This past Sunday (June 17th, 2007), the MPSN crew engaged in a dialogue on a fundamental issue within the American Muslim narrative: relations between immigrant (and children of immigrant) Muslims and indigenous Muslims.
It began with Dr. Jamillah introducing the idea of a clash of priorities with regard to issues of social justice between immigrant and indigenous Muslims, with the former generally focusing on poverty and other social ills from the homeland as opposed to the problems in America, and the latter focusing on domestic social problems. The indigenous Muslim communities often resent the apparent contradiction between immigrant communities' focus on external issues to the exclusion of internal American ills.
From this backdrop, we discussed issues of race in America and the immigrants' adoption of white hierarchy; whereas Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia are not white, they also distance themselves from being seen as black. Joining the "white club" was the aspiration of many immigrant Muslims. This implies that immigrant Muslims tend to view black Muslims in an unfavorable light, both because of the relative position of blacks in American society, but also because of traditional understandings of what defines Islam. Many immigrant Muslims see Islam in cultural contexts, so mix cultural practices with true Islam.
The major breaking point for immigrant Muslim populations was 9/11, when it became apparent that these immigrant Muslims could not simply assimilate and deny their otherness. From this point, immigrant Muslims sought support from native Muslim groups, but met resistance because of a lack of endeavors to establish social justice for black Muslims in America.
An interesting point brought up in the discussion was the assumption of second generation Muslims as being less or equally racist towards other minority groups. Although some participants described the respect for diversity of the new generation, others mentioned the pressure from parents and society at large to continue the cycle of marginalization of others. The following questions remain:
* Are we (American Muslims) past looking down on other groups of Muslims?
* What about between immigrant groups?
* Has the tribalism that plagued the Muslim communities of old, even in the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAAW) been removed and a new unified community risen?
* Why then are there still largely dominated Arab, South Asian, and Indigeneous centers across the states, with limited interplay between them?
Another issue raised was that of sources of leadership and their respective credibility:
* Can non-traditional scholars be seen as credible considering a difference in culture between East and West (particularly that Eastern rules are/may be outdated)?
* Further, is Islam broad enough to encompass more than an eastern interpretation of Islam?
With this in mind, the ultimate question that remains is:
* Who has the authority to redefine and reinterpret traditions, or are there no prerequisites?
* Finally, who is responsible for critiquing, scrutinizing, and evaluating the rulings of scholars from the East or West? Surely Islam must have some way of distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate sources of leadership.
* And of course, how does race play into this decision?
Ultimately, the realization of the answer to these questions is insufficient to cause a true solution. However, in the dialogue that ensues, I pray that we are able to get closer to a better understanding of not only what plagues our community, and the communities across the globe, but also to overcome the obstacles we face.
Inshaa Allah, please answer as many of these questions as time goes on, and encourage everyone to participate in the discussion.
3 comments:
Bismillah.
I think as second generation Americans our link to our pre-American identities (be it Pakistani, Arab, Indonesian etc.) dissipates (whether entirely or partially or marginally depends on the individual, see for ex. how many of us really speak fluent Urdu despite our pretensions and the increasing number of cross cultural Muslim marriages). As active Muslims, the Islamic-value-based facet of our identity rises to the surface, although that is not to say that the large majority of Muslims would fall into this "active" category - as immigrant Muslim's pre-American cultural identity dissipates so too for the great majority does their religious identity.
Secondly, since our masajid are in large part the fruit of the first-generation who maintain their pre-American identity more strongly, it should come as no surprise that they are also culturally exclusive, although one would predict that as the second generation leaves the home, if they are not faced with outright hostility, would not find a problem in attending their local masjid whatever the dominant ethnicity might be and indeed might revel in the diversity of differences. America, it has been said, has become a sieve for separating culture from Islam since the interaction of Muslims from competing cultures requires a return to the origins of agreement (i.e. the indisputable Quran and Sunnah).
Finally, on the subject of interpretation of Islam, as mentioned repeatedly in subsequent lectures, I feel that an understanding of the methodology of the Islamic sciences must be attained and applied for any interpretation to be valid though the application to the local American context may be unique as compared to that of the "East" or indeed any other location. Fiqh, I would suggest is local, while Shariah is global.
And Allah (swt) Knows Best.
yea women's rights!
I would say you are minimizing the depth of cultural roots. One consistent theme throughout the Qur'an is that people have a tendency to "follow their fathers," but this is not limited only to religious affairs.
No matter what the situation, culture pervades almost every aspect of our lives. Perhaps people raised in this society have less acknowledgment or respect for their parents as compared to the motherland, but in all honesty, most of the time people do not use rigor when establishing their belief patterns, and merely follow what their parents believe. Minor nuance changes here and there, probably, but nothing significant changes. One of the reasons that a lot of immigrant kids get along with their parents is because our values are reflected so much in our family members, whereas often times "American" kids are at odds with their parents.
Even still, among all people of almost all times, people follow their fathers blindly. And if you don't believe that premise, you can search the Qur'an and find the numerous instances, whether with Shu'aib, Saleh, or almost any other prophet, this statement has been made...
I distinctly remember one instance where a group of unbelievers say to a prophet something like "Do you want us to do other than what our fathers used to do?" and the prophet responds - "What, even if your fathers were devoid of guidance?"
I'm not saying that our parents are always wrong, just that culture permeates our lives and to minimize that is problematic.
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