American Muslims: Contemporary Socio-political Issues - Term Paper Example

American Muslims: A report on Contemporary Socio-political Issues Introduction According to the widely held understanding in the society “a person who believes in prophet character of Muhammad” belongs to the Muslim community. However there are also other definitions pertaining to the identity of a Muslim in theological approach. Some theologians advocate that in addition to the belief in God and the Prophet, a number of other beliefs are also necessary to define an individual as a Muslim. Nevertheless the legal approach for defining a Muslim is much less ad hoc. Accordingly, “any person who accepts the unity of God and the prophetic character of Mohammad is a Muslim and is subjected to Musulman law (Duhaime).” Muslims had been a part of American society for centuries. Example: “Being Muslim in America” book contains a number of significant historic events about the Muslim Americans. Accordingly the first evidence of such Muslims visiting the United States of America dates back to the period of 1619 to 1800s (Curtis, 2009). Some other authors have recorded Muslim vendors voyaging to America even before 1500. History and development of the American Muslim Community It is believed that approximately 30percentage proportion of the total African individuals who were shipped to America as slaves during 1619 to 1800s period were Muslims. Some of these people joined the main stream economic activities of America after being released from the slavery. Example: in 1819 Yarrow (Mamout) Marmood was the property owner and bank investor in Georgetown (currently a part of Washington). And in 1907 the first Muslim organization in America was founded by the Tatar immigrants from Poland, Russia and Lithuania (pp 56). The first American Islamic association was founded in Michigan in 1919. Consequently many immigrants were employed in manufacturing plants. The first American Islamic religious building known as the Mother Mosque was built in 1934 in Iowa (pp 57). Gradual growth and expansion of Muslim America community is explicit in these records. Currently Muslims are believed to form a considerable proportion of the American society. According to the Pew Research Center statistics Muslim population in America amounted 2,595,000 in 2010. This figure attributed to approximately 0.8percentag proportion of the total population in the same year in America. According to the same source the Muslim population in the country will reach 4,150,000 while forming 1.2percentage proportion of the total population by the year 2020. However some sources states that there are above 7 million Muslim individuals living in America currently. American government does not record religious statistics in the population census. Thus a statistical jargon is created. According to the book “Being Muslim in America” vast majority of the Muslim individuals living in America are of South Asian i.e. Pakistani and Arabian origin respectively. Approximately 34percentage and 26percentage proportion of the total Muslim American population belongs to the above two categories respectively (pp 9). Impacts of expanding the Muslim American population The impact of Muslim community on American socio-economic sphere is drastically increasing despite the said theological or statistical jargons (ZAHEDI, 2011). The growing significance is evident in the contemporary races related socio-economic issues occurring in the country. Muslim culture, believes and even proliferation seems to have impacts on the large society (Bayoumi, 2011). According to book “Being Muslim in America” book 25 percentage proportion of the Muslim American population belongs to the indigenous American category. Thus it can be inferred that rate of converting to Muslim religion by the individuals who were born in non-Muslim families is high. This trend seems to have hurt some religions’ leaders and political activists. Hatred, despise and discrimination is rapidly growing in contemporary American society towards the Muslim Americans (Bayoumi, 2011). And a war has been fueled between the Muslim and American civilizations. Example: there had been public advertisements displayed in Ney York train stations reading “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” Debates questioning the Muslim’s faith and the purity of the religion are telecasted on cable TV programs in multiple times (Sarsour, 2013). Furthermore, there are fully funded anti-Islamic organizations actively and publicly operating in America. Example: Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). In furtherance to the growing anti-Islamic hatred across the American civil society the following incidents can be listed; killing six Sikh Americans in Wisconsin, burning down a mosque in Missouri and destroying a Muslim cemetery in Illinois. On the one hand a vast majority of the Muslims who emigrated from other countries claim that they prefer living in America due to the high degree of individual freedom available in the country. Thus hatred is rapidly growing towards the Islamic religion in contemporary America. The above mentioned incidents indicate the severity of violence and bloodshed associated with the growing hostility and discrimination against the Muslims. Thus the question is “How long can the Muslims enjoy freedom in America?” Political Background of Anti Islamic Movements Anti-Islamic movement is not a secret to the White House. although the government’s position pertaining to this issue is cryptic. Example: Involving of US lead United Nations in the security and political matters of the Middle East seems to have other interests than terrorism. Example: US army invading Iraq in March 2003. American government accused Iraqi president’s actions for severely threatening the regional security before declaring a war. Allegations made against the Iraqi president for developing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) such as nuclear and chemical bombs and not cooperating with the United Nations’ observers. Saddam Hussein who was the Iraqi president during that time rejected all the above allegations. Regardless of the said rejections UN placed trade sanctions upon Iraq and later declared war. One year after ending the American-Iraqi war Charles Duelfer who is an adviser of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reported that Iraqi nuclear program was actually eliminated in 1991 and Saddam Hussein was right in rejecting the allegations made by the UN (Duelfer, 2004). This example illustrates the controversial foreign affairs policy adopted by the American Government relating to Muslim people. Counter argument pertaining to the above fact can be described as follows. Although the American government may have been responsible for taking such actions that disturbed the economic growth and political stability in Muslim countries, it has also formulated such policies enhancing the livelihood, security and welfare of the American Muslims (Khan, 2002). The diplomatic stance of American Government regarding the Muslim governments had been unruly hostile in many occasions. While harming the Muslims living in other countries, the American government also displays interest on welfare of American Muslims. There are great lapses in this political approach. Ironically, the current political approach can be viewed as a government invitation given to the people living in the Middle-East region to come and settle in America. On the one hand the degree of political unrest present in the Middle East region, Pakistan and most of the Muslim countries is very high. On the other hand a favorable environment presents in America and western countries. Such a high degree of political instability is a source of encouragement to migrate to America and other countries. However the hidden agenda of United Nations lead by America creates most of the political unrests in other countries including the Middle East. Example: creation of a separate country as Israel drew the people in the region to a war that’s dragging for years. Such acts have not being unnoticed by all the people in the world. There are public critiques against the United Nations and America for discriminating the sovereignty rights of Muslim countries. However the most important concern is “are American Muslims concerned about the said discriminations? Would they support any terrorist activity targeting the USA?” After 9/11 attack the American government expected various possibilities of terrorist attacks targeting the country (Kurzman, et. al, 2011). It is believed that one of the strong reasons for not repeating such attacks on America was “Public and private denunciations of terrorism” i.e. vast majority of the Muslim American organizations and community leaders publicly criticized killing innocent people in the name of Quran (Bayoumi, 2011). Furthermore, Self-policing practices against radical religious ideology, community-building and preventing the isolation of individuals, involving in political activities (Zahedi, 2011) and improving the widely held attitude towards the Muslim Americans have also contributed to not repeating such tragedies as 9/11 attack (Schanzer et. al., 2010). Although Muslim American community and the government are optimistic about the establishing harmony in the country, following counter arguments are not so encouraging. Robert Spencer who is a mainstream activist against the expansion of Muslims in America states that “terrorism is wholly unique to the religion of Islam. We dont see Christian groups, we dont see Jewish groups, we dont Atheist groups, we dont see the kind of terrorist groups around the world on the scale that we see violent Islamic jihad groups all over the world", “Quran promotes violence”, "The Quran is very clear that it is the responsibility of believers, as a whole in the aggregate, to make war against unbelievers and subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law” and "the only religion in the world that has a developed doctrine, theology and legal system that mandates violence against unbelievers and mandates that Muslims must wage war in order to establish the hegemony of the Islamic social order all over the world" (ADL, 2011, pp 4). Terrorism is defined as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (p. iv) in Terrorism 2002-2005 published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in United States of America. According to the above definition breaking the widely held laws of using weapons against the society is considered as terrorism. Irony in the above definition is acts of most of the so called terrorist groups can be justified according to the law which is accepted by them. Example: under predefined circumstances the laws practiced in some communities allow killing individuals and cutting off their body parts as a punishment. According to the FBI definition they are not terrorists because such acts cannot be described as “unlawful.” Only issue here is American government failing to acknowledge the sovereignty and identity of other communities living in the world. There are number of groups listed as terrorist organizations in FBI list. Example: Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, Hezbollah, Tehrik-i-Taliban in Pakistan and Armed Islamic Group of Algeria. Offensive acts commonly committed by these groups of terrorists include bombing in public places, raping women, kidnapping, torturing, wounding and murdering of civilians, political leaders, journalists and other distinguished characters in the society. Initiatives taken by the nations towards abolishing terrorism seem justifiable in general sense. However such justifications do not grant authority to America or to United Nations to involve in the matters of other communities. As the American government continues to murdering of Muslims in their home countries in the name of terrorism and allowing radical ideologists to condemn other races publicly, the future of American Muslims in promising land is uncertain. References Ali, M. (September 2011). Muslim American/American Muslim Identity: Authoring Self in Post-9/11 America. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31(3), Doi: 10.1080/13602004.2011.599543 America Government. (March, 2009). Being Muslim in America. Retrieved from www.america.gov/publications/ Anti-Defamation League. (March 2011). Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). Retrieved from www.adl.org Bayoumi, M. (2011). Between Acceptance and Rejection: Muslim Americans and the Legacies of September 11, OAH Magazine of History 25, 15-19. Doi: 10.1093/oahmag/oaro17 Curtis, E. E. (2009). Muslims in America: A Short History: A Short History. Oxford University Press. Pp. 1-168 Duelfer,C. (October 7, 2004). Report: No WMD stockpiles in Iraq. In Drash W., CNN World. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/06/iraq.wmd.report/ Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.) Terrorism 2002-2005. U.S. Department of Justice Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005 Khan M.A. M. (2002). American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom. Amana Publications. Pp. 1-170 Kurzman, C. (2011). Muslim American Terrorism Since 9/11:Why So Rare? Hartford Seminary. Doi: 10.1111/J.1478-1913.2011.01388.x Sarsour L. (2013). Pam Geller Anti Muslim Subway Ads: Muslims Welcome Debates On Islam, But Not Demonization. In Poicymic. Retrieved from http://www.policymic.com/articles/15415/ Schanzer, D. Kurzman, C. and Moosa, E. (2011). Anti-Terror Lessons of Muslim-Americans. Retrieved from www.sanford.duke.edu/news/Schanzer_Kurzman_Moosa_Anti-Terror_Lessons.pdf The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (January 2011). The Future of the Global Muslim Population. An Interactive Feature. Retrieved from http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population-graphic/#/United%20States Zahedi, A. (2011). Muslim American Women in the Post-11September Era. Challenges and Opportunities. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 13(2), 183-203. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com Read More