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‘Improvised Explosive Device’ Damages Minnesota Mosque

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by Aysha Qamar

Tragedy took place when a neo-Nazi entered a Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wis. fatally shooting six worshippers and wounding many others, including a police officer on Aug. 5, 2012. Five years after this tragedy, a firebomb was thrown into a Minnesota mosque, while worshippers gathered inside for morning prayers.

According to the Star Tribune, a local newspaper, there were between 15 and 20 people inside the building at the time. The attack resulted in no injuries at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, but police say the imam’s office has been damaged.

Worshippers managed to extinguish the fire before firefighters arrived, according to a statement from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an investigation into the attack caused by an “improvised explosive device, around 5 a.m. local time.

David Joles/Star Tribune

Richard Thorton, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division, said that the investigation will determine whether the incident was a hate crime and who may have been behind it.

In a statement, Thornton said the investigation was the agency’s “top priority”, with his office adding on Twitter that “all hands [are] on deck”

The FBI has not announced any arrests or publicly identified any suspects.

A witness reported seeing something being thrown at the imam’s office window from a van or truck before the blast, Asad Zaman, the society’s director, told reporters.

Prior to the attack, the predominantly Somali mosque, has received threatening calls and emails, Mohamed Omar, the mosque’s executive director told local media.

“It was 5am. The whole neighborhood was calm. People were supposed to be sleeping, that how peaceful this should be,” he said. “I was shocked to learn this happened”.

Unfortunately, the mosque was unable to afford security cameras that could have captured the attack.

The local chapter’s civil rights director, Amir Malik, said that “if a bias motive is proven, this attack would represent another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months”.

The number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the US has nearly tripled since Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It reported that the number of organizations opposing Muslims “leaped” from 34 in 2015 to 101 this past year.

The President has not yet spoken about the attack, with many angered at his lack of acknowledgment.

Minnesota state Governor Mark Dayton has called the bombing a “criminal act of terrorism” after visiting the site.

A GoFundMe page has been created “to garner support to rebuild this community center and mosque damaged after an Islamophobic attack,” the page reads.

David Joles/Star Tribune

Many have called for justice and supported members of the community, with the fundraising page raising more than 69,000, at this time.

Although the incident has been described as unimaginable and horrific, the support has strengthened the community.

“Good people came out, and they outnumber that one bad guy, and we are so pleased and so happy to see this community coming together in our support,” Omar said.

If you’d like to donate to rebuild the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center, visit their fundraising page here.

Anti-Islamophobia Campaign Encourages Intervention

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by Aysha Qamar

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the number of anti-Muslim attacks in the United States has sharply risen. With the rise of hate crimes and Islamophobia a desire for change and advocacy has increased; however, while many wish to help in uncomfortable situations, they are unsure what to do.

The city of Boston has launched a poster campaign to fight Islamophobia by encouraging bystanders to intervene, in a non-confrontational way, when they witness anti-Muslim harassment. 

50 posters have been placed around the city with advice on what to do if you see Islamophobic behavior.

The campaign follows a racist incident in the city, where a man shouted anti-Muslim slurs at an old woman wearing a headscarf while traveling in a train and accused her of having a bomb. The posters, to be displayed at bus stops and other public spaces, recommend sitting by a victim of harassment and spreading to them about a neutral subject while ignoring the harasser.

The original version of these posters was designed for a Feminist Group based in the Middle East by Marie-Shirine Yener, who goes by the alias Maerill. The Paris-based illustrator’s step-by-step guide first appeared on Tumblr in September, as a response to the “wave of Islamophobic hatred” in France.

She encouraged her followers to keep conversation with those targeted about “anything: a movie you liked, the weather … Keep eye contact with them, and don’t acknowledge the attacker’s presence: the absence of response from you two will push them to leave the area shortly,” she wrote on Tumblr. She also urged followers to share the how-to guide saying, “it could push a lot of people to overcome bystander syndrome.”

The cartoon quickly went viral with more than 200,000 responses. Maerill said the responses she had received since the guide went global left her confident in her technique’s capability.

“As the creator of this guide, it is very exciting to know that the public is going to discover it in a more official, accessible way,” she said.

According to the Associated Press, “the technique is called ‘non-complementary behavior,’ and is intended to disempower an aggressive person by countering their expectations.”

After garnering the attention of four San Franciscans, who were seeking to make the city’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) system more inclusive, 40 posters of the guide were displayed in Bart advertising spaces as well.

The theme of the campaign is to encourage people from all over to converse with Muslim citizens and immigrants in America, especially when they are being targeted for their faith.

The ‘How-to’ guides for bystander intervention are a progressive step to a more peaceful environment.

“These posters are one tool we have to send the message that all are welcome in Boston,” Mayor Marty Walsh told the Associated Press. “Education is key to fighting intolerance, and these posters share a simple strategy for engaging with those around you.”

While most comments have been positive in regards to the campaign, many disagree with some stating it brings unnecessary to potential targets as well as others generating hate speech and comments stating the posters do not belong in public spaces.

According to the Associated Press, the posters will remain in place for six months.

 

Anti-Immigrant Group Mistakes Bus Seats for Women

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by Aysha Qamar

“It looks really scary, should be banned. You can never know who is under there. Could be terrorists with weapons,” comments on a picture posted on a private Norwegian anti-immigrant Facebook page read.

The picture posted, with the comment ‘“What do people think of this?,” in the Facebook group ‘Fedrelandet viktigst’ translating to ‘Fatherland first’, sparked a debate amongst group members after some mistook six empty bus seats for six women wearing burqas.

The group consisting of over 13,000 members has thus been widely mocked.

Johan Slattavik, the user who posted the photograph, claims he posted the image as “a little practical joke,” to see how people would react to a picture of an empty bus.

“I laid out the photo to see what happened,” Slattavik told WorldViews. “I ended up having a good laugh.”

The picture quickly caught attention with a variety of comments, media agencies reported.

“Ghastly. This should never happen”

“Islam is and always will be a curse”

“Get them out of our country – frightening times we are living in”

“I thought it would be like this in the year 2050, but it is happening NOW.”

“It’s just an empty bus”

“Imagine that empty buses can create so many hate comments”

Sindre Beyer, a former Norwegian politician, said he joined the group out of curiosity.

Beyer shared the original post and published 23 pages of the group’s comments.

“What happens when a photo of some empty bus seats is posted to a disgusting Facebook group, and nearly everyone thinks they see a bunch of burqas?” he asked, in a post that has gone viral.

Hva skjer når det legges ut et bilde av noen tomme busseter på en brungrumsete gruppe på Facebook og nesten alle tror de ser en gjeng med burka ?😳

Posted by Sindre Beyer on Friday, July 28, 2017

Beyer said, he shared the image to expose prejudice within the far-right group and was shocked to see so much hatred against bus seats.

“After following the group for a while I felt the need to find the best possible post to share with the public,” Beyer told CBS News. “When I came across this post I found it tragicomic and with a obvious symbolic value. It frightens me if such groups grow without being contradicted.”

Rune Berglund Steen, head of Norway’s Antiracist Centre, told reporters that people “see what they want to see – and what these people want to see are dangerous Muslims.”

Norway recently became the latest European country to propose restrictions on the wearing of burqas and niqabs in public places. Belgium, Bulgaria, France, the German State of Bavaria and the Netherlands all restrict full-face veils in some public places. This summer, Norway’s government announced a plan to ban burqas in kindergartens, schools and universities.

During a press conference in June, then acting immigration and integration minister, Per Sanderberg said that face-covering garments such as the niqab or burqa “do not belong in Norwegian schools.”

How Muslim Sectarianism is Connected to Islamophobia

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by Imam Luqman Ahmad

Amidst the climate of increased anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States and the cacophony of noise decrying the evils of Islamophobia and the Islamophobes, confronting Muslim sectarianism is not a palpable topic for front line attention. Why should American Muslims even stop to think or care about sectarianism within our own ranks- when everyone is worried about Islamophobia?

Why consecrate cerebral real estate to thinking about deep-rooted division within the Muslim body when Muslims are being harassed, harangued, mowed down and killed in the streets? That’s a good question. After all, as American Muslims, there are more immediate things to contend with; our honor, our reputation, our dignity and our lives that are at stake. Islamophobia is an assault on all of that. However, what many of us fail to realize is; so is sectarianism. It’s easy to look at islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment and think that is was formed in a vacuum and simply came out of nowhere, or that is fueled by pure ignorance, and good old fashioned American bigotry, without there being any underlying factors that contribute to anti-Islamic sentiment.

Such an assessment is flawed and underscores just how much more Muslims need to understand the American people and how we form our ideas and biases. What many people fail to understand is that there is a direct link between Muslim Sectarianism and Islamophobia; they are connected in more ways than we are willing to concede.

Sectarianism, extremism and racism are the trifecta of pathology in moral dysfunction that plague Muslims world-wide. If you look at the fighting in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan, the bombings of mosques, and the war lording factions in the Muslim world, you will see the eventualities of Muslim sectarianism. Despite the blame we can attribute to Western powers and their meddling in the Muslim world, there is still at the core a basic concept of Muslim on Muslim killing. These killings are legitimized through ethnicity, sect, and sub Islamic ideology, especially between Shiite and Sunni, and through racial differences. But what does one have to do with the other, and what does any of them have to do with Islamophobia?

Muslim sectarianism is not an imaginary monster, it is not a fairy-tale or a Hollywood horror movie. Muslim sectarianism is real, it is pervasive, and it is consequential. Obviously, we can see its results in the Muslim world but we can also see it’s consequences in various and sundry ways in our own American Muslim sectarianized communities. These are not imagined problems; these are real shortcomings that affect Muslims and non-Muslims alike. When Muslims emigrate to the United States from the places where sectarian strife is ingrained in the society, it is only reasonable that some people will be concerned that some of this sectarian modality that we’ve become famous for, will germinate here in the United States. You can call such a person an Islamophobe, but others would say that such a person is a pragmatist. I’m not justifying bigotry, or generalization, nor am I implying that this is always the case, but what I am saying is that it is grossly unintelligent to suggest that it is never the case. Furthermore, by our own admission, we are a sectarianized community on many levels, and if such be true, then know that it is a contributing factor to anti-Islamic sentiment.

Amongst the thousands of Muslims to whom I have spoken, interviewed, taught or lectured during the last twenty years, there is an almost unanimous consensus that Muslim sectarianism is a ubiquitous cancer affecting our communities here in the United States, it is problematic, and it affects our lives and the lives of our children. If it is here, and if it affects our masjid, our interaction with each other and contributes to our division, then it goes without saying that these eventualities influence the way that people look at Muslims, and contributes to anti-Islamic sentiment, or what people call Islamophobia.

Therefore, American Muslims cannot adequately address Islamophobia until we address the irrefutable dynamics that help define the narrative of our civilizational personality of which sectarianism is at the top of the list. The Muslim Ummah in many ways is against itself and against each other according to race, nationality, ethnicity and sub-religious doctrine. We ourselves cannot deny that. We ourselves complain about it, talk about it and write about it. It is flippant to think that the world has not taken notice of that. It is intellectually disingenuous to think for moment that the way we are as a Muslim people, does not influence the way that people look at us. More importantly, it is close to heresy to believe that the way we are in reality does not determine how our Lord looks at us.

Anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States is directed at immigrant Muslim and immigrant Muslim communities in a much higher proportion that it is directed at African American or white American Muslims who were born and raised here. In the black community, people decry Muslims in the inner city not because they are Muslim but because of their association with immigrant Muslim who are viewed as racist and some of whom capitalize on drug, alcohol and gambling addiction, by selling crack pipes, meth pipes, liquor, lottery tickets, blunts and pornography in inner city neighborhoods and then shutting down for two hours on Friday and heading off to the local mosque. People see that. People are aware of that and it contributes to anti-Muslim sentiment and there is nothing irrational about that.

Here’s why. Muslim violent and non-violent extremists invariably always operate under one sectarian banner, or group or ideology or another. There is something about their group, about their politics, about their sub-ideology that tell them that they are on the right, and that their violent tirades against others is a legitimate cause. This is the hall mark of Muslim extremists. This is true especially that under the current rules of Muslim terror, innocent people, non-combatants, and collateral damage is an acceptable part of their operational profile. This would not be possible unless there was ideological justification for the killing of innocent people. This is why a Sunni bombing a Shiite masjid is justified, a Shiite bombing a Sunni mosque is justified, or a Salafist bombing a celebration of the Prophet’s birthday by a Sufi group is justified in the mind of a Muslim violent extremist. This is because the violent extremist is sectarian by nature.

Muslim sectarianism easily escalates or devolves to Muslim extremism. Historically, Muslim extremists are always part of a sect or have subscribes to a sectarian ideology within Islam which permits them to kill other Muslims. If killing other Muslims is justifiable to them then killing a non-Muslim is even more justifiable. This is why the Prophet ? prohibited all three; sectarianism, extremism and racism. Not only that,

It goes without saying that as Muslims, we should of course be concerned about Islamophobia or anti-Muslim rhetoric’s and we should do whatever we can to curb it. However, recent history has shown that in spite of all the resources that Muslim American organizations have put into combatting Islamophobia, the incidents of anti-Muslim rhetoric, hate, violence and vandalism is as high as it has been during the last 16 years. in the end and according to our faith, we cannot fully control how other people view Islam, and we cannot control how the media portrays Muslims, especially since 9/11.

That does not mean that we should not try to present a positive image of Islam and Muslims but it’s increasingly difficult when people are acutely aware of the factionalism that we practice is our faith.   Placing responsibility for Islam’s image on other than ourselves is a flawed and unstable paradigm that siphons away valuable time, energy and spiritual as well as temporal benefit. It distracts us from individual and collective responsibility and sets in motion as’baab (causative factors) that could deprive us, at this critical juncture in our history, of what we need most: divine intervention and support. This can only come from Allah.

One of our problems is that Muslims only discuss what they perceive to be external threats whereas the Prophet ? in addition to addressing external threats to Islam and Muslims, spent a great deal of time addressing internal threats to our religion and to our moral well-being. All these issues have been bottled up, but at this point is history, there’s no place left to bottle them up any more. Islamophobia is just another type of sectarianism; it’s non-Muslim against the Muslim. From a non-Muslim perspective, why should people be hands off about Muslims when Muslims aren’t hands off about Muslims?

Division within the Muslim body only emboldens anti-Muslim antagonists.

One sure way that the American Muslim Community will have a positive effect on the Greater Community is to address racism and sectarianism within our own communities. Racism is the major unresolved issue in the united states, if Muslims send a message that they not only cannot deal with the racial issue; they will not deal with it or face it, it says that we have not matured as a socially conscious community. It says that there is a flaw in our moral foundation. It also says that we’re hypocrites. I’m not calling anyone a hypocrite, but that is certainly the visual takeaway.

Sectarianism is the most widely used and most successful weapon against the Muslims. The first racist was Iblis. “I am better than him; you created me from fire and you created him from must”. Ever since then, Iblis has used racism and sectarianism to diminish the message of Islam and to enable us in writing our own self-destructive narrative. This is why we started mosque without borders and this is why we need your help.

In not addressing the racial divide in Muslim America, we are, instead of solving sectarianism, cultivating new strains of it. All of this is happening at a time where our country has made fighting violent Muslim extremism a priority, and while Muslim communities have made fighting Islamophobia a priority. Violent extremism is fueled by sectarianism, and sectarianism is a subtler form of racism, and all three; extremism, sectarianism, and racism are inextricably connected and Muslims are dead in the middle of it all. So where do we go from here?

American Muslim communities (where applicable) should embrace this conversation, and work more to open their masjid to more indigenous and convert Muslims (of all races). Because this would produces a diversity of thought, a diversity of policy, and thought out  approaches to other broader issues affecting our Muslim communities. Muslim communities need to address these things not just on the surface, and not just with pats on the head and the Bilal story, or the Suhail ar-Rumi story, but on their boards, in their leadership, in their decision making, in their community strategy, as well as in their core ranks. And I’m not just talking about superficial talking points; we’ve already been through that. African American Muslims especially have dealt with bigotry in this country for a very long time and we shouldn’t dismiss their experiences like they’re new to this, or insult each other’s intelligence. Both communities could learn from each other.

The more people outside of Islam view our communities as foreign, and behind the times on the issue of race, the more likely people will express and act on their bigotry and dislike for Islam and Muslims. Of course when we seriously start to address racism, we would have to deal with other big ticket issues like sectarianism. If we unpack sectarianism, we will find extremism and if we unpack extremism we will invariably find racism again. Racism is itself an extreme ideology that presupposes that Allah is not a just Lord, and that He sanctions the subjugation, disparagement, and marginalization of one race of people over another simply on the basis of skin color. Islamophobia, the Muslim American Godzilla, is simply another form of racism; it’s just that the shoe is now on the other foot. At some point, we’re going to have to resolve this issue of racial, ethnic, and religious discord within the ummah. It is inevitable. Our future as well as so many aspects of our religious society, is connected to it.

The Freedoms We Celebrate

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 by Azher Quader

Earlier this month our country celebrated its 241st Independence Day. That same weekend ISNA had its 54th Annual Convention too, here in Chicago, which was unusual for it as its normal schedule for Labor Day weekend was conflicting with Eid-ul-Adha this year. The confluence of these two events had some special significance and relevance for us. One celebrated the Quran, the other celebrated freedom.

 We, Americans take great pride in the freedoms we enjoy. Our founding fathers included freedom of speech and freedom of religion in the document we revere as our constitution. At a later date President Roosevelt added two more freedoms as goals to pursue: freedom from want and freedom from fear.

 The Quran emphasizes another freedom: freedom of choice, given to all humans. 

As is often the case with such a far reaching document as a constitution, which is meant to guide individuals and societies over perpetuity, the original intentions of the creators are subject to the way such directives are interpreted and implemented by subsequent generations, that determines their outcomes over different periods of time. Such is also the case with the Quran where its guidance, intended to produce successful outcomes for individuals and societies, by its Creator, has sometimes not done so, frustrating individuals and societies due to their particular interpretations and implementations of its guidance.

Our genius as American citizens today as well as members of our faith community, therefore we may surmise, face similar challenges. If we are experiencing as Americans, divisions within the country that are unprecedented in our times and if we are suffering as Muslims, the agony of terrible turmoil abroad and insecurity at home, should we not perhaps question our interpretations of our revered documents as well as our sacred texts?

In addressing the issue of freedom to choose, the Quran accepts the premise of human reason and intellect as valid instruments to choose with, but says it has provided some help through revelation from time to time, just in case we humans, in our pride and arrogance would choose to conclude our reason and intellect can never go wrong. 

While all other freedoms we cherish are dependent upon the benevolence of a state or the will of another entity, freedom of choice, the Quran declares, is personal and independent of any external authority. By exercising this freedom over issues of our daily life, using the guidance from reason bolstered by revelation, the Quran makes the argument, a more “just and compassionate” society can be established. Furthermore, where reason and revelation appear to contradict, we can and should observe outcomes to determine if the choices we make are appropriate or not. 

From the sobering stories of history, the Quran repeatedly reminds us that when societies failed to pursue a code of ethics, upholding the centrality of “justice and compassion”, they suffered the inevitable misfortune of decay and self destruction. The rise and fall of nations and civilizations it contends has little to do with their economic prosperity or their military might during their times, but everything to do with the pursuit of this moral code. The boomerang of cause and consequence, dictated by the choices we make, never fails to bring home the inevitable results, regardless of what our wishes may be. 

So how does all this stack up on the issue of our freedoms in America.  Famously the freedom of speech, for instance, guaranteed in our constitution that we celebrate so much. How well have we interpreted and implemented it through the course of our history? Have we always done a good job? Not very convincingly, it seems if we are to look dispassionately on the record, at many times.

Why then we should wonder young Snowden is living in Russia for spilling the beans on our government’s secrets.  What about a preacher from Georgia who was preaching non violent means for ending racial segregation, but met with a violent end in Tennessee?  What about a truth teller named Malcolm, who spoke a bit too harshly about the hypocrisy of white America’s claim for equal rights and we silenced him for good as well? Or should we forget the four who raised their voices against the war in Vietnam on the campus of Kent State and we sent the National Guard to shoot them down? Who decides when the freedom we cherish is the freedom to crush? Do we really permit people to speak their minds or do we disallow the kind of speech that speaks truth to power? Are we truly free to speak our minds or are we warned through these examples to hold our tongues? As, Iqbal, our poet philosopher of the East would say:

“Ye Dastoor-e-Zuban Bandi Hai Kaisa Teri Mehfil Mein

Yahan To Baat Karne Ko Tarasti Hai Zuban Meri”

Why does this tradition of silencing exist in your place?

My tongue is yearning so much to speak over here

The Quran too promotes free speech, open debates and discussions, encourages us to listen and learn, to reason and reflect, to understand another’s point of view. But is that how we have interpreted its guidance in our communal life? What is our reality? 

Try making a case for the permissibility of interest within orthodox circles and see what happens. Or question the infallibility of Hadith and see the verbal lashing you receive. Or mention adjusting the rate of Zakat, heaven forbid arguing against the payment of Zakat. Or speak about the futility of memorizing the Quran without understanding its meaning. Or talk about women’s empowerment at home, the workplace or even the masjid, much less raise the concern for gender equity in matters of inheritance. Or render an opinion on celebrating Milad within a crowd of Wahabi patriots. Try rocking the boat any and you will drown in the puddle of your audacious free speech. Yes freedom provided by the Book, yet denied by the mullah, who chooses to interpret the text much differently, is the way the argument ends.

The Quran regularly insists for us to share the abundance, to serve the other, to be engaged, to be good neighbors, to be bridge builders, to be action oriented, to speak up for the oppressed, to stand up for justice.  But look what so many of us choose to do? We choose to collect and not give, to be isolated and disengaged, to be meditative and aloof, to be silent and voiceless, to be indifferent to the needs of the other, to be strangers to our neighbors, to be consumed with our self interest. We repeatedly choose the easier ways, the ones less painful, more comfortable, less demanding of any sacrifices. We choose rituals over service, dialogues over dynamism, mediocrity over excellence, conformity over change. When asked to climb the steep path, we choose to travel the level road. Need we question our interpretations and our implementations of the Divine writ? Are we making the prudent choices for our salvation?    

Let us check out another freedom we celebrate as American citizens so very much. Our cherished freedom of religion. When we are told of this freedom we are regularly reminded of the separation of church and state. That we can have our churches , our temples , our synagogues and our mosques; build them, worship in them, practice our rituals, recite our sacred texts, sing our praises of the Lord and congregate there with complete freedom. No government body, we are comforted,  will interfere and impose any restrictions upon our religious practices there. We are told we have the freedom to observe our holy days and our religious festivals. We can wear our yarmulks and our hijabs, our kufis and our turbans, observe our fastings and our sabaths.

But sadly that is where the case for religious freedom ends. Is there nothing more to religion? Does religion not have a say in the way we are to live? The larger domain of ethics and morality which is really foundational to the understanding of religiosity, is carved out from this freedom on the grounds of domain. When we draw a line between the practice of rituals and the foundations of faith where “justice and compassion” abide, and say this freedom you are guaranteed but not this other one, what freedom do we really celebrate?

The pilgrims did not come to America in pursuit of rituals to practice but a life of ethics and morality to live. That freedom is what they sought. That freedom today we no longer possess. The values for which they journeyed across stormy waters, risking their lives, are all but lost. Today we worship the secular life, which has redefined marriage, idolized adultery, institutionalized racism, legalized abortion, commercialized pornography, corrupted our democracy with money laws declared constitutional and given us a new religion to claim as our own, and a new freedom in its name to cherish. Yes we have freedom of religion and the religion we have now adopted is called ‘secularism’. 

There was another place and time in history when our favorite poet [Iqbal] again alluded to this mistaken understanding of religious freedom, when he cautioned his people in his own special way:

“Mullah ko jo hai Hind mein sajde ke ijazat

Nadaan yeh samajhta hai ke Islam hai azaad!”

The mullah in India is happy to have the freedom to pray

The foolish one believes his religion (Islam) is free

To be sure we have freedom of religion in our country, but the religion that celebrates freedom here today is unfortunately not the religion originally prescribed for us by Moses or Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad (Peace-be-Upon them all).

What about FDR’s vision of a country and world someday enjoying freedom from want and freedom from fear? Ignore the world for now. Let us see how far we have succeeded in our own country in eliminating want. Here are the sobering facts.

  • 45 million Americans live in poverty (poverty line defined as individuals making less than $12k a year; or a family of four making less than $24K). An additional 97 million earn less than twice the poverty line. Translation: nearly half of the population in America is poor or of low income.   
  •  42 percent of our workforce makes less than $15 an hour. In 23 of our 50 states the minimum wage is stuck at $7.25 an hour. Two earner families is not an issue of choice today, but a matter of necessity, and even then millions work more than one job and still live paycheck to paycheck. 
  •  47.5 million are on food stamps.
  •  51% of public school students depend on free or reduced-price lunches for their only decent meal for the day
  •  3.5 million people become homeless each year and 39% of them are children

The war on poverty that President Johnson  launched in 1964, gave us Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps and College Loans for sure, but failed to free us from our wants. 28 million still lack health insurance, not counting another 11 million undocumented who remain invisible to the system. Medicaid is under assault by the present bunch in congress. Without it millions will lose long term care and disability benefits.  Our student loan debt has mushroomed to $1.2 trillion with no relief in sight for the 40 million young people struggling to repay it. We have neither eradicated poverty nor overcome our wants, but arguably created, as some would say, a culture of dependency in our society. Clearly we need to rethink our strategies if we are to ever find cures for our wants.

Lastly the issue of freedom from fear needs little discussion. Since 911 fear and worry has become a quiet accompaniment of our daily lives. Terror hides in ambush at every corner, to maim and murder, in malls and markets, in clubs and classrooms wherever people come to meet and enjoy their freedoms. Gangs play shooting games on our neighborhood streets, while neighbors live in mortal fear, hiding in their unsafe homes. Law enforcement terrifies a whole community with their open distrust and profiling of them. Millions live in the shadows without status, fearful of that knock on the door, when they can be deported and separated from their loved ones.  Thousands of kids brave going to school every day, painfully afraid of the bullies they have to face in their class rooms. And so many live in fear of bankruptcy form medical bills they could not pay if they fell sick or hurt and have no coverage.  Our political class delight in hate speech to win cheap votes and spread fear among the people. Our money managers steal the workers pensions, robbing them of their life savings, leaving them fearful of their retirement years. Hate crimes, road rage, sexual assault, worker abuse, have all become normalized in a world where passions fly high while patience runs low. How then can there be freedom from fear?   

Such is the state of freedoms we live in and celebrate. Freedoms we have all been told are exceptional and to be proud of. We are often reminded, that our journey “for a more perfect union” as written in our constitution, is ongoing. But it is our journey for justice on which we have been stumbling all these past two centuries or more that should concern us. Without learning to stand tall and walk straight on this journey, our goal for perfection will remain elusive. When freedom is worshiped and justice ignored, that freedom is wanting and offers little to celebrate. Our love affair for freedom without a passion for justice, will forever frustrate us to overcome our wants and find peace, security and happiness.

 May His guidance show us the way and help us travel the path which will lead us to celebrate real freedom.

Novel, The Scent of Jasmine is a Snapshot of Past Arab World

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By Saadia Faruqi

A new book, The Scent of Jasmine: Coming of Age in Jerusalem and Damascus, offers deep insight into a world that is largely destroyed now. Founding director of both the Palestine Aid Society of America and the Arab American National Museum, Author Dr. Anan Ameri had a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother and moved to the United States after completing university. Through her novel, she tells the intriguing and uplighting story of her early years.

In The Scent of Jasmine, Ameri has written an engaging memoir about her childhood in Syria, complete with descriptions of everyday life in many Arab cities and villages. Due to countless wars and terrorism, many of these destinations are no longer the vibrant spaces of Ameri’s youth, a fact that makes for impactful reading against the backdrop of the current political turmoil in the Middle East. For Ameri, this turmoil began early in her life, when her Palestinian father and his family became homeless and were forced to flee their country to Jordan. In 1950 the family left East Jerusalem and spent the rest of their time traveling between Amman, Jordan and Damascus, Syria.

Ameri writes about her identity as a nation-less Palestinian in the following terms:

“As a child, I used to fantasize about being Swiss and Norwegian, not because I wished to be blonde or rich, but because I wished to be free from disaster, separation and sadness, and from seeing my father, his friends and relatives forever grieving their loss of Palestine.”

The book is not written as the average memoir. Instead, it offers twenty three vignettes of Ameri’s childhood memories, ranging from the birth of her baby brother to protests in Egypt and Jordan, from Eid celebrations in Amman to neighborhood cafes in Damascus. While different, this angle is refreshing because it highlights the best years of Ameri’s life.

Through her eyes, readers see the cities of Damascus and Amman as they used to be in the 1960s and 1970s; they witness the hustle and bustle of Syrians, Jordanians and others. Through her ears they hear the laughter that filled Ameri’s life, the sounds of the streets outside, and even the student protests that echoed around her in her youth.

Within these memories lie important themes as well. As a little girl Ameri finds the patriarchal system of the Middle East difficult to swallow. She talks about her confusion when her younger sister’s birth is met with disappointment, while her brother’s birth is celebrated wholeheartedly. She angers at the blind eye her family turns towards her uncle’s adulterous behavior. She worries about the religious intolerance and extremism at her college in Beirut. These ups and downs shape who Ameri becomes as an adult.

At the same time, she is shaped by positive political experiences. Contrary to popular belief, the 1960s in the Middle East was similar to the 1960s in America and Europe. Ameri participated in the protests, sit-ins and strikes that were common in Jordan during this time. She walked in her first demonstration at the age of 12, an event that propelled her into political action, leading her to have been been kicked out of two colleges as a teem for her activism.

“Along with thousands of others, we rallied for women’s and workers’ rights, for democracy and a free press, for Arab unity and, of course for a free Palestine. These were my formative years, the years I experienced many firsts, including a first love and a first job. Most importantly these were the years when I developed my political and social consciousness.”

A light and quick read, The Scent of Jasmine not only opens a window on a region and lifestyle that is long gone, but also shatters stereotypes about the Middle East. It is available on Amazon by clicking here.

Three New Teen Novels Showcase the Diversity of Islam

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By Saadia Faruqi

Although the year is only half over, three new novels targeted towards Muslim teenagers and young adults are already making news. A combination of dramatic plots and complex characters with real life scenarios of the average Muslim household results in must-read stories, for all ages and backgrounds.

God Smites and Other Muslim Girl Problems is a Nancy Drew style mystery with loads of hilarity and even some romance on the side. Canadian author, Ishara Deen, has penned a novel that is part mystery and part social commentary. The main character, Asiya Haque, is a typical Muslim American teenager struggling to hide a crush on a white boy, chaffing under the rules set by her ultra-strict Bangladeshi American mother, and annoyed by the sanctimonious men and women of her local mosque. Everything fun seems to be haram- so when Asiya goes on a walk with Michael her friend/crush and finds a dead body, she knows she’s in for a rough ride. Now it’s up to Asiya to prove that Michael is not the killer, while everybody at her mosque is eyeing her sideways for not being the good Muslim girl they expect her to be. While the mystery in this novel is intriguing and well-plotted, the real gems are the genuine characterization of the busybodies at the mosque, the stressed-out Desi mother and the constant contradiction of American versus Muslim identity, that first generation teenage Muslims typically feel. More than anything else, the depiction of the mosque community along with the unofficial “morality police” in Asiya’s city is diverse, vibrant and complex- just like in reality.

That Thing We Call a Heart is a straight-up romance novel with a side order of Muslim complications. Nashville based author, Sheba Karim is a master at reflecting the diversity of Muslim practice, as evidenced by her previous book Skunk Girl. In That Thing We Call a Heart, main character Shabnam is a typical Muslim teen with a problem: her best friend Farah has started wearing the hijab without consulting her and this has driven a huge rift between the two. When Shabnam begins secretly dating a cool dude, Jamie, Farah makes her disapproval well known. While this novel may have been your average Muslim teen romance (not that there are many of those) its saving grace is the glorious rejection of stereotypes, Muslims even have about themselves. Shabnam is depicted as a good girl, who comes from a non-practicing Muslim family, that is more Western than anything else. She isn’t filled with the first generation immigrant angst we expect from our heroines, but her sudden interest in Urdu ghazals drags her closer to her culture. On the other hand, Farah is a punk girl with blue streaks in her hair and blue lipstick, her hijab becomes a part of her personality in a way that is refreshing and inviting. Every word of this novel offers a unique light on Muslim families, while removing the misconception that all Muslims practice their faith the same way. Plus, the romance in this novel is pretty hot. 

Saints and Misfits is a hard-hitting look at the problems we have in our community. Canadian Muslim author, S.K. Ali, has bravely spoken out about a taboo topic: sexual assault. The main character Janna is already reeling from her parent’s divorce and her father’s new (white) family, when she is sexually assaulted by a golden boy of the Muslim community- a hafiz Quran who is beloved by all, including her family. She is scared, worried and lonely. Who will believe the word of a misfit over the prim and proper, upstanding Muslims around her? As Jannah’s world unravels, the psychological pain of the assault and her assaulter’s continued advances make her unable to work, study or sleep. During this terrible time, she finds help from unexpected quarters, including a full burqa-wearing girl who’s a disguised YouTube star. From this support, she finally gathers the courage to expose the dirty secrets of her Muslim community. This novel is a painfully honest look at our Muslim communities and the work that needs to be done to improve our internal issues. It also offers a very diverse portrait of the American Muslim community and showcases Muslims from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

Ramadan, An Exercise in Self Control

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by Azher Quader

The month of Ramadan comes and goes so fast, it always feels kind of short.

As the moon-gazers and the calculators celebrate Eid on the same day, it is a welcome change. While some would wish we all gather at a single site like the spacious McCormick, to create a dazzling spectacle of faith and unity, the logistics of this seems to have dwindled away with time as the community has grown and spread from the city to the far suburbs.

A call for unity although sounds exciting to make, hardly speaks to the reality on the ground, where we are split in so many ways and communicate so little among ourselves, living in isolation from one another, existing comfortably within the ethnic ghettos of our own creation.

During this whole month as part of Compassionate Care Network’s (CCN’s) mission to promote free enrollments and increase health awareness, some of us have visited most major Islamic Centers in the area to witness this isolation first hand. We have come to realize that far more important than the symbolic show of unity that could be demonstrated from a single congregation, is the need for a whole lot more dialogue and conversation to take place among the leaderships of different centers. If we are to optimize our functions and improve our services to our people, this is no longer an option that can be postponed but a necessity that must be addressed.

For starters it would be nice if we spoke in plain English when in the company of people of other ethnic backgrounds. Language is a powerful medium that not only glues people together but can also tear people apart. We would perhaps do well also to concentrate less on our personal agendas and focus more on the common issues that challenge us as a community.

We need to become relevant in the world we have come to, rather than remain focused on the world we have come from. To be sure there are problems everywhere. We will need to make some painful choices if we are to avoid the perils of hate and marginalization in a society that increasingly questions our patriotism and our trustworthiness. Without compromising our loyalty to our faith we will have to demonstrate our commitment to justice and our love for America. If we are to survive and succeed as a community we will have to move from being perpetual consumers to becoming productive contributors. We cannot remain satisfied with our individual successes. We cannot remain comforted by our increasing numbers in our mosques and our social gatherings. We need to know our accomplishments, emulate our successes and learn from our failures.

If the tragedy of 911 and the unfolding violence that increasingly is becoming more frequent, is showing us, we cannot remain isolated and disengaged. Many of us have shaken hands and spoken a few words, perhaps for the first time, with our neighbors and friends from other faiths who came to our centers during the course of this Ramadan. Our neighbors probably felt just as good as we did to break the ice. This need not be an annual event. We need to go forward and reach out more frequently not only to our neighbors from other faiths but also to our own friends who share our faith. Together we need to explore opportunities to create goodwill, seek common ground and do God’s work.

If the spiritual exercises of the last several weeks have taught us anything it should be that character is built through a life of discipline, that integrity comes from habitual honesty and that trust is built through honoring commitments. The nights of prayers and prostrations are behind us now. The days of deeds and deliberations beckon us. There is so much to do and no stopping the relentless march of time.

Ramadan comes every year as a necessary interlude for the renewal and the revival of our spirit, in our journey to God. Having renewed our weary souls, we are asked to recommit ourselves to the hardships of this journey and to climb this steep hill which will take us to a moral high ground. We are reminded in the Quran to take on that ascent of spiritual growth that increases our capacity for compassion, that inspires us to greater acts of service and sacrifice, and that makes us fearless in the advocacy of truth. Building character that enables us to live a life of integrity, or ‘taqwa’, devoid of double standards, practicing patience in the face of failure, showing humility after achieving success and demonstrating peaceful resistance in the face of prejudice, is really what Ramadan is all about.

Eid Mubarak, may Allah guide us and empower us with wisdom and strength that He alone can give.

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Republicans Discuss Extremism, but Only the Islamic Kind

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by  Saadia Faruqi

On June 11, 2017, the Senate Committee on National Security held an extraordinary hearing. It was a roomful of Republicans discussing the safety of our nation, but the only thing discussed was what they like to term radical Islamic terrorism. Titled “Ideology and Terror: Understanding the Tool, Tactics, and Techniques of Violent Extremism”, the hearing aimed “to enhance the economic and national security of America.”

The group then proceeded to talk about terrorism only through the lens of Muslims in the United States and abroad and finally invited Islamophobic “experts” like Ayan Ali Hirsi to spew hateful rhetoric.

Here are five reasons why such meetings not only miss the point but actually do great harm to our country in terms of safety and security.

  1. Terrorism must not be defined only in terms of Muslims. Many think tanks consider white supremacists to be the greatest threat to security. At the same time, one agency has estimated that your chances of being killed by a foreign born terrorist is one in 3.6 million.
  2. Discussions like these lead to further otherizing of the Muslim community and an increase in Islamophobic sentiments. Research shows a tremendous increase in hate crimes against Muslims in the last couple of years, with numbers reaching post 9/11 levels in 2015.
  3. Resource allocation for national security must be equal among all groups. If the various law enforcement agencies continue to fund anti-terrorism efforts towards the Muslim communities alone, there will be serious repercussions. Firstly, Muslims will continue to bear the brunt of political and community hatred. Secondly, and more importantly, the real causes of extremism will not be identified or rooted out if law enforcement fails to see other non-Muslim groups as part of the problem.
  4. Experts on this issue of Islamic radicals must be unbiased. Islamophobes like Ayan Ali Hirsi who term Islam in the most negative of terms and make millions in the Islamophobia industry should not be allowed to sway opinions by peddling hatred and inaccuracy. For those unfamiliar with the Islamophobia industry, resources like this and this are important reminders of how religious intolerance is a big money maker.
  5. Muslims can do much to fight extremism in their communities if they have the trust of their communities. Although the repeated question of “what are moderate Muslims doing to combat terrorism?” echoes after every terrorist attack, the fact is that Muslims are already doing a lot. In London, Manchester and Paris terrorists had already been reported by their mosque imams or family members to the police, with little attention. And many Muslim imams are now working hard to increase youth participation, discuss the problems within their congregations and otherwise help reduce radicalization.

So the Senate Committee on National Security should take notice. Improving relationships between various groups, halting distrust against any one group, and understanding the true threats to our nation’s security are all crucial.

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Anti-sharia Protesters are Selling Phantom Threats

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by Victor Ghalib Begg

On June 10, an anti-Muslim group organized rallies in numerous cities across our country against the myth of creeping sharia.

What is sharia, or Islamic law?

In short, the word sharia means “a path” and, by extension, a way to pursue happiness by protecting life, faith, family, intellect, and property. As a Muslim and an American citizen, I already enjoy these God-given liberties. Principles of sharia are embedded in our Constitution. Islamic law, nevertheless, requires a believer to follow the law of the land.

The two main sources of sharia are the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim scholars and intellectuals engage in deliberations arriving at consensus solutions suitable for time and place, based upon the two fundamental sources. There are five schools of Islamic jurisprudence to choose from that guide modern-day Muslims to practice their faith. In a nutshell, sharia promotes:

  • The sanctity of human life. The Quran stresses, “If anyone kills a person — unless in retribution for murder or spreading corruption in the land, it is like killing all humankind; while anyone saves a life, it is as like saving the lives of all humankind.”
  • Freedom of faith. Quran commands, “Let there be no compulsion in religion.”
  • Family life as a nucleus of society. Sharia regulates marriage, divorce, inheritance, parenting, child rearing, rights of orphans, kin and family relations. Israel and India, two democracies, honor Muslim personal law in their constitutions. American laws recognize Islamic marriage, burial rites, dietary laws and interest-free banking. It’s a code of living that includes daily prayers, fasting and charity.
  • Prohibition of intoxicants and drug use. Sharia aims at keeping the mind sound and healthy.
  • Protection of property rights. Sharia disapproves of economic exploitation and usury.

Sharia is unfairly portrayed as a medieval system of law that is barbaric, having no regard for democratic values, freedoms, human rights and women’s rights.

It is true that sharia is being wrongly used to justify tribal and cultural practices elsewhere around the world in totally unacceptable ways. Practices like genital mutilation are not sanctioned by Islam. Terror groups like ISIS and the Taliban contribute to fear through their violent acts, incitement to harm innocent people and by implementing harsh rules in the name of Islam. But they’re only a minuscule faction among the 1.6 billion Muslims who live peacefully under participatory Western-style democracies from Indonesia to Tunisia.

The leaders behind the weekend’s rallies, attempting to be politically correct, claim they’re anti-sharia, not anti-Muslim. But that makes no sense. Their argument is like saying being anti-Canon Law but not anti-Catholic, or being anti-Halakha but not against the Jewish faith. They’re also silly to argue that 1 percent of the U.S. Muslim-American population will have the power to replace the U.S. Constitution. The obvious goal here is to promote irrational Islamophobia.

According to news reports, a few dozen protesters in cities from New York to Seattle, some clad in camouflaged fatigues, others belonging to anti-government movements, gathered to protest sharia. In contrast, hundreds belonging to all faiths and walks of life rallied across the street to voice their opposition to such fear-mongering. It only takes the action of a small hate group to divide Americans.

If the hysteria is promoted by hatemongers, poisoning our political and social discourse, it is apt to result in unintended consequences. We’ve witnessed that in the murder of two good Samaritans as they attempted to stop a vengeful and angry racist on a Portland, Oregon, train.

According to news reports, a few dozen protesters in cities from New York to Seattle, some clad in camouflaged fatigues, others belonging to anti-government movements, gathered to protest sharia. In contrast, hundreds belonging to all faiths and walks of life rallied across the street to voice their opposition to such fear-mongering. It only takes the action of a small hate group to divide Americans.

If the hysteria is promoted by hatemongers, poisoning our political and social discourse, it is apt to result in unintended consequences. We’ve witnessed that in the murder of two good Samaritans as they attempted to stop a vengeful and angry racist on a Portland, Oregon, train.

This article was republished with permission from TCPalm.