our consumer culture and the pressure to conform and be like everyone else.

Here in Illinois we have some very thoughtful and talent youth organizers who understand the challenges faced by American Muslims.  One youth organizer who rarely gets much attention but is doing outstanding work is Amal Ali.  Ms. Ali is the youth organizer for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago(CIOGC) and she has both the academic training and hands on experience in the field of youth work.  Over the years Ms. Ali has been a personal mentor to scores of young American Muslims and through CIOGC she has developed programs to help build young American Muslims' self-esteem through retreats that feature mentoring, spiritual nourishment and tough physical challenges that blend individual courage with team efforts.   She works with the Muslim Students Associations in the Illinois universities and colleges to help build leadership skills and again, to provide mentoring from young American Muslim professionals and highly respected spiritual personalities that promote positive and constructive integration while also instilling a commitment to serve humanity.

These integration efforts are not just for the youth.  Again, CIOGC has played an important role in promoting civic integration.  Under the leadership of Dr. Abdul Malik Mujahid and now with Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the American Muslim community is effectively developing healthy interactions with civic and philanthropic boards and with elected leaders.  In May 2009 CIOGC took nearly 500 American Muslims from northern Illinois to Springfield for a day of common good advocacy.  CIOGC partnered with Faith in Place and Protestants for the Common Good to develop a common good agenda that went beyond Muslim "special interest" issues and addressed the environment and the inequities of Illinois' public education funding system.  I was there for this event and it was amazing to see the sense of empowerment among every age group from high school through senior citizens!

The idea is to forge an identity that allows American Muslims to be comfortable being American and Muslim.  Seeing and feeling the reality of civic integration is instrumental in building a positive sense of self among American Muslims.  That positive sense of self, that healthy American Muslim identity, is what empowers American Muslims to be passionate about the many injustices visited upon Muslims throughout the world with a sense that they have the power to do something about it within the system.  Civic integration empowers American Muslims to understand the tools and resources available to them and sustains hope that they can make a difference in a meaningful way.  In essence, civic integration can arrest the feelings of hopelessness and fear, and in the absence of these two emotions, American Muslims may be inoculated from radicalization.

NOT EVERYONE IS KEEN ABOUT INTEGRATION THOUGH...

Many American Muslims support civic integration, but there are individuals, groups and even mosques that pride themselves on their lack of integration.  It is not uncommon to hear an Imam shrieking during a Friday sermon about the sinfulness of befriending Christians and Jews.  Some American Muslims use our mosques and our communications tools to promote shallow Muslim supremacist ideas.

Groups like Hizb ut Tahrir are returning to the mosques and promoting a shallow message of top-down theocratic world domination and selling that simplistic notion as the answer to all the ills and suffering faced by Muslims through out the world.  Other groups are less public but equally resistant to integration.  Within our mosques we have co-religionists who are intolerant of others who do not accept other's understanding of Islam.  Reason and freedom of conscience have no place in such people's outlook.  I have had many unsavory encounters over the past 15 years with these types of American Muslims.

Their favored tactic is to attack the sincerity and genuineness of another's faith in Islam.  For example, when I disagree with a point of view or a particular interpretation I am accused of deviating from the Quran and Sunnah (which, in my view, is tantamount to an accusation of apostasy).  This extremist approach has a chilling effect on some mosque administrators.  Rather than cutting off the extremists from institutional power, they are allowed to participate in mosque governance and often times they impose the "hecklers' veto" on programs and projects that do not comport with their particular religious understanding.

BRINGING MORE AMERICAN MUSLIMS INTO ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS LIFE IS ESSENTIAL

As we grapple with concerns over the radicalization of American Muslims it is critical that we recognize that we need American Muslims to be more involved in organized religious life.  At first blush it may seem counter-intuitive, but organized religious life is the best means of inoculating American Muslims from the extremist ideologies proliferating on the internet.

The five young American Muslims who recently traveled to Pakistan in search of jihad were largely radicalized via their exposure to violent extremist propaganda and e-fatwas extolling the merits of terrorism.  Where was their mosque's youth program when it was needed most?  Many mosque youth programs focus on apolitical issues in part because of the presence of the extremist voices that impose the "hecklers veto" on thoughtful discussions.  The educational forums offered by mosques rarely discuss socio-political or civic aspects of American Muslim life as well.  Again, this is due in part to the extremists' "hecklers veto".  As a result, many American Muslims, the vast majority who espouse mainstream and healthy Islamic values, feel either uncomfortable in mosques or feel that the mosques simply do not offer them anything useful (outside of Friday and Eid prayers).  Research on the American Muslim community suggests that only a fraction (perhaps as little as 5%) of American Muslims are affiliated with a mosque.

The isolated religious existence, while protecting American Muslims from the vocal minority of extremists within the mosques, can also become an incubator of extremism as well.  Maj. Nidal Hassan is one recent example.  While he attended the mosque for prayers on a regular basis, Nidal Hassan was not very actively engaged in an American Muslim community environment.  His spiritual and religious outlet came via the internet and blogs and electronic bulletin boards.

Done right, a mosque can provide a wholesome and nurturing environment that promotes an authentic application of Islamic values and creates a community life that supports a healthy Muslim self-image.  But to do it right, a mosque has to be an open and welcoming environment.  Women must be made to feel welcome.  The programming has to be engaging.  It has to be in English (except for the ritual prayer).  The imams who lead the spiritual life of the mosque should be well attuned to and positive about American culture because, at the end of the day, that is the culture of the vast majority of the 6 to 7 million American Muslims today.  The religious education for the youth and the the adults needs to be tailored to an American point of view in order to be effective.  The mosques must serve as a social safety net for a range of issues ranging from unemployment, hunger, substance abuse and domestic abuse.  And of course, there must be a social component within mosque community life (particular for the youth) as well.

SHIFTING PRIORITIES, BEING MORE BOLD

American mosques are largely funded by domestic contributions from American Muslims.  Since Islam forbids interest-based transactions, American mosques are purchased and built with cash.  And the mosques in America are being built in more and more places and existing mosques are expanding all the time.  I suspect that 90% of mosque donations are used to maintain physical structures and to fund expansion projects.  The vast majority of American mosques are also run and administered exclusively by volunteers.

American Muslims need to shift their priorities from bricks and mortar to programming and human resources.  Beautifully titled prayer halls with traditional domes and ornate chandeliers and exquisite Quranic calligraphy adorning the walls are not the antidote to radicalization.  In fact, these things are not even the answer to bringing more American Muslims into the mosque.  And yet, we continue to channel millions upon millions of dollars to support these types of projects.

All the while, mosques have no budgets for youth organizing, hiring trained professional youth workers and counselors, or for attracting more American Muslims to pursue careers as imams and Islamic spiritual leaders.  There is little money allocated to programming to create meaningful and engaging activities for American Muslim youth and young adults.  These are, however, the things that mosques need to spend on in order to create the kind of mosque-centric life that will help counter the radicalization being promoted on the internet and even within our mosques through the unregulated and unstructured study circles and discussion groups held in mosques but without much oversight by mosque administrators.

Moving forward, American Muslim leaders and administrators must be bold.  We have to stop kowtowing to the extremists within our community.  We lament the need to defend Islam and ourselves against the violence perpetrated by our co-religionists, but what we should really be angry about is how mosques have allowed the intolerant behavior of some extremists to stifle ideas, projects and programs that would create a more welcoming environment in our mosques.

If mosques will not provide thoughtful programming and an environment conducive to building a wholesome Muslim community, then American Muslims need to go the route of the Mohammed Webb Foundation in the western suburbs of Chicago.  The Webb Foundation is organization that provides a lot of the civic, social and educational programming in an open and welcoming environment that mosques should be providing but often do not.  We know what our priorities ought to be, and now we need to act boldly in pursuit of them!

ONE VIOLENT EXTREMIST IS ONE TOO MANY

It is true that the vast majority of Muslims, in America and throughout the world, are peaceful and faithful people committed to living an Islamic life of peace and justice.  And in the face of bigots and Islamophobes who viciously malign Muslims and Islam as violent, we are right to point to the billion plus Muslims who categorically denounce violent extremism as a solution.

We must, however, hold ourselves to higher standards.  One violent extremist is one too many.  In a community of 6 to 7 million American Muslims the handful of individuals accused of plots of violence is not even 1% of our community but its still unacceptable.  As American Muslims we have an enormous obligation to the rest of the world.  It is not about American Muslim "exceptional-ism" but rather, it is a simple matter of resources and opportunities.  We have the freedom and the resources to do much good for Islam and for the cause of justice at home and abroad.

We hamstring ourselves by allowing our co-religionists to succumb to the hirabi creed promoted by Al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups.  There is too much at stake for us to allow this to continue.

U.S. to announce transfer of detainees to Ill. prison

CHICAGO -- Dozens of terrorism suspects being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be moved to a little-used Illinois state prison that will be acquired and upgraded by the federal government, an Obama administration official said.

from The Washington Post

This decision is going to place a lot of attention on the substantial American Muslim community in Illinois.  There are approximately 400,000 American Muslims in Illinois. 

It is a well integrated community with strong civic and interfaith relationships.  The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (which is due for a name change as it now represents a much broader geographical region within Illinois) brings together mosques and other Muslim institutions (schools, professional associations and social service agencies) will need to develop a recommended policy on how the region's American Muslims will interact with this influx of Muslims from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The policy must address services to this population including religious services, legal services and in the case of those inmates who are subsequently exonerated, rehabilitative services too. It is a tall order but one that this particular community is well equipped to undertake.

Republican congressman Mark Kirk, the man who infamously blurted out that he supports racial and religious profiling of Muslims and Arabs, is running for the U.S. Senate and he has staked out his claim as the race's fearmonger-in-chief.  As part of his fearmonger-in-chief duties during the campaign he has raised the unfounded fears of security threats from bring the GITMO detainees to northwest Illinois.  His irresponsible comments may soon be the fuel that promotes more anti-Muslim sentiments in Illinois.  This is yet another challenge that Illinois' exemplary American Muslim community will need to step up and face.

I am confident that Illinois' American Muslim community is up to the challenge.  It is a problem only in that it again diverts the community's attention from focusing on other important issues that deal with the common good within our community.