Western Muslims: Is Our Identity at Risk?

[N.O.R.F]

Western Muslims: Is Our Identity at Risk?

 

By Dr. Altaf Husain

 

Muslim American Social Worker

 

The title of this article came about after a lively discussion with the editor of IslamOnline.net's Shari`ah section, who does not reside in the West but is concerned about Muslims in the West. The initial focus was to be on Muslims in the West and how they can keep their identity.

Two main points emerged as we debated back and forth. First, we agreed it is no longer relevant to speak of Muslims in the West — which implies a transient existence — and that the most suitable approach is to speak of Muslims of the West, which suggests a more permanent presence.

 

Second, to the Muslims of the West, by the grace of Allah, the issue is not really so much about keeping their identity, but more about what Muslim identity will "look like" in the coming years.

 

The title we agreed upon and used for a live dialogue on January 16, 2007, was Western Muslims: Is their identity at risk? For the purposes of this essay, I have modified the title slightly, preferring to use "our" instead of "their" since I am a Muslim of the West and ask similar questions about Muslim identity as my wife and I do our best to raise our two sons in the United States. What follows in this brief essay is an attempt to contextualize our existence in the West, the challenges and risks we face with regards to our identity, and the steps we can and are taking to develop strong identities. I also include some final thoughts on why the situation is brighter than it might appear at first glance.

 

Migration Is Not a New Phenomenon Among Muslims

 

Migration is at the heart of human, and especially Islamic, history. The forces driving migration have varied: from involuntary migration to escape from religious persecution, to seasonal or permanent migration for employment or business. Sometimes, what started as temporary migration, for example to seek education, became more permanent due to varying factors.

 

Islamic teachings encourage migration from a place where one is sure to be persecuted for religious beliefs. Allah the Almighty reminds us in the Qur'an:

 

[He who forsakes his home in the cause of Allah, finds in the earth many a refuge, wide and spacious: Should he die as a refugee from home for Allah and His Messenger, His reward becomes due and sure with Allah. And Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.] ( An-Nisaa' 4:100)

 

However, despite their difficult circumstances, some Muslims will not migrate, choosing sometimes to continue living where they are and to commit acts of transgressions. Allah Most High narrates the fate of such people:

 

[When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls, they say: "In what (plight) were you?" They reply: "Weak and oppressed were we in the earth." They say: Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (From evil)? Such men will find their abode in Hell , What an evil refuge!] ( An-Nisaa' 4:97)

 

The earth indeed is vast, and it is incumbent upon Muslims to flee persecution and migrate to a land where they can worship freely, if it is at all humanly possible.

 

Immediately following the onset of revelation and the public declaration of his prophet hood, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted a handful of people who had accepted Islam and were being persecuted by their opponents in Makkah to migrate to Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia).

 

During the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and in centuries thereafter, Muslim scholars, merchants, and other lay people took part in seasonal migrations to places near and far. With regard to Muslim presence in North and South America, there are varying accounts, with some sources dating the arrival of Muslim explorers to the Americas before 1492 and the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Starting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drastic changes in socio-political conditions in areas of majority Muslim populations prompted the voluntary and involuntary migration of Muslims to parts of Europe and North and South America among other places in the world. Today, a critical mass of Muslims exists in the West. And now we are not just Muslims living in the West; rather we are Muslims of the West

 

Muslim Identity

 

The most common defining factors for Muslims, regardless of their racial, ethnic, or national backgrounds, are their belief in the oneness of Allah and in the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as the final messenger of Allah; their establishing prayer, paying the zakat , observing Ramadan, and striving to perform the Hajj; and their belief in the six articles of faith. A Muslim therefore submits to the Lordship of Allah and attempts to live according to the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The contemporary Muslim scholar Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi suggests that Western Muslims have the following duties:

 

To keep their Muslim identity

To take care of their family

To unite with other Muslims

To contribute to the Society where they live

To champion the rights of the Muslim Ummah

Al-Qaradawi neatly summarizes what it means to have a Muslim identity in the West:

 

This can be achieved by sticking to Islamic commands, trying to understand the tenets of faith, showing keenness on performing daily prayers in the masjid, cooperating with fellow Muslim brothers on that which is good and righteous, and seeking religious knowledge from reliable scholars regarding new problematic issues.

 

Therefore, we must be clear about what we mean when we say Muslim identity is at risk. Of course, if the Muslims of the West choose to entirely abandon upholding the main tenets of our religion that would be a tragedy indeed. But praise is due to Allah that there is no evidence of this occurring en masse in the West or anywhere in the world. There are only a few individual cases of apostasy.

 

There is cause for concern, however, because a fringe group of Muslims in the West have sought to identify themselves as "progressive" although to date they have not developed a substantial following, nor is it clear how they intend to distinguish their approach to Islam from the already existing vibrant, forward-thinking, insightful and religiously sound discourse promoted by imams such as Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir, Suhaib Webb; and academicians such as Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson, and Dr. Tariq Ramadan, to name a few.

 

If on the other hand, we say Muslim identity in the West is at risk because we are not practicing Islam according to how it is done "back home," then we have it all wrong because "back home" is no longer committed to religion the way it was one thousand years ago. We should be clear that we are comparing the Islamic practices of Western Muslims with what is prescribed in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, not with what is known as "common" Muslim behavior in whatever country we call home.

 

Internal Challenges Putting Our Muslim Identity at Risk

 

It is worthwhile to comment on at least two of the most salient challenges that put our Muslim identity at risk: (1) out-of-date notions about Muslims living in the West, and (2) the attempt to keep Islam relevant in the lives of the second and third generations. Despite the rhetoric from anti-Islamic commentators who say Muslims can't adapt to Western life, the toughest challenges to Muslim identity have actually risen internally. Until only recently, the discourse about Muslims living in the West has been fraught with misconceptions and misperceptions. For example, some say it is sinful for Muslims to live in the West w hile others say Muslims in the West will lose their Muslim i dentity over time.

 

How, one wonders, could a healthy, strong Muslim identity emerge under such a negative, ambivalent outlook? Those claiming it is sinful for Muslims to live in the West are the same people who treat the world as being split into dar al-harb and dar al-Islam, that is, non-Muslims and those at war with Islam on the one side and the Muslims on the other side. Based on this outlook, it is argued that Muslims cannot develop and maintain a Muslim identity while they attempt to integrate into non-Muslim societies. This zero-sum approach dictates that the new arrivals will not retain any significant aspects of their culture of origin and will instead adopt wholesale the host culture. Such an outlook casts Muslims as victims or helpless people being acted upon and without any sense of agency.

 

Some also argue that Muslims should not live under the rule of governments that are not Islamic. The underlying assumption there is that the laws of non-Muslim societies are rooted in a religion other than Islam, for example Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Muslims who choose to live in dar al-kufr — the land of the disbelievers — have no choice but to migrate to Muslim lands or dar al-Islam. It is impossible today to point to even one Western nation whose laws of the land are rooted in a religion. Even though a majority of the citizens of a Western nation might be Christian, the laws are not derived directly from the Bible.

 

All of the above notions are out of date and hold no currency in the contemporary discourse about the Muslims of the West. Scholars such as Tariq Ramadan andUmar Faruq Abd-Allah have begun to promote Islamically based, intellectually sound arguments for why Muslims should continue to live in their Western homelands contributing to daily life. For example, in his book To Be a European Muslim, Ramadan suggests that as long as Muslims of the West are allowed to practice their religion without hindrance, then they are in effect living in dar ash-shahadah, or the land in which one is able to physically and spiritually bear witness to the beliefs of Islam.

 

In his Islam and the Cultural Imperative, Abd-Allah discusses the importance of developing creative, vibrant subcultures among the mainstream American culture, guided by both the Qur'an and Sunnah and the positive elements of the dominant culture. Muslims are therefore not only expected to remain in our Western homelands, but we are expected to remain righteous, God-conscious human beings who strive ceaselessly to improve the quality of life of everyone with whom we interact.

 

There is sufficient cause for concern about how much our Muslim identity is at risk when we consider second and third generation Muslims. As with the first generation of any group, there is the sense that this generation is the most knowledgeable about religion and most likely to adhere to its basic tenets and the culture of the country of origin. It has been argued that with each subsequent Muslim generation, the core values, beliefs, and traditions will begin to decline in their importance and relevance. If those later generations are themselves not strong in their understanding and practice of Islam, they cannot model the behaviors, nor can they transmit effectively the behaviors they wish to see in their children. Over time, when the Islamic teachings no longer have relevance in their lives, it is not entirely clear what, except the grace of Allah, would keep that generation in pursuit of a Muslim identity. In fact, in a climate of fear, paranoia, and anti-Western sentiments expressed by a handful of Muslims in the West (different from the Muslims of the West), these later generations will most likely find it difficult to reconcile how they are to maintain their Muslim identity with being taught to hate the West.

 

Due to the anti-Islamic rhetoric in Europe and the Americas, it is possible that the second, third, and subsequent generations might not wish to associate themselves with Islam and could succumb to intense societal pressure to distance themselves from their Muslim identity; Islam would no longer be the primary source of their identity. It is quite possible that these later generations might start to pick and choose what aspects of Islam they wish to hold on to. One approach they might choose is the path of least resistance or least differentiation so that they can look and live just like any of the other Westerners. Again, there is no evidence that such an option is being exercised en masse but the possibility does exist, and even if one Muslim feels he or she must choose this option, that is one Muslim too many. We understand that this is a natural phenomenon unless due caution is taken to transmit the core values, beliefs, and traditions of Islam to subsequent generations so that they are strong in their knowledge and practice of the faith and can withstand and even counter the hateful rhetoric being spread about it.

 

The risk of each subsequent generation being less attached to Islam remains clear, however, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us in a narration by `Abdullah

 

The people of my generation are the best, then those who follow them, and then those who follow the latter. After that there will come some people whose witness will go ahead of their oaths, and their oaths will go ahead of their witness. (Al-Bukhari, Book #48, Hadith #820)

 

Our collective supplication to Allah should be to guide the present and future generations to be the best Muslims and to forgive the past generations for their shortcomings.

 

Developing Strategies to Strengthen the Muslim Identity

 

As noted above, while there are intense internal challenges to the Muslim identity, there is more cause for celebration than for concern and alarm. Our goal is to help the Muslims of the West see that, in the context of Islamic history, we are not alone when we try to live among people of other faiths. Muslims both during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and in subsequent generations, ventured forth to all corners of the world and by the grace and mercy of Allah Islam was a driving, progressive force facilitating their adaptation to their new homelands. Dr. Abd-Allah writes about Islam's success:

 

For centuries, Islamic civilization harmonized indigenous forms of cultural expression with the universal norms of its sacred law. It struck a balance between temporal beauty and ageless truth and fanned a brilliant peacock's tail of unity in diversity from the heart of China to the shores of the Atlantic. Islamic jurisprudence helped facilitate this creative genius. In history, Islam showed itself to be culturally friendly and, in that regard, has been likened to a crystal clear river. Its waters (Islam) are pure, sweet, and life-giving but — having no color of their own — reflect the bedrock (indigenous culture) over which they flow. In China, Islam looked Chinese; in Mali, it looked African. Sustained cultural relevance to distinct peoples, diverse places, and different times underlay Islam's long success as a global civilization. The religion became not only functional and familiar at the local level but dynamically engaging, fostering stable indigenous Muslim identities and allowing Muslims to put down deep roots and make lasting contributions wherever they went. (1-2)

 

Much to the dismay of both uninformed Muslims and people opposed to the growth of Islam and the Muslim population of the West, we know that nothing within the teachings of Islam prevents Muslims from contributing as full-fledged citizens in their Western homelands. Although current policies being carried out by Western governments in the name of protecting national security and fighting the so-called war on terror are cause for intense concern and deserve to be analyzed and peacefully challenged, Muslims of the West still enjoy a considerable degree of freedom in strengthening their identity perhaps much more so than if we were to attempt to migrate "back home."

 

Migration eastwards is often clearly not an option and would actually set us back in our ability to practice Islam.Whatever individual, personal challenges Muslims face in the West cannot be attributed to the religion of Islam. When understood and followed, Islamic teachings actually promote the healthy adaptation and adjustment to a dominant secular societal outlook.

 

In the United States, for example, one finds a concerted effort by the framers of the Constitution to keep religion and the state separate. The Constitution guarantees the freedom to practice one's religion, unhindered by the government. Known more commonly as the establishment clause, the understanding is that the government will neither restrict our practice of our religion nor help us in that practice by promoting any particular religion as the state religion. There is, therefore, no law of the land preventing us from practicing Islam in our daily lives.

 

Unfortunately, in many "Muslim" countries, there is clear evidence that the government interferes in people's private lives and seeks to disrupt and restrict the practice of Islam in their daily lives. Without any cause, young men pursuing the study of Islam are seen as threatening, treated with suspicion, and harassed. Evidence from the East, and not the West, tells us that men who grow a beard are taunted, jeered at, looked down upon, and sometimes, for no reasn, even snatched from their homes and jailed without any legal recourse. While there are attempts to ban the hijab in some parts of Western Europe, countries such as Turkey and Tunisia have tried to outdo one another in being more "Western" than the West and have banned women from wearing hijab in the public sphere. What a sad state of affairs indeed!

 

Muslims in all countries in the West are experiencing challenges as they attempt to assert their Muslim identity. But they are not retreating; rather, they are forging ahead to be the best Muslims they can be while also appreciating and embracing the identities of their respective birthplaces whether in North America or Europe. Challenging themselves and the Muslim scholars in their midst to help apply Islamic teachings to all sorts of issues arising in daily life, Muslims of the West are developing a strong and vibrant culture of their own.

 

There have been efforts by Islamic scholars in Europe, South Africa, and North and South America to utilize fully the maqasidash-Shari`ah (objectives of the Shari`ah) methodology to address the challenges facing Muslims living in these various parts of the world. This methodology essentially refers to and upholds the objectives of Shari`ah in addressing issues requiring legal judgments. The introduction of councils of fiqh in Europe and in North America is a welcome development. A critical mass of scholars born and raised in the West has begun to emerge, and there is great hope they will facilitate the strengthening of the Muslim identity, making it easier for Muslims of the West to live according to Islamic teachings while also obeying the secular laws of the lands in which they live. As more young Muslims come of age in the West, they are being driven by their Muslim identities to make advances, especially in the area of popular culture. By promoting Islam and the Islamic way of life, comedians, playwrights, movie producers, poets, and artists are not only providing viable alternatives for Muslims but educating people of other faiths along the way.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Is the identity of Muslims in the West at risk? Yes, to some degree, but for the most part, there is cause for cautious optimism. There are tremendous challenges to the Muslim community from both internal and external forces. However, only in the West are Muslims of all ethnic and racial backgrounds and with varying levels of practice of Islam able to interact with and learn from one another. This mutual respect and collective will to improve the situation of Muslims in the West and around the world should, in sha' Allah, inspire us to develop and strengthen our Muslim identities.

 

Sources:

 

Abd-Allah, Umar Faruq. "Islam and the Cultural Imperative." The Nawawi Foundation, 2004. Accessed 30 Jan, 2007.

 

Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf. "Duties of Muslims Living in the West." IslamOnline.net. Ask the Scholar Section of IslamOnline. 5 Nov. 2006. Last accessed 30 Jan, 2007.

 

Ramadan, Tariq. To be a European Muslim. London: The Islamic Foundation, 2002.

 

Altaf Husain has contributed to the development of Islam Online.net in various capacities since its inception. He is a doctoral candidate in the Howard University School of Social Work, focusing on Muslim immigrant and refugee adaptation to theUnited States. He served one term as President of the Muslim Students Association of the US and Canada (MSA National). Currently he serves on the Board of Advisers of MSA National and is a team member of COMPASS, the MSA National Training Program.

 

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