Eleven years ago there was a unique event.  The first North American Muslim Pow Wow was held the last weekend of June 1993 at Dar al Islam in New Mexico.  The American Muslim (which was still in print) devoted an entire issue to the Pow Wow in the January-March, Winter 1993 issue.  Some of those articles are reprinted in this issue of the online version of The American Muslim.

Although there was not much written about this event in the mainstream Muslim media, it was an important event that led to the beginnings of many ongoing efforts including many of the Deen intensives. 

The Pow Wow brought together Muslims of diverse backgrounds to know one another, to increase trust among us, and to discover our common voice. ‘Powwow’ is a native Algonquin word, and we chose it to indicate our desire for Islam to become native to the American Continent. The word expressed our intention for this gathering to be:  a conference, a council meeting, a caucus, a time to hear each other out.

Over the years, whenever I attend any large Muslim event, people come up to me and ask “when are you going to have another Pow Wow?” or say “we really need another Pow Wow!” And, whenever a Pow Wow discussion happens, other nearby people ask “what are you talking about?” This happened most recently at the ISNA Central Zone Conference, and gave me the impetus to reprint some of the articles about the Pow Wow to share with others who may be motivated to take the idea and give it a new life.

An Overview of the North American Muslim Pow Wow
Sheila Musaji

Originally published in the January-March, Winter 1993 edition of the print edition of The American Muslim.

THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN MUSLIM POW WOW

An Overview of The 1993 North American Muslim Pow Wow

by Sheila Musaji

During the last weekend of June 1993, the first ever North American Muslim Pow Wow was held at Dar al Islam in New Mexico. Three hundred Muslims came together from all over the U.S. and Canada. This was a grassroots effort in which the participants themselves shared in the planning and implementation and even pitched in to cook, serve, clean, watch children, teach whatever they were able, haul water, collect trash. Some even came ahead of time and dug holes for outhouses and put together structures on which tarps could be stretched for meeting areas. This was a labor of love.

The theme of this Pow Wow was “tolerance” based on the Our’anic verse “We have made you tribes and nations so that you might know one another.” In North America we have an unusual situation. We have Muslims who have come here from every country on earth as well as a population of “native-born” Muslims (converts and 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation Muslims).  Estimates of our total numbers range from 4 to 11 million Muslims. We have at least 1 ,500 Islamic Centers/Masjids, perhaps 50 magazines and newspapers (as well as hundreds of small newsletters) and another 1 ,500 special purpose organizations. There are numerous federations of centers and organizations (e.g.ISNA, ICNA, Ministry of W.D. Muhammad, National Community of Jamil al Amin, AMANA, NASIMCO, etc.) as well as ideological groups (e.g. Jamaat al Muslimeen, Jamaat Islami, etc.) and numerous Tariqas (Jerrahi, Naqshabandi, Bawa Mohiuddin Fellowship, etc.). There is a National Shura Council currently being established, but it includes only the leadership of 4 of these groups.  There are also a number of groups who consider themselves Muslims but whose beliefs. interpretations or practices are questioned by at least some of the Muslim Ummah.

In addition to all of this, for the first time in North America, the number of “native-born” Muslims is greater than the number of immigrant Muslims. In the last 5 years this native-born group has begun to become aware of itself and to make connections with each other. Small “support groups” and fledgling publications have begun to appear.  On college campuses an interesting phenomenon is developing which appears to be a manifestation of this new demographic reality - the MSA’s are in many cases splitting into two separate groups - one primarily foreign students and one students who were born and/or raised here.

Looking at the overall picture it would seem that we have a population of Muslims that is or soon will be the second largest religious group in North America. Many existing institutions are nevertheless unable to exert much political or social pressure. We have not been able to establish good communication and networking between the various groups that would allow for cooperative effort on matters of common interest.

The goal of the first North American Muslim Pow Wow was to bring together Muslims who are rooted in the soil of North America, and who in defining and living their Islam face not only the challenges common to all members of the Ummah here, but also face challenges specific to their own American cultural heritage.  It was our hope that we could come together with open minds and open hearts with a spirit of compassion for the struggle that each of us has been through to get to this place. If we could ‘declare a truce’ and give ourselves a chance to get to know each other without criticism or trying to ‘set each other straight’, we might be able to discover how we can use those things that are different about us to our benefit as an Ummah. We might create a situation where we can draw on each other’s strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses.

The program was planned so that any individual or organization who wished could give a presentation, demonstration, seminar, class, speech, whatever -and times for these special events were scheduled. So many had something to share that there was so much going on simultaneously that participants had some hard choices to make.  Many complained that they wanted to be in more than one place at a time.

There were three aspects of this gathering that were most noticeable: the diversity of the group; the incredible beauty and vastness of the landscape; the simplicity and limitations of the physical accommodations. These could have been seen as either a trial or a blessing. and in fact were seen by different individuals as both. I choose to see them as tests.

DIVERSITY. As people began to arrive, it became obvious that God had blessed us with the presence of brothers and sisters representing a cross-section of the Ummah in North America. Not only were the ethnic, racial and cultural groups represented, but also Sunni and Shia, various madhabs and tariqas. ideologies and organizations.  It was fascinating to see tennis shoes, cowboy boots, bare feet, champals, turbans, cowboy hats, hijab. straw hats, daputtas, shalwar, lungi, jeans, thobes, dashikis. serapes, robes and all sorts of wondrous mixtures of these various elements. It was a visual kaleidoscope.

As people registered and set up their tents and began the process of ‘getting to know one another” there were in the beginning some very tense moments. A few individuals were overwhelmed by the diversity and had somehow not gotten the message that this was the whole point of this gathering. For them the presence of “those people” provoked hostility.

This might have become a situation that caused us to lose sight of our intention and goal but it turned out to be a test and a blessing to the gathering as a whole. It was a very clear manifestation of a very real problem in our communities. At Islamic centers, Eid gatherings, conventions, wherever Muslims gather. there will be a very few who do not understand or accept that the Muslim community in America is not homogenous. who want to impose their own cultural or personal interpretation or manifestation of Islam on everyone else. In their zeal to enforce one aspect of the Sunnah on another Muslim they violate other equally important aspects in their own behavior and often overlook their own personal shortcomings in regard to the Sunnah.

These individuals in their effort to straighten everyone else out sometimes use methods that are more reminiscent of the methods of the Inquisition and the Crusades than of the Prophet or the Sahaba.  However, the overwhelming majority of those present had come together with open minds and hearts. They were so intent and focused on the stated goals of this gathering - opening dialogue between various groups of Muslims and attempting to find common ground on which to build alliances and cooperation - that these few negative individuals were very simply overwhelmed in a tide of goodwill. Very lovingly but very firmly, they were stopped from bringing their disharmony and disunity to cast a shadow on this gathering.

LOCATION. The high desert is a special place. The sand and wind wear away all but the hardest stone of the mountains. It seems when you I look at it that everything has been removed except the essential.  All of the elements that soften and blur distinctions in easier environments have been removed. The plants and animals and even the forces of nature are exposed and visible here, more than anyplace else. Whatever life exists here is tough and adaptable. It is painfully obvious that resistance to the forces of nature and the order established by the creator is futile.

All three of these elements together created a real learning situation. There is a hadith in which the Prophet said that if you want to get to truly know a person, then live with that person for three days and three nights. We saw the truth of this firsthand. The combination of having such a variety of individuals living together under circumstances outside of the ordinary and the location of the gathering in the desert all had their effect on the human beings.

When people come together in a cosmetic setting where everything is comfortable and easy, they can maintain a facade. But when they come together on a mesa in New Mexico without all the modern conveniences and where the water table sometimes drops and they have to perform tayyamum instead of wudu and electric power is erratic, then, in the course of three days the real character of individuals comes out. People are exposed not only to others but also to themselves.

PHYSICAL ACCOMMODATIONS.  The comforts that could be provided were severely limited by the fact that the total amount of money collected from the participants was not enough to provide more than “survival” needs. However, this too turned into a blessing because it brought out qualities of leadership, sacrifice and sharing. Tolerance, patience, humbleness, simplicity, leadership, courtesy, sincerity are qualities that can only be truly appreciated in difficult circumstances. It was fascinating to see who were the individuals who stepped forward and took charge, who rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to do even the hardest work, who moved quickly to defuse difficult situations, who had diplomatic skills, who were the problem solvers, whose words and actions matched.

Somehow from all of this a tapestry was woven. The various strands, each unique, different colors and textures all came together to form a whole. People really talked and listened to each other and tried to understand not just the words but what was meant.  The discussions often became so intense and real that people began to cry and to hug each other.  One of the most interesting and most encouraging aspects of the discussions was that there was such a remarkable consensus of opinion. The terminology and phrasing were different but we were talking about the same things.

THE WORK AHEAD. There was a sense that there is a certain urgency to beginning work on the next phase of Islamic work in America. The last decade was the mosque building phase and the focus was on local communities and physical structures. We have now entered an Ummah building phase and the focus is on relationships and linking those communities and the individuals within communities. We must begin to build bridges, find common ground and connect the various elements of the community.

Some of the preliminary steps in this process were identified. Inclusiveness and openess are a necessary foundation in order for the diversity of the Ummah to be a strength and an advantage rather than a weakness and a liability. Developing a working Islamic vocabulary with mutually understood meanings for terms is part of the necessary foundation, as is identifying and analyzing our human and financial resources and linking these together through networking and cooperative effort.

Bringing together Muslims from various madhabs, tariqas, leaderships, ethnic groups, etc. to get to know one another, to engage in dialogue and to find common ground is the necessary first step that must be taken if we are to build any sort of an Ummah in North America.  Many of the issues raised in discussion were sensitive and some may have been painful to have to face, nevertheless the overall tone was positive and hopeful. Something was accomplished. We have the nucleus of a group of people who see themselves rooted in this society and as having a stake in seeing to it that Islam becomes a vital movement within this society. We have people who are committed to bringing out in the open . . . the real issues that keep them from truly accepting each other as brothers and sisters and then doing something to change their own attitudes and responses – a jamaat who believes that Unity is possible and that it does not require conformity.

We know that we have external enemies, but they would have no power to manipulate, control and dominate the Muslims if we were not internally so divided, ignorant and intolerant.  In the discussions a series of needs were identified. These are the same needs that we have heard stated at every meeting of Muslims. Insh’ Allah we will all think about what we experienced at the Pow Wow and begin to join hands with each other to work at a very practical level towards solving these problems and meeting these needs.

Did we succeed in doing what we set out to do? I believe we did. In the words of one of my sons: “It was good.  In Chicago and St. Louis and Los Angeles on Eid there are a lot of Muslims that are in the same place at the same time. But here they were really together. It felt safe. It was like I could be who I am and no one would bother me. Like I was with my family.” (Arman Musaji, age 13)

REALITY THERAPY. The financial aspects of the PowWow point to a very real concern. Are we either willing or able to pay the physical or financial costs of creating an independent support and networking system?  As of Thursday, the day before the Pow Wow began, we had pre-registration for only 68 participants and $1,230 in total deposits to pay for expenses, The total number of individuals actually in attendance was 352.  The final total income was $4, 747.  The necessary expenses budgeted for this number of people were $14, 119.  Our total actual expenses were $8,014 (only because we cut back drastically and because of donations (a cow, a sheep, hot dogs, a truck load of hay, all the produce for meals for a nominal cost of $250, and $2,000 in expenses for pre-Pow Wow work absorbed by the AMSG).  We still came up $3,267 short on actual expenses and $9,372 short of needed expenses. Dar al Islam agreed to cover this shortage.

The records show that only: - 25% of the participants pre-registered. - 28% paid absolutely nothing. - 20% did most of the work. - 12% paid in full. - 53% paid partially. According to verbal and written evaluations received from the participants, the overwhelming majority believed this to have been a worthwhile event and want to do it again. Most suggested adding improvements to the facilities, adding to recreational activities, hiring a work crew to lessen the need for volunteers, and having more of the set-up done prior to the event.

All of this could be done. However, the reality is that someone would have to pay for doing these things. And, someone would have to do the necessary work and planning.  If 81% of us cannot afford or do not feel it worthwhile or necessary to pay even a reasonable cost.  If 55% of us are unable or unwilling to pitch in with the necessary work. If 75% of us cannot even fill in the registration form ahead of time to enable planners to do their job. And, if many of those who neither paid or worked could fill out an evaluation form requesting more and better facilities and services, then, perhaps we need to rethink our level of commitment, maturity, and readiness to attempt to establish and maintain alternative institutions.