Time to Listen to Muslim Silent Majority in US

This article was first published by the Christian Science Monitor in the April 21, 2004 issue.

By Ahmed Nassef

NEW YORK – When Americans think of a Muslim American, most probably envision a bearded man or veiled woman, speaking accented English and holding traditional, conservative views of the world.

Although the reality is much different - most of the nation's Muslims are American-born converts or second-generation immigrants, not particularly religious, and liberal - you'd be hard-pressed to learn this by watching most Muslim spokespeople in the media.

Most Muslim American institutions today, from local mosques to national advocacy groups, reflect an ultraconservative Muslim agenda not shared by most within their community, which at an estimated 6 million now equals the size of the American Jewish community.

The Washington-based Committee on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the most prominent Muslim American civil rights organization, spends much of its time and money defending the rights of female students to wear veils in public schools.

However, when confronted with the rabid misogynistic policies common in most mosques - such as limited access to main prayer halls or bans on women serving on mosque boards - CAIR makes no such efforts on behalf of Muslim women's rights.

Not only are Muslim organizations out of touch with their supposed constituency, they're far removed from the realities of American life.

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Violence Is a Human, Not an Islamic Trait

Originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Feb. 01, 2004.

By Hussein Ibish

The idea that Islam, and by extension Muslims, are inherently violent and irrational has become commonplace in our culture.

This misperception, with deep origins in the historical rivalry between Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East, was intensified by the Arab-Israeli conflict and a slew of bigoted Hollywood movies, and gained a solid foothold in the minds of many Americans after 9/11. Since 9/11, right-wing evangelical preachers such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and commentators such as Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes, have spared no effort to spread fear and hatred of Islam and the growing American Muslim community.

This defamation probably has its greatest parallel in the anti-Semitic ideas that took hold in American culture between the First and Second World Wars. The charges directed against the American Jewish community - now eerily echoed by anti-Muslim rhetoric - smeared a religious minority as dangerous and subversive aliens. The Father Coughlins and Henry Fords of that era, and ours, found the political space to promote prejudice yet remain "respectable."

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God and New York

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

By Sarah Eltantawi

It was the first sweltering, humid, muggy day in New York, at least since I had moved in January. 84 degrees on a Monday, and Manhattanites everywhere emerged from their apartments in airy blouses, skirts, flip flops featuring colorfully painted toe nails and a variety of shoes and accessories, like hot pink sneakers and bright yellow feather earrings.

Though the mood was jubilant in the city, the post office, a much-dreaded bureaucratic-vortex that stood in sharp contrast to free-spirited New York, did not have air conditioning. A man who looked like Woody Allan said in a booming, yet tinny voice:

“Hi! Do you have the stamps with the vampires on them?”

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Religious Liberty Under Siege, Interfaith Leaders Warn

1/13/2005 3:01:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 -- Today, The Interfaith Alliance hosted a press conference at the National Press Club where leaders from five major national organizations warned that religious liberty is under siege and called on the nation to block efforts in the 109th Congress that would tear down the constitutional wall of separation between religion and government.

The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, moderated the event and introduced the speakers: Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Sarah Eltantawi, co-founder and communications director, Progressive Muslim Union of North America; Rev. Romal Tune, senior organizer for African American Programs, People for the American Way; and J. Brent Walker, executive director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

"The 109th Congress and the courts to which members of the Senate will send new judges are critical venues in which we will see whether or not the historically heralded value of religious liberty will be preserved and strengthened or ignored, compromised, eroded or abolished," Gaddy said.

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Contra Costa Times: 'Re-examining practice of faith'

Published: Mon, Mar. 28, 2005

Re-examining practice of faith

Emotions run high in debates on gender roles, homosexuality, extremism; Progressive Muslims spark dialogue on Islam in the U.S.
By Jack Chang
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Ahmed Nassef stood at the front of a Stanford University classroom packed with hundreds of Muslims who had come from all over the Bay Area to hear him speak.

"I begin with the greeting of peace," Nassef said. "Some of what we'll talk about tonight will be painful to hear."

He wanted to discuss issues he said Muslims in the United States have avoided but can no longer ignore as American society scrutinizes their community:

Why do only about 10 percent of U.S. Muslims regularly attend prayer at mosques? How long can the religion's leaders treat women as second-class citizens? When will Muslims respond forcefully to strains of extremism?

"It's difficult being a Muslim in America today," said the New York activist and native of Egypt, who has prominently advocated re-examining how the religion is practiced. "We need to deal with these issues openly."

Many U.S. Muslims, especially those who have grown up in this country, are asking the same questions.

They are successful, professional women who chafe at having to pray in dark, secluded rooms at their local mosques while men enter through the front doors and worship in comfort.

They are professors at U.S. universities who object to attempts by religious leaders to enforce strict interpretations of Islam on others, labeling those who don't obey as fake Muslims.

They are African-American converts who see similarities between discrimination in the segregationist South and the cold treatment of blacks in some mosques run by immigrants.

"In my circles, this has been a long time in coming," said Oakland resident Moina Noor, director of the Bay Area group American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism.

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Women Gain Expanded Religious Authority in Turkey

In Turkey, Muslim women gain expanded religious authority

By Yigal Schleifer,

Covered in a pink and gray head scarf that tightly frames her round face, and adorned in a long, dark-blue overcoat, Zuleyha Seker hardly seems like a rebel. But as one of 400 women preachers, known as vaizes, currently working in several of Turkey's state-run mosques, Ms. Seker is making waves. "The vaizes like me are seen as revolutionaries in religious circles - we are always pushing for change," she says with a gentle smile.

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Omid Safi's "What is Progressive Islam"

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Executive Director, Ani Zonneveld Reflects on WISE Conference

Recently, June 17-19, 2006, I attended the first W.I.S.E. (Women’s Islamic initiative in Spirituality and Equity) conference in New York. Spearheaded by Daisy Khan of ASMA Society (www.asmasociety.org), the task at the conference was to create a Shura Council (an advisory board) that will contribute to an interpretation of the Quran and our Islamic traditions in a modern context.

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