The Ineffectiveness of Muslim Americans

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah

If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail, says a popular proverb.  The failure of Muslims in the United States to make any impact on the current US policy in the Middle speaks of the ineffectiveness of Muslim organizations in preparing themselves for catastrophe like the one being witnessed in Lebanon. It is apparent that Israel is pursing the aggressive belligerent policies in the region under the direct patronage of Washington. The White House and the Congress as well as the public opinion seem to be solidly behind Israel. The fact that only 22 members of the House didn’t endorse the HR 921, a resolution that advocated violence in the name of self defense and condoned aggression in the nation of national interest is a clear indication that despite much noises created by Muslim organizations, the legislatures of the nation’s top law making body don’t want to understand the concerns of Muslims as far as the situation in the Middle East is concerned.

Of course, one can explain the congressional position in terms of the influence exerted by the pro-Israel lobby or in terms of the activism of right wing evangelical Christians. Yet the question that must be asked boldly is why have Muslim organizations failed to create a public opinion that is sympathetic to their perspectives?

The answer is simple. Muslim organizations seem to be more concerned with developing good relations with law enforcement agencies and bureaucracy rather than reaching out to the masses and public officials who ultimately shape the public opinion. It is perhaps time to look critically at the existing Muslim organizations and ask tough questions.
During the recent crisis in Lebanon, besides issuing condemnation, no Muslim organization produced a single piece of serious analysis on the situation educating the community about the nature of crisis and their responsibilities. No organization sought to develop a national Muslim consensus on the issue. No organization planned a day of either prayer or protest and no organization gave any clear guidelines to its members about the future course of action. The reason of their failure is not their apathy or indifference to the plight of Palestinians or Lebanese. But the real reason is that none is prepared to handle the crisis and none is capable to mobilize Muslims the way Jewish community has mobilized its ranks in support of the ongoing unjust war or aggression.

Most Muslim organizations are authoritarian. They don’t believe in transparency or accountability. If you dare question the authority of the leadership, you are declared an enemy instantly. They are not grass roots organizations and they have made few efforts to mobilize Muslims on a consistent basis. They may have chapters and branches, but most of these outfits comprise people who rarely work with the people. Most leaders are content with the situation because they don’t want their authoritarianism to be challenged or questioned. Additionally, few make efforts to involve women and youth in their political discourses. When they involve youth or women, they usually assign them the task of arranging the chairs or cooking lambs for the believers. Few have developed any national plan to mobilize Muslims for an outreach program.

Even the conventions that are ritually held by Muslim organizations annually, rarely talk of a national consensus and strategy or outreach plan. Most of the time, these conventions begin and end with statements glorifying this or that leader. In one of the conventions of a national political organization a claim was made that if Islam is alive in the US, it is because of the efforts of this one leader and if Islam would survive in this country it is because of that leader. Of course there were enough supporters to cheer him up.
It is this style of work and leadership and organization that give rise to failures. It is time that we review what we have been doing to ourselves and decide upon an honest chart of action that would help us become effective at the grassroots level.

We cannot ask our fellow citizens to change their perspectives on the Middle East on the basis of a few statements that our organizations issue ritually. We cannot ask even public officials to change the direction of the country, when we our selves have not found any direction in the country.

In order to win over the hearts and mind of the people, we have to prove that we care for the country. Besides building our mosques and centers for the purpose of our own gratification and glorification, what else we have done to get involved in the affairs of the country. We are conspicuously absent from our city council debates when issues such as homelessness and development projects are discussed. We are conspicuously absent from school boards when the educational strategy is discussed. We are absent from the discussion when the library board decides about the budget and the number of books to be purchased each year. We are absent from debates on environment, crime, nuclear disarmament.

We are good at claiming and that too in our conventions and mosques that Islam has the answer. Yet we are not prepared to share that answer with the people and implement it for the well being of all. We want people to accept the call of Islam, yet when someone joins the ranks of Muslims, we are not willing to provide him or her a home or identify with them. We want people to believe that Islam is an egalitarian faith, yet we find it hard to accommodate African Americans or people who do not belong to our ethnicity in our decisions.

We are ineffective simply because we chose to be. No one would prevent us if we mobilize Muslims for the welfare and well being of people. The only one that would prevent us from being effective is the one who comes to us in the garb of our leader.

Muslim American leaders often repeat that they would be the one to lead the Muslims of the world in the new renaissance of Islam. But their failures in crisis like these suggest that they are far from achieving an iota of their goal. They would a better service to them and others if they organize their efforts in a unified manner. Unfortunately, we have been infested with leaders who have used the name of Islam and Muslims to serve their personal interests. There are those who work for law enforcement agencies and often run our own organizations, there are those who speak the language of state department and often confuse us, there are those who even get paid by the pro-Israeli lobbyists and claim to be championing Islam and there are those are so engrossed in their ethnic identities that they rarely talk of umma in a practical sense.

It is time, that we purge ourselves from all these actors from amidst us. It is time that we develop a sense of responsibility towards our fellow human being and it is time that we work for the emergence of a Muslim community that can effectively play a dignified role in promoting truth, justice and welfare of people in this country.