Tucson, Arizona Tuesday, 16 October 2001
Column from today's Tucson paper:
Imams must challenge extremist attitudes
By Hasan Zillur Rahim
We American Muslims seem frozen in a defensive mode, forever having to explain to the public that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance after the occurrence of some horrific event.
ÄThe Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were not the first strikes on Americans by terrorists claiming Islam as their guiding principle - only the most deadly.
If these defensive apologies continue indefinitely, we risk hypocrisy. But a new report on U.S. mosques suggests one way we moderate American Muslims can reclaim our faith from the few extremists among us.
By far the most comprehensive survey of mosques ever conducted in the United States, "The Mosque in America: A National Portrait," was released last April by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C.
According to the report, 1,209 mosques are in the United States, with an average of 1,625 Muslims affiliated per mosque, which translates to a "mosque-going" population of about 2 million. The total Muslim population in America is between 6 million and 7 million people.
A significant finding of the report is the number of Muslims who attend the Friday afternoon congregational prayer called Jum'ah - Arabic for "assembly"- in their local mosques. (Friday is to Muslims what Saturday is to Jews and Sunday to Christians.)
The average Friday attendance per mosque is 292, which means about 350,000 Muslims perform the Jum'ah in the United States every week.
The Jum'ah number is significant, because most American Muslims get an opportunity to listen to their imams on the important religious, social and political issues of the day only during the Friday services.
Unfortunately, the imams often squander this opportunity.
When Osama bin Laden declared in 1998 that it was OK for Muslims to kill American civilians to realize his distorted version of Islam, there was no widespread condemnation of him and his followers by Muslim clerics in the United States.
In a majority of the mosques, the report says, the decision-making authority rests not with the imam, but with a board of directors. Board members are usually educated professionals with moderate views who have a keen sense of the positive role Muslims can play in America.
But in selecting imams, directors are often not as careful as and thorough as they ought to be, even when recognizing that improper choices can alienate moderate Muslims and splinter communities.
I have lived in America for more than two decades and as a practicing Muslim have rarely missed the Jum'ah prayer. I have visited mosques from sea to shining sea.
There have been occasions in which I listened to sermons that were deeply moving and instructive, but they were exceptions rather than the rule. In most cases, the imams preach the obvious and the irrelevant, or worse, resort to incendiary and opportunistic political rhetoric that engages neither the intellect nor the imagination.
This unhappy situation results partly from the lack of knowledge imams, many of whom are educated in religious institutions abroad, have of American history and how the government works.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 atrocity, it is clear that board members must learn to take this responsibility with utmost seriousness.
In particular, they should favor imams educated in America who are fluent in English and are voices of moderation.
When enlightened imams lead mosques and inspire their congregations actively to promote what is right and oppose what is wrong, the risks of some deviants pulling off malevolent deeds are either minimized or made easier to identify and thwart.
Only then will America and the world begin to appreciate the true, peaceful message of Islam.
* Pacific New Service contributor Hasan Zillur Rahim edited Iqra-an Islamic magazine-from 1986 to 1999.
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