Religious and Cultural Pride

I was struck by one sentence from the press release announcing The 4th Annual MPAC Convention to be held December 18, 2004 in Long Beach, California. The sentence in question reads:

“We must contribute to shaping the future of our children, they deserve to grow up liberated from violent media images and proud of their religion.”

I totally agree with this statement, but I’m sure that my reason and meaning diverge greatly from that of the MPAC conventioneers and other Muslims. Certainly all children deserve to be able to grow up in at atmosphere of respect and freedom from fear.

On the surface an unsuspecting reader would believe that those appearing on the poster are villainous haters of Muslims and Islam that have created an atmosphere of fear and hatred against Muslim Americans. That they haven’t done this and aren’t creating the atmosphere would surprise readers that hear a constant whining from CAIR, MPAC and others about how Islam is under attack by Americans and America.

The truth is that before 9/11, few Americans were paying attention to the activities of Muslims, and fewer still knew how to recognize or interpret the mysteries of Islam and its various rituals. Social conventions and cultural mores that were imported from the Middle East and other Muslim countries were considered “odd,” yet not understood as deleterious to the concepts of freedom that Americans so cherishes. Life for them was comfortable while living under the radar.

Since 9/11, many Americans have not only asked, “Why is this happening,” but “Who are these people” that are representatives of this belief system. They wonder about what does it mean to be Muslim and they wonder why Muslims have resisted integration into American society, a behavior that is unlike that of any of the other immigrant groups that have come to America except for the Amish and a few other small Christian groups that prefers to live a more primitive life style and some Orthodox Jewish groups. Unlike Islam and Muslims, these small groups of Christians and Jews are not seen as a threat to their neighbors nor to the nation as a whole. They are not seen as predators, waiting to overtake and change America in their image at the expense of non-Muslim America.

Americans have seen the behavior of Muslims in other Western countries. The have noted the non-cooperation and the resistance to integration into the host culture, in spite of extremely liberal social policies. Sometimes these European Muslims have been violent, even murderous to their neighbors, so Americans have come to the conclusion that Muslims and Islam are not compatible with Western values, making the charge in the press release that “Political extremists are using the actions of religious extremists to justify their attempts to trample civil liberties” is disingenuous.

What is the real problem? Are “political extremists” attempting to trample civil liberties because of a few religious extremists? If only that were true, the problem could be easily solved, or is there something else going on that Muslims refuse to acknowledge?

Isn't the problem with Muslims themselves? Isn't the problem with Islam, with certain social and religious practices that most non-Muslims find abhorrent? What if honor killings didn't exist? What if female circumcision wasn't an accepted practice among Muslims? What if blaring bullhorns weren't used to announce prayers, of if the presence of pork products was not an anathema to Muslims, regardless of the feelings of the majority culture? There are many what ifs that can be cited to explain why non-Muslim Americans are annoyed with their Muslim neighbors.

However, annoyance isn't fear nor concern that Muslims might harm them. Regardless of how much they protest, non-Muslim Americans are going to be suspicious of people whose co-religionists are out kill them, enslave them, and destroy their government and way of life, especially if American Muslims don't stand firmly against those that they claim have hijacked their religion. Silence is acceptance of principle and acquiescence to policy.

Another what if concerns 9/11 and the exposure of Muslim Americans to scrutiny. If 0/11 had not happened, Muslims and non-Muslims would have gone along as before until a tipping point was reached. Non-Muslims would not have understood the significance of the tipping point nor why it occured. It would have been too late for us all for armed conflict would be the only way to solve such a problem.

Muslims lived comfortably under the radar and non-Muslim Americans lived blissfully in their ignorance of Islam, and Muslims were happy that they were ignorant. We can’t go back. The radar is spinning, people are awakening to things occurring in the world and in the United States that they thought not possible being illuminated by the spotlight, and things look better in dimly lit places.

The MPAC conventioneers have vowed to come up with strategies to counter what they see as inaccuracies about Islam and Muslims. What strategies will the MPAC conventioneers contrive to silence both critics and the curious? Will they resort to taqiyya and kitman, age old Muslim tactics to confuse and divert the attention of non-Muslims from what is really going on? Will they resort to more law suits to silence their critics? Will they hire Michael Moore on a Muslim equivalent to produce yet more media productions that show a sanitized Islam and Muslims in a wonderful light, downplaying or ignoring that which is not good and positive about Islam? Will they propose legislation to silence critics such as the laws that curtail free speech in Canada and the U.K. that make any questioning or criticism of Islam and crime?

Muslims are already well ahead of non-Muslims in the propaganda campaign as they have devised successful ways to get Islam into universities and schools and Christianity and Judaism out. Granted they aren’t working alone as the ACLU and others are diligently working for the same goal, but, curiously, the ACLU and their cohorts aren’t making an effort to Islam’s entrance into these same schools, making their separation of church and state a travesty.

Life was comfortable under the radar as Americans and other Westerners weren’t reading the Koran for themselves, the ahadiths, the sira, and books that have put the behavior of Muslims under the spotlight. And that’s the problem. Behaviors that were once seen as quirky or odd are now seen obnoxious because non-Muslims now know what they mean and what could happen to them and their culture if the Islamists are successful. They've also noticed that Muslim Americans, especially naturalized Muslims, are not living up to their citizenship oath to "defend and protect the Constitution and to reject all powers and principalities..." Putting the Ummah before America is seen as more than unfriendly, it is un-American and, if some struggle against America to give "aid and comfort to the enemy," this behavior is actually treason.

Non-Muslim Americans have heard about dhimmitude, the status of non-Muslims under Muslim law, Sha’ria, Muslim law and how rights and behaviors of all are restricted. They've also heard about the Caliphate, the now-defunct Islamic empire that Osama bin Laden and other Islamists are trying to revitalize. All of these things and many others have come to light and are being inserted into the daily conversation of non-Muslim Westerners who demand to know what are the intentions of their Muslim neighbors and what is the long-term ambition of the Islamic community that has found its way into Western lands. These and other topics are on many lips. Conventions and ad campaigns, film and rap songs to the contrary, non-Muslims want to see results, not more words.

The MPAC convention states as a goal: “It is our duty as American Muslims to break the cycle (of the political extremists that are using the actions of religious extremists…) by exposing it and contributing to public discourse that will clear our name the name of our religion, secure the safety of our country, and preserve the integrity of our democracy.”; Ambitious and worthy goals.

Public discourse is welcome, but exposing the political extremists could mean an attempt to silence those that have differing point of view. One only has to look at the slate of announced speakers to know that the intention of convention will not completely live up to its hype, for most are either Muslim apologists or those connected someway with Islamic extremism. Tariq Ramadan – a smooth-talking controversial Swiss academic, connected to the Muslim Brotherhood who is to go to teach at Notre Dame; John Esposito- controversial professor of religion at Georgetown University; Dr. Jamal Badawi professor of economics at St. Mary’s University and a well-known and controversial speaker; James Yee, famous for being charged with espionage and then having the charges withdrawn; Sadullah Kahn – Islamic Center of Irvine, CA; Hassan Qazwin-American-born Muslim imam at Dearborn, Michigan, "adviser to presidents." Dr. Asama Barlas- Ithaca College, and Maher Hathout- senior advisor and one of the founders of the MPAC, are specifically named on the advertisement.

A downloadable pdf file of the convention program entitled “Countering Religious & Political Extremism” gives us another list of names, some of whom are more familiar to Amerians: Art Torres – Chairman, California Democratic Party; Moderator: Dr. Laila Al-Marayati -spokesperson and past president of the Muslim Women's League; Salam Al-Marayati - Executive Director of MPAC; Chuck Pena-CATO Institute; Amy Goodman – Pacifica Radio; Robert Greenwald – Executive Producer, “Unconstitutional” & “Outfoxed”; Dr. Greg Orfalea – Pitzer College; Michael Wolfe – author, Taking Back Islam Director, “Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet”; Tariq Aquil – Founder of the Islamic Social Services Foundation of Los Angeles; Dalia Hashad –American Civil Liberties Union.

A very impressive sounding group. Information about some of these can be found at FrontPageMagazine.com.

If Muslims, or anyone else, want to restore religious and cultural pride, then the religion and the culture must be able to bear a critical scrutiny. Denial and attempts to divert attention or characterizing critics as bigots, racists, intolerant, extremists, and so on, tells more about the accusers than their critics. This conference and the whining and complaining say that Muslims don’t want to change their ways, to integrate into Western culture. Most Non-Muslim Americans understand that their own culture needs revision, and they are willing to look themselves in the mirror and makes those painful and difficult changes. Thus far, Muslims are not willing to do the same, preferring instead to require that non-Muslims make the attitude adjustment, an unacceptable demand.

Behavior patterns of European Muslims are the measure against which non-Muslim Americans make their judgment. If American Muslims want to be seen as different, then they must actually be differently, not just seem different from other Muslims, remembering that America is an idea, not an address. No group, not even Muslims, can be allowed to force their religion or ethnicity upon America. It seems that Muslims don’t want to be a layer in the American salad. Instead they want to be the overpowering salad dressing.

Certainly we hope that Muslims can be part of an America that respects everyone. But respect is a two-way street. Non-Muslims don’t see that Muslims respect them. If Muslims want their children to value their religion and culture they must make changes within their own community and be willing to meet non-Muslims half way, a practice that seems to have been overlooked by Muslims in the past millennium.

The course can not be reversed. Scrutiny of Islam and Muslims will continue because Americans have been awakened to a danger. And it is well to remind everyone of Taqiyya and Kitman, practices of deception, evasion, misdirection, and even lying that are permitted under Islamic law. Thus, it will hard for Muslims to convince the rest of us that their goals and intentions are suitable for the idea of America.