“The Holy (And Sinful) Careers of South Asian Americans” by Farah Akbar, Goatmilkblog.com 

FARAH AKBAR

Amrik Singh, 60 could not bear the thought of his children turning into anything other than doctors.  God forbid they turn into teachers or gasp, social workers – like him.   Coming from a family of farmers, he immigrated to the United States from India almost 4 decades ago.  Today he beams with pride when he says that all three of his children are now doctors.

“If you are a doctor, right away you become a great achievement in both American society and Indian society,” he says confidently.  He does not pretend that it is all about social status either though.  The money that doctors earn in the United States is just too darn good.  “You don’t know. There is economics here,” he insists.  Singh is firm in his belief that a relatively high income is necessary to have “made it” in the United States.  “The idea for coming here was to be economically successful. There is no point in living hand to mouth,” he insists.

Numbering at about 2.7 million, South Asians living in the United States hail from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. South Asians, and Indian Americans in particular, continue to fill many important positions in science and technology.  Indians, who make up less than two percent of the American population, today make up five percent of all  doctors and account for ten percent of all medical school students.  There are also thousands of Pakistani Americans practicing medicine.  Indians are three percent of the nation’s engineers and seven percent of its IT workers.

Many children of South Asian parents deal with what the say is an unrelenting familial pressure to pursue only certain careers, like medicine and engineering.  These days, law and finance seem to be making  the cut as well.  What results for some of these children in their adulthood is a lack of job satisfaction and a frustration of not having pursued their passions.

These days, more South-Asian Americans are defying tradition and are taking their chances in careers that would cause Amrik Singh and others of his generation nightmares.  They are becoming writers, designers and activists to name a few.  They do so despite the criticisms they face from their communities, the relative lack of job safety for some occupations and the cut in pay.

“There is a construction of a cliche of what success is,” says Dr. Vijay Prashad.  Dr.  Prashad, professor of international relations at Trinity College says that it is no accident that so many young South Asians find themselves working in math and science fields.    According to his book, “The Karma of Brown Folk,” the governmental policies of India have much to do this phenomenon.  In 1947, Jawarharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India said that the “new India” would be “closely linked to science” and made it a priority to create state-funded learning institutions devoted to science.  The trend has not changed even today.

The institutions created a generation of skilled workers mostly from the middle class, many of whom would make their way into the United States via the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.  Between 1966 and 1977, thousands of scientists with PhDs, engineers, and doctors came from India alone. The majority of Pakistani immigrants who arrived between 1965 and the early 1980s also came as skilled migrants.

Dr. Prashad argues that children tend to follow the career paths of their parents which he claims also contributes to the large numbers of young South doctors and engineers.

Despite these impressive accomplishments, are young South Asian doctors, engineers, pharmacists and the like happy in their careers?  From a financial perspective, probably.  Such careers continue to fetch more money than most other fields.

For some though, the money does not make up for everything.  Always very close to her parents, Dr. Alka Chandna would have no contact with her’s for two months after she announced to them that she was leaving her job as a software developer to work with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) full time. Her voice still breaks as she recalls the day she told them about her decision. “They thought I was entering a black hole, a world they didn’t understand,” she says softly.  “I’ve blocked the conversation from my mind,” says Chandna, who lives in Washington D.C.

Like many South Asians, Chandna was encouraged to pursue medicine but refused,  believing that it was morally wrong to use animals for dissections in medical school.  While her two sisters would go on to become physicians (and her brother an engineer)  Chandna went on to get a PhD in mathematics, just like her father (her mother also has a PhD).

She understands why her parents wanted her to pursue a career in science.  Chandna grew up in Canada experiencing racism; she remembers having her house spray painted and having eggs thrown at it.  “Going the profession route was the path out of that life,” she says.

Today she is PETA’s Laboratory Oversight Specialist where she studies the regulations and guidelines that govern the use of animals in laboratory settings.  Her relationship has improved with her parents since that fateful day ten years ago.  “It wasn’t as horrible as they were worried it was,” she says.  “They’ve come to a place where they are very pleased.”

Chandna enjoys working with PETA even though she is making about half of what she was making in Silicon Valley. “Working for PETA makes the world a kinder place,” she says.

Husna Butt, a 24 year old Pakistani-American from Chicago felt that she was “living a lie” while a student in medical school a few years ago.    She decided to quit medical school about 20 minutes after taking a makeup exam for classes she failed in the previous semester.  “I was not new to failure, that’s not what bothered me,” she says.  “What bothered me was that I did not want to make the effort anymore.”

An artist at heart, she loved drawing portraits as a child.  She remembers her father, an engineer, telling her and her two sisters that they should become doctors when they got older.  Feeling “lost” as an undergrad and yearning for independence from her parents, she gave medical school a chance.  “I enjoyed every second of it, especially in the beginning,” she says.    “But I was not serious about any of it and I realize now that’s because I was not passionate about medicine itself.”

Today Butt is pursuing a career in graphic design and completed a certificate in fashion design.  Her parents are supportive.  “I think they worry about me though but I also think that’s normal,” she says.  Her two sisters, meanwhile, are both physicians.

Farhana Huda Islam, 29, from Queens, New York was also a budding artist as a child.  She started a magazine in college that continues to be published after her graduation.  She expressed her desire to become an English teacher to her Bangladeshi parents but was met with swift disapproval. “They thought it was not prestigious,” she says.  “That I would not make much money.”  She was encouraged to pursue pharmacy, like her father.

At St. John’s University’s pharmacy program, she found many South Asian students, some of whom were just as upset about their predicament as she was.  A whopping 62 percent of the students in Islam’s pharmacy program today are of Asian origin.

She felt frustrated with having to follow a curriculum that was, not surprisingly, largely science based and left little room for her to take liberal arts courses.   At one point she created a Facebook page called “I Hate Pharmacy! My Dad Made Me Do It!” attracting others who could resonate with its message.

Islam eventually graduated from her pharmacy program and has been a pharmacist for the past five years.  She says that her experience has not been all that bad.  “I have a passion for people, making a difference in their lives.”

But the writing bug has not gone away, and the mother of two wants to go back to school to get a Masters in Fine Arts someday.

“I always wonder what would have happened to my potential if I were in classes that sparked my interest,” she says.  “I still want to write.”

Wajahat Ali, 31 wants to see more South Asians take their chances in the liberal arts and he is quick to explain that he is not trying to bash doctors and engineers.  “If that’s your passion, talent and choice, go for it,” he says.  “But we kind of already have enough engineers and doctors.”

Born and raised in California, his family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan.  He remembers when he wrote his first story at the age of ten.  “I brought it home and my father said you should be a writer. My mother overheard it and she said ‘yea but first become a doctor.”

Ali went to law school (“I missed the doctor boat,” he says) though he admits that he did not have an extreme passion for the subject.

After being unemployed for months following his graduation,  Ali embarked on his “unorthodox” career as a new media journalist.  He developed a following with his blog, Goatmilk.com where he wrote essays about politics, Islam and contemporary affairs with a humorous spin.  In the midst of his unorthodox career, he also briefly practiced law, work he found rewarding.

Today, he has nearly 7,000 followers on Twitter and his play, The Domestic Crusaders, has been published into a book.  In addition, his essays frequently appear in the Guardian, The Washington Post and Salon.com amongst other leading publications.  He recently edited a book about prominent Muslims in America and is currently writing a TV pilot with Dave Eggers for HBO about a Muslim American cop in the Bay Area.  He is also a consultant on issues related to Muslims and civil rights.

But getting to this point was not easy.  Members of the Pakistani community mocked his efforts while he built his career. Women initially ignored him too. (However, he  is now happily married.)

Ali says that he could be making more money as an attorney but is sticking to his “unorthodox” career for the time. “You learn to live lean if you pursue this career,” he says.  He worries about the future sometimes though and wonders about money and how he will take care of his parents when they get older.

Dr. Prashad encourages South Asians to become more adventurous in their career pursuits.   “There is a need to venture out.  We are human beings, with imaginations,” he says.  “It is an incredibly healthy thing to promote a variety of occupations.”  He discusses exciting prospects of careers that weave science and the arts, such as software design and  computer animation.

“These days, South Asians are actually making waves in the world of arts and humanities,” says Prashad.

Ali says that the initial disdain he received from his community has been replaced by a realization that more people like him are needed.  “Some old school uncles are now saying ‘No one is telling our stories, what you’re doing is valuable and important.”

And the compulsion to create remains strong for him, despite the challenges.  “There’s a joy there.  There is hard work.  Yes it’s brutal.  But it’s fulfilling.”

http://goatmilkblog.com/

Farah Akbar is a freelance writer from Queens, New York.  She has written for Salon.com, The Gotham Gazette, City Limits and CNN.com.  She graduated from Baruch College.  

Muslims, Please Spare the Animals This Eid - full article

By Farah Akbar and Bina Ahmad

The first encounter that many Muslims across the world have with animals often comes from the celebrations of a joyous religious holiday – Eid-ul-Azha. In many Muslim countries, families purchase a goat, cow or other domesticated animal from an animal market weeks before the holiday. In some cultures, family members affectionately decorate the animal with flower necklaces, paint and colorful beads. Children often become attached to the creature stemming from the natural affinity that kids have for animals. However, when the day of Eid-ul-Azha comes, it can be a traumatic and heartbreaking experience for a child – the pet that they had lovingly bonded with is slaughtered with a sharp knife while it is fully conscious and in many cases, the slaughtering takes place on the actual grounds of the family’s home. The meat of the animal is then typically distributed three ways: one-third for oneself, one-third for friends and family and one-third for the poor.

For three days, Muslims slaughter animals in commemoration of the prophet Abraham’s (peace be upon him) willingness to sacrifice his own son for the sake of God. As Abraham was about to slay his son Ishmael (peace be upon him) which he believed came as a direct order from God, a sheep appeared before him in place of his son.

Muslims have a duty both religiously and culturally to evolve with scientific and moral progress. The meaning behind Eid-ul-Azha will always stand, but in today’s world, we must look at things practically. We must take into consideration the undeniable cruelty involved in killing millions of God’s creations, how environmentally damaging it is to raise animals for food, how unhealthy meat is for human consumption, and the lack of an actual requirement in Islam to eat meat. Muslims, especially those of us that live in the Western world, have a duty to end the animal sacrifice of Eid-ul-Azha and replace our good intentions in other ways.

We hope it is no secret now that the majority of meat in this country is produced on factory farms. Unfortunately, much of the halal meat consumed in the country also has origins from factory farms as well.

Factory farming is the practice of maximizing profit for agribusiness by minimizing costs spent on space and the general quality of life for the animals, resulting in confining animals into incredibly crowded and cramped cages in filthy conditions. Cows are often burned with hot irons and have their horns cut off, without anesthesia. Veal calves, a natural by-product of the dairy industry whose mother’s milk is consumed by humans, are deliberately kept anemic to keep their flesh pale as this is considered a delicacy, and are confined to wooden boxes their entire lives without room to lay down or fully stretch their legs. Most of these animals never see the light of day, walk on grass, or do anything natural to them their entire lives. Undercover footage has also revealed that oftentimes these animals are beaten and abused by employees and suffer through long and stressful transports. All these practices are in violation of Islamic teachings as it is unlawful (haram) to consume the flesh of an animal that has been beaten, branded or mutilated.

Factory Farming takes the lead as the worst environmentally damaging and resource wasting industry. This practice of intensively confining animals onto as small a space of land as possible causes enormous detriment to the soil and local water sources. It further necessitates the use of antibiotics in the animal feed since the animals are kept in such horrid and cramped conditions that they would die of disease if they were not given such drugs. All of this stays in the animals post slaughter – in their flesh, in the local water and of course, winds up in human bodies. Factory farming has also been cited time and time again as the worst environmental polluter above all other industries, necessitating the United Nations to publish a recent report urging the move towards vegetarian and vegan diets based on factory farming’s devastating contribution to green house gas emissions, soil erosion and contamination with industrial pollutants, water contamination and incredible waste of water above all other industries. (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet)

In addition, U.S. law does not prohibit feeding farm animals the byproducts of the slaughterhouse industry. In 2003, 8 million metric tons of meat and bone meal, poultry byproduct meal, blood meal, and feather meal were mixed into animal feed and fed to farm animals (http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.9760). Even worse, many animals are allowed to eat the meat of their own species. (http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/they-eat-what-the-reality-of.html) These practices are in grave violation of Islamic teachings which forbid the consumption of carnivorous animals. While it is true that some halal slaughterhouses try their best to ensure that the animals they slaughter are raised according to Islamic teachings, many are unaware of the origins of the animals that they sell to consumers, focusing instead only on the manner in which the animal is killed. (http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout&cid=1178724246679)

Eating too much eat is not good for your health either. Studies upon studies have revealed to us that eating red meat in excess increases our risks of developing cardiovascular diseases and developing cancer. We are only about five percent of the world’s population yet we grow and kill an astonishing 10 billion animals a year – more than 15 percent of the world’s total. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html)

While meat production and consumption is much less in Muslim countries compared to that of the United States, those in the Muslim world should also remain cautious: in many parts of the world, the festivities of Eid-ul-Azha bring along with it an increase in illness. For example, according to the Daily Star newspaper in Bangladesh, the number of individuals being admitted to hospitals increases by about 10 percent during this time of year brought on by a gluttonous consumption of meat. (http://newshopper.sulekha.com/meat-intake-during-eid-makes-dhaka-medicos-see-red_news_1127916.htm)

Meat-eating is not a requirement of Islam. In fact, according to Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, the prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) could have been categorized as a “semi-vegetarian.” He has said that traditionally, Muslims only ate meat once a week if they were wealthy or middle class. Regarding the Eid-ul-Azha sacrifice, Egyptian Islamic scholar Gamal Al Banna states: ”In today’s modern world, ideas and religion change and Islam is no different. We must not remain rigid in our understanding of faith to mean the blind acceptance of anything, killing living beings included. There is no obligation to kill.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/26/meat-islam-vegetarianism-ramadan)

The holy Quran says of the sacrifice that, “It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches Him.” (S22:vs37) But showing piety and devotion to Allah can be expressed in many other forms. We can do so much more to help the needy by simply redirecting the money that would have gone towards the purchase of an animal for slaughter and using it for other longer lasting and more beneficial purposes. The money can go towards building schools in poor countries or even be used to build hospitals in places where access to medical care is difficult.

It is time for Muslims to think about whether this yearly mass-slaughter of animals is really keeping in the spirit of Islam – a religion that advocates kindness towards animals, instructs us to take care of the planet and teaches us to eat in moderation and take care of our health. This Eid, before you purchase an animal for sacrifice here or abroad, please consider celebrating the holiday without the needless slaughtering of Allah’s creatures.

Muslims, Please Spare the Animals This Eid

By Bina Ahmad and Farah Akbar

The first encounter that many Muslims across the world have with animals often comes from the celebrations of a joyous religious holiday – Eid-ul-Azha. In many Muslim countries, families purchase a goat, cow or other domesticated animal from an animal market weeks before the holiday. In some cultures, family members affectionately decorate the animal with flower necklaces, paint and colorful beads. Children often become attached to the creature stemming from the natural affinity that kids have for animals. However, when the day of Eid-ul-Azha comes, it can be a traumatic and heartbreaking experience for a child – the pet that they had lovingly bonded with is slaughtered with a sharp knife while it is fully conscious and in many cases, the slaughtering takes place on the actual grounds of the family’s home. The meat of the animal is then typically distributed three ways: one-third for oneself, one-third for friends and family and one-third for the poor.

For three days, Muslims slaughter animals in commemoration of the prophet Abraham’s (peace be upon him) willingness to sacrifice his own son for the sake of God. As Abraham was about to slay his son Ishmael (peace be upon him) which he believed came as a direct order from God, a sheep appeared before him in place of his son.

Muslims have a duty both religiously and culturally to evolve with scientific and moral progress. The meaning behind Eid-ul-Azha will always stand, but in today’s world, we must look at things practically. We must take into consideration the undeniable cruelty involved in killing millions of God’s creations, how environmentally damaging it is to raise animals for food, how unhealthy meat is for human consumption, and the lack of an actual requirement in Islam to eat meat. Muslims, especially those of us that live in the Western world, have a duty to end the animal sacrifice of Eid-ul-Azha and replace our good intentions in other ways.

http://goatmilkblog.com/

CNN

Editor's Note: Farah Akbar is a New York-based writer who has contributed to Islamonline.net and Salon.com.

By Farah Akbar, Special to CNN

A wave of unexpected calm has blanketed India since the verdict on the disputed holy site known as Ayodhya was delivered on Thursday, with one-third of the land going to plaintiffs who represent the Hindu deity Ram, a third going to a separate Hindu group and a third to a Muslim group.

The land has been a catalyst for communal violence for years. Deploying 190,000 officers to keep the peace, India had braced itself for what it feared would be a replay of violence from decades past.

In 1992, Hindu extremists destroyed the centuries-old Babri mosque in Ayodhya on the belief that it had been built atop the birthplace of Ram and over an ancient Hindu temple. The resulting religious riots across India claimed more than 2,000 lives.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/03/my-take-muslims-hindus-should-accept-indias-holy-site-verdict/#comments

CNN

Farah Akbar is a New York-based writer who has contributed to Gotham Gazette, Islamonline.net, Al-Ahram Weekly and Salon.com.

The world is full of attention-hungry individuals willing to do just about anything for fame. Terry Jones got it, and frankly, he did not even have to do much. A provocative threat from him wrapped the media around his finger for days.

His distasteful plan to burn Qurans on the ninth anniversary of September 11 at an obscure church had the media obsessed about him, as teenyboppers are about Justin Bieber.

Jones, a radical, fringe Christian with less than 50 followers, wound up having a change of heart. His only claim to fame before this was a hateful book he wrote that has only six reviews on Amazon.com, most of which are negative. And besides his title of pastor, what authority or influence does he have when it comes to matters of religion?

But if Jones had followed through on his pledge to burn Islam's holy book, the results could have been disastrous. Many Muslims perceive any insult toward their revered book as an attack on their faith. The Daily Star, an English-language paper in Lebanon, said that if the event were to have taken place, it was "likely to ignite a fire of rage that could consume swaths of the globe." Demonstrations against the burning took place in Pakistan, Gaza, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

His cheap attempt at getting attention trumped important news, such as the devastating floods that have ravaged much of Pakistan. Aren't there individuals on the planet who are actually making a positive difference in the lives of others who would have been more worthy of that attention?

How could this situation, with the potential to have had very damaging effects here and elsewhere been avoided? Simple -- don't let obscure people, whose actions have the potential to incite violence, dominate the news cycle.

Gotham Gazette

Controversy Over Islam and Mosques Spreads Beyond Park 51

by Farah Akbar
Sep 2010

Photo by David Shankbone

The area near ground zero has been the scene of several protests for and against an Islamic center proosed for lower Manhattan.

Nine years after the Sept, 11, 2001 attacks, a heated debate over a proposed Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero has helped spark a wave of distrust and anger toward Muslim Americans and Islam in New York City and beyond.

Polls show opposition to the construction of the center, known as Park51. People have rallied against it, and while Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama have supported the developers' right to build the center, many other politicians have stridently opposed the project. Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, for one, has referred to the project's leader, Imam Faisal Rauf, as a "terrorist-sympathizing imam," even though the State Department sponsored Rauf's recent trip to the Middle East to discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance.

"Opponents to Park51 continue to smear all things Muslim and justify their calls to move the project away from the 9/11 site by erroneously linking the criminals responsible for the attacks to the organizers and its supporters," said Faiza Ali, community affairs director for the Council on American Islamic Relations NY chapter.

While Muslims were victims of bias attacks in the days and weeks immediately after 9/11, then President George W. Bush made efforts to defuse the rage against Muslims and Islam. He visited the Islamic Center of Washington D.C. six days after the attacks, condemned any type of biased attacks against Muslims, and said that Muslims needed to be treated "with respect."

Now, though, following a period of calm, some Muslims in New York and beyond feel a return of the fears some experienced after 9/11. The apparent change in the country's attitude toward Muslims, Islam and their houses of worship has alarmed American Muslims and others in the country and left experts and common citizens struggling to shed light on why the apparent shift has occurred.

Two Blocks from Ground Zero

Two thirds of New York City residents want the lower Manhattan Islamic center to be moved to a location farther from the World Trade Center site, according to a recent New York Times poll. One fifth of those surveyed admitted to harboring animosity toward Muslims, and 33 percent said that they believed that Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists than other American citizens. Another poll -- this one by the Daily News - found that half of those opposed to the center near ground zero do not want it to be built anywhere in Lower Manhattan.

This year marked the first time since 9/11 that the anniversary of the attacksfeatured protests near the trade center site, clearly a result of the mosque furor. Supporters held a demonstration at City Hall, while one anti-community center rally featured Geert Wilders, the controversial anti-Islamic Dutch parliament member who has called for taxing Muslim women for wearing headscarves and opposed the building of new mosques in the Netherlands. Police estimate that thousands attended the rally.

Politicians have weighed in. Gov. David Paterson suggested that the developers find another place to build "that would not be so close to Ground Zero." Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has said that the project would "horribly offend" the families of those killed on Sept. 11.

To the concern of many, such rhetoric seeks to make all Muslims responsible for the attacks on the trade center and Pentagon. "This insinuation of collective guilt, the notion that American Muslims should be treated as second class citizens in our home is false, un-American, and should be rejected," Ali said.

As the debate has raged, some have tried to find a way out.

Yesterday, Rauf himself pledged to find a way out of the dispute. "Everything is on the table," he said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We really are focused on solving it." One idea reportedly under consideration would involve expanding the interfaith programs at the center and allowing worship space for people of other religions.

Previously, Donald Trump offered to buy the site now slated for the proposed Islamic center -- if the mosque were to be built at least five blocks from ground zero. He maintains the proposal arose from his desire to "end a very serious, inflammatory and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse."

Beyond Park51

However the issue is ultimately settled, the anger toward Muslims and mosques has spread to many parts of the city. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that bias attacks against Muslims have increased in New York. Since 2001, the city has dealt with about 10 crimes or allegations of hate crimes against Muslims every year. This year, there already have been 10 cases, and Ali thinks some bias attacks may go unreported.

Last month, a Muslim cab driver in New York City was slashed in the mouth, throat and arm by a passenger this summer who asked him if he was Muslim prior to attacking him. In Astoria, Queens, an inebriated man walked into the Al-Iman mosque and then urinated on the rugs used by congregants for prayer and hurled anti-Muslim comments at the mosque-goers.

A 37-year-old Queens resident, who does not want his name used, thinks that he may have been the victim of a hate crime. On a warm August evening, he was taking the routine four-block walk home from the Jamaica Muslim Centerafter completing his prayers. He was wearing a traditional outfit from his native Bangladesh, which consists of a long overflowing shirt that reaches the knees and baggy pants. Two blocks shy of his home, five men surrounded him began punching him.

"I kept saying, 'Don't hit me. Take what you want, but don't hit me,'" he said. The men did not ask for money or for his watch. In fact, they did not say a word to him throughout the entire ordeal. The victim, an information technology professional, had to take two days off from work to recover from his injuries.

Officials from the Jamaica Muslim Center believe that this was a hate crime. "He was wearing Muslim garb, he was not robbed and he was only two blocks away from the mosque," said Junnun Choudhury, general secretary of the center.

In Westbury, young people recently threw stones, shattering the windows of cars parked in front of the Islamic Center of Long Island. "I don’t know what their (the youths') true intentions were," said Habeeb Ahmed, the chairman of the board of trustees for the center. "But one could classify this as a hate crime."

Ahmed said that incidents such as these last occurred shortly after Sep. 11, 2001, when the mosque's sign was egged numerous times. He says that he and the congregants are not fearful these days, but that they are being extra careful. "I am concerned," he said. "Things can get out of control and somebody may get hurt one day. We are thankful for the presence of the police officers."

And in upstate Carlton, NY, police arrested five teens for disrupting religious services at a mosque. One teen fired a shotgun into the ground outside the mosque's building.

Construction Conflicts

Meanwhile, it has become increasingly difficult to build a mosque in New York City. The city already has about 140 mosques in all shapes and sizes. They range from simple basement apartments to large, multipurpose community centers that can include Islamic schools and auditoriums. One , the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, also known as the 96th Street Mosque, fills an entire block on the Upper East Side.

Louis Abdellatif Cristillo, the project director for Columbia University'sMuslims in New York City project, said that historically opposition to mosque-building was motivated in part by fear of the Muslim "other," but that it was dressed up under other pretexts, such as concern about zoning or complaints about noise and traffic. Most of those conflicts, he said in an email, were resolved without much difficulty -- "nothing like we are seeing with the Park51 community center."

Opponents of mosques throughout the New York City area have become much bolder in expressing why they do not want a mosque near them. In Staten Island, the board of trustees of a Roman Catholic Church recentlyrejected a proposal to sell a vacant convent to the Muslim American Society, which in turn, planned to convert it into a mosque. Neighbors who were opposed to the mosque labeled the Muslim American Society terrorist sympathizers and rallies against the mosque featured protesters carrying hateful signs against Muslims.

In Bethpage, Long Island, the town shut down the area’s only mosque, Masjid Al-Baqi, on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, citing electrical and plumbing issues. The town supervisor acknowledged that the inspector who found the problems was sent after over 100 community residents called to complain about a proposal for a second mosque in the area.

Mosque officials claim they corrected all the maintenance problems but that the mosque was ordered to close anyway. According to the suit filed by mosque leaders with the State Supreme Court, an anonymous email chain letter had circulated among residents reading in part, "This is not a Muslim neighborhood; we have no Muslim congregation in Bethpage. … Many of these organizations are on the FBI's watch lists. I do not want this in my neighborhood. They need to go elsewhere."

In Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, some residents have formed a group calledBay People to block the construction of a mosque in a residential area. According to its website, the group cites the typical complaints: noise, traffic and parking problems. Additionally, they openly allege that the builder of the mosque, the Muslim American Society, has a history of associations with radical organizations that promote terrorism. Leaders of the Muslim American Society reject such allegations. The group claims that it has raised $30,000 to fund a legal battle to block the mosque by arguing that it violates zoning laws.

Earlier this month, opponents of the mosque protested when member of the society handed out free backpacks and other school supplies at the site of the proposed mosque.

Politics and Religion

Many of those watching the increase in opposition to the construction of mosques blame politics and politicians. A New York Times front page story on the lower Manhattan Islamic center last December did not mention any opposition. In fact, it said, the project "has drawn early encouragement from city officials and the surrounding neighborhood."

"This controversy only began in May," Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf said in a recent interview on Larry King Live. "And it began as a result of some politicians, who decided to use this for certain political purposes. And this is when it began to snowball."

Bloomberg sees political motives as well. "This whole issue, I think, will go away right after the next election," he said during an appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. “This is plain and simple people trying to stir up things to get publicity and trying to polarize people so that they can get some votes."

While some Republicans support the center and some Democrats do not, many Republicans see opposition to the project as a good issue for them this fall. Republicans who oppose the mosque sometimes have challenged their Democratic opponents to take a stand on the issue, the Times reported last month.

Cristillo agrees that politics is a factor but sees social and economic factors at work as well.

"I think the far right is conflating anti-immigrant legislation with Islamophobia in a climate of anger over the inability of government to resolve the economic crisis to rally its base for the upcoming November elections and the presidential election in 2012. We see this in the ludicrous rhetoric coming out of talk radio, cable news and the blogosphere casting doubt on Obama's birthplace and religion," he wrote. In addition, he said, social conservatives view mosques as examples of spaces that reject assimilation to American values and culture.

All of this has no doubt helped push Park51, which is, in essence, a local issue, into the national arena. Politicians, largely Republicans but Democrats such as Sen. Harry Reid and the former head of the Democratic National Committee and onetime Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, have chimed in too. They have both said that the center should be built elsewhere.

Other politicians have expressed their support for the center. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a Republican, has defended the rights of the organizers to build the community center. "There's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there, but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I’d be the first to stand up for their rights," he has said.

Park51's most vocal supporter has been Bloomberg. In an emotional speech, the mayor reminded everyone of New York City's dark history of religious intolerance. Indeed, Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of what was then called New Amsterdam, wanted to bar Jews from arriving in the city and effectively prohibited them from practicing their faith in public. At one time, Catholics were prohibited from practicing their religion and priests could even be arrested. Today though, most Catholics and Jewish New Yorkers oppose the center, according to the Times poll.

"Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens of the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?" he asked. "That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here. ... Muslims are as much a part of our city and our country as the people of any faith."

After appearing to vacillate on the issue, Obama, whose own religion has been called into question lately, reiterated his support on the eve of 9/11. "This country stands on the proposition that all men and women are created equal; that they have certain inalienable rights. One of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely," he said, adding "if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on the site."

Ali thinks such statements can play an important role "Americans have the right to freely practice their faith without intimidation and discrimination including the constitutional right to build houses of worship anywhere in the country," she said. Noting "the hate rhetoric against Muslims," she said, "Without strong repudiation from our elected officials, our fear is that this unsettling trend will only continue to grow."

Salon.com

TOPIC:

Religion

SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010 14:01 ET

A troubling cultural gap

If today's young American Muslims can't relate to their imams, where will they turn?

Reuters

Imam Husham Al-Husainy talks to Muslim youth at the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Mich., in March.

BY FARAH AKBAR

Ishak Khan, 17, wants to know if it's OK to get a tattoo in his religion. He also wants to know if it's OK to write rap songs and if it's OK to have a Muslim girlfriend.

Like many of his Muslim American contemporaries, Ishak isn't quite sure how to balance his religion with American culture. He does talk to friends about these issues, but he'd really like to speak with an adult who understands both American culture and Islam. But he can't really talk to his parents because they're very traditional, and he's definitely not going to that imam "straight out of Bangladesh" who gives the boring sermons at the Queens, N.Y., mosque he attends once a month.

"I don't think I can connect or talk to him, because he's not from here," says Ishak, who was born here to Bangladeshi parents. "I can't even tell him that I write music, 'cause he's just gonna tell me that it's bad. And if I tell him about getting a tattoo, he's gonna tell me that it will look dirty." And about the girlfriend? "He's gonna say it's haram [forbidden]."

Says the aspiring rapper: "I just want a cool person who I can ask questions to and who can give me a reasonable response."

Ishak's dilemma is one familiar to many Muslim Americans of his generation. Going to a mosque to pray or to receive Islamic education is an integral part of their lives. Though not all young Muslims are mosque-goers, those who do go often look to their local imams for guidance, only to be turned off by the cultural gap that exists between them. This has caught the attention of some Muslim community members, who fear that too many young American Muslims are left feeling alienated and frustrated.

Some Muslims are voicing their opinions and calling for change. They would like imams, who tend to be older, male and "imported," to be able to connect with a generation of Muslims raised in America. They also want mosques, which have the potential to develop leadership and community-building skills among young Muslims, to make youth outreach a priority. Failing to address these issues, they fear, could sever the connection between a generation of American Muslims and their religion.

There may be another fear, too. Abdul Malik Mujahid, an imam and author, has written that young people who feel marginalized or alienated can constitute "a breeding ground for extremism."

A common frustration among young Muslim Americans is that many imams speak to their congregations in languages other than English, often to accommodate immigrants who are more comfortable with their native tongue. (Some imams themselves may be more comfortable speaking in their native tongues as well.) This can leave the younger generation, which often has limited or no knowledge of its parents' mother tongues, uninterested.

Muntasir Sattar, 30, who works with many Muslim youths as a program coordinator at the South Asian Youth Action organization in New York, has seen how this causes the imam's message to go right over the heads of younger congregants -- even when it's aimed straight at them.

"A lot of Khutbahs [sermons] on Fridays are about youth, about vices and virtues and the importance of staying on the right path," he says, "but from a youth's perspective, they're like, 'OK, that's great, but you're talking in Arabic, or Urdu or Bengali, and I don't speak that language!" he says.

Ishak admits that he's dozed off more than once during sermons, usually when they've been delivered in Bengali. "I speak Bengali, but it would be better if it was in English. I'd understand it better," he says. He does remember one time hearing a great sermon in English about how praying to Allah can make life less stressful during trying times. "I had exams and I was so worried. I prayed to Allah that I would pass them and I did," Ishak recalls. He would like sermons to be about issues closer to his life.

Tania Ahmed, a 17-year-old high school senior, agrees that language is an issue. (Tania is not her actual name, which she asked be withheld.) "I don't care where [the imam] comes from, as long as he can communicate," she says. If the imam cannot speak in English, it hurts the youth who are seeking answers about their faith, Tania says. And she feels that some imams are too judgmental. "I know that some of them would react in a certain preachy way if I were to ask them about personal issues," she says. "They might even just shun you," she says. "I wouldn't really go to anyone outside my circle of friends."

But many imams believe it's their job to provide a rigidly Islamic viewpoint on issues and that even stylistic concessions to American culture are out of the question. Ben Yahya Abdel-Ghani, the director of the Flushing Muslim Center in Queens, says that when young people ask him for his advice, he has to answer according to the rules of Islam. Abdel-Ghani, 45, is from Morocco and has been living in the United States since 1997. Should a young person ask about whether it was OK to drink alcohol, his answer would be swift. "All kids know that alcohol is wrong," he says in slightly accented English. "Alcohol is prohibited -- so the discussion is almost closed."

Abdel-Ghani admits that youth don't often go to him for advice about personal matters, but, for example, if a young person were to confide to him that he or she might be gay (a situation he says he's never encountered), he would reply that being gay in Islam is not accepted. "Youngsters know that the answer will be that it is wrong," he insists. "They have to find a way to solve the problem. I don't think they will have the urge to say it to someone who is older."

Another issue complicating youth outreach is financial, with many mosques struggling just to pay their rent. Immigrant mosques in New York, for instance, are often run by working-class individuals and limited funds tend to be an issue. Sattar, the SAYA program coordinator, understands this and empathizes with these mosque officials, but he stresses that mosques should try to find room for youth programs even in their tight budgets. "Youth need opportunities to be active in their religious institutions," he says. "They need those roles, those opportunities, to shape the world."

Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, a professor of political science at the City University of New York who teaches a course called Islam and Democracy, agrees. He thinks that this is a way young Muslims can steer clear of fringe Muslim groups that may have extremist agendas or whose teachings are not in line with mainstream Islam. For example, the "Lackawana Six," a group of young Muslim American men from Buffalo, ended up in a militant training camp in Afghanistan. They were apparently recruited by a man named Kamal Derwish, who preached a radical brand of Islam and who won them over through meetings in his apartment. (Derwish was ultimately killed in a CIA mission in Yemen.)

A symbol of hope for Muslim American reformers can be found in the heart of Manhattan's West Village, the home base of a man who epitomizes the kind of spiritual leadership that so many young American Muslims yearn for.

Khalid Latif, 27, serves as the first-ever Muslim chaplain at the school's Islamic Center, a place that he boasts of running on progressive values rooted in authentic Islamic sources. Latif graduated from New York University with degrees in political science and Middle Eastern studies and attended the Hartford Theological Seminary briefly, then became the executive director of the Islamic Center at 24. He is also the youngest chaplain ever hired by the New York Police Department, brought in to cater to the spiritual needs of Muslim officers and civilian employees.

Latif says he understands why some young people don't feel comfortable going to religious places. Born and raised in New Jersey, he doesn't have fond memories of the local mosque he attended as a teenager. Back then, he had long hair and no beard, a violation of Muslim tradition, and congregants would accuse him of attending services just to mingle with the girls. "People weren't very nice to me," he recalls.

Membership at NYU's Islamic Center has increased significantly since he took over. He is well-liked and popular among students. One Pakistani-American student named Raza, after finishing his afternoon prayers, wrote "I love the I.C." on a whiteboard near the center's entrance. Raza credits Latif for uniting Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims in prayer, something the student, who is of the Shia sect, had never experienced before. "It was really special," he says. "It was an incredible feeling."

Students come to Latif to seek his advice about any and all issues, including some that are traditionally deemed "haram," or forbidden, in Islam. They appreciate his easygoing attitude and feel comfortable enough to talk to him about sexuality, depression, mental-health issues, domestic violence, relationships and even experiences of rape.

So is Latif a rare breed of imam? "I'm not like Nemo, alone in this ocean of loneliness," he says. As the Muslim community begins to respond to the needs of its diverse members, he believes, more imams who espouse progressive values that are in line with Islamic teachings will emerge. "As needs have changed, as dynamics have changed, I think it's just a logical trend to a people who are well versed in how this society functions that they are going to be stepping into roles as community activists and leaders and specifically, at times, even imams," Latif says.

Sitting on the floor of the large prayer room located in the basement of a white church that serves as the Islamic Center, he says: "What it means to be an imam is contingent upon a community's needs at the time." He is wearing blue jeans, a blue button-down shirt, has a trimmed beard and is wearing a black skullcap called a "kufi." "In some Muslim countries and in immigrant mosques, the idea isn't that the imam will be a community leader," he adds. "He's expected to just lead the prayers."

Latif isn't sure if it matters whether an imam was raised in the U.S., or if he's young or old. "It's hard to create an archetype on what an individual needs to be like that can deal with the diversity of some 8 million Muslims [in the U.S.]," he says. "Different people have their own preferences."

If a student confides to Latif that he or she might be gay, he won't claim that homosexuality is permissible in Islam. "But, like, it doesn't change the fact that we have kids or adults who are homosexuals," he says. "An outright denial of its existence causes us to have more issues than solutions."

After listening to a student talk about his or her background, he encourages the student to understand what his or her "life choice" means. "Some people will be nice to you, some people will treat you like garbage," Latif might say.

"With any issue, it's about, 'Where do we go from here?'" he says. "In Islamic tradition, you see numerous instances with men and women going to the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, about their sins. The relationship with the Prophet was such that you could speak with him and he wouldn't be judgmental. He would respond in a way that made the most sense for the person coming to him with the issue."

Being a young and progressive imam has its challenges, too. "Especially in religious communities, when somebody comes in and does it differently, you kind of have to legitimize yourself," says Latif. "You have to prove to people that they can take you seriously. Because you're dealing with religion. And if you're wrong, Muslims perceive that wrong means hell."

At first, he says, people thought that NYU's Islamic center was too liberal. But now he claims that those same people simply see the center as "accepting."

Young Muslims in America are clearly hungry for some spiritual guidance from the right people, and they're asking for some specific things. For one, they say, imams should be raised or should at least understand what it's like growing up in America. They also shouldn't be quite so judgmental. And being on the younger end, though not required, is desirable. They should also be able to speak English and be reasonably current with American culture and technology. Ishak, the 17-year-old aspiring rapper, says he's met another imam, a young, American man, who showed him some Islamic prayers on YouTube that he liked a lot. "I don't think my imam [from the Queens mosque] even knows what YouTube is," he notes.

Tania once heard Latif speak at a conference and she absolutely loved what he had to say. Latif spoke about peer pressure and about the challenges of being a Muslim teenager in America. Still, she doubts that she'd ever confide in any imam about her personal life. "Except," she says shyly, "maybe for Khalid Latif."