The Ineffectiveness of Muslim Americans, Part II

by Dr. Robert Dickson Crane

  In his article, “The Ineffectivness of Muslim Americans,” Aslam Abdullah paints a bleak picture indeed of Muslim leadership in America, but we should not be discouraged.  No Muslim ever should. 

  The problem may be partly that Muslims think of leadership only among Muslims rather than leadership in America.  Only among Muslims can would-be leaders practice patriarchal leadership as they have learned it at home.  They do not understand that true Muslim leaders need to lead non-Muslims by offering an inspiring vision for America that everyone can share and by commitment to proactive community involvement within non-Muslim organizations that share this vision. 

  The all-to-common ghetto mentality narrows their vision of leadership to their own community and therefore makes them irrelevant to the future of America.  When they say that “Islam is the solution,” what they really mean is that Americans should all formally convert to Islam and make the shahada.

  Muslim converts unfortunately do not help much, because they usually are overly idealistic to begin with and get so discouraged by Muslim politics that they either leave Islam altogether or simply opt out of Muslim community life.  Most Muslim converts join Sufis orders, which automatically makes them outcasts in mainline Muslim political circles.  Many convert to the Shi’a path and soon learn that they are not considered to be Muslims at all and therefore are not welcome in polite Muslim circles.  Incidentally, the Shi’a are no different from the Sunnis in their approach to leadership among themselves and to participation in American life.

  African-Americans know very well that most of the Muslims from abroad are prejudiced against them perhaps even more than are the average Americans, so they form their own mosques just like all the other ethnic groups, and ghettoize themselves even within the Muslim umma, even though all mosques proudly say they are open to everyone. 

  Women converts to Islam encounter a terrible dilemma because they think that in order to be good Muslims they must accept gender oppression, or else they go bonkers and think that in order to promote human rights and justice they must protest by leading men in public prayer.  Such extremism merely confirms the view of most Muslims from abroad that American converts are naive at best, uniformly ignorant, and certainly not to be trusted to maintain the purity of Islam.

  This state of affairs has turned off the few enlightened Muslim funders, like Safi Qureshi, who was the first homegrown Muslim billionnaire.  He funded more than a hundred Muslim projects a decade ago, including Muslims who wanted to participate in American politics, but he swore off on funding Muslims because they either were incompetent or actually stole his money. 

  Other would-be Muslim funders had the same mentality as everyone else and wanted to fund Muslim think tanks to attack American foreign policy or, like a classical non-starter in Chicago a decade ago which still exists on paper,  merely to promote some specific objective like attacking the Pressler Amendment which prevented the sale of U.S. armaments to Pakistan.  Would-be funders have had no concept of networking with other think-tanks in Washington to improve American foreign policy, perhaps because they have had no concept of working with other Americans at all or were not aware that Washington is full of like-minded think-tanks compatible with Islamic principles. 

  No Muslims have funded efforts to address domestic issues, even though they may have global implications.  For example, it is almost inconceivable that a Muslim would fund a Muslim think-tank to network with the Sierra Club on the global environment as an Islamic responsibility.  Much less can one imagine Muslims funding any effort to lobby the Federal Reserve and relevant Congressional committees to change the entire system of money, banking, and credit in order to broaden capital ownership as an essential element of both economic and political self-determination. 

  Some Muslims talk about starting a Muslim political party in America, which would be an unadulterated catastrophe, but what Muslims would want to join an already existing interfaith party designed to introduce what functionally are Islamic principles into either or both of the major parties.  Its name is The American Revolutionary Party, with a platform that can be accessed through Google.   

  This is the downside and, in sha’a Allah, will be overcome by those of the younger generation who are not brainwashed by their elders to project the same problems into the future.

  There is plenty on the downside that is discouraging, but there is also plenty on the upside, which would deserve a separate article.  There are many Muslims in real leadership positions who do not fit the downside description.  We could start with Ali Chaudry, who labored in various township committees for ten years before he finally was elected mayor in New Jersey (just weeks after 9/11), Nasir Shamsi, who single-handedly rescued the only national Shi’a organization, the Universal Muslim Association of America, from a fate worse than death by pointing to the other Muslim organizations as a model of what not to become, and Shabbir Mansuri, who has single-handedly over a period of ten years accomplished the revision of all the textbooks in California public schools to present Islam objectively and with the same priority as Christianity and Judaism.  Each of these Muslims, and there are many more like them, is a model of everything that we should be doing and has remained committed to their mission in life despite tremendous obstacles that would have turned off anybody but a saint.

  My only advice to Muslims and anyone else who becomes discouraged is first never to give up, and, second, when one does anyway,  ignore the world for as long as it takes to regain perspective.  Every day in the mandub prayers of salah we are reminded that Allah hears those who thank him.  One should always thank Allah for his blessings, even when one does not know what they are.

  Here is a true story that may lift the hearts of the weary:

             
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools
and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

“I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.”

“No, I ca n’t accept payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel.

“Is that your son?” the nobleman asked.

“Yes,” the farmer replied proudly.

“I’ll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.” And that he did.
Farmer Fleming’s son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman’s son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill . His son’s name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

Work like you don’t need the money.

Love like you’ve never been hurt.

Dance like nobody’s watching.

Sing like nobody’s listening.

Live like it’s Heaven on Earth.