Posted on 11/07/2002 9:56:06 AM PST by Abar
Monday, November 4, 2002
Muslim community under a lens Sniper suspect's connection to Islam worries some followers
By REBECCA COOK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The arrest of John Muhammad in the D.C.-area sniper shootings sent shock waves through the Puget Sound region's Muslim community.
Not because they knew him, but because they'd never heard of this guy who called himself a Muslim.
For a religious community that started with three Seattle families in the 1960s and has increased to about 30,000 people today, Muhammad's tenuous connection felt like a slap in the face.
Muhammad, who lived in Tacoma and Bellingham, converted to Islam and changed his last name from Williams. He did not follow mainstream Islam; rather, he belonged to the Nation of Islam, a group that does not share Islam's central beliefs.
Yet in news reports, Muhammad was simply a Muslim.
"The media spent a lot of time on this sniper making a big issue of his religion," said Yasmeen Rutherford, a Seattle native who converted to Islam in 1999.
"I have no idea what religion this young man is who walked into the classroom and shot those teachers," she said, referring to the recent shooting of three nursing professors at the University of Arizona. News reports did not mention his religion.
"But," Rutherford said, "if it's a Muslim who does something. . .."
The sinking feeling is familiar for local Muslims. They've also struggled with fallout from the arrest of James Ujaama, another black Muslim convert. Ujaama is in federal custody on terrorism charges.
Unlike Muhammad, Ujaama is known by the Seattle Muslim community -- but not well. While Ujaama was considered a bright young leader in the Central District, he barely registered with the rest of the Muslim community.
"Maybe he's Muslim, maybe he's a good guy, but we don't know him," said Aziz Junejo, host of a cable access talk show called "Focus on Islam."
That seems to be the consensus among mainstream Muslims, who considered Ujaama's now-defunct Seattle mosque to be extremist. But many also believe he's innocent. Ali-Salaam Mahmoud, vice president of the SeaTac mosque, said he suspects Ujaama is locked up mainly because he is "black and articulate and Muslim."
But it's getting harder to gauge the Muslim community's reaction to anything, because the community has grown too big and too diverse to speak with a single voice.
Fourteen mosques exist in the area; they're full to bursting and several more are planned. Within the many ethnic groups, people split along lines of young and old, modern and traditional, liberal and conservative.
The Puget Sound area's Muslim community has grown up along with Junejo, 42. He was a toddler when his father, a Boeing engineer from Pakistan, moved the family here in 1962. They were one of three Muslim families.
He remembers meeting for prayers in the basement of a Methodist church on the University of Washington campus. In 1973, those first families founded the South Seattle Islamic Center. Soon after, they established a mosque in a SeaTac house -- it still exists, and gets so crowded at Friday prayers that people pray outside in the yard.
The 1970s saw an influx of Arab-born engineers who worked at Boeing. They were followed by a group of refugees called Cham, a Muslim minority from Cambodia.
In the 1980s, North Africans came, as well as many Pakistanis. Bosnian Muslims arrived in Seattle during the early 1990s.
In the past few years, Somalian immigrants have made their mark.
The new arrivals sometimes remind Junejo of what the more established Muslim community has lost.
"The Somalis three years ago, they right away started opening stores and businesses. They started finding all kinds of ways to support one another," Junejo said. "We've lost that sense of real dependence on each other. I miss that sense of struggle."
Ann El-Moslimany's husband was one of those first three Muslim founding fathers when they moved here in 1963. She converted in 1971, and in 1980 she helped found The Islamic School of Seattle, which now has about 65 students.
Some Muslim immigrants look down on the idea of a Muslim education -- they came here because they want their children to get an American education. Others complain the school is too American, too progressive.
El-Moslimany said the community has splintered as it has grown.
"In the old days, all the Muslims were together because there were so few of us," she said.
Some Muslims want to translate population growth into a political power that they haven't traditionally wielded here. A new group called "mPower" aims to involve Muslims in local politics and created a voters guide for Muslims this year.
Rutherford, an mPower board member, said many immigrants are unfamiliar with democracy. Some come from totalitarian regimes where political activism can get you killed. A recent forum for Muslims on the basics of voting was well attended.
Sept. 11 and its aftermath has helped unify and politicize the community, too.
After the terrorist attacks, someone tried to set fire to cars in the parking lot of the Idris Mosque in North Seattle, Muslim women were harassed on the street and a taxi driver was attacked.
But that triggered a backlash against the backlash. People stood outside mosques to help protect their Muslim neighbors. Flowers and notes of support piled up beside the mosque doors.
It reminded Rizwan Nasar, a leader in the Pakistan Association of Greater Seattle, of why he lives here.
"People in the Northwest are very openhearted," Nasar said. "You are more of an American than you are a Pakistani here."
Public sentiments are not so rosy now. No one's leaving flowers, and the dirty looks and occasional harassment have continued. At the same time, the crackdown on legal and illegal Arab immigrants through the U.S. Patriot Act has many Muslims feeling scared and angry.
"I can't believe the things I've faced just because I've had a scarf on my head," said Rutherford, principal of a Muslim school in Medina. "I always thought my home city was more enlightened than other places. Having grown up a white, middle-class person, I had never experienced the prejudice I'm experiencing now."
Yet in hardship, some see opportunity: a time to unite the community and present Islam's best face to the world.
"We are now more visible," Junejo said.
He said strangers frequently question him about his religion. He answers, happy for the chance to educate people about his Islam -- not the twisted version of serial snipers or suicide bombers.
"We're in the spotlight now," he said, "and I think that's good."
On the Net:
islamicschool-seattle.org/
Northwest Islamic Journal: www.ourrisingstar.org/nwijweb/main.asp
Muslims of Seattle Area Network: www.eskimo.com/_ 7/8misry/seattle/
THIS IS 'MAINSTREAM' ISLAM!!! THEY ARE EITHER OUT TO KILL US OR SUPPORT THOSE WHO DO!
Actually, Nation of Islam is NOT mainstream Islam. It's a very mutant form, and a lot of Muslims are uncomfortable with the group. But there's other BS in this article:
Yet in news reports, Muhammad was simply a Muslim.
Funny, I recall that in many news reports, they were not only failing to refer to Muhammad as NOI Muslim, but also were calling him by his birth name, Williams.
Sure thing buddy
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And that is where it should be, along with all other non-peace loving organizations all around the world.
In most news reports, he was merely an "army veteran."
Big Bump for putting Ziglar where he belongs!
Nope! Terrorism is not refuted here either.
(Continuing my search for the religion of peace........)
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