"Message to Muslims: I’m Sorry"

Nicholas Kristof has a beauty on the issue of the virulent anti-Muslim hysteria in the US, and writes way more powerfully than I ever could:

I’ve seen some of the worst of Islam: theocratic mullahs oppressing people in Iran; girls kept out of school in Afghanistan in the name of religion; girls subjected to genital mutilation in Africa in the name of Islam; warlords in Yemen and Sudan who wield AK-47s and claim to be doing God’s bidding.

But I’ve also seen the exact opposite: Muslim aid workers in Afghanistan who risk their lives to educate girls; a Pakistani imam who shelters rape victims; Muslim leaders who campaign against female genital mutilation and note that it is not really an Islamic practice; Pakistani Muslims who stand up for oppressed Christians and Hindus; and above all, the innumerable Muslim aid workers in Congo, Darfur, Bangladesh and so many other parts of the world who are inspired by the Koran to risk their lives to help others. Those Muslims have helped keep me alive, and they set a standard of compassion, peacefulness and altruism that we should all emulate.

I’m sickened when I hear such gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists, and when I hear the faith they hold sacred excoriated and mocked. To them and to others smeared, I apologize.

I too.

We didn't start the fire? No, we did!

When the anti-"Ground Zero" mosque issue began, I noted in a post on August 9th:

I hope the Palins, Gingrichs, and Foxmans will lower their rhetoric right away ... else, here is one possibility: Ramadan begins on August 12th, and this unnecessary attention on a proposed Islamic Center in New York could easily become the topic for inflammatory sermons from some of the imams in Iran and Iraq and Saudi Arabia and ... who are always looking for a good fight portraying the US as the satan ... and we want to provide them with more ammo?

Now, a month later, we are experiencing the results of the irresponsible rhetoric from "leaders" ... The Guardian has a concise chronology of a nutcase in Florida managed to make himself an international relations bomb.  I am not at all surprised that there are big time protests everywhere--particularly in the countries where the US is actively engaged (Iraq and Afghanistan).  This is a nightmare that was just unnecessary ...

President Hamid Karzai said the burning plan insulted Islam while Indonesia's leader said it threatened world peace.

The Christian Science Monitor notes a an important point--that such protests are happening in places where there is not much of an insurgent activity. Yes, we have managed to piss off even the regular folks in Afghanistan :(

Many of Friday’s protests took place in areas that do not have a strong insurgent presence and seem to have been spontaneous outbursts of anger. Friday marked the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, the holiest day in the Islamic calendar. Millions of Afghans attended mosques in the morning for services, and the Quran-burning issue was a major topic of discussion.
In the largest mosque in the Qara Bagh district of Kabul, an imam closed his sermon by asking his congregation for suggestions on prayer topics. Some proposed prayers for the poor or the ill, but a number of attendees rose and denounced the Quran-burning, according to witness accounts. Soon many joined in condemnation, and the men poured into the street chanting slogans against the US.
Thousands of others from various mosques in the area joined them over the next few hours, government officials in the area said, and the large group decided to proceed to the nearby Bagram Air Base, a major US military base.

:(

The new MIA--continued ... Muslims in America, that is!

I just finished reading "Invisible Man" ... a book that can get down to the deepest emotions even on a wonderful summer day with puffy clouds against a blue sky, with birds chirping and children giggling with excitement.  Reading it, and allowing the messages into my system where they seem to stir feelings that I didn't know existed against the backdrop of the Manhattan Mosque, Glenn Beck, Faux Noose, Pakistan floods, Chilean miners, Haiti homeless, ... I am surprised I haven't jumped off a cliff, yet!

As much as that book is about race, slavery, and so many of the complex issues many of which haven't gone away even now, all those are metaphors as well. Metaphorically, now the Muslims in America are rapidly facing the conditions of "Invisible Man."  For the first time in a long while I feel absolutely deflated. Ellison writes towards the end of the book, in the Epilogue:

Whence all this passion toward conformity anyway?—diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you'll have no tyrant states. Why, if they follow this conformity business they'll end up by forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, which is not a color but the lack of one. Must I strive toward colorlessness? But seriously, and without snobbery, think of what the world would lose if that should happen. 

Now, it is the same issue of dealing with diversity--the "different" Muslims ...

Ellison further writes:

America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's "winner take nothing" that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many—This is not prophecy, but description. Thus one of the greatest jokes in the world is the spectacle of the whites busy escaping blackness and becoming blacker every day, and the blacks striving toward whiteness, becoming quite dull and gray. None of us seems to know who he is or where he's going.

Apparently, unlike Elison's description of whites becoming blacker, there is a vehement opposition from many Americans who do not want anything to spillover from the new invisibles--Muslims in America. It is way too disheartening to read even the NY Times headline: American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong?

Really? We have come down to this level now?

Eboo Patel, a founder and director of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based community service program that tries to reduce religious conflict, said, “I am more scared than I’ve ever been — more scared than I was after Sept. 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.

I still find it beyond my comprehension that conditions have deteriorated this fast. And to think of the impression it will leave on the young ones:

Young American Muslims who are trying to figure out their place and their goals in life are particularly troubled, said Imam Abdullah T. Antepli, the Muslim chaplain at Duke University.
“People are discussing what is the alternative if we don’t belong here,” he said. “There are jokes: When are we moving to Canada, when are we moving to Sydney? Nobody will go anywhere, but there is hopelessness, there is helplessness, there is real grief.”

A new MIA: Muslims in America, that is

I didn't know this about Feisal Rauf--the man behind the Park51 project, which has become one insane controversy:

When a memorial service was held for murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Rauf declared: "I am a Jew." When the scandal of Abu Ghraib broke, Rauf was among those asked to appear in an apology advert that was broadcast on Arabic television.

A Jewish reporter dies after crazy militant Islamist radicals slit his throat and even air a video of that, which is why Rauf's declaration in the tradition of JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner" is immensely admirable, and echoing Pearl's own last words, "I am Jewish." He said:

"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one."

What a contrast to this is the opposition to the Park51 project from Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League!

Media Matters notes that Feisal Rauf "has a long history of condemning terrorism, promoting pluralism, and arguing that the true meaning of Islam involves democracy, religious freedom and women's rights" and thanks that information-rich page I now know that, among other things,:

Bush administration sent Rauf on State Department trip in 2007. In an August 10 press briefing, Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley addressed the State Department travel program in which Rauf is participating, noting that its purpose is to promote "religious tolerance" and provide Muslim countries with a "moderate perspective" of being "Muslim in the United States." Crowley noted:

For Imam Feisal, this will be his third trip under this program. In 2007, he visited Bahrain, Morocco, the UAE and Qatar. And earlier this year in January, he also visited Egypt. So we have a long-term relationship with him. His work on tolerance and religious diversity is well-known and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States. And our discussions with him about taking this trip preceded the current debate in New York over the center.

Rauf's wife has an Indian connection--Daisy Khan was born in Kashmir, and immigrated to the US when she was 15.  I can't track down how she got her first name of "Daisy" ... Am not sure if that was the name her parents gave her at birth, or whether she adopted it to Americanize her name ...

In one of Khan's bio-sketches, there is a quote from Rumi, the great Persian Sufi poet:

"I looked for God. I went to a temple, and I didn't find him there. Then I went to a church, and I didn't find him there. And then I went to a mosque, and I didn't find him there. And then finally I looked in my heart, and there he was."

I have had wonderful friends who were/are Muslims--one was even briefly a roommate back in graduate school. The talented plumber, Samad, who was a jack of all trades, is a Muslim and was my parents' trusted assistant.  The only music performance that I ever attended in the fabled Music Academy in Madras Chennai, before leaving for the US decades ago, was to listen to Amjad Ali Khan playing the sarod.  Creating the fantastic mats in the village of Pattamadai, where my dad grew up, is almost exclusively by Muslims.  These are a few of the personal connections to Muslims and Islam.  It simply jars me when the Park51 critics lump all these people with the insanely radical Islamists.  Crap!

Update:
Glenn Greenwald writes:

One of the most under-reported political stories is the increasingly vehement, nationwide movement -- far from Ground Zero -- to oppose new mosques and Islamic community centers.  These ugly campaigns are found across the country, in every region, and extend far beyond the warped extremists who are doing things such as sponsoring "Burn a Quran Day."  And now, from CBS News last night, we have this:

Fire at Tenn. Mosque Building Site Ruled Arson
Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.
Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson. . . .

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It is the same Tennessee town that Aasif Mandvi reported about:

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Tennessee No Evil
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Hollywood scripted it before it all happened

Bruce Willis' General Devereaux character reminds me of this prize-winning paper on the American military coup--in 2012, which is next year .... :)
Maybe there is a lot of truth in this cartoon:

Why is Amreica so paranoid about Islam and Muslims?

This chart from the Economist reveals a depressingly troubling aspect of contemporary America:

Only 52 percent of those polled think a mosque is ok in a place where other religious worship places are ok?  And a 34 percent think there are some places where it is inappropriate to build mosques?

Oh, bloody depressing this is.

What a level of transparent bigotry, and a dissing of the Constitution itself ... what is wrong with my fellow citizens?

And, apparently Islam itself gets an unfavorable rating:

Only one-in-four has at least favorable or somewhat favorable opinion of Islam?

How did we end up here?

Jesus and Mohammed duke it out with Jon Stewart

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Extremist Makeover - Team Mohammed vs. Team Jesus
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Cartoon of the day: on the mosque at Manhattan

On the anti-mosque hysteria

Christopher Hitchens swings a mighty bat even when he is not well when he points out that:

Where to start with this part-pathetic and part-sinister appeal to demagogy? To begin with, it borrows straight from the playbook of Muslim cultural blackmail. Claim that something is "offensive," and it is as if the assertion itself has automatically become an argument. You are even allowed to admit, as does Foxman, that the ground for taking offense is "irrational and bigoted." But, hey—why think when you can just feel? The supposed "feelings" of the 9/11 relatives have already deprived us all of the opportunity to see the real-time footage of the attacks—a huge concession to the general dulling of what ought to be a sober and continuous memory of genuine outrage. Now extra privileges have to be awarded to an instant opinion-poll majority. Not only that, the president is urged to use his high office to decide questions of religious architecture!
Nothing could be more foreign to the spirit and letter of the First Amendment or the principle of the "wall of separation." In his incoherent statement, Foxman made the suggestion that it might be all right if the Cordoba House was built "a mile away." He appears to be unaware that an old building at the site is already housing overflow from the nearby Masjid al-Farah mosque.

Fellow Indian-American, Fareed Zakaria, is disgusted with the ADL's statement and has returned their honors from four years ago for their "Hubert Humphrey Award for First Amendment Freedoms":

I hope the Palins, Gingrichs, and Foxmans will lower their rhetoric right away ... else, here is one possibility: Ramadan begins on August 12th, and this unnecessary attention on a proposed Islamic Center in New York could easily become the topic for inflammatory sermons from some of the imams in Iran and Iraq and Saudi Arabia and ... who are always looking for a good fight portraying the US as the satan ... and we want to provide them with more ammo?