Posted on 04/14/2007 10:07:17 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
ITHACA — A uniquely gifted, highly-educated and wealthy American-Muslim culture lives in the children of doctors, engineers and other Islamic professionals who came to this country a generation ago, and it can further flourish, according to Islamic scholar Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah.
“The American Muslim community is perhaps the most highly educated and wealthiest (Muslim population) in the world,” he said, noting that 59 percent of Muslim Americans have college degrees as compared to 27 percent overall.
He returned to Cornell University to share his expertise on Islam on Friday, speaking to classes and in the keynote lecture of Cornell's Islam Awareness Week.
Entering a Ph.D. program at Cornell in 1969 to study Shakespeare, he read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” and was inspired by Islam. In January 1970, this Nebraska-born, Georgia-raised American — who said he'd taken childhood studies of Christianity seriously before becoming, briefly, “a spiritual vagabond” — embraced Islam.
His draft resistance due to his objections to the American involvement in Vietnam curtailed more studies at Cornell (he eventually gained a pardon), although he stayed in Ithaca for two more years before changing his focus to Islam and Arabic at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D., doing a dissertation on Islamic law. He has taught in Saudi Arabia and Spain.
For the past seven years he headed the Nawawi Foundation, an Illinois-based non-profit he co-founded to share Islamic teachings with Muslims and other Americans.
“I absolutely love this work. I love this young generation of Muslims in America that just gives me life. They have tremendous potential,” Abd-Allah said, noting their parents came to the United States around 1965, when only highly educated workers were permitted. They, in turn, raised well-educated children.
It's important these young people create a culture that's authentically Muslim and authentically American, he said.
“What's important for me is we do it consciously so it can be the best it can be and so it is positive,” he said.
He likened Islamic culture to a “crystal clear river” in which the colorless water is Islam, showing the color of the bedrock below.
The American Constitution, especially the First Amendment and Islamic law fit together, he said, and the teachings of Islam can go deep into the cultures
“If Islam is in China, it looks Chinese” Abd-Allah said. “In Africa, it looks African. So Islam in America should be American, the best of American.”
He mentioned Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and said he admires some Muslim hip-hop he has heard for its great lyrics. There is a long history of Islamic music, including specific forms used for healing mental illnesses, and visual art, he said. Such new and traditional Islamic art forms need nurturing, he said.
“The American Constitution, especially the First Amendment and Islamic law fit together”
Wrong. Islam is completely antithetical to the Constitution and to our Bill of Rights.
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Muslim hip-hop?
Muslim music for healing? Can it put a severed head back on?
sorry to be so cynical...and then what do I do with the Iraqi muslims that are ‘on our side”? haven’t figured out my conundrum with who is good guys/bad guys in Muslims?
“The American Constitution, especially the First Amendment and Islamic law fit together”
File under biggest BS quote of the year.
For an immigrant population, I think it stacks pretty much at the bottom, compared to the other immigrant groups, barring perhaps the illegal ones, who are technically not immigrants.
We need to define what can be classified and protected as a valid religion. I suggest a few simple litmus tests that any group seeking 1st amendment protection must pass. If your belief fails any of the litmus tests below you belong to a hate group and must be expelled from the country.
#1: If your belief commands you to kill or enslave those who are not of your religion then you fail the litmus test. .
#2: If your belief commands you to kill anyone who leaves your organization then you fail the litmus test.
#3: If your belief demands you kill or enslave anyone who writes, draws, speaks negatively about your belief you fail the litmus test.
** SAVE AMERICA **
Reject and eject Islam. Save America undescribable grief.
What is the definition of “American Muslim community”?
Does it count the non-immigrant African-American Muslims, many who become Muslims in Prison? Black convertites are the largest share of Muslims in America.
Also does “American Muslim community” include i.e. Iranian-Americans, who are overwhelmingly rich, educated, anti-Islamic Persians who fled after the Revolution?
Or does “American Muslim community” only include Muslims who are registered in specific Muslim communities/organisations?
It would be whatever it is that’d make the Islamofascists appear like smart, educated, harmless bunnies. Facts. With a twist.
I wouldn't want to drink from that river after he dipped his left hand into it.
“highly educated and wealthiest “
I guess that squashes the left’s contention that poverty and misery lead to people strapping bombs around themselves or flying planes into buildinds.
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