source: http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/back802.html
America constitutes a microcosm of the Muslim world, with multiple
nationalities present as well as elements of Islam's entire cultural,
racial, and sectarian diversity. Thrown together, these peoples
discover the differences that lie below the surface of their common
faith. Much of this is due to differences in custom. Turks put up
gravestones and decorate them with laminated photographs of the
deceased; Saudis see gravestones (even without pictures) as a form of
idolatry and deem photographs even worse. Because they speak the
language of the Qur'an, Arabs sometimes display an impatience
bordering on arrogance toward the Islamic practices of non-Arabs. The
result is intra-Muslim bias.
"Muslim parents do not mind their son marrying a white American girl,
but they would object if he married a Muslim girl of a different
school of thought (Shi'i/Sunni), or different tribe, like Punjabi,
Sindhi, Pathan, Arab vs. non-Arab, Afro-American vs. immigrant, or
different class, Syed vs. non-Syed," observes a writer in Pakistan.
Politics fuels animosities. Iranians and Iraqis have not forgotten
their long and bloody war from 1980 to 1988, nor have Kuwaitis
forgiven Iraq's 1990-91 occupation of their country. Saudis and other
Gulf Arabs are disliked for the way they treat Muslim workers in their
countries.
Religiosity is another issue. Are mosques to be moderate or Islamist?
Many institutions are roiled with confrontations along these lines.
The most public such dispute has taken place weekly for nearly two
decades in front of the Islamic Center in Washington, on the sidewalk
of a major avenue. The conflict between Sunnis and Shi'is, which goes
back to the first years of the Islamic religion, still has great
force. Shi'is have their own mosques and rarely socialize with
Sunnis.
Then there are the enduring tensions with American converts to Islam,
who are overwhelmingly African-American. Their enormously different
backgrounds cause the two groups - immigrants and natives, foreigners
and Americans, Muslims born and reborn - not always to get along well.
As one convert puts it, "proselytes almost always complain of the
terrible frustration they endure as they struggle to adjust to their
new religious community..."
From the outside, the major Islamic organizations resemble their
Jewish counterparts, and to some extent are modeled on them. Both take
up such issues as religious discrimination, inter-communal relations,
and Middle Eastern policy; they sponsor testimonial dinners,
conferences, and trips to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; and they
issue press releases, launch direct mail campaigns, take out newspaper
ads, and publish periodicals.
Below the surface, however, a profound difference separates the two:
whereas the Jewish institutions are conventional ethnic organizations
anchored to the mainstream of American political life, the Muslim ones
overwhelmingly pursue an Islamist agenda far outside that mainstream.
As one moderate Muslim leader, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, has warned,
extremists have "taken over 80 percent of the mosques" in the United
States; another moderate refers to the Islamist leaders as "swindlers"
and "radicals." The main institutions of American Islam do not
represent the interests and views of the moderate Muslims who are good
American citizens.
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