The 2 Worlds of Muslim-American Teenagers

The New York Times ^ | October 7, 2001 | SUSAN SACHS

[sarcasm]

	Andrea Mohin/The New York Times From left, Fariah Amin, Salam Said and Andira Abudayeh, are juniors at Al Noor School, a private Islamic academy in Brooklyn.
	Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Fami Fozi, 17, left, would not fight against a Muslim country. Mazen Kased, also 17, is not convinced that Muslims attacked the trade center.

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."

[sarcasm]

The joys of multiculturalism.

[sarcasm]

ping

[BunnySlippers]

Scary

[sarcasm]

.

[isthisnickcool]

Most kids this age don't have enough experience in life to say anything coherent about anything. These "Muslim-American" kids are no different. But they seem to be much more paranoid than they should be. Why? They can do just about anything they want in this country just like everybody else. Someone is filling these young kids heads full of mush. They ought to go live in one of the "Muslim" countries for a few weeks and see what it's like. Don't they have a clue why their parents came to America?

The more I read statements by people that practice the Muslim faith the more it appears that they are taught in their religion "either you are with them or aginst them." Or maybe "you are with us or we are against you". And a lot of them have been saying things that make them seem more part time Americans than anything else.

[chatham]

Let them take their views and their cowardly asses back to Muslim world and don't come back. The U.S.A. has spent more money and more Blood protecting the world from evil than all other countries combined . I am really tired of listening to the Incoming Alien types who expound on their anti American views.. Particularly 17 year old morons who still haven't learned anything.....Let them go to Taliban World where you can be jailed or killed based on the length of your beard or your pubic hair. Take the Poll in Kuwait and see how they feel?

[kosta50]

The man we supported and helped, Bosnia's fundamentalist Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic, wrote before the war there that there can be no co-existance between Islamic and non-Islamic societies.

Now that this issue comes closer home, we realize that Islam is not Southern Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic or Greek Orthodox. Islam recognizes only one nation -- the nation of Islam. It is therefore incompatible with any other. It co-exists with others because it has to, but Koran teaches the believers that they should spread the religion, even by force. After all, Islam means submission, not peace. It treates non-believers as enemies. Koran online is availbale. Read it.

[politeia]

This article confirms my suspicion -- and fear -- that American Muslim's generally lack a belief in and support for the American political creed as expressed in our founding documents. Our system of self-government requires a consensus on these principles. The recent history of Islamic fundamentalism in the so-called "moderate" Muslim states confirms their opposition to individual liberty and what we have come to call constitutional principles. This was admitted, even though I don't think he realized it at the time, by a so-called "moderate" Muslim spokesman who was on Dr Laura Schlesinger's show on Thurs (Oct 4). I believe it was extremely revealing about the true Muslim agenda in the US, indeed in the world.

The guest was introduced as Dr. Hassan Hathout author of Reading the Muslim Mind and a spokesman for the Los Angeles Islamic Center of Southern California. This is the exchange as I transcribed it from the radio.

Question asked by “Ken” from Nevada:

Ken: “Is Islam in conflict with the US Constitution? Specifically, does the Koran instruct the faithful to strive for Islamic rule of law or government under Islamic rule of law? The fundamental question is this: Is the goal of Muslims Islamic rule of the world?"

Hathout: “For the last question, no it is not. As for the American constitution, I wish deep from my heart if all Muslim countries would take the American constitution for their constitution and live the democracy which is the essence of true Islam.”

Dr. Laura: “And take that Ken. Thank you. Did you have a follow-up or are you happy about that?”

Ken: “Well does the Koran instruct the faithful to strive for Islamic rule of law?”

Hathout: “No that’s when you are a Muslim community. If you are a Muslim community, you are required to judge your affairs… and in the Koran there is a verse that says that people of the torah should rule [unintelligible] should rule themselves with it and the people of the gospel should rule themselves with it and if you are just a Muslim majority nation, you are required by Islam to apply the Islamic law.”

Dr Laura: “However if you live in the United States of America?”

Hathout: "I belong in the law of the land. And that’s what Islam tells me."

Dr. Laura: "And that’s what Judaism tells us too."

After hearing this I returned to my Encyclopedia Britannica (1992) section on Islam and reread the material on Jihad. This is what it said:

Because the mission of the community is to “enjoin good and forbid evil” so that “there is no mischief and corruption on earth,” the doctrine of jihad, in view of the constitution of the community as the power base, is the logical outcome. For the early community it was a basic religious concept. Jihad, or holy war, means an active struggle using armed force whenever necessary. The object of jihad is not the conversion of individuals to Islam but rather the gaining of political control over the collective affairs of societies to run them in accordance with the principles of Islam. Individual conversions occur as a byproduct of this process when the power structure passes into the hands of the Muslim community.

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. If America continues the open door immigration policy we may find that it is our political and religious principles that are merely "tolerated" by a Muslim majority while they pursue Islamic rule.

[80skid]

My 2 words.

Get Out.

Not really down with anyone not willing to fight for the very country and lifestyle they enjoy.

[GuillermoX]

Their ideal society would follow Islamic law and make no separation between religion and state.

This is what all of America needs to understand about these people. Their goal is the overthrow of the US Government and to impose their way of life on us. Mohammedans will get along with anybody else, as long as it is on their terms, fully and completely

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

Their worldview is totally dependent on wild conspiracy theories. They believe the Mossad and the CIA were behind the attacks.

[isthisnickcool]

There is a medical term that mostly describes what you are talking about. In the human body it's a cancer.

[areafiftyone]

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.

Sorry kids - Freedom of Speech is a basic right in this country - If you don't like it go home to your country and see what you're missing out on by living at home. Their parents are isolating them by sending them to an Islamic school to shield them from our American culture. I sense that these kids are starting to become anti-american.

[GuillermoX]

You're absolutely right. Islam is a cancer. Too bad our President is so busy running from mosque to mosque barefoot, too busy inviting terrorists to the WH and National Cathedral to "pray" to realize this.

[ikanakattara]

So ... if the US Supreme Court rules that vouchers for private religious schools are constitutional, how do you all feel about this school getting tax money to spread anti-Americanism?

[SauronOfMordor]

If and when Muslims are in the majority, they will use the power of the vote to conform our laws with Islamic law.

Not just when they are in the majority

When they are a significantly large minority (say, 5-10%) they will use violence and threats of violence to get their way. Media outlets that are judged "anti-Islamic" will either change their tone, or face an endless series of assaults, sit-ins, protests, etc

Any author who speaks out will risk getting murdered, with the murderer either getting sprung by an "OJ jury" or becoming a celebrity on Death Row (like Mumia Abu Jamal) while filing endless appeals

Any teacher who says anything disliked by Muslims will be hounded from the school system, etc, etc

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Notably absent from this piece is any shock or horror from these young people at the senseless slaughter of thousands of innocent human beings (many Muslim) on September 11th.

This piece demonstrates the bitter fruit of "diversity" and "multiculturalism." In the past, all immigrants, who became U.S. citizens, were Americans first. Now, we have an enormous fifth column of traitors who bear no allegiance and will fight against the rest of America.

I will never again trust the allegiance of any Muslim in America. Their religion has no place for national allegiance.

They have no respect for the religious freedom allowed in the United States, and under which they practice their faith HERE, in contrast to the murderous intolerance toward non-Muslims in predominately Muslim countries.

Islam is a dangerous faith and the enemy of freedom throughout the world.

[porte des morts]

It would certainly seem that all those profiling,bigoted,"Iwon't fly on a plane with Arab types",Islam is anti-American,the problem is in our midst, bigots,may have been on to something..........

I sure hope all the Islam apologists here on FR read this.

And once again remember;in any war,there are only two sides.

[SauronOfMordor]

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

For an example of a level of proof that still would not satisfy these people, look at the OJ trial

[TheOtherOne]

You're absolutely right. Islam is a cancer. Too bad our President is so busy running from mosque to mosque barefoot, too busy inviting terrorists to the WH and National Cathedral to "pray" to realize this.

I would have expected it from Clinton or Gore, but I am shocked that Bush is more concerned about offending and codling of the enemy - than protecting American citizens.

[isthisnickcool]

So ... if the US Supreme Court rules that vouchers for private religious schools are constitutional, how do you all feel about this school getting tax money to spread anti-Americanism?

Considering all the left wing Anti-Americanism being spread today in our gov't schools having vouchers would help a great deal. If that means it would fund schools like this, so be it....