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This past Monday, August 23, 2010, to be exact, it dawned upon me, thanks to an outsiders perspective, that living in Oklahoma City, smack-dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, we, yes we Muslims, are just as American as peach cobbler and a bucket of good ole’ sweet Southern iced tea. You see, living in Oklahoma, we face just as much discrimination and prejudice as a Muslim living in a place like New York, perhaps even more at times, given that Oklahomans are not quite as well known for their high educational achievements and broad perspective on the world and world religions. Oklahoma does, however, have a deep-rooted history with Native Americans and African Americans, and the fights they have and continue to fight are not that far apart from the fight Muslims fight on a daily basis. The history of Islam in Oklahoma, although not quite as lengthy, also holds its own weight amongst that of Native and African Americans, as we are home to the first major civil-rights case CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) tackled, as well as former home to many of the world’s leader Muslims scholars, including Imam Suhaib Webb and Shaikh Tariq Suwaidan. Oklahoma, for all its faults and tainted history, may not be that bad after all.

Sitting down this past Monday evening at my computer, I pulled up the 30mosques.com website to read about the travels of a Muslim-duo traveling the country to visit 30 mosques in 30 states in 30 days, during the holy month of Ramadan. Reading the accounts of two Muslims from New York about their visit to our humble and simple community, made me realize something very important and profound, something that all American Muslims should keep in mind and take to heart. Since 9/11, and since the Oklahoma City Bombing perhaps, there has been a growing trend amongst Muslims to define ourselves according to the discrimination and prejudice that is perpetrated against us. Either we are victims of hate crimes, or we are fighting to build bridges, clear our name, increase tolerance, etc. Our lives have come to revolve around the issues that define us in newspaper articles, on news channels, and in radio shows. One thing we failed to realize, is the very point that Aman Ali pointed out in his reflections on Muslims in Oklahoma, “When I think of Oklahoma, I think of Sarah’s cowboy boots tucked under her abaya or people talking smack about who is a better NASCAR driver.” We, as Muslims in Oklahoma, America, or anywhere around the world, are much more than victims of hate crimes, or defenders of tolerance and injustice. Don’t get me wrong, it is extremely and vitally important for Muslims to be aware of issues affecting them, and for organizations such as CAIR and MAS (Muslim American Society) Freedom Foundation to exist to protect the rights of Muslims living in North America. The problem we face, however, is allowing the issues to define us, and therefore, to define our very existence. We, Oklahoma loving, boot-wearing, rodeo-going, American Muslims have the right, and the duty, to define ourselves and not let the outside world define us. The issues of discrimination, prejudice, misunderstanding, and more, will always exist, and I doubt will ever truly fade away. It is time, as we reach the peak of the holy month of Ramadan, that this ‘naturalized’ Okie will slip on his cowboy hats and cowboy boots, and sit and watch the sunset with my cup of milk and dates in hand, for the re-definition of my very existence as an American Muslim begins today.

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As I stood this evening, hands raised to my ears, facing my creator, I realized that in order to discover peace, I must realize that I have already found it. As I said those two beautiful words, and crossed my hands across my chest, the realization that peace has always been with us was quite apparent to me. Peace is not being free from responsibility, burden, or free from problems. Peace is not an angelic quality that we must somehow come to possess in order to intensify the experience. Most importantly, peace is not a feeling or quality that can be taken from us by anyone or anything. Peace, rather, is the acceptance that we are who we are, and that we should appreciate and maximize this opportunity we have been given to experience life as it has been given to us. Life is not to be taken for granted, and the peace that we already posses within ourselves is not to be overlooked.

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Shaykh Hamza Yusuf has strong medicine for American Muslims — and their critics.

American Muslims “should really stop complaining,” start contributing more to society, get to know your neighbors and oppose the dangerous versions of Islam that have migrated to this country.

To critics: Stop demanding Muslims apologize for every act of violence committed by someone in the name of Islam, and recognize that Muslims throughout the world have suffered tremendous violence in recent decades.

One might think such messages would shrink Yusuf’s audience, yet the Islamic scholar has become a much-sought speaker among Muslims — particularly young ones seeking American-accented expressions of their faith.

He delivered these messages to several hundred earlier in November at the annual banquet of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Kentucky. He drew strong applause from the crowd, and many lined up afterward for his book signing.

Yusuf is an American-born convert who studied Islam and Arabic in the Middle East. He founded Zaytuna Institute, an Islamic college in California, and has drawn attention beyond the Muslim world especially after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when he hailed the murdered firefighters and police officers as the true martyrs of that day.

Yusuf quipped during his Louisville speech that as a convert, some view him as “the most dangerous kind” of Muslim and that like many Muslims he’s been subjected to extensive airport screenings.

But past American immigrants such as Yusuf’s Irish ancestors would love to exchange their struggles for “a little searching at the airports,” he said.

“Of all immigrants — with the possible exception of the Hindu migration after the 1965 immigration act — nobody has had it easier than the Muslims,” he said. “If you want to talk about difficulties, talk to the Chinese Americans about their history. Talk to the Japanese Americans about their history. … If you think everybody’s going to embrace and help you and say, ‘Welcome to America,’ you have not read American history. … You have to prove yourselves.”

Catholics, he said, built hospitals, charities and schools so good that Protestants began sending their children to them.

“Now Catholics are part of this country,” he said.

And Muslims will be, too, he said, “when we open the free clinics in the worst part of town, when we start feeding people, when we start taking care of our African-American brothers.”

He lamented that many Muslim immigrants are “milking the cow” — getting wealthy while “we have inner-city mosques that can’t pay the electricity bill.”

But not all the criticism was inward.

“A community is enfranchised when that community is not blamed for what individual members of that community do,” he said, speaking just days after the Fort Hood massacre of 13 soldiers, which authorities said was carried out by a Muslim Army doctor.

“The fact that I must have to apologize or say anything about Fort Hood as an American Muslim — that this has anything to do with me or anything to do with my community” shows that enfranchisement hasn’t arrived yet, Yusuf said.

“I don’t know people who go into a room and shoot everybody up, and I certainly don’t want to meet them and I certainly hope I’m not praying next to somebody like that,” he said. “Every religion has these problems.”

He cited Baruch Goldstein, an American-educated Israeli medical doctor who massacred 29 Muslims at a West Bank shrine in 1994.

No one, he said, claims that Goldstein represented Judaism or that Jews needed to explain themselves.

“People say it seems like the Muslims have more problems than other people,” Yusuf said. “First of all, there are a lot more Muslims than other people, so we’re going to have a higher count of nut cases than other groups, just statistically.

“But we’re also under siege in many places,” he said. “We’ve got Muslims that are being humiliated in Palestine, in Kashmir, in certain parts of the Russian republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, … Albania, China. Muslims have been victims of a lot of human suffering.” Somalis and Afghans, he said, have suffered decades of warfare rooted in Cold War politics.

But understanding causes of violence doesn’t justify it, he said.

“We have versions of Islam out there that are deeply troubling, that are very dangerous. Some of them have been brought to these shores. If people want to adhere to those things, they need to go other places.”

But, he said: “There are so many Muslims who are dying to get here, literally. They don’t want to blow up America. They want to work at 7-Eleven.”

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http://www.cairchicago.org/2010/02/22/tariq-ramadan-to-be-keynote-at-cair-chicagos-6th-annual-banquet/

More coming soon…

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