The 2 Worlds of Muslim-American Teenagers

hey are Americans who feel duty- bound by Islam to obey American laws. But some of them say that if their country called them to war against a Muslim army, they might refuse to fight. They cannot be shaken from the conviction that America is intrinsically anti-Muslim. Yet they see it as the one place where Muslims are free to be themselves.

To be young and Muslim in the United States today, to hear students at Al Noor School in Brooklyn tell it, is to be both outsider and insider, to revel in both roles but see neither as the ideal. It is to be consumed by causes abroad and removed from politics at home, to feel righteous and also confused, to alternate between gratitude and resentment toward the world outside their classrooms.

As any parent knows, this is the paradoxical planet inhabited by many teenagers, whether they are Muslim or not. But in a country wounded by terrorists and preparing for war, young Muslim Americans are finding that real life has raised especially acute questions for them about competing values of allegiance and faith.

"We have a burden on us," said Andira Abudayeh, who is 16 and attends Al Noor. "We're Muslims, and we feel like other Muslims around the world do. And we're Americans."

In extended conversations last week, high school students at Al Noor spoke of their empathy for the young Muslims around the world who profess hatred for America and Americans, saying the hostility is an outgrowth of American support for Israel.

They said they did not believe that the hatred extended to them. "Muslims are all one," said Fariah Amin, who is also 16. "They kind of think of us as just living in America."

The students complained that the United States threw its weight around too much in the world, but that it also was not active enough in support of what they called freedom-seeking Muslims in Chechnya and the "true" Muslims who oppose the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

"Isn't it ironic that the interests of America are always against what Muslims want?" said Fami Fozi, a 17-year-old student who said he would rather go to jail than fight in the United States Army against Muslims.

The students also said the Koran, which Muslims consider the literal word of God, provides a perfect blueprint for their lives. Their ideal society would follow Islamic law and make no separation between religion and state.

In the meantime, they said, they want to become doctors and lawyers and teachers in the United States. Even though the American government uses taxes to finance things that are un-Islamic — licensing the sale of alcoholic beverages, for example — they said Muslims here should pay taxes and accept the judgments of secular American courts.

"If you want to survive in freedom, I guess you just have to pay taxes to get the benefits from America," said Ahmad Odetalla, 14. "You know you're not going to be the one who buys alcohol. So as long as you stay away from what is forbidden in religion, I guess we have to pay taxes."

The students at Al Noor may not be a scientific sampling of Muslim American youth. But their comments are similar to those posted by Muslim Americans on the numerous Internet chat rooms and message boards about Islam, and their outlook is similar in some ways to that of other newcomers.

Immigrants and their children often feel the strain between the adopted and the native culture. Their political interests may focus on the topics and debates in their homeland. In the case of these Al Noor students, they are children of immigrants from places like Pakistan, Egypt, the occupied Palestinian territories and Yemen, which have been preoccupied for years by the efforts of Islamic fundamentalist movements to gain power through violence or the ballot box.

Still, some of their comments reflect what they have been reading and exposed to in the United States, where some Muslim clerics say openly what is said underground in Muslim countries: that the United States is to blame for the ills of the Muslim world through its support of more secular Muslim rulers.

Some of the students, for example, said they would support any leader who they decided was fighting for Islam. Among those who do not fit that definition, they said, are the rulers of just about every Arab and Muslim country.

Mr. Fozi, for instance, said that he would support any leader he determined to be an observant Muslim who is fighting for an Islamic cause, and that he would do so even if it meant abandoning the United States. "I would support him with my life," he said. How would he know who is a true Muslim? "I use my understanding of Islam and see what the person is doing," Mr. Fozi said.

Several of the young men said they could fight against a Muslim if they were convinced that the Muslim had committed a crime. They all said they were not convinced that Osama bin Laden — or any Muslim, for that matter — was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, attacks that they condemned as violating all precepts of Islam.

"It comes down to the proof," said Mazen Kased, 17. "If you prove a Muslim did it, that's a different story."

Another 17-year-old student, Ammar Arif, agreed. "If you prove it's Osama bin Laden and I was in the Army, I would go to fight," he said. "That's my duty to my country and my religion as well."

The students at Al Noor are reluctant to accept that the terror attacks were carried out by anyone of their religion. They draw on their deeply felt belief that Americans are biased against Islam and Muslims and that Muslims are victims of a prejudiced news media. Like many Muslim Americans, they said they believed that non-Muslims did not understand them and their choices.

These are also children whose parents made a conscious decision by sending them to a private Islamic school to shield them, at least during the school day, from the secularism of their adopted American culture. Girls at Al Noor must wear a loose- fitting robe and a tight-fitting scarf to cover their hair and necks. Except for the youngest children, boys and girls are separated during the school day.

They feel their separateness keenly. Since Sept. 11, rumors have raced through the school that Muslims have been shot and beaten in Brooklyn, and that it is not safe to walk the streets because of revenge attacks by Americans against Muslims.

They believe the rumors — which have not proven true — because they said it fits with their experience of seeing negative images of Islam in films and articles that they find disrespectful of Islam.

"A lot of newspapers write negative things, and we get so upset," said Mona Widdi, 16.

But few students said they thought that newspapers should be forbidden to write things about Islam, the prophet Muhammad or the Koran, topics that writers in most of the Muslim world stay away from out of fear of offending Muslim clerics.

"America does have freedom of speech, and it's one of the basic things," Miss Amin said. "I was taught about it since kindergarten. You can't tell someone that they can't write that. But if they can't prove it, they shouldn't put it in the paper as some kind of hatred against us."

None of the students said they had experienced any harassment since Sept. 11. Their school has received offers of guidance counselors from local hospitals, visits of support from state education officials, offers of interfaith exchanges from nearby Catholic schools and a constant stream of calls offering assistance from political figures in Brooklyn.

The principal, Nidal Abuasi, acknowledged that the students' assumption of a backlash might be misplaced.

"Maybe," he said, after recounting the number of calls from the neighborhood expressing good will, "we are too paranoid."

The Islamic/Muslim community in America (see article above), does not refer to itself as terrorist. It simply tries to bypass that title and yet supports what the "terrorists" do to this country. As the POTUS said;you are either with the terrorists or with the US. Pretty simple concept to grasp.

As to your belief that there are multiple sides in a war; that may certainly be true in back door, smokey room, diplomatic,political CYA. But in fact,when bombs drop and bullets fly, there in fact are only two sides.

"Considering that 70% of American Muslims voted for Bush it is evident that most Muslims aren't here for handouts. Nor should they be all labeled as fifth columnists."

It's not all about votes, some people don't get that. Are you saying then that Muslims make better Americans than Jews and Catholics because they vote Repub more, surely you jest. I'm guessing most of 'em voted Repub cause of Lieberman.

"I never thought I could ever favor genocide. However, if a Muslim majority should come to power in this country, it would be necessary to implement a "final solution" and extirpate them from the gene pool!"

Or maybe we can stop them before they become the majority and save the bloodshed. That's my hope.

Muslim Americans

Muslim Americans In Name Only

MAINO's

One was too many.

I work with an Egyptian woman who was raised in Brooklyn since the age of 2. She has told us at work that we are going to feel very stupid when we learn the true force behind the WTC attacks: "It was the Japanese, getting back at us for the Hiroshima bombings." This is a grown woman making this statement to her American co-workers. If this doesn't illustrate the level of brain-washing at work in the Islamic community in America, I don't know what else can.

Oh, I agree totally. What I meant was, and this may not have been a great example to use, was that while we believe the Constitution is the ideal ruling document, most other countries have a different idea of freedom and justice, and conservatives in those countries are trying to conserve a different way of life.

You suggest that I read the Koran. I have read it. Actually, I have read it in several different translations. I have also read the Bible, and read all those funny little extra books the Catholics put in it.

Let's try this one again: "You suggest that I read the Koran. I have read it. Actually, I have read it in several different translations. I have also read the Bible, and read all those books in the Canon that Martin Luther decided to pull out."

"It comes down to the proof," said Mazen Kased, 17. "If you prove a Muslim did it, that's a different story."

I hope they saw the OBL video today. But I have a feeling they STILL will "need more proof."

They should stop taking advantge of the freedoms of this country and just leave.

I'm dead serious when I say that these Mohammedans are truly nuts. Only a complete wacko can believe the conspiracy theories that they believe in. Their whole fragile world depends on them.

The Muslim numbers in France are bloody frightening!

The French pulled out of Algeria because they could deal with the violence. Now that France itself is becoming increasingly Muslim, what are they going to do? Pull out of France?

The French pulled out of Algeria because they could deal with the violence. Now that France itself is becoming increasingly Muslim, what are they going to do? Pull out of France?

France is now being colonized by the people they once colonized. Camp of the Saints.....

Not interested in whether Martin Luther decided to pull them out. What I'd like to know is whether or not the fellows at the Protestant Academy of Saumer thought them inspired, and suitible for inclusion, or simply of historic interest.

And before I go totally nuts in this one, I'd like to know how it was that Martin Luther wrote the King James version as well. I'd thought Luther was strictly into Latin and German and passed up English every single time!

Frankly, you give Luther entirely too much credit.

Just a minor point here, but Islam is part of the West! Your "Eastern Religions" include, but are not limited to, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, and so forth. Your "Western Religions" include, but are not limited to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

I think the conclusions are clear. If and when Muslims are in the majority, they will
use the power of the vote to conform our laws with Islamic law. This is what
our leaders are ignoring. However "moderate" Muslims in America may seem, their
religion recognizes no separation between church and state and is therefore
fundamentally inconsistent with our political principles -- indeed with
all of Western civilization.

I've tried to keep an open mind and heart about our Muslim-American fellow citizens.
But the more I hear from various branches of Islam, the less I like it.

Tell you what, I have a copy over here and I will look through it. They are categorized as the Apocrypha. They are not part of the Canon. Still, many Christians believe them of spiritual as well as historic interest. Protestant Bibles generally omit them. Bibles authorized by the Roman Catholics ALWAYS include them. Other groups do with them as they wish.

My position on the Apocrypha is a simple one - if these particular books merit inclusion, then the other 284 (+/- a few) versions of the Book of Revelations are at least as deserving.

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