Muslims Feel Need To Reconnect
Originally published on Beliefnet
Muslims Feel Need To Reconnect
United Press International
Washington, Dec. 3--(United Press International via COMTEX) Relations between the West and the Islamic world are being redefined and some Muslim scholars say the current period is perhaps the most important since the crusades in determining these relations.
"Iraq will play a major role in redefining relations between the followers of the world's two major faiths," says Mowahid Hussain Shah, a political adviser to the Pakistani government told United Press International.
Shah and others say Muslims accepted the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as a logical consequence of the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. "Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was living in Afghanistan. He had his camps there. Most Muslims also believed that the Taliban were asking for trouble by taking on everybody," says Faiz Rehman, former media director of the Washington-based American Muslim Council.
Both Shah and Rehman say, however, most Muslims don't see a link between Sept. 11 and Iraq. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, a Democratic presidential candidate, endorses this view. Speaking at a fundraising dinner last Saturday for the Council of American Islamic Relations, Kucinich said after Sept. 11, the Islamic world was ready to receive America with an "open heart" but "at a time when we needed to reach out, America stepped back."
"There are individuals in the administration who used 9/11 to declare war on Iraq ... as a result, we are seeing divisions within our own society," he said. "There still many in America "who believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. The fact is that Iraq did not but they are not willing to believe this."
Separately, Shah agreed. "The divide is working both ways," he said. "There are people in America who are not willing to trust the Muslims and there are Muslims who are not willing to trust America."
An opinion poll published Monday reflected this view. As many as 79 percent of the 3,244 Iraqis interviewed by Oxford Research International, in conjunction with Oxford University's Sociology Department, said they had no confidence in the U.S.-led forces now occupying Iraq. Seventy-three percent had a similar lack of trust in the Coalition Provisional Authority, led by Paul Bremer.
Seventy percent said they had confidence in Iraq's religious leaders, and 54 percent in local leaders appointed by clerics. Muslims living in the United States perceive this widening divide most. "They are caught between two fears," says Rehman. "There is the fear of rejection, that other Americans may refuse to accept them as peaceful citizens who are entitled to equal rights in this country. And then there's the fear that if they appear to eager to defend American actions like the invasion of Iraq, they may be shunned by other Muslims."
CAIR is not new to this controversy. Although the dinner attracted more than 1,000 people, including lawmakers, and allowed the council to raise more than $1 million for its activities, it has enemies on Capitol Hill.
In October, Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., blamed the breakup of his 50-year marriage on the stress of living near the group whose headquarters are across the street from his Capitol Hill home. He called CAIR a "fund-raising arm" for terrorist groups and said he reported it to both the FBI and the CIA.
In a written message read at the dinner, Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark accused the Bush administration of isolating Muslims. "Many American Muslims have felt the brunt of this administration's radical vision of our country--one in which law-abiding civilians are afraid of a government they thought was supposed to protect them, not harass them," he said.
Criticizing the administration's policy toward Muslim immigrants, Clark said: "The slew of arrests, arbitrary detentions, monitoring and racial profiling has turned up less than a handful of leads; they have only alienated innocent people."
Abdul Moqeet Hussain, who won the 2003 CAIR award for political activism, urged American Muslims to register their votes and participate in local politics. "We need to make it obvious to all that the Muslim community is active and needs to be taken seriously," he said.
Alison Weir, a freelance journalist who won the 2003 Islamic Community Courage Award, for her reporting of the Palestinian issue, urged other communities not to isolate Muslims. "You cannot kill everyone of us. We are too many," she said. "Please join us to uphold the holiness of our common humanity."
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