Will We Ever Belong?

For nine years after the attacks of September 11,many American Muslims made concerted efforts to build relationships with non-Muslims.

For nine years after the attacks of September 11,many American Muslims made concerted efforts to build relationships with non-Muslims,to make it clear they abhor terrorism,to educate people about Islam and to participate in interfaith service projects. They took satisfaction in the observations by many scholars that Muslims in America were more successful and assimilated than Muslims in Europe.

Now,many of those same Muslims say that all of those years of work are being rapidly undone by the fierce opposition to a Muslim cultural centre near ground zero that has unleashed a torrent of anti-Muslim sentiments and a spate of vandalism. The knifing of a Muslim cab driver in New York City has also alarmed many American Muslims.

We worry: Will we ever be really completely accepted in American society? said Dr. Ferhan Asghar,an orthopedic spine surgeon and the father of two young girls. In no other country could we have such freedomsthats why so many Muslims choose to make this country their own. But we do wonder whether it will get to the point where people dont want Muslims here anymore.

Eboo Patel,a founder and director of Interfaith Youth Core,a Chicago-based programme that tries to reduce religious conflict,said,I am more scared than Ive ever beenmore scared than I was after September 11.

That was a refrain echoed by many American Muslims in interviews last week. They said they were scared not as much for their safety as to learn that the suspicion,ignorance and even hatred of Muslims is so widespread. This is not the trajectory toward integration and acceptance that Muslims thought they were on.

Some American Muslims said they were especially on edge as the anniversary of 9/11 approaches. The pastor of a small church in Florida has promised to burn a pile of Korans that day. Muslim leaders are telling their followers that the stunt has been widely condemned by Christian and other religious groups and should be ignored. But some young American Muslims were questioning how they could simply sit by and watch the promised desecration.

They liken their situation to that of other scapegoats in American history: Irish Roman Catholics before the nativist riots in the 1800s,the Japanese before they were put in internment camps during World War II.

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Muslims sit in their living rooms,aghast as pundits assert over and over that Islam is not a religion at all but a political cult,that Muslims cannot be good Americans and that mosques are fronts for extremist jihadis. To address what it calls a growing tide of fear and intolerance, the Islamic Society of North America plans to convene a summit of Christian,Muslim and Jewish leaders in Washington today.

Young American Muslims are particularly troubled,said Imam Abdullah T. Antepli,the Muslim chaplain at Duke University. People are discussing what is the alternative if we dont belong here, he said. There are jokes: when are we moving to Canada,when are we moving to Sydney? there is hopelessness,there is helplessness,there is real grief.

Antepli just returned from a trip last month with a rabbi and other American Muslim leaders to Poland and Germany,where they studied the Holocaust and the events that led up to it the group issued a denunciation of Holocaust denial on its return.

Some of what people are saying in this mosque controversy is very similar to what German media was saying about Jews in the 1920s and 1930s, he said.

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American Muslims were anticipating a particularly joyful Ramadan this year. For the first time in decades,the monthlong holiday fell mostly during summer vacation,allowing children to stay up late each night for the celebratory iftar dinner,breaking the fast,with family and friends.

But the season turned sour.

The great mosque debate seems to have unleashed a flurry of vandalism directed at mosques: construction equipment set afire at a mosque site in Murfreesboro,Tenn; a plastic pig with graffiti thrown into a mosque in Madera,California; teenagers shooting outside a mosque in upstate New York during Ramadan prayers. It is too soon to tell whether hate crimes against Muslims are rising or are on pace with previous years,experts said.

Some Muslims said their situation felt more precarious nowunder a president who is perceived as not only friendly to Muslims but is wrongly believed by many Americans to be Muslim himselfthan it was under President George W. Bush.

There is simply the desire to paint an entire religion as the enemy, Patel said. Referring to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf,the founder of the proposed Muslim centre near ground zero,What they did to Imam Feisal was highly strategic. The signal was,we can Swift Boat your most moderate leaders.

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Several American Muslims said they were stunned that what provoked the anti-Muslim backlash was not even another terrorist attack but a plan by an imam known for his work with leaders of other faiths to build a Muslim community centre.

This year,September 11 coincides with the celebration of Eid,the finale to Ramadan most Muslims will begin observing Eid this year on September 10. But Muslim leaders,in this climate,said they wanted to avoid appearing to be celebrating on the anniversary of 9/11. Several major Muslim organisations have urged mosques to use the day to participate in commemoration events and community service.

Ingrid Mattson,the president of the Islamic Society of North America,said many American Muslims were still hoping to salvage the spirit of Ramadan.

In Ramadan, she said. Its about looking out for the suffering of other people. Somehow it feels bad to be so worried about our own situation and our own security,when it should be about empathy towards others.