The Muslim American community is truly scared. After every terrorist attack, they pray: "Dear God, let it not be a Muslim!" If it is, as in San Bernardino, they know that in the aftermath they will be blamed collectively. Mosques will be vandalized, women and children wearing the Hijab will be harassed, and insults and punches will be thrown at men perceived to be Muslims.
By Fakhruddin Ahmed
CNN reported that 45 Americans have been killed by Muslim terrorists in America in the 14 years since 9/11. Gun violence has claimed about 11,000 American lives in 2015 alone. Judging by the hysteria accompanying the Paris and San Bernardino massacres, one would think that the statistics were the other way around.
President George W. Bush set the tone for tolerance with his famous "Islam is peace" speech at a Washington, D.C.mosque six days after 9/11: By fanning Islamophobia, Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates are preaching intolerance. While offering their supporters a moment of catharsis, they are scaring Americans into believing that the Muslim Americans are the enemy within. They are not.
The Muslim American community is truly scared. After every terrorist attack, they pray: "Dear God, let it not be a Muslim!"
If it is, as in San Bernardino, they know that in the aftermath they will be blamed collectively. Mosques will be vandalized, women and children wearing the Hijab will be harassed, and insults and punches will be thrown at men perceived to be Muslims.
Muslim worry that the politicians' inflammatory rhetoric will inspire deranged gunmen to attack mosque congregations, just as a Wisconsin Sikh temple was mistakenly attacked in 2012, or murder children in Islamic schools. Mosques and schools are issuing urgent bulletins to members instructing them what to do when active shooters are around. These are unnerving times for Muslim Americans, especially their children. Yet, all Muslims want to do is assimilate and be the best Americans they can be.
Because of the lasting damage the terrorists cause to the fledgling Muslim American community, they are the most despised by the community. If Muslim terrorists perpetrate more San Bernadinos, the consequence for the community will be horrendous. Muslim Americans will be on life support.
Since average Americans are generally uninformed about Islam, and probably have never met a Muslim, negative portrayal of Muslims by politicians can easily poison their thinking. Whether they are up to it or not, it remains the responsibility of Muslim Americans to introduce themselves to the rest of America.
The task is not easy.
Of America's estimated population of 320 million, roughly 3 million are Muslim. Most Muslims are city and suburban dwellers, who do meet and socialize with non-Muslim Americans. Muslims are absent from rural America. If rural Americans learn about Muslims from television, especially from Fox News, what they hear may not truthfully portray who Muslims really are.
Beside the slaves, many of whom practiced Islam before they were captured and transported to America, a small number of Muslims have lived in America for hundreds of years. Most Muslims, however, are recent immigrants, beneficiary of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened America's door to non-Europeans.
Islam is a hard religion to practice; harder in a secular society. A practicing Muslim has to make time to pray five times a day, fast during the month of Ramadan, donate 2.5 percent of his wealth to charity annually, and save for the Hajj pilgrimage. He is under a severe time constraint.
In America, the Muslim immigrant struggles to adapt to a new culture, language and work environment. He raises kids in a society he does not fully comprehend. As his American-born children go to school and assimilate, at heart the immigrant remains a native of his previous homeland. His children can run rings around him when it comes to the Internet. If ISIS preys on his children, he would be the last to know.
That only religious kids are drawn to ISIS is a fallacy. It is the less religious, smart kid, adept at communicating via social media, who is more likely to be inspired by ISIS's theologically-aberrant ideology. If the murder of 14 civilians can radicalize our politicians, dropping of thousands of bombs and killing of thousands of Muslims in the Middle East can radicalize Muslim youth worldwide. Only a political solution that addresses Sunni grievances in the area will defeat ISIS.
FBI Director James Comey has said that ISIS's social media message is "come" and join the Caliphate, or "kill" where you are. Muslim American community works hand in hand with law enforcement agencies to close both the options for their youth. But, the parents, too, need help. The FBI has interrogated hundreds of youths who have either joined, or attempted to join ISIS. They should share with the Muslim community the signs to look for in their youth when they become "unmoored" or "go dark" and encrypt their communications.
Because the average Muslim loathes ISIS, only about 45,000 out of 1.6 billion Muslims have joined them. ISIS does not pose an existential threat to America. They are a bunch of retail terrorists similar to two Muslim terror groups of the past - the "Assassins" who operated in the modern day Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and the "Thugs" who terrorized the Indian subcontinent. The "Assassins" were obliterated by the invading Mongols, and the "Thugs" were infiltrated and crushed by the British. Like the "Assassins" and "Thugs," ISIS will also pass, but only with outside help.
Fakhruddin Ahmed, D. Phil. is a Rhodes Scholar. He lives in West Windsor.
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