Eliminating Mystery about Islam and Muslims

Lee Ali

The Muslims started showing up on American "radar screens" since the hijacking of Trans World Airlines plane by Layla Khalid in 1969 and the oil embargo by the OPEC nations in 1973. However it wasn’t until the takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran that earned Muslims the role of permanent villains in the American media.

The broad based disagreement of the Immigrant American Muslims with the American foreign policies, especially in the Middle East, has not helped them much. The good news is that the Muslim community, especially the new generation has its priorities in the right place. That is, we are American first, and anything else later. As citizens of a democratic country, we will criticize whatever the heck we want to criticize about. But, when it comes to America versus anyone else, it is America that comes first.

The latest horrible attack of the cowardly terrorists on September 11, on the very soil of our beloved country, came as a defining moment for the Muslims of America. The unanimous response from the new, as well as, the old generation of the Immigrant Muslims was that, “this is wrong and this cannot be allowed.” As far a we are concerned, a terrorist is a terrorist. We will cooperate with the authorities along with other fellow Americans to make sure that the culprits are brought to justice, and that such atrocities are never repeated ever again.

Since the terrorists were believed to be from Middle Eastern backgrounds, the backlash against related communities was expected. Some extremist elements went on a rampage to harass and kill Americans of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent. What followed after the hate related crimes against these communities was not expected. Scores of non-Muslim Americans contacted mosques and Islamic organizations across the country to apologize for the actions of the bigots.

The most common request these sympathizers made was that they wanted to learn more about Islam and Muslims. For example, one visitor to the highly trafficked Islamic website, Islam.org, writes, “Islam and American Muslims are generally a great mystery to most non-Muslim Americans ... invite the American public ... you do have an obligation to show us something about yourselves - please get out there and invite us ...”

The good news is that organizations, such as, Council on Islamic Education (CIE) and Islamic Speakers Bureaus (ISBs) around the nation have been doing just that – sharing
information about Islam and Muslims with the rest of the Americans.

For more than 11 years, CIE has been working with textbook publishers, state education officials and policymakers, curriculum developers, and teachers. Recognizing the openness of the American education system to positive input, along with other strengths inherent in the system, CIE utilizes an approach of contribution in order to help improve the existing system even further. Rather than lobbying for change in the political arena, CIE maintains long-term interaction and dialogue with diverse participants in the national educational discourse in order to effect natural change based on consensus among educators.

ISBs, on the other hand, work with institutions that have the greatest impact on Muslims in America, such as, schools, media outlets, law enforcement agencies and businesses to eliminate stereotypes through education. They deliver hundreds of presentations about Islam and Muslims to the above-mentioned institutions.

We invite non-Muslim Americans to continue to challenge us so that we continue to share ourselves with everyone interested. This is the only way to get rid of the mystery, and to create a harmonious existence between Americans.