Al-Huda
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the Message Continues ... 5/134
Newsletter for October 2012
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A bridge
builder between America and Islam
The Imam of a N.Y.C. mosque offers an encouraging vision
by Jane Lampman
America's future is bound up with the Muslim world. Is that as
grim a prospect as it appears today? The imam of a New York City
mosque (located 12 blocks from the World Trade Center) insists
that it doesn't have to be so. With a foot and an extensive
history - in both worlds, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf offers an
encouraging vision and an ambitious blueprint for getting past
the
stereotypes and paralyzing myths. This is an invigorating
glimpse into the heart and mind of a wise Muslim seeking the
higher ground, and a moving example of the impact of the
American experience.
"What's Right With Islam" could easily be subtitled "And What's
Right With America." An American Muslim who was born in Kuwait
and has a degree from Columbia University, Rauf has a grasp of
US history, values, and civil religion that would put many
native-born citizens to shame.
With this illuminating analysis, he aims to demonstrate to East
and West alike the congruence between American values and
Islamic ideals. In fact, he describes the US as "substantively
an 'Islamic' country, by which I mean a country whose systems
remarkably embody the principles that Islamic law requires of a
government."
A clear sign, he says, is the way practicing Muslims from across
the globe line up for visas to come to the US. Rauf himself came
here as a teenager, after living in Egypt, Malaysia, and
England.
An eloquent answer to the frequent call for moderate Muslims to
speak out, his book reflects a deep love for his faith and
American values, but it also issues a forceful call for America
to live up to its values in the most serious test it has faced
in a generation.
Through an elucidation of core Islamic teachings and a cogent
review of US and Islamic histories, he argues that the current
conflict is not really about religion, but, as in most
conflicts, about power and economic assets. "Muslims around the
world believe in the principles that undergird American
governance and want it for themselves," Rauf says. But the
problem is that "America has historically acted in a way that
gives the strong impression that [it] seeks to deprive Muslims
of their inalienable rights."
One example he gives is the CIA-backed overthrow of the
democratically elected government of Iran in 1953 and
installment of the autocratic shah in its place, which set the
stage for subsequent US-Iranian distrust.
His lucid book comes at an opportune time, as surveys show that
the estrangement between Muslims and the West is greater than
ever. American Muslims, he says, are in a position to help
change that by articulating the congruence of values and helping
educate both sides. But the imam warns that, when comparing
faiths, it's important not to compare the ideals of one with the
practice of another, but to compare ideals with ideals and
practice with practice
While emphasizing that immigrant Muslims are still grappling
with the integration of their two identities, he sees them
following a process like the one American Jews and Catholics
passed through in earlier eras, which eventually had a global
impact on the nature of those faiths.
In Rauf's view, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share the
common roots of "Abrahamic ethics" in the two great commandments
- loving God and loving one's neighbors - which he sees as
underlying the values articulated in the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution.
In Islam, the second commandment takes practical form in the
Koran's demand to pursue a just and good society. The Koranic
injunction makes this as much a religious responsibility for
Muslims as prayer to God, while to Americans, it's seen more as
a secular task. This helps explain, he says, the different way
Muslims see the separation of church and state.
Muslims believe that human society should be organized to
acknowledge God as the supreme ruler, but Rauf shows how this
has not kept pluralism from flourishing during significant
periods of Muslim history. This can be seen as compatible with
the view of the majority of Americans, who, according to polls,
want to retain "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and to
bring religion more into public life.
Muslim world as two sides of the same coin. "The unfinished
business of the United States is religious," he writes. "It is
the question of how to express a religious impulse more fully
while doing it within the guidelines set forth in the
Constitution."
The unfinished business of the Muslim world is "how to introduce
democratic capitalism, while doing it 'constitutionally,' that
is, within the guidelines set forth in Muslim law."
Western societies have become prosperous over recent centuries,
he says, because they changed two practices once considered sins
in all three Abrahamic faiths: charging interest for money
lending (banking) and eliminating the obligation to fully repay
debts (limited liability corporation).
Muslim societies have fallen behind economically because the
Koran forbids interest as usury, which has precluded development
of robust institutions of banking, capital markets, and stock
exchanges. Significant progress in the economic realm may be a
more crucial priority for the Muslim world to start with than
full implementation of democracy, Rauf says.
Rauf's discussion of Abrahamic ethics may startle some readers
accustomed to thinking in terms of Judeo-Christian ethics, but
by spurring fresh thinking on the interplay of values, his book
is just as beneficial for domestic as international purposes.
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