CHAPTER EIGHT

Looking to the Future

“The impact of Islam on the future of the American society will depend, to a great extent, on
how relevant Islamic principles are to this society. Islamic ideas and ideals need to be
articulated in a language that is understood by the masses, and carried out by institutions
that can effectively deal with issues that are relevant to the people. Our goal is to reach the
minds and hearts of those who aspire for a better future.”1 So says Dr. Maher Hathout of the
Islamic Center of Southern Califor nia, one of the prominent spokespersons for
contemporary American Islam, in an article identifying areas that he feels must be on the
agenda for discus sion in the coming years. Key here is the term “relevant.” As we have seen,
a great range of interpretations of Islam characterizes its faith and practice in the United
States. It is clear that there is no overriding understanding to which all those who call
themselves Muslim will be able to subscribe. But each group must continue to ask itself if its
own interpretation of Islam, and the corresponding implications for how its members
choose to live and com port themselves, is indeed relevant in contemporary American
society. Will the youth of their community continue to find it relevant? Those who up to now
have tried to lead lives of relative isolation, fearful that too much con tact with America will
compromise their own faith and culture, may have to question whether generations to come
will find it necessary to be more open, more receptive to the culture of which they find
themselves a part. Those who have opted for complete identification with America,
abandoning many of the elements of Muslim observance, may find that they have lost some
of the clarity and distinctiveness of what it means to be Muslim. 178   
 While the discussion sometimes seems to polarize participants into “iso lationists”
on the one hand and “accommodationists” on the other, Muslims try to resist this kind of
terminology. Neither isolation nor absorption is generally seen as a goal in the conversations
among Muslims who are search ing for guidelines and principles that can speak to the
majority of the mem bers of the complex body that is American Islam. While agreement on
all matters is naturally not to be expected, there are growing efforts to identify matters on
which there can be consensus. A major task for Muslims, many believe, is to clarify what
matters are flexible and may be reinterpreted in the Western context and what issues are so
clearly part of God’s design for human life and response that they cannot be negotiated. “A
difference must be made between the permanent (divine) and the changeable,” says Fathi
Osman, noted Muslim spokesperson and author of a large compendium on the Qur’an. “The
two are not interchangeable.”2 Few would disagree. The problem comes in discerning what
falls into each category. When is it advisable, for example, to follow classical interpre tations
of Sunna and shari‘a while living in the United States, and when must adjustments and
accommodations be made? Which elements of law and cus tom are mandatory for all
faithful Muslims, no matter where they live, and which allow for more flexible
interpretation? Muslims in all American com munities are asking these questions with
interest and concern, and advisers representing a range of perspectives, cultures, and
interpretations are attempting to provide answers. Traditionally, Muslims have seen the
world as divided into two realms. One is the dar al-harb, literally, the “abode of war,” which
is applied to territories in which Islam is not dominant. The other is the dar al-Islam, the
realm in which Muslims as the majority are free to follow Islamic law. Sometimes the
terminology dar al-kufr, or “abode of apostasy,” is substituted for the former. For some
Muslims, these categories are still applicable, and as members of a religious minority they
feel conflict and tension with American culture. If one sees America as basically an alien
context in which participation in society is to be avoided whenever possible, more
“conservative” responses to basic questions will prevail. “Some indi viduals affirm that were
it not for the ‘decadent’ and generally kuffar [unbe lieving, even apostate] culture of the
‘West,’ Muslim communities would not suffer from the problems of homelessness,
allegations of child abuse, domes tic violence, substance abuse, and foster care.”3 Those
who choose to believe that America can be a land of Islam, even if Muslims do not
constitute a majority, tend to be more flexible in their interpretation of the solutions to
various problems faced by Muslims in America. Some writers compare the   
 179 emigration of Muslims to the United States, for example, with the hijra, or
migration, of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. As he was able to establish the
community of Islam in that initially alien environment, they say, so Muslims must work
toward such a goal in America. Many Muslims living in the United States, both the more
recently arrived and members of second- and third-generation Muslim families, do want to
assimilate as much as possible into American culture and try not to emphasize elements of
their identity that would differentiate them from oth ers. This disinclination to over-identify
with Islam has characterized a sig nificant number of American Muslims since the early days
of immigrant arrival, fostered, as we have seen, by such factors as the search for employ
ment, intermarriage, dissatisfaction with mosque leadership, and various forms of
engagement with American culture. For some, the increase in anti Muslim prejudice in light
of terrorist activities, pro-Israeli sentiment, anti American rhetoric from many Arab Muslim
leaders, and a number of other highly publicized international realities in the last several
decades has encouraged this assimilation. For other members of America’s Muslim
community, however, these very factors, including the rise in revivalist Islam in many parts of
the world, have reinvigorated their religious awareness and responsibility. Encouraged by
the challenge that Islam poses internationally to Western secularism and worried about the
influences of that very secularism on their own children in America, they have increasingly
looked to and advocated Islam as both a faith and way of life. Certainly, many first-, second-,
and third-generation Muslims do not want to identify themselves too openly in American
society for fear of becoming, or having their children become, targets of prejudice and
discrimination. Many others, however, are tired of what they see as the biased and unfair
representations of Islam and Muslims in the American media and take the opportunity to
correct those images by providing in their own lives public examples of what “real Islam”
looks like when practiced by conscientious and faithful adherents. For these Muslims—
including immi grants, African Americans, and others who have converted to Islam—it is
crucial to find ways in which to live and express their faith and their Islam ic identity at the
same time that they acknowledge the necessity of adapting to and participating in American
life. They are working out many different modes of participation, and American Islam is now
at what many would consider a crucial stage as Muslims attempt to move toward a viable
future in the American context. What, then, are some of the most crucial issues on the
public agenda for     180 Muslims in America? A survey of the current
literature, review of the agen das of current national and regional meetings and conferences,
and conver sations with those who are assuming leadership positions in various quarters of
the Muslim community suggest that a number of concerns are being iden tified as areas to
which attention must be given. Among them we note the following, recognizing that they
are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclu sive, and that to some extent all reflect a common
body of concerns. Authority In a community in diaspora—which American Islam most
certainly is— who has the right to be the authoritative interpreter of the “good” or the
“true” Islamic way of life? For African Americans the issue has a number of dimensions.
Those who were once members of the Nation of Islam and lived through the death of their
beloved Messenger, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, have had to decide whether to follow
the leadership of Louis Farrakhan and the reconstituted Nation of Islam or trust the bold
initiatives of Warith Deen Mohammed and his new understanding of what it means to be
black and Muslim. Many other African American leaders have emerged over the last several
decades, Sunni and sectarian, claiming authority over their followers and seeking to enhance
the membership of their groups. The other side of the authority issue for many African
Americans is the extent to which they, most as relative newcomers to the religion of Islam,
need to heed the claimed authority of immigrants coming from countries with many
centuries of Islamic tradition. “What right does a Pakistani or a Saudi have to tell me how to
practice my Islam?” says an African American who has been Muslim for many years. “I don’t
see how being a Muslim longer neces sarily means he knows how to be a Muslim better!”4
As Warith Deen and others move to assume leadership positions in the American Muslim
com munity as a whole, such issues may recede, but they still serve as tension spots for
some blacks. Authority is also a highly significant issue for those who are members of
America’s immigrant Muslim communities, particularly the more recently arrived. America
has been cited as a place where new understandings of Islam can be developed precisely
because it is free of the watchful eyes of the religious authorities present in predominantly
Muslim countries. “Amer ica . . . offers immense opportunities for Muslims to really develop
and strengthen their faith,” says Dr. Waheed Akbar, president of the Associa   
 181 tion of Pakistani Physicians in North America (APPNA). “In this country Muslims
have the opportunity to practice Islam as it should be practiced because there is no
government edict to restrict religion, nor is there sectar ian control over belief.”5 This very
freedom, however, while liberating for some, makes others very nervous. Having been
reared with the strong understanding that certain religious figures are very (even absolutely)
authoritative, many in both the Sunni and Shi‘i communities who have come from
conservative Muslim countries may continue to look to those figures and interpretations of
Islam as authoritative for their lives in America. Finances can be significant in the matter of
authority and influence. Determining when certain interpretations of Islam are or are not
appropriate to the practice of the faith in the West can become particularly complex when
foreign financial support of American Muslim religious and educational institutions is tied to
the ideological interpretations and political interests of the donors. Unity The search for
what, if anything, unifies all Muslims in America is an ongo ing concern with a great many
dimensions. Is there, the question is asked in a great variety of ways, anything that
distinguishes American Islam such that there can be an identifiable American umma? We
have seen in the fore going chapters many of the ways in which the quest for such unity is
elu sive. Immigrants have squabbled over differences in culture and custom. Some newly
arrived Pakistanis, for example, may think second- and third generation Arab Muslims are
too liberal in their practice of Islam, and the Arabs in response may resent the “bossy” way
in which the Pakistanis tell them how to be Muslim. Many Sunnis vigorously affirm that
relations between Sunnis and Shi‘ites are wonderful in America, while voices within the Shi‘i
community protest that all indeed is not harmonious. Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans,
and others struggle to find their identity both under the greater umbrella of American Islam
and also specif ically as members of their respective racial-ethnic groupings. African Amer
icans who are followers of Warith Deen are unhappy that Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam,
which they consider to be dangerously heterodox, contin ue to get so much publicity in the
American press. They also resent the fact that when they dress conservatively, or sometimes
even identify themselves as Muslim, others often think them members of the Nation. Just as
prob     182 lematic for black Sunni Muslims are sectarian movements
like the Ansar Allah or the Five Percenters, whose beliefs and practices are generally seen to
be well off the mark of true Islam. Then there are the concerns about what binds together
African Ameri can and immigrant Muslims, alluded to above. “There has emerged a dis tinct
division between the Pakistani, the Indian, Arabian, and African Amer ican communities
which can be seen clearly in publications, organizational structures, and at social gatherings,”
argues Aminah Beverly McCloud of DePaul University. “It has been postulated that, for
immigrants, there is a monolithic Islam in the Muslim world which is normative and the real
expe riences of African American Muslims should be rejected; instead they should aspire to
effect something called ‘orthodox’ Islam. This assertion continues in some quarters of the
Muslim community as a stimulus to divi siveness.”6 Other Muslims deeply regret not only
that African American Muslims feel subject to such pressures but that attention is drawn to
them rather than to the significant efforts being made to subsume immigrants, African
American converts, and others under the arch of American Islam. While most national
Muslim organizations are predominantly either immigrant or African American, and while
there is still lingering resentment among some blacks that they are not directly included in
the work of an organization like the ISNA, it is also true that a number of coordinating
councils now include both immigrant and African American leaders in posi tions of
leadership. There is no question that continuing the efforts already under way to foster
better appreciation, understanding, and cooperation among the different groups that
comprise American Islam is an issue extremely high on the agenda for Muslims in the United
States. Leadership For all Muslim Americans, the issue of attracting and appropriately
training an indigenous leadership for mosques and Islamic centers is of utmost importance.
Almost all of those people serving in immigrant communities as imams who are considered
to be well qualified have received their train ing abroad, often in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Iran.
Unfortunately, it has often been the case in the United States that men with little or no
training have been called on to lead the prayers and fulfill other responsibilities now put on
American imams simply because no trained leadership has been avail able. Clearly, one of
the ways in which American Muslims can begin to     183 extricate
themselves from the influences of overseas Islam, to the extent to which this is considered
desirable or necessary, is by developing their own education and training for imams. When
asked what is the single most important concern facing American Muslims today, a leader of
the Ameri can Muslim Council immediately answered, “Providing for the preparation of men
to serve in leadership positions, especially as Imams.”7 A few Muslim institutions, as we
have seen, are in the fledgling stages of offering such programs. Most notable is the School
of Islam and Social Sci ences in Virginia. In a few cases, cooperative programs are being
developed with Protestant Christian schools, such as Hartford Seminary in Connecti cut and
the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, to pool resources for training Muslim
leadership. As the expectations for imams have mush roomed, so have the areas in which
imams need adequate training. In addi tion to knowledge of Arabic, the Qur’an, and the
fundamentals of Islamic law, theology, and history, imams should know how to preach and
conduct the ceremonies essential to the Islamic life cycle. They should be familiar with
pastoral care and counseling, understand finances related to the run ning of the mosque,
and know how to set up appropriate educational pro grams for children, youth, and adults.
In addition, imams are often called on to participate in community and interfaith activities
and need to know how to operate in these broader contexts. American Muslims have yet to
fully address most of these challenges. Women Across the Islamic world women are
emerging—sometimes quietly, some times rather dramatically—as major players in their
respective Islamic com munities. While many women remain uneducated, unemployed
(although working long hours in unpaid occupations), and uninformed about their Islamic
rights, others are speaking and writing articulately about their roles as participants in
emerging Islamic societies and are giving new and exciting interpretations to material from
the Qur’an and the traditions classically understood to isolate women from the public realm.
Many movements of Islamic revival abroad are encouraging women to claim their rightful
roles in the public functioning of the community and are supporting their partic ipation in
politics and government as well as in the more traditional realms of education and home
care. Muslim women in America are subject to influences from a great many  
  184 directions. Some are persuaded that the conservative traditions in which
they may have been raised still offer the most appropriate understanding of how they should
behave and what roles they should play. Others hear and are deeply influenced by the
exciting new interpretations coming from var ious areas of the Muslim world or have
themselves made those contribu tions in different contexts before coming to America. They
are increasingly raising their voices in conversations about what is most appropriate and
effective for American Muslim women. The conversations among Ameri can women who
identify themselves as feminist or womanist influence men and women in a variety of ways.
While initially many Muslim women found feminist discourse elitist, racist, and irrelevant to
their concerns, many more attempts are now being made by Muslim and non-Muslim
women to engage in conversations that are mutually enriching and beneficial. The extent to
which any or all of these different voices will affect the role of women in the Western umma
is just beginning to be seen. Meanwhile, the leadership of national organizations is
encouraging Muslim women who are professionally trained and who have opted to stay
home until their children are sufficiently grown to find ways to make their opinions known
and their contributions to the community visible. Many are participating in mosque
activities, not only in the educational programs but often on mosque councils and other
supervising structures. Some women are volunteering to assist in public school education,
finding opportunities to teach their own children, as well as those who know little about
Islam, what Muslim beliefs and practices are all about and how holidays are cele brated.
Others, as we have seen, are active in after-school programs at the mosque or are
developing forms of home education for their children. Some of the different roles played by
American Muslim women are illustrated in “Profiles.” To the extent to which Muslims do
succeed in defining a pecu liarly American Islam, women will provide much of that
definition. Politics Until fairly recently, most American Muslims stayed clear of political
involvement for a number of reasons. Immigrants from countries in which little or no
effective political participation is possible sometimes find it hard to understand that the
situation is different in America. Some Muslims have been persuaded that their vote or
involvement cannot make any difference, and they believe that American national and
international policies are never     185 going to benefit Muslims.
Others have felt that involvement in politics is actually haram. This situation, however, is
changing rather dramatically. Muslims are realizing that if they become organized, they can,
indeed, wield significant influence in American politics. The Qur’anic verse :, “God does
not change the condition of a people until they [first] change what is in their hearts,” is cited
as evidence that Muslims must take the initiative in bringing about beneficial changes. Some
are beginning to cite Muslim passivity as responsible for many of the problems the
community currently faces. In an article titled “Muslim Self-Determination—It’s Time!” for
example, a Pak istani physician challenges Muslims to wake up to their responsibilities:
Considering that Muslims worldwide are one billion (a fair number sit ting on heaps of oil
and other natural resources), our voice is akin to dead silence. . . . We have lost the forest for
the trees, and energetically differ, harangue and hinder one another—at an individual level,
com munity level and national level. . . . More news guys! God guarantees the livelihood of
every soul—so whether you get out there and write letters to the newspapers, participate in
a protest, write to your political representatives, stand for office or just sit in mental sloth in
your man sions and your Mercs—your due shall come from God. What would it take to
awaken America’s slumbering Muslims? How can one correct our collective myopia? What
should we imagine our children suffering in order for us to metamorphose from spectators
into participants?8 A recent national gathering of the American Muslim Alliance, a young
organization dedicated to organizing Muslims into a major voting bloc at the national level,
featured the theme “How to Get  Muslim Americans Elected to Public Offices in .”
Its focus, echoed in current literature and discussion, was on providing Muslim candidates
for school boards and municipal posts, working for the election of Muslim mayors and state
legis lators, and planning for an eventual Muslim presence on the American Supreme Court.
“I believe we can be a major force first in getting Muslims to register to vote, then to
participate in the American political system, and finally to become effective political
activists,” says Dr. Agha Saeed, founder and general secretary of the American Muslim
Alliance.9 For that to hap pen, he insists, Muslims must look beyond their cultural identities
and focus on their commonality as Muslims. Some groups expend considerable effort to
encourage Muslim women to run for public office. Since the middle s   
 186 a number of Political Action Committees (PACs) have emerged, such as the ISNA-
PAC, and much attention is being given to the importance of having more Muslim lobbyists.
Some people are even asking whether it would be important to have a separate League of
Muslim Voters. Many local groups work to encourage political participation by helping
register voters and encouraging Muslim candidates to run for public office. Savvy advisers
even counsel voters about when too enthusiastic public sup port from members of the
Muslim community may actually embarrass a candidate and hinder his or her election.
Current estimates are that Muslims in America divide fairly evenly among Democrats,
Republicans, and inde pendents. At the national level, concentrated efforts have been made
recent ly to coordinate the advice given to Muslim voters about the issues and posi tions of
candidates. A national Coordination Committee consisting of six member organizations,
including the AMC, MPAC, and CAIR (see below), is working for the exchange and
dissemination of information. Similarly, Warith Deen Mohammed and his associates have
founded the Coalition for Good Government to provide political vision for Muslim
Americans. The changes that Warith Deen has effected in the process of bringing Muslims
into Sunni Islam and denouncing NOI’s policy of urging its members not to participate in
American society have led directly to a greater engagement of Muslims in local and national
political life. Some project that in the coming years both immigrants and African Americans
will be playing prominent roles on the American political scene. Key in the thinking of those
who advocate greater political involvement is influencing the ways foreign policy will deal
with Muslim countries and the impact these policies will have on how the American
populace views Islam. The goal toward which many are thus working is greater cooperation
between American Muslims and the American political establishment. “The possibility of
mutually beneficial outcomes, both at home and abroad, of a Muslim-U.S. partnership, are
enormous,” says one commentator. “One can have a lot of respect for the American system’s
potential to respond to its national interests. But the onus of repositioning Islam as an
element of American national interest and not as a threat to it lies with the American
Muslims.”10 Many questions face the community as it looks to the immediate future. How
will Muslims and thus American Islam itself change as second, third, and fourth generations
of immigrants become more distant from their places of origin? Non-Muslim Americans can
no longer talk about Islam as “for eign” or even as an “Eastern” religion. Islam has become
part of America,     187 and Muslims a growing and vital segment of
its population. How will this affect both external and internal perceptions of Islam and
Muslims? Will the majority of Muslims identify themselves as Americans who happen to be
Muslim or as Muslims who happen to live in America, and what differ ences will such
identification make in their public and private lives? Will Islam in America achieve its
currently stated goal of becoming a significant political force? Is it likely that American
resentment and prejudice against Islam will subside as the result of greater contact with
Muslims and better understanding of their faith and practices? Who will provide the
authorita tive voices for American Muslims as they are increasingly able to choose where to
go for direction? The search for an American umma distinct from the racial-ethnic identi ties
that have often served to divide and separate rather than unify is high on the agenda of
many Muslims today and is particularly important to the youth who will be the new leaders
of the community. The coming decades will be crucial as Muslims in the United States and
Canada get clearer about who they are, what they need, and how they must organize to
make their voices heard amid the competing claims of a diverse American society. Whatever
patterns of religious, social, and personal life develop, clearly they will have to represent
both a continuity with the life and faith of the Prophet and his community and the
emergence of a new entity with its own qualities and characteristics—a truly American
Islam.