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This item by Geneive Abdo accurately notes the proverbial "circling of the wagons" that has taken place in Muslim communities in America since September 11, 2001, and the consequent revival of interest in Islamic traditions; it is unsurprising, but nonetheless helpful to have documented again the fact that Muslims favor their identity as Muslims over an identity as Americans.
But through the revival of their faith and close examination of their scriptures and tradition, what will Muslims find, other than a sense of belonging? Will they find that their faith has been "hijacked" and "misinterpreted" by the 9/11 hijackers and their ilk, or rather, followed literally? And for many, what will they decide as a consequence, when they already feel more Muslim than American?
From the Washington Post:
If only the Muslims in Europe -- with their hearts focused on the Islamic world and their carry-on liquids poised for destruction in the West -- could behave like the well-educated, secular and Americanizing Muslims in the United States, no one would have to worry.
So runs the comforting media narrative that has developed around the approximately 6 million Muslims in the United States, who are often portrayed as well-assimilated and willing to leave their religion and culture behind in pursuit of American values and lifestyle. But over the past two years, I have traveled the country, visiting mosques, interviewing Muslim leaders and speaking to Muslim youths in universities and Islamic centers from New York to Michigan to California -- and I have encountered a different truth. I found few signs of London-style radicalism among Muslims in the United States. At the same time, the real story of American Muslims is one of accelerating alienation from the mainstream of U.S. life, with Muslims in this country choosing their Islamic identity over their American one.
A new generation of American Muslims -- living in the shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- is becoming more religious. They are more likely to take comfort in their own communities, and less likely to embrace the nation's fabled melting pot of shared values and common culture.
Part of this is linked to the resurgence of Islam over the past several decades, a growth as visible in Western Europe and the United States as it is in Egypt and Morocco. But the Sept. 11 attacks also had the dual effect of making American Muslims feel isolated in their adopted country, while pushing them to rediscover their faith.
From schools to language to religion, American Muslims are becoming a people apart. Young, first-generation American Muslim women -- whose parents were born in Egypt, Pakistan and other Islamic countries -- are wearing head scarves even if their mothers had left them behind; increasing numbers of young Muslims are attending Islamic schools and lectures; Muslim student associations in high schools and at colleges are proliferating; and the role of the mosque has evolved from strictly a place of worship to a center for socializing and for learning Arabic and Urdu as well as the Koran.
The men and women I spoke to -- all mosque-goers, most born in the United States to immigrants -- include students, activists, imams and everyday working Muslims. Almost without exception, they recall feeling under siege after Sept. 11, with FBI agents raiding their mosques and homes, neighbors eyeing them suspiciously and television programs portraying Muslims as the new enemies of the West.
[...]
I spent several days at one of the institute's "mobile madrassas," this one in San Jose, and watched hundreds of young Muslim professionals sit on cushioned folding chairs and listen intently as Yusuf delivered his lecture. "Everywhere I go, I see Muslims," he told them. "Go to the gas station and the airport. Muslims are present in the United States, and that was not true 20 years ago. There are more Muslims living outside the Dar al-Islam [Islamic countries, or literally the House of Islam] than ever. So we have to be strategic in our thinking, because people who are our enemies are strategic in their thinking."
No mention is made of Dar al-Harb -- the "House of War" -- the traditional counterpart to Dar al-Islam, or Dar al-Dawa -- the "House of Invitation," an alternate designation for places where Islam has recently been introduced, and proselytizing is underway.
The "enemies" Yusuf referred to that day were not non-Muslims, but rather those who use Islam as a rationale for violence. For the students at this madrassa and for many Muslims I interviewed, their strategy focuses on public displays of their faith.
Hamza Yusuf is not, however, the bold reformer he's cracked up to be; for example, in the aftermath of 9/11, he said:
"This country is facing a terrible fate" for occupying Muslim lands, Yusuf warned. "The reason for that is that this country stands condemned like Europe stood condemned because of what it did.
"And lest people forget that Europe suffered two world wars after conquering the Muslim lands, Europe's countries were devastated, they were completely destroyed," he added. "Their young people were killed."
The article continues:
Being ambassadors of Islam is daring behavior when you consider that American Muslims live in a country where so many people are ignorant of -- if not hostile to -- their faith. In a Gallup poll this year, when U.S. respondents were asked what they admire about the Muslim world, the most common response was "nothing" (33 percent); the second most common was "I don't know" (22 percent).
Despite contemporary public opinion -- or perhaps because of it -- Muslim Americans consider Islam their defining characteristic, beyond any national identity. In this way, their experience in the United States resembles that of their co-religionists in Europe, where mosques are also growing, Islamic schools are being built, and practicing the faith is the center of life, particularly for the young generation. In Europe and the United States, young Muslims are unifying around popular imams they believe understand the challenges they face in Western societies; these leaders include Yusuf in the United States and Amer Khaled, an Egyptian-born imam who lives in Britain. Thousands of young Muslims attend their lectures.
Again, the outlook is not quite so rosy. Amr Khaled's writings can be found on his website, including his "Message to the World regarding the Danish Cartoons," in which he says, among other things:
Thus, my message to the Muslim ummah is that we should not forsake dignifying the Prophet (SAWS) under any circumstance. On the other hand, my message to the West is that the value of freedom of speech should be adapted to Muslim values.
Abdo continues:
In my years of interviews, I found few indications of homegrown militancy among American Muslims. Indeed, thus far, they have proved they can compete economically with other Americans. Although the unemployment rate for Muslims in Britain is far higher than for most other groups, the average annual income of a Muslim household surpasses that of average American households. Yet, outside the workplace, Muslims retreat into the comfort zone of their mosques and Islamic schools.
And in conclusion, blame America:
It is too soon to say where the growing alienation of American Muslims will lead, but it seems clear that the factors contributing to it will endure. U.S. foreign policy persists in dividing Muslim and Western societies, making it harder still for Americans to realize that there is a difference between their Muslim neighbor and the plotter in London or the kidnapper in Baghdad.
Posted by Marisol at August 28, 2006 1:42 AM
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"...there is a difference between their Muslim neighbor and the plotter in London or the kidnapper in Baghdad."
Oh really? The "reticent,normal & pious...sports loving....fond of gardening" muslim neighbour is full of silent admiration and approval towards the plotter and kidnapper.Meanwhile grooming himself to become like them. As the ideology is not anathema to him.
It is the thoroughly unwarranted apologetic attitude of the infidels ever poised to lend an ear to their chimerical grievances ,offering aid, bandages and solace that makes the indolent, recalcitrant, ever petulant parasites thrive in *victimhood* and draw sustenance.
"when U.S. respondents were asked what they admire about the Muslim world, the most common response was "nothing".
Not surprised at all:))Even one minute of talking to them is so stultifying!!
Posted by: Crows&Cows![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 28, 2006 2:16 AM
Recent PEW Research Center for the People and the Press did a "large-scale attitudinal survey in the spring."
Title: The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other.
Article Here: http://www.jewishworldreview.com (Dan Pipes)
Two batches of countries: 6 w/ long histories of majority Muslims (Egypt, Indonesia,Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey);
4 in West Europe with new, minority Muslim pops (France, Germany, Britain, Spain)
3 Categories:
1) A proclivity to conspiracy theories (NONE believe Arabs did 9-11)!
2) Support for terrorism: (SOLID majority support osama binladen in ALL Muslim pops).
3) British and Nigerian Muslims are MOST alienated.
at August 28, 2006 3:53 AM
After 911 all the muslim mothers at our childrens school stopped wearing Western style clothing and began wearing burkhas or headscarves.
Posted by: Bohemond_1069 at August 28, 2006 5:44 AM
Wait till Robert's new book on mo comes out in October. At last the truth comes out.
Posted by: bigcatgirl13106 at August 28, 2006 6:16 AM
Abdo is an apologist of the highest degree.
http://jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008286.php
Posted by: DCWatson at August 28, 2006 7:04 AM
I second the implied motion (only the "Resolved" need be inserted) of D. C. Watson just above.
Posted by: Hugh at August 28, 2006 7:16 AM
My sense is that the American muslims will all become UN-assimilated the moment they get the phone call from Pakistan..........
Posted by: n.a. palm at August 28, 2006 8:10 AM
after watching commentator after commentator saying that american muslims were different, they had jobs and were middle class and all that stuff I found that they went went on the street saying we are all Hizbollah now.
Amrika - get out of denial. Muslims will be muslims.
at August 28, 2006 8:44 AM
Islam is Islam regarless of where it is followed. The lessons of history have demonstrated that sooner or later Muslims will apply pressure to force non-Muslims to accommodate to give them exceptional treatment.
In fact, the statement above: "my message to the West is that the value of freedom of speech should be adapted to Muslim values" is an example of this kind of pressure. Muslims in the UK and in the Australian State of Victoria have been successful in their application of pressure to limit free speech and lawsuits in Europe against authors such as Rachel Erhenfeld and Oriana Fallaci as vilipends is another example.
Demands to remove "offensive" icons, such as boars' heads, images of pigs, to give them separate bathing facilities, and to separate the sexes in classrooms or in physical education classes are a few of the other demands that a tiny minority have made and won. Imagine what life for non-Muslims will be like when their numbers grow!
Posted by: Eleanor at August 28, 2006 8:47 AM
"Thus, my message to the Muslim ummah is that we should not forsake dignifying the Prophet (SAWS) under any circumstance. On the other hand, my message to the West is that the value of freedom of speech should be adapted to Muslim values."
The overall policy of islam has always been characterized by the unequaled selfishness of the ummah and its deliberate blindness towards what it is doing to the outsiders.
This utter blindness for the fate of the outsiders
comes from nothing but islam's essential denial of the basic principle of viewing the world from another one's perspective.
An thus, islam is essentially bereft of even the most basic kinds of enlightened thought as found in both the old teachings from Asia, such as Buddism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism in all its
complexity and the Chinese religions and philosophies, or those from the West, such
as the enlightened forms of Christianity
and humanism and such.
That's why islam and the muslim community
will never become like us, and why islam
simply cannot be part of a "melting pot"
society on the long therm.
In simple words: they're only concerned with
themselves, without giving a damn about anyone
else, and that's the way it has always been,
because hey, that's the most enlightened idea
their would-be prophet could come up with.
But they're happily carrying it out all the same.
And then they still get to wonder
why everybody hates them...
at August 28, 2006 8:55 AM
Since the muslim faith does not embrace the requirement of truth, it is foolish to listen to any muslim without this in mind.
Close every mosque, deport every imam, declare CAIR and every muslim 'charity' a terrorist organization, stop immigration, accelerate deportations.
To the muslims - you wish to live in the West ? your ideology is not welcome here - it will require your conversion.
unacceptable ? return to the offal holes you came from, where they practise jihadism shriacrap mohammedanism taqayya and baby factory installations for the umma.
dont let the door hit you on the way out.
Posted by: dgene at August 28, 2006 9:19 AM
And whenever I hear of the death or injury of one of our boys in Afghan, Iraq or whereever, it is understood that it is islam's and muslims' fault whereever it or they are - and the closer they are, the sooner they must be opposed as the virus bearing (islam) host they are.
Posted by: dgene at August 28, 2006 9:28 AM
All part of the predicted plan
http://www.kafirnation.com/handout/Management_of_Savagery.pdf
at August 28, 2006 9:31 AM
I don't mean to be rednecky, but after five years of studies prompted by the September Eleven horrors (and having somewhere some pieces of paper from Universities about studies in history and philosophy) I can safely say:
there is no muslim immigration to the West.
There is only a triple attack:
immigration+terrorism+oilblackmal
and the sum of this triple attack is called
INVASION.
If you think my analysis is too simple, I advise you to take a three months holiday in France (Marseille will do, 25% muslim), London, Sweden.
Then you come back (MAYBE, if you are still alive) and you tell me.
After that, a tour of Dearborn and Tampa will tell you where we stand now in the USA.
at August 28, 2006 10:15 AM
Sorry, the word is: blackmail.
Posted by: POITIERS-LEPANTO at August 28, 2006 10:16 AM
Muslims do not want to be "assimilated". They want to take over.
Posted by: exsgtbrown at August 28, 2006 10:18 AM
"So runs the comforting media narrative that has developed around the approximately 6 million Muslims in the United States, who are often portrayed as well-assimilated and willing to leave their religion and culture behind in pursuit of American values and lifestyle. "
Can anyone help me understand why people think there are 6 million Muslims in the US?
Posted by: winoceros at August 28, 2006 10:22 AM
San Jose, huh? Great, my area is infested with
Muslims.
Lately even people I know who were PC/multi-culti
types are starting to say very unPC things about
this death cult.
Best thing we can do is make America a very
uncomfortable place for these vermin. There
should be a Mohammad cartoon every day!
at August 28, 2006 11:06 AM
They seem to be getting mixed up between assimilated and not in large enough numbers to cause problems.
Posted by: Celsius at August 28, 2006 11:28 AM
"...there is a difference between their Muslim neighbor and the plotter in London or the kidnapper in Baghdad."
What difference is that? They are all 'obligated' to participate in jihad, every one of them. To refuse means to die a hypocrite and NOT go to Allahs heaven.
Submitters are all bound together in the terminal putrification of Islam. In that, there is no difference.
at August 28, 2006 11:35 AM
CELSIUS
"NOT LARGE ENOUGH NUMBERS"
It doesn't matter to them:
on one side, you apply the Paleostinians' formula (400,000 paleos in 1948, five millions today) and IF you have FOUR million muslims TODAY you will have more than fifty millions in 2060.
Then we have the unlimited immigration of muslims.
Then we have the famous Poitiers-Lepanto THREE PHASES OF INVASION:
- silent
- noisy (claiming for special rights up to rioting)
- violent (from rioting to genocidal)
America is between phase ONE and TWO.
Europe is between TWO and THREE.
Large parts of Africa and Asia are drowning in phase THREE.
Put everything together and you will see that the dear muslim INVADERS have no problem.
We do.
Posted by: POITIERS-LEPANTO at August 28, 2006 11:48 AM
Limiting or completely eliminating Muslim immigration in the U.S. is a good start; however, I don't think any political party in the country will endorse that view, let alone legislate to make it a reality, unless there is another 9/11 attack with many, many more casualties. Perhaps then, immigration will be halted.
Until that time, perhaps the only thing that can be done is to discourage appeasement/'special rights' on a local level, and encourage others to do the same.
at August 28, 2006 12:02 PM
A fascinating account of the largely self-inflicted problems of assimilation among Muslims in post-partition India can be found in M R A Baig's "The Muslim Dilemma in India" (1974).
Baig, former private secretary to Jinnah, and by the time of writing no longer a Muslim but a secular humanist, was scathing of the way Muslims in India had retained their Muslim identity above all else to the detriment of being citizens of India, had rejected the need for a modern education, not just for the females but males as well, and had continued to blame everyone and everything else for their depressed situation. They had mortgaged their minds, as he put it, to an inflexible Koran.
Many of the phenomena he observed then have been unfolding again recently in Europe, and if above accounts are accurate, perhaps increasingly in the United States.
A major difference between India and Europe in its handling of Muslims could be the reluctance of non-Muslim Indians to be dhimmis?
Posted by: MBR at August 28, 2006 1:23 PM
Maybe the disaffection with America by Muslim youth in the USA is the product of large-scale financing of mosques, Islamic centers, foreign hate-spitting imans, university Middle East departments, etc., by Saudi Arabia. After a few years of Friday Islamic brainwashing by these imans, even a Ph.D can be turned into a bomb-toting robot. Witness the educational level of the 911 gang of killers.
This enemy country, Saudi Arabia, is sowing a Wahabbi network of future terrorists right under our noses with their massive financing and religious infiltration.
The Sunni-Shia split should not be comforting to us, since leaders of both sects identify us as their mortal enemy, and they follow the old middle east saw, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
We need to start thinking seriously about an internment and deportation program, including confiscation of mosques and other property.
Allowing Muslims to own land puts us on the Qoranic target list that such lands belong to Islam and can (in their eyes) never be given up. Thus Osama keeps up the rhetoric about recapturing Spain. Someone recently pointed out that off-shore Muslim groups are buying up huge tracts of land in the US with false-front companies, and with deeds requiring they can only be sold to Muslims.
The invasion is on. The Trojan Horses are here. They have infiltrated the government, the schools, the universities, and they are already in the U.S. Congress.
at August 28, 2006 2:02 PM
"From schools to language to religion, American Muslims are becoming a people apart."
"American muslim" .. another oxymoron! muslims can never be a part of America. Besides, they are not apart enough... apart is when they are not a part of America, and they are still in America, arn't they?
Posted by: Alert at August 28, 2006 2:20 PM
The Sunni-Shia split should not be comforting to us, since leaders of both sects identify us as their mortal enemy, and they follow the old middle east saw, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
We need to start thinking seriously about an internment and deportation program, including confiscation of mosques and other property.
Allowing Muslims to own land puts us on the Qoranic target list that such lands belong to Islam and can (in their eyes) never be given up.
The invasion is on. The Trojan Horses are here. They have infiltrated the government, the schools, the universities, and they are already in the U.S. Congress.
Posted by: Jimmy Bones at August 28, 2006 02:02 PM
Very important observations. Jimmy!
This is where Bush worries me so much. Our president and commander-in-chief is so corrupted by Wahabi wealth that he helps the wahabi killers to safety (you well know that Bin-Ladens are all on family), edits the 9/11 interim commission report to clear wahabi references, holds hands with American killers and edits his speach per wahabi approval/disapproval (much as was made of the 'Islamo-fascist' reference, Bush danced away from it right after the phone call from Riyadh. Goes to show how much the 'leader of free-world' is a puppet himself. Needless to say, entire tax-funded administration dances to the wahabi tune. If one did not know better, Bush can easily pass of as a wahabi ambassador to US. You see, Amnerican fish has been rotting in the head for decades and U.S. congress seems to have got use to the stench...
Again, excellent points, Jimmy.
Posted by: Alert at August 28, 2006 2:53 PM
A major difference between India and Europe in its handling of Muslims could be the reluctance of non-Muslim Indians to be dhimmis?
Posted by: MBR at August 28, 2006 01:23 PM
Good question, MBR. The answer to which is a resounding YES! India has had a violnent, blood-soaked, painful history with muslims and if there are muslims in India, it is only thanks to Indian tolerance, which Hinduism preaches and Mahatma Gandhi practiced. Muslims of India are playing with their own future, which is not surporising as biting the hand that feeds it, thanks to the Qur'an, is a common muslim practice.
Posted by: Alert at August 28, 2006 3:00 PM
Limiting or completely eliminating Muslim immigration in the U.S. is a good start; however, I don't think any political party in the country will endorse that view, let alone legislate to make it a reality, unless there is another 9/11 attack with many, many more casualties. Perhaps then, immigration will be halted.
Until that time, perhaps the only thing that can be done is to discourage appeasement/'special rights' on a local level, and encourage others to do the same.
Posted by: s at August 28, 2006 12:02 PM
I agree with the former, but sorry, not the latter. I mean I agree with the latter, but it is just not enough.. 'Until that time, perhaps the only thing that can be done is.. to boot out, not only politicians that demonstrate dhimmi tendencies, but their parties as well, out of office WHILE discouraging appeasement/'special rights' on a local level, and encourage others to do the same.'... if you see the difference.
Posted by: Alert at August 28, 2006 3:10 PM
Since the muslim faith does not embrace the requirement of truth, it is foolish to listen to any muslim without this in mind.
Close every mosque, deport every imam, declare CAIR and every muslim 'charity' a terrorist organization, stop immigration, accelerate deportations.
Posted by: dgene at August 28, 2006 09:19 AM
Hear hear...... now only if U.S. congress could see facts for what they are (U.S. president/commander-in-chief is sold out to wahabi wealth, so no hope there).
at August 28, 2006 3:15 PM
To even expect muslims to integrate with American, Geneive Abdo is blissfully ignorant of this: http://www.republicanandproud.com/warning.htm
Posted by: Alert at August 28, 2006 3:20 PM
Abdo is an apologist of the highest degree.
http://jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008286.php
Posted by: DCWatson at August 28, 2006 07:04 AM
Now that you mention, Abdo's irresponsible ignorance of this: http://www.republicanandproud.com/warning.htm makes perfect sense.
Posted by: Alert at August 28, 2006 3:24 PM
it is unsurprising, but nonetheless helpful to have documented again the fact that Muslims favor their identity as Muslims over an identity as Americans.
Someone needs to tell Bush, Rove, Cheney, Anne Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Bill Oreilly, Shawn Hannity, Rush Limpballs, they haven't gotten the memo yet.
Of Course Grover Abdullah Norquist know this all too well, now that he has forsaken his Christian identity for that of Islam (he co founded the Islamic Institute with a subsequently convicted Terrorist) and converted so he could marry a Palestinian name of Sameh Alrayyes.. Read Paul Sperry's book. Infiltration. Visit his Website
Buy and read his excellent book, read his interview on Frontpage
at August 28, 2006 10:43 PM
Muslims in America will never be "Real" Americans. They will always hate and blame "Real" Americans for any and all of their problems. "Real" Americans are the Great Satan and in the minds of muslims should be killed or enslaved. That is their goal, that is their desire, when the call of jihad is heard they will rise up with knives in their hands to slash the throats of "Real" Americans. The time will soon arrive when "Real" Americans will say "Enough" and all mosques will be closed and destroyed and the deportations of muslims will begin. It is enivitable for the survival of "Real" Americans.
Posted by: Truthseeker at August 29, 2006 7:37 AM
Keep spreading the word.
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses at August 29, 2006 9:47 AM
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