I was going to write an article with tips about how to make
the last days of Ramadan count, replete with reminders of the many
opportunities we have - even those of us busy with jobs or families - to sit
down and read even a little Qur'an or do some dhikr (remembrance of God) or dua
(supplications). (As a side note: duas are especially needed for our brothers
and sisters who are suffering at the hands of oppressors, and for those who
lack access to food, clean water, stable shelter, and educational and economic
opportunities in so many places around the world; may Allah ease their pain and
improve the situation of all of them.) And truthfully that's only really one
part of it. Ramadan is also about sincere reflection, recognizing and
attempting to change those bad aspects of ourselves, whether it is a propensity
to lie, backbite, get angry easily, smoke, or drink, for example. When writing
this kind of article, I was faced with a realization that most of us already
know these things and are currently working on all of this, Alhamdulillah (all
praise is for God). I deleted what I had already written, and was looking for something
different to talk about. And then the topic hit me, over and over again, within
the span of a few short and eventful days.
First, there was a tragic shooting at a gurdwara (Sikh
temple) in Wisconsin by a white supremacist, killing six Sikh worshippers. Very
soon after, a mosque in Joplin, MO was burned to the ground. Then, pig's feet
were thrown at a mosque in California while Muslims were praying there. Then,
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) agreed with a person at a town hall meeting in Elk Grove
Village who was concerned about the threat of Islam in America, and added onto
that argument by proclaiming that radical Muslims in Chicago's suburbs were
"trying to kill Americans every week." Then, air rifle pellets were shot at MEC in
Morton Grove, damaging the brick exterior. It is clear that the situation has
deteriorated quickly, and these problems are here and now, at our very doorstep.
In the aftermath of the gurdwara
shooting, several news reports made sure to explain that Sikhs are not Muslims,
intimating, perhaps, that the senseless violence would have made more sense had
the victims been Muslims. If you look closely, you will see that too many
people in our country are consciously or unconsciously painting Islam and
Muslims with the same brush - that we are all supposedly a threat to America
and the American way of life, or that we all share in some kind of collective
blame for the actions of a few very misguided people. We are that mysterious
"other" that politicians love to scare people with to score votes
from ignorant people. Rep. Joe Walsh chose
his language carefully when scaremongering about Muslims trying to kill
Americans - he implied that Muslims cannot be Americans; Muslims are one group (outgroup)
and Americans are another entirely different group (ingroup). Of course, this
could not be farther from the truth. We are both Muslim and American, and
proudly so. Yet politicians and well-funded Islamophobic hate groups have been
spreading a different message and they seem to be achieving their goal: a
September 2011 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that 47%
believe that Islam's values are at odds with American values, and 41% would be
uncomfortable if a teacher at an elementary school in their community was
Muslim. These are just two examples that give some insight into the attitudes
and fears that the average (non-Muslim) American has about us and our faith. It
is incredibly saddening and frightening that anti-Muslim sentiment in this
country, having been on the decline since 9/11, has reared its ugly head once
again and has risen drastically since 2010, due to dedicated, vocal, and
well-funded voices of hate.
We might be thinking that Average
Joes must be so dumb for buying into the garbage being peddled by these guys,
but we have to realize and accept that humans are lazy and, in the absence of
any other information, will just accept what they see on TV or hear on the
radio and use that to inform their beliefs. The media does not do us any favors
by giving airtime to Islamophobes and dedicating extensive airtime and
resources to stories that play into their narrative, like stories of "homegrown
terror" plots. In a society obsessed with spectacle, the media will always
prefer to air stories with shock value, rather than the obvious, boring stuff,
like Muslim groups in the U.S. unreservedly condemning terrorism and declaring that
it has no place in Islam (yawn).
What are we to do? It might seem kind
of hopeless, but the fears, anger, prejudice, and hatred that is affecting our
community primarily stems from ignorance. In general, we have not done a very
good job of showing people what Muslims really are like (or should be like),
and instead we have let Islamophobic groups fill the knowledge void. The
depressing poll numbers about public fear/distrust of Muslims seem to stem from
another poll number: 62% of Americans polled said they do not personally know a
Muslim American. That is almost two-thirds of the country! And what about those
respondents, who do, in fact, know a Muslim American personally? That group's
percentage of people having negative perceptions of Muslims is drastically
lower. Knowledge is power.
How many of us have non-Muslim
friends and acquaintances? How many of us personally know and interact
regularly with our non-Muslim neighbors? Coworkers? Classmates? How many of us
have invited a non-Muslim friend or neighbor over to our house for dinner? Or,
in the spirit of Ramadan, for iftar (the fast-breaking meal at sunset)? If you
have been doing these kinds of things, good for you. Keep it up. For the rest
of us, myself included: we have got some work to do. Every opportunity that
slips through our fingers is a loss for all of us. Each and every one of us has
the powerful ability to be "brand ambassadors" for our faith. We are
proud of our faith and blessed to have been given it, and if we are awesome,
then gosh darn it, we should not keep our awesomeness to ourselves.
We have an obligation to not only
be good Muslims on the inside, whether that's inside our homes or our mosques
or our hearts, but also to be good Muslims on the outside. Of course we might
not be the best Muslims, but we should strive to be, and that includes
perfecting our character, integrity, and manners. If we can do that - or even
just try our best to do that - and reach out and engage the non-Muslims around
us, we can do our community a great service. I am not talking about running and
telling your neighbors that you are Muslim and that you have such-and-such good
qualities. Not only would that be weird, but it would also be ineffective. I am
talking about offering a smile and engaging your neighbors in a friendly
conversation, learning more about them and offering them an opportunity to
learn more about you, showing them through action how a Muslim conducts him- or
herself. It will eventually come up that you are Muslim and at that moment, you
have the power to make that person really believe that Muslims simply cannot be
as evil or un-American as Islamophobes say we are. It is kind of like
Inception, except used for good.
While it might seem odd for one
person to have such a big impact on another's beliefs like that, that is
exactly the way human psychology works. People always remember and always bring
up vivid anecdotes. Imagine for a second, hypothetically, that almost all
Muslims are bad people. If your neighbor knows you well, and knows you are a
Muslim and a good person, you will forever stick out in their head as the
exception to the rule. And they will always think of you when someone makes a
blanket statement against Muslims: "Well, I know this one young woman, and
she's not like that at all..." "But my neighbor Ahmed is such a sweet
boy..." And that is how we can show people what Islam is all about - being
a responsible, active citizen, committed to one's family and friends, striving
one's utmost to be a truthful, helpful, generous, and compassionate person. And
all of that is due to our commitment to the commandments of Allah and the clear
example set by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, peace
be upon him).
When this Ramadan ends, we should
all inshaAllah (if God wills) do our best to leave this month with aspirations
to be the best Muslims we can be. Hopefully that also includes a renewed effort
to reach out to our non-Muslim neighbors, coworkers, classmates, friends, and
relatives, and convincingly prove to them that our faith enriches our lives and
the lives of others, by being good Muslims in word and deed. We can all be that
clear, positive counterexample that really gets non-Muslims to question and
ultimately reject any kind of false argument about Muslims being dangerous,
violent, misogynistic, deceitful, or whatever else Islamophobes and some
politicians try to smear us with. If they close that door, then the doors of hatred,
anger, and attendant violence will close with it, inshaAllah (if God wills). I
pray that Allah keeps us all safe and makes us a united and prosperous Ummah
(community).
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