Mosque in America Part III by Jamil Shawwa

The real story of Islam with America did not take place until 1979 and the start of the cleric’s revolution in Iran. Before that, America looked at Islam from the lens of looking at the Arab countries and the Arab world as a whole. The Arabs in America started to come and immigrated to the new world, the United States, in the late 19th and early 20th century and the majority of them in the beginning were Christians and Jewish residents and citizens of the Arab countries who fled to America from the oppressing and suppressing ottoman empire and the local governments there. America since then and until the last quarter of the 20th century looked at the Arabs as part of the overall majority of the population, that they are not different, but like the Italians, East Europeans, some French and the Greeks- the residents of the Mediterranean- darker than the so-called majority but part of the majority. In the mid 50s and 60s America started to look at Islam from a second lens, when many African Americans in the height of the struggle to gain civil rights and equal opportunities, looked around and from their perspective and from their point of view found in Islam, a religion that believes in equality, that it contains in it’s verses clear verbiages that there is no difference between an Arab and a non Arab except in the strength of their belief and faith. There were Malcolm X and the creation of the Nation of Islam, and then came the biggest effect and internal exposure, which is the rise and conversion of Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and to Islam. I think that was a turning point in the relation between Islam and America, no one in my opinion has exposed Islam at that time to America like Muhammad Ali. The whole world loved this boxer and he was to the contrary of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, on more peaceful side of the message and maybe closer to the Arab original Islam than the previous one; Nation of Islam, run right now by Farrakhan. It is though must be said that America looked at that part of Islam as not the regular Islam, the Arab Islam, but as part of the struggle for civil liberties and looked at the African Americans Muslims as not part of the overall so called regular Muslims. As a matter of fact, there is truth to that overview which is the Islam preached by groups in the US such as the Nation of Islam is not the version used in other countries and not in the Arab World; in the US, African American Islamic style is more closer to the evangelical Christianity in type and style as the heads of these Islamic organizations calling themselves ministers instead of Imams and have sermons and such. Muhammad Ali still drew the attention and very cleverly- intentionally or not- toured the Arab and Muslim countries and established a connection and bondage; Malcolm X did the same before him but Malcolm was portrayed as very radical and even violent. In 1975, following the fourth Arab Israeli war, Saudi Arabia lead the oil boycott to the Western world and that was a turning point as well in the relations with Islam but still the focus was on the Arab as a whole and not necessarily Islam. The media started after that to connect Islam and the Arabs and started to mix between the belief and the politics, looking at the religion as the reason for the problem rather than looking at the politics and the people. In 1979, following the fall of the Shah, which is a by itself a story, because the US decided that it was time for him and the imperial regime to go, the Iranian clerics revolution started, won, captured Iran and then the hostages of the American Embassy and the longest ordeal for Americans. That episode was a huge humiliation for America and the former president Carter did not handle or did not want to handle. America decided again to let that version of Islam, the Shiite Islam to win and thrive and in the package came the rise of a different Islam, not the core Sunni Islam as the majority of Muslims believe but what I like to call the Iranian Islam. The radical political system that for the first time in modern history- mid 18th century maybe- used the religion with all of its' magnetic power to portray and create a struggle between the divine religions. The regular/average person in the street did not see anything else but radicals calling themselves Muslims hijacking, kidnapping and killings, as in the same period the series of kidnapping American and Westerners in Beirut Lebanon. Everything was working to elevate Islam to world prominence but in a radical and not friendly way. The whole world started to fear the Arabs and Muslims not because they were competitive but because of the oil and because of that portrayed Islam, that is the radical version, not necessarily only the Iranian version but other versions that are more radical and more deadly. In the 90s, we witnessed the rise of the so called the Mujahedeen, those mainly Arabs and Asians, Pakistanis and Afghani fighters who fought with America, Europe, and the Sunni Arab countries, the soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Those groups proved the deadliest, the most fanatic and from that point we started to see the rise of a third or fourth version of Islam, run mainly by Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, from wealthy families and from highly educated classes. The message, this version, used later on to portray Islam as not a religion, lest to say a divine religions, but a tool to destroy civilizations and ways of life and liberties. That version of Islam, contrary to the Iranian Islam which mainly is a media propaganda more than action, lived up to it’s reputation and expectations and it started the terror stream with the 1993 first attempt at the world trade center in New York City and then the ultimate terror attack on America, the 9/11/2001 destruction of the twin towers in New York City, the attack on the pentagon and the explosion of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania. From that point on although America started to draw the distinction between the evil powers of AL-Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorists, radicals and fanatics, the average person already established a foundation that the evil is not in the person but in the religion. The average person in America in the process were helped or actually was mouth fed hatred through organizations and religious groups that in the name of the divine Christian religion portrayed Islam as whole and in parts as an evil tool and that is not American and it is not "one of us". It also did not help that the new Pope of the Catholics called in a conference in Europe, Islam as a religion of violence. In America, Catholicism is very strong, but the message was among certain Protestants and Catholics. Still the majorities of Americans are smart, pragmatic, practical and like to learn, if there is a country in the world that like to be better, to learn more, to seek justice, it is America. The great example right now is in the debate going on, in the Mayor of the city that was attacked on 09/11 and his support to the mosque to be built where it is now. The exposure I think will benefit Islam; will show America that it is- as Muslims believe- a divine religion as Judaism and Christianity, followed by almost two billions of people, that in Islam the teachings are clear, it identifies Moses and Jesus as prophets of God as Muhammad and the majority of Muslims like any faith are normal, peace loving people. America is also watching and seeing incidents and terror attacks from those that call themselves Christians trying in the name of the divine religion to harm Muslims just because of their religion. The most recent example is the attack by a fanatic in New York City just few days ago, on a Taxi driver after that fanatic asked him about his religion and the Taxi driver answered by that he was a Muslim.