Current wisdom has it that in the U.S. -- as distinct from
Western Europe -- our Muslims are reasonable and moderate fellows,
well assimilated, and above all true blue Americans. Indeed,
Americans have smugly viewed the sectarian mess that plagues
Western Europe -- where novelists, politicians, cartoonists,
journalists and professors have been forced into hiding, and where
filmmakers have been butchered for offending Islam -- and breathed
a hearty sigh of relief. Thank God our Muslims aren't like that.
Thank God our Muslims have melted into the great American
stewpot.
Maybe not. A new poll of American Muslims paints a considerably
less rosy picture of their assimilation.
One notable finding was that a large majority of respondents
(214 out of 307) consider themselves to be not Americans first, but
Muslims first and foremost. This mirrors similar findings in
Western Europe, where 81 percent of British Muslims considered
themselves Muslims first, and citizens of Great Britain second. Or
perhaps third. They weren't asked to specify.
But before you get your nose all out of joint, please note that
the same poll found a good many Americans (42 percent) consider
themselves "Christians first and Americans second." Presumably
these results do not cast doubt on the patriotism of Christian
Americans. Nor are they cause to doubt Muslim Americans'
patriotism.
Nothing to concern ourselves about, right? Wrong. If the top
brass of al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah had taken the same poll, the
responses would not have differed much. Those Muslim Americans
polled overwhelmingly said that the U.S. government was at war with
Islam, that it had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, but
allowed the attacks to occur anyway, and that the U.S. was wrong to
invade Afghanistan after 9/11.
It gets worse. A majority said violence against U.S. troops
on American soil and against U.S. officials is justified
"in retaliation for the American government's actions in the Muslim
world," sentiments that, in another time and place, would have
qualified as treasonous. Perhaps most disturbingly, a clear
majority said Iran "should develop nuclear weapons," weapons that
could one day be turned against the U.S. or its allies.
PERHAPS THE RESPONDENTS weren't representative of American Muslims
as a whole? Perhaps the poll was flawed? That would seem to be
wishful thinking. The poll was conducted by a group called Muslims
For A Safe America ("established after the 2005 London bombings, to
encourage honest and informed discussion among American Muslims
about Islam and American national security, and to empower American
Muslims to contribute actively to the ongoing national discussion
about how to make America safer"). The results were based on the
responses of 307 American Muslims -- all U.S. citizens -- during
the 2006 Islamic Society of North America Annual Convention. ISNA
is the largest Islamic organization in the US, and parent group for
hundreds of Islamic organizations in North America. In other words,
these are the leaders of America's Muslim communities. If anything
Muslims For A Safe America would have had a vested interest in
suppressing the unflattering data.
So where does this homegrown anti-Americanism come from, and in
particular, this hatred of the US government? Certainly not from
official U.S. government statements. The Bush Administration has
bent over backwards trying to convince Americans that Islam is a
religion of peace. That means American Muslims get their
anti-American messages from their imams, the media, and Muslim
organizations, all of which point to the continuing wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, American support for Israel, stories of the
torture of terror suspects at Abu Ghraib and the continued
detainment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as proof of an
anti-Muslim conspiracy.
Yet another factor plays into homegrown Muslim anti-Americanism:
Historically, Muslims have been taught that nations are irrelevant,
false constructs forced upon them by the colonial powers during the
last century. Instead Muslims learn that the world is divided, not
into nation-states, but into Dar al-Islam (lands under Muslim rule)
and Dar al-Harb (lands outside Muslim rule). Giving one's
allegiance to an infidel nation is not very Islamic. This twisted
thinking explains how some American Muslims can regard the U.S. as
their enemy because it is allied with Israel, which is seen as
committing genocide against Palestinians and the Lebanese. (Note
that this kindred spirit of Islamism seems to dissipate when, say,
Iranian Muslims go to war with Iraqi Muslims.)
The basic tenets of Islam would seem then to be in conflict with
the basic duties of American citizenship, that is, giving one's
allegiance to one's country. Americans are taught that certain
duties come with citizenship, but some immigrants seem to regard
the U.S. (and Western Europe) as nothing but a large job market, a
place to earn big bucks. They will obtain American citizenship if
necessary, but they don't intend to assimilate into American
culture or adopt American values and principles, or participate in
American-style democracy, which many abhor. This would seem
antithetical to the spirit of Americanism, as summed up time and
time again by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt:
"[T]he man who wishes to do his duty as a citizen in
our country must be imbued through and through with the spirit of
Americanism...[N]one of these [immigrants] would have been worth
their salt had they continued to act after coming here as Irishmen
or Germans, or as anything but plain straight-out Americans. We
have not any room here for a divided allegiance. A man has got to
be an American and nothing else; and he has no business to be
mixing us up with questions of foreign politics...and no business
to try to perpetuate their language and customs in the land of
complete religious toleration and equality."
America has always been vast enough that Puritans, the Amish, even
Mormons (when they moved far enough West) could practice their
religion and customs without too much grief. Doubtless some have
considered themselves primarily Mormons, Amish or Christians, and
Americans second. But ultimately all have come to a peaceful
understanding and compromise with American culture and society.
Eventually American Muslims will too. But only after they cease
looking back to the Islamic world, and begin to see themselves --
as TR would have us all see ourselves -- as Americans first.
topics:
Business, Religion, Islam, Law, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons, Oil
