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A NEW AGENDA FOR AMERICAN MUSLIMS
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The Boston Globe – January 16, 2002
By Ahmed H. Al-Rahim
It has been four months since terrorists hijacked American airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For American Muslims, these have been tortuous months.
Like all Americans, American Muslims have been shocked and sickened by the horrific attacks. But unlike other Americans, Muslims have been wrestling with a gnawing combination of fear and guilt.
On the one hand, we fear that in the fallout of the attacks, our fellow citizens will regard us with suspicion.
On the other, we know that for far too long, many of us have remained silent while loud voices of hatred and acts of terror emanated from parts of the Muslim world.
So how can we navigate in the post-Sept. 11 world to secure a better future for our children?
As I reflect on this question, I recall my arrival in America from Lebanon in 1978. Only 8 years old, I first felt the burden of identity and international affairs when the Iranian hostage crisis erupted in November of 1979. As an "Ahmed" with accented English living in Houston I immediately sensed the suspicion of my neighbors and the inescapable burden of standing for those Muslims who had attacked Americans.
I acted on youthful instinct. I joined the football team. I sought out adult mentors - a Texan who helped hone my Southern drawl, and an African-American Muslim jazz musician who explained the harsh reality of life. And I went to bed at night wondering how events halfway around the world could have such a grip on my life in Houston.
Two decades later, I encounter the dynamics of American Muslim identity as an adult - and I am amazed. Our community is thriving; even the Sept. 11 attacks cannot derail our growth and vibrancy.
Fellow Americans have shown such sensitivity and support that incidents of discrimination are noteworthy mostly as deplorable exceptions. There has also been a tremendous desire to learn about Islam and the Middle East. American Muslims have been asked by their classmates, neighbors, and friends to talk about their faith and history. But I am also ashamed. I personally and our community as a whole have failed to speak out properly against murderous anti-American rhetoric and acts of terror before Sept. 11.
Today, we are playing catch-up, and our denunciations of Osama bin Laden and other extremists risk being written off as too little too late.
American Muslims need to regain control of their destiny, which for too long has been hijacked by fringe elements seeking to impose an extremist vision of Islam, on Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
American Muslims are a minority that has prospered in America's climate of religious tolerance and civil liberties. The lessons of our unprecedented experience hold the key for a new American Muslim social agenda.
First, we must champion pluralism and condemn all forms of intolerance. As Americans, we must work to guarantee our equal rights and prevent anti-Muslim bigotry. At the same time, we must condemn genocidal rhetoric by Muslims.
Those who call for the murder of Christians and Jews are attacking our friends and neighbors. American Muslims should not stand for it any longer. So we must become leading ambassadors to the Muslim world.
America has been a haven for Islam. American Muslims must tell the world about the remarkable freedoms and coexistence we enjoy here. Muslims must understand that "Death to America" is also an attack on millions of Muslims who are proud to call themselves American.
We should work to improve economic conditions and individual freedoms in the Muslim world, where underdevelopment and limited rights create a fertile ground for extremism and despair.
The very principles of individual rights and economic opportunity that contributed so much to our success in America should be enjoyed by all Muslims.
Meanwhile, we should demand that the full rights of non-Muslim minorities living in the Muslim world be protected.
To accomplish these goals, American Muslims must strengthen our ability to be self-critical while embracing a positive agenda. We need to be proactive, creative, and dynamic. We should join with Americans of all backgrounds to stand for freedom and envision a better future for ourselves and our children.
We have rightly demanded the privileges of democracy. But with freedom comes responsibility, and now is the time for us to act.
Ahmed H. al-Rahim is co-founder of the American Islamic Congress and a PhD candidate at Yale University.
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