[ALBSA-Info] American Muslims

[Kreshnik Bejko]

'But would that I had been made to feel like a criminal a thousand times 
than to live to see the grisly handiwork of real criminals in New York and 
Washington.'


American Muslims:
Be American!
By Tarek E. Masoud, a graduate student at Yale.
This is from today's edition of the Wall St. Journal

There's a famous photo of a Japanese-owned grocery store in the aftermath of 
Pearl Harbor with these words emblazoned across the front: "I AM AN 
AMERICAN." It accurately encapsulates the way many of us in the Islamic and 
Arab community feel at this hour. As it becomes ever more apparent that our 
co-religionists have visited slaughter upon our compatriots, so many of us 
want to declare from the rooftops our allegiance to this great nation, to 
show our solidarity with our fellow citizens, and to join the fight against 
our common enemy.

Despite their demonstrations of patriotism after Pearl Harbor, 
Japanese-Americans were thrown into internment camps. This is not likely to 
happen to us. President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sen. Ted 
Kennedy and countless pundits have bent over backward to make sure that 
Americans know that all Arabs are not to blame, and to explain that Islam 
and Islamic fundamentalism are not the same thing. They are correct, of 
course, and it is good to hear them say it. Because even I need to be 
reminded sometimes.

In fact, I wonder, when I hear these words of ecumenical brotherhood, 
whether Islam and Muslims are not getting a bit of a pass on this one. When 
I read Muslims posting messages of joy on Internet newsgroups, declaring, 
Malcolm X style, that the chickens have come home to roost, I wonder where 
these people come from. Are they the people I pray with at the mosque? Are 
they the New York cabbies I greet with a hearty "salam alaikum" and who in 
my mind have always been models of hard work and the American way? Could it 
be that Islam is not the religion of peace that I've been telling everybody 
it is, but instead a faith of bloodthirsty fatwas that exalts murder and 
suicide? Is it conceivable that Muslims are not the noble people I believe 
them with all my heart to be, but rather the kind of monsters who celebrate 
death and destruction?

No. It cannot be. But if I -- a man born and raised into the faith, of Arab 
parents and with a deep love for the culture of the Arab world -- can ask 
these questions, what questions must my Protestant and Jewish and Catholic 
friends be asking? And how can I, as a Muslim, give them an answer? I 
certainly cannot look to the national leadership of the Islamic community in 
America for guidance. The American Muslim Council tells us to be careful, to 
be on the lookout for suspicious and anti-Muslim behavior, presumably by 
other Americans seeking revenge. The Council on American Islamic Relations 
even sent out an e-mail with a handy form for reporting hate crimes against 
Muslims. I wonder if these groups are oblivious to the fact that it is 
Muslims, with names like Mohammed and Abdullah and, yes, Tarek, who have 
committed the greatest hate crime in American history?

Instead of trying to think of ways to help the victims, the leadership of 
the Muslim community would rather wrap itself in the mantle of victimhood. 
Actually, that's not quite right: It is wrapping itself in the mantle of 
potential victimhood. The feared hate crimes have not materialized. No one 
is taking to the streets and shouting "Death to Muslims." No mosques have 
been burned to the ground.

And so every day, as the nation mourns, as foreign countries pledge support 
and offer condolences, American Muslims are strangely absent from this 
tragedy, save the occasional press release. As a result, the only Muslims 
that America sees are Osama bin Laden and the mugshots of Tuesday's suicide 
bombers.

Already we can hear rumblings in the Muslim community about the need to keep 
fighting against profiling, the practice of singling out Arabs and Muslims 
for increased scrutiny at airports. They had been making headway with this 
cause -- both presidential candidates denounced profiling during the 2000 
campaign -- and now they fear public sentiment will slide in the other 
direction.

But Tuesday's events should have demonstrated the folly of their position. 
How many thousands of lives would have been saved if people like me had been 
inconvenienced with having our bags searched and being made to answer 
questions? People say profiling makes them feel like criminals. It does -- I 
know this firsthand. But would that I had been made to feel like a criminal 
a thousand times than to live to see the grisly handiwork of real criminals 
in New York and Washington.

I can hear my co-religionists now, arguing that the Muslims bear no special 
responsibility for these attacks, that a community of six million 
law-abiding Americans should not apologize just because a few of them 
committed a crime. Perhaps they are right. But looking at the images of 
shattered buildings and dead bodies, of people jumping to their deaths and 
of planes wielded as instruments of death, how can we not apologize, knowing 
that these images were brought to us by people who claim to act in the name 
of the faith we call our own? It seems to me that an apology would be very 
little to ask. Instead of jealously protesting our innocence and girding 
against repercussions, we should be asking, "What else can we do to help?"

Like the New Yorkers who even now are volunteering in greater numbers than 
relief workers can make use of, it is time for American Muslims to start 
acting like Americans.


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