ISNA
Convention Uses Shame, Fear to Stir Muslims Politically
IPT News
September 3, 2018
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Linda Sarsour with Mehdi
Hasan, Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul Elsayed and Shaun King at
the ISNA convention. Twitter photo.
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In a year in which Muslim political candidates are breaking new ground or falling just short, it's not surprising to see politics
dominate the country's largest annual gathering of Muslim Americans.
But the political sessions at the annual Islamic Society of
North America (ISNA) convention in Houston were far from celebrations.
Rather, they cast a dire picture for Muslims of life in America.
Speakers cast "Islamophobia" as a dire threat lurking just
outside their doors. And while a travel ban upheld by U.S. courts targets
people from five Muslim-majority countries among dozens, the policy was repeatedly described as a
"Muslim ban" in full effect.
Leading the charge was Linda Sarsour, a co-chair of the national Women's March
and founder of a political activist group called MPower Change. Sarsour
spoke to at least four separate sessions during the weekend, with ISNA
President Azhar Azeez introducing her as "the most famous, known activist
in America today."
Her tone often was not aimed at inspiring Muslims to be more politically
active as much as it was to shame them for not doing so. If they aren't
sufficiently engaged in advocating for the Palestinian cause, she said,
"you as as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of
Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters. So when we start
debating in the Muslim community about Palestine, it tells me a lot about
you and about the type of faith that you have in your heart."
Worse still, "if you're on the side of the oppressor, or you're
defending the oppressor or you're actually trying to humanize the
oppressor," she said, "then that's a problem sisters and
brothers and we got to be able to say: that is not the position of the
Muslim American community."
That seems like a slap at Muslim activists who have engaged in dialogue
with Zionists and even traveled to Israel under a program financed by the
Shalom Hartman Institute. Wajahat Ali, for example, was disinvited from speaking at this weekend's convention
for failing to make the Palestinian cause his paramount
issue as a Muslim.
Muslims who failed to get politically active in 2016 are responsible in
part for Donald Trump's election, she argued. "In fact, when you are
silent, you are the one that's not a patriot and you are the one that's not
a true American and not proud to be an American."
If people are too afraid to get involved, that just means their
religious faith is lacking.
"When I stand up here and I'm fighting for your rights and the
rights of all people in these United States of America, I am a true
patriot. And those of you who have fear in your hearts and don't have the
courage to stand up for your deen (religion), for your communities, for
your religious institutions, for your children, that is not just a question
of your patriotism. It is a question of your iman (faith)."
Muslim Americans remain tremendously misunderstood, said Dalia Mogahed,
a pollster and research
director at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
"Muslims are more likely than any other faith community in America
to reject" attacks on civilians, she told an audience during a session
on "Islamophobia."
She cited a Pew poll which "found that Muslims were more likely to
say such actions – which means, referring to violence against civilians –
can never be justified. Seventy-five percent of Muslims saying this versus
59 percent of the general public."
Given that data, it's all the more frustrating that national Islamist
groups like ISNA, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the
Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) are unwilling to condemn by name Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas
and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They also have defended and honored political leaders and financiers who supported
the terrorist groups.
"Islamophobia" will be difficult to defeat, said author Khaled
Beydoun, because it is inextricably linked to white supremacy. He dates its
origins to the Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted
citizenship only to white people. Islam, he said, still is seen "as a
rival civilization that could not be melded with whiteness." It's an
attitude that cuts across the political spectrum.
"Let's put a name, and let's put a face on who liberal Islamophobes
are," Beydoun said. "It's really important to intersect race and
intersect white supremacy with liberal Islamophobia. The real Islamophobes
on the Left are largely white Islamophobes. Right? So this is driven by a
specific notion that Islam and Muslims are, again, people that can't be
assimilated with the United States. But not only the United States. So,
like, white liberal, white supremacy, Islamophobic, whatever you want to
call it, is a global phenomenon that has also driven the headscarf ban of
2004. Right, if you look at the parliamentary debates in France before the
headscarf ban was passed, it was largely white parliamentarians who voted
by an 85 percent clip, that Muslim men were subordinating, forcing their
sisters, forcing their mothers to wear the hijab and the niqab. And it's
driven by racism!"
Concern about honor
crimes – violence against family members, usually women and girls for
dishonoring the family by dressing immodestly, dating non-Muslims – is an
example of liberal Islamophobia, Mogahed said. She singled out a provision
in the original travel ban that called for the tracking of honor violence.
But she seemed to deny the problem even exists, and said the policy simply
aims to make Muslims look bad.
The convention also attracted a group of ex-Muslims who invited the ISNA
convention attendees to talk with them.
"Disagreement is not hate," a
statement from Ex-Muslims of North America said. But if Muslims are
worried about Islamophobia, they should consider the challenges involved
for those who leave the faith.
"Threats are routine. Emotional and even physical abuse is far too
common," the statement said. "Some of us are forced out of the
family home, some divorced by their spouses, and others forced to go 'back
home' in countries with fewer rights and liberties. Some superstitious
believers will claim we have been 'possessed by jinn' [spirits], and
attempt violent exorcisms. In the most conservative households, ex-Muslims
fear for their lives."
The group reported mostly friendly interaction with ISNA convention
attendees. But several people wearing T-shirts saying "God Love
is Greatest," were kicked out of a Starbucks inside a Hilton hotel near
the convention site by hotel security.
"This appears to be a case of discrimination," Ex-Muslims of
North America President Muhammad Syed said in a statement. "We were asked to leave the
premises and informed that we could only enter the premises if we removed
the shirts, none of which stated anything inflammatory. The treatment was
unjust and especially cruel considering the plight of ex-Muslims. We are
killed and abused all over the world for our disbelief. It is
unconscionable that companies like Starbucks and Hilton acquiesce to
conservative religious sensibilities."
Related Topics: The
Islamic Society of North America, politics,
ISNA
convention, travel
ban, Linda
Sarsour, Dalia
Mogahed, Khaled
Beydoun, Azhar
Azeez, Wajahat
Ali, Ex-Muslims
of North America, Muhammad
Syed
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