ISLAM
IN AMERICA – REACHING YOUNG MUSLIM FAITHFUL ONLINE
by
Syarif Hidayat
Islam
is among the fastest-growing faiths in the US. The census show that Islam is
among the fastest-growing religion in the US in the past decade. The census, by
the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies in Chicago, found
that American Muslims almost doubled in the past decade. It estimated that
Muslims are now numbered at 2.6 million in 2010, from only one million in 2001.
Islam
is a beautiful religion, full of wisdom and harmony. Islam is a religion of
love and peace. Love is one of the noblest human principles and traits that
cultivate the spirit of interaction, solidarity, and cooperation and add
affection to human relationships and dealings. The census, by the Association
of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies in Chicago, found that American
Muslims almost doubled in the past decade.
It
estimated that Muslims are now numbered at 2.6 million in 2010, from only one
million in 2001. Unofficial estimates put the number of Muslims in the US at
between six to seven million. The census also found that Muslims now outnumber
Jews in much of the American Midwest and South.
The
report attributes the sharp rise in the number of US Muslims to conversions and
immigration. The survey also estimates that there are more than 2,000 mosques
across the United States, of which 166 are located in Texas. An earlier Muslim
study found that the number of mosques in the US jumped in the past decade to
reach more than 2,000 mosques. The study, released in February, also found that
US Muslims are estimated at seven million.
The
Number of Mosques Jump in Decade
"I
think that is the best message we can send to the world and the Muslim world in
particular." The study, titled “The American Mosque 2011”, found that the
number of mosques in the US rose by 74 percent from 1,209 in 2000 to 2,106 in
2010. Most mosques are located in cities such as New York, which has 257
mosques, California (246), Texas (166) and Florida (118).
Researchers
defined a mosque as a Muslim organization that holds Friday congregational
prayers, conducts other Islamic activities and has operational control of its
building. Buildings such as hospitals and schools that have space for Friday
prayer were not included. The study, which is based on mailing lists, websites
and interviews with community and mosque leaders, also found that the number of
mosques in suburbs rose from only 16 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2010.
“This
building boom is indicative of the growing financial resources of the Muslim
community as many Muslims have lived in the U.S. for many decades now and their
financial resources have improved," wrote Bagby.
The
study also found that mosque worshippers are ethnically diverse, with most
worshippers are South Asians, Arabs and Afro-Americans.
There
was also an increase in the number of Muslim worshippers from West Africa and
Somalia. The study also revealed an increase in the number of Shiite mosques in
the US because of an influx of immigrants from Iraq and Iran, though Shiites
still represent a very small percentage of the Muslim community in the US.
"Higher numbers mean you are not marginalized," Ibrahim Hooper,
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said.
Arsalan
Iftikhar
in his article titled “Reaching the young Muslim faithful, online” published
in The Washington Post, writes Like millions of young Christian, Jewish, Hindu
and Buddhist members of the millennial generation here in the United States,
our next generation of young American Muslim girls and boys are also similarly
seeking to engage with civic and religious leaders who are more in tune with
the needs of their Facebook and Twitter generations.
Just
like many churches, synagogues and temples around the country are cultivating
new ways to engage their younger populations, it is also equally important for
our American mosques and Islamic religious leaders to similarly embrace these
new trends if we are going to nurture the next generation of proud American
Muslim citizens around the nation. Want to reach the young Muslim faithful? The
Muslim faithful are online.
Recently,
the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center released a
very comprehensive public opinion study on Muslim-Americans entitled “Muslim
Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future” which gives a fascinating look into
a cross-section of the American Muslim experience nearly one decade after the
tragic September 11 attacks on our country.
Since
Islam is certainly the most misunderstood (and vilified) religion around
America today, it should come as little surprise that the recent Gallup study
found that over thirty-seven percent (37 percent) of American Protestants, 35
percent of Catholics, and 32 percent of Mormons across the United States think
that Muslim Americans are “not loyal citizens to America;” whereas over 80
percent of Jewish Americans say that American Muslims are actually loyal
citizens (and not a threat) to the United States.
Because
of this general mistrust of Islam around America, the Gallup study also found
that nearly sixty percent (60 percent) of American Muslims stated that they
have faced overt prejudice from other Americans and nearly 66 percent of Jewish
Americans also agreed that most Americans harbor some prejudice against Muslims
in general. Even more surprising, the study found that nearly half (48 percent)
of American Muslims polled in the report said that they faced some form of
“racial profiling or religious discrimination” within the last year alone.
With
some of these troubling findings, it becomes quite important for us to make
sure that young Muslim girls and boys around the country feel like proud
citizens of their American society. Notwithstanding the outside pressure and
animosity towards Islam around the United States- we need change even within
our own American Muslim community. The Gallup study also found that 55 percent
of Muslim American men and 42 percent of Muslim American women said that “no
national Muslim organization currently represents their interests;” only 41
percent said that that the three largest national Muslim organizations are speaking
on their behalf.
The
good news is that increased religiosity also means increased political
participation for most religious minority groups as well. The Gallup report
found that Muslim Americans who report attending a mosque religious service at
least once a week are more likely to be classified as “politically active” (40
percent) than those who report seldom religious attendance (22 percent).
“Although this might serve as solace for those trying to organize within the
Muslim-American community, it should be noted that the average age of a Muslim
American is [younger at] 36 years old compared with 46-55 years among all other
major religious groups,” recently noted Ahmed Younis, Senior Analyst of the
Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.
“That
means that unless national organizations and places of worship [like mosques]
begin to focus their initiatives and resources on capturing this market [of
younger millennial girls and boys] — the numbers for attendance, as well as
political participation, will decrease” over the next few decades.
In
light of the results of this recent study, we should encourage the next
generation of Muslim civic and religious leaders to know a little bit less
about Hosni Mubarak or King Abdullah and actually train them to know more about
things like Facebook and Twitter instead.
Arsalan
Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com
and global managing editor for The Crescent Post in Washington DC.
Muslim
Americans are most optimistic
Muslim
Americans are more optimistic about their future than members of any other
religious group in the United States, according to a recent Gallup report. “They
have generally optimistic and positive views about government, its agencies and
the future of America, but they report a significant level of prejudice and
discrimination,” said Ahmed Younis, an analyst for the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.
Nearly
half of the Muslim Americans surveyed by Gallup said they have experienced
racial or religious discrimination in the United States, according to the
report, which was compiled by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center from two years of
polling. “The American Muslim story is the American story in many ways,” said
Younis. The report assessed the group’s perceptions and attitudes and those of
other religious groups toward Muslim Americans a decade after the September 11,
2001 attacks on the United States.
Polling
of Americans of other religions supported the Muslim American perceptions of
prejudice, Younis said. “The opinion of Americans is still divided and the
perception of loyalty of Muslim Americans is still questioned by a considerable
portion of Americans,” he said. They express loyalty to the United States, but
face distrust from a significant minority of other citizens, the report said. The
polling found that 69% identified strongly with the United States while 65%
said the same about their faith.
“Muslim
Americans are thoroughly American in their allegiance and identity and don’t
see a conflict between that and being thoroughly Muslim,” Younis said. Ninety-three
percent of U.S. Muslims said they believe other Muslim Americans are loyal to
the country, while significant minorities in other religious groups doubted
that loyalty, the report said.
Thirty-seven
percent of American Protestants and 35% of Catholics said they didn’t agree
that Muslims living in the United States were loyal to the country.
Nearly
all Muslim Americans, 92%, said they believed that Muslims living in United
States had no sympathy for al Qaeda, the terror group responsible or the 9/11
attacks. They are, as a group, critical of counter-terrorism measures imposed
since the terror attacks and a large percentage distrust the FBI, the report
said. There is evidence of “a big friction” between Muslim Americans and
federal law enforcement, Younis said.
Just
60% of Muslim Americans said they have confidence in the FBI, compared to 75% or
more of Americans of other major faiths, the report said. While 81% believe it
is not possible to profile a terrorist based on demographic traits, just 49% of
other Americans agree. “There’s a significant percentage of Americans that
believe racial profiling is an efficient way of conducting law enforcement
activities,” Younis said.
Attitudes
about racial profiling are also reflected in what Muslim Americans say about
prejudice they face. Sixty percent of U.S. Muslims say other Americans
pre-judge them based on their ethnicity. “At 48%, Muslim Americans are by far
the most likely of major faith groups surveyed to say they have personally
experienced racial or religious discrimination in the past year,” the report
said. “The next most likely are Mormon Americans, although less than one-third
of U.S. Mormons say this.”
Just
63% of Muslim Americans said they feel respected when they practice their
religion in public. Eighty-one percent of all Protestants and Catholics and 85%
of Mormon Americans said they felt respected. “There is still a little bit of
hostility in the public square as it relates to Muslim Americans and their
place in society,” Younis said.
Muslim
Americans generally feel better off and more hopeful in 2011 than they were in
2008, when a similar Gallup report was produced. While 60% said they were
thriving, about the same level as most major religious groups, they are the
most optimistic about their lives in five years.
Americans
overall rate their future a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, but Muslim Americans rate
theirs at 8.4, the report said. Jewish Americans ranked as second most
optimistic at 8.0, following by nonreligious, atheists and agnostic respondants
at 7.9. Mormans’ optimism was rated at 7.8 and Catholics at 7.7, while American
Protestants were the least optimistic about the future with 7.4, the report
said.
One
explanation for their optimism is that Muslim Americans were hurt more than
other major religious groups by the recession and have experienced more
improvement in the recovery, the report said. The election in 2008 of President
Obama, a Christian with Muslim roots, may be one factor in their optimism, the
report said. They give Obama’s performance an 80% approval rating, the highest
of any religious group. President Bush’s approval rating among Muslim Americans
was just 7% near the end of 2008.
With
the exception of Jewish Americans, all other religious groups rate Obama below
50%, the report said. Muslim Americans represent the most racially diverse
religious community in the United States, the Gallup report said. “For
instance, Asian Muslims are easily the most likely in America to be thriving,”
it said. “Black Muslims report more financial hardship than do white Muslims,
and black Muslims are somewhat less likely than other Muslims in the U.S. to be
satisfied with their standard of living.”
One
“intriguing finding” of the analysis is the indication that “frequent mosque
attendance might lessen stress and anger,” the report said.
“It
also takes away from the theory that mosque attendance stokes Muslims’ anger
and radicalizes them,” it said. “Rather, Muslim Americans are no different from
other major U.S. religious communities who appear to draw peace of mind from
their faith.” (The Abu Dhabi Gallup Center is a partnership between the opinion
research firm Gallup and the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi).
Time
for Muslims to step up
Efforts
to build Islamic centres and mosques in New York, Wisconsin, Kentucky and
Tennessee have been equated with building monuments to terrorism. Prominent
American public figures and politicians – including Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin,
Congressman Peter King and Newt Gingrich – have openly spoken against Muslims
and encouraged unfounded social suspicion of those in the community. The net
result is an increase in anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim statements and actions,
witnessed in the hysteria that has led to the movement across some 20 states in
the United States to ban Shariah (Islamic principles of jurisprudence).
Today’s
historic changes, the assassination of Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring,
offer an opportunity to redress anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim bias, or
Islamophobia, and to reaffirm that Muslim Americans, like other mainstream
Americans, simply desire a secure and democratic America. And this despite the
fact that Muslim Americans for years have had to explain that neither they –
nor their religion – sanction terrorism.
Major
polls have consistently shown positive American public views of Islam plunging.
The furore over the proposed Islamic centre (Park 51) in New York City revived
hostility toward Islam and Muslims. According to the Pew Forum on Religion
& Public Life, large minorities said they could not think of anything
positive to say about Islam. In one study, 38 per cent of Americans had an
unfavourable view of Islam, compared to 30 per cent with a positive view.
Another study conducted by The Washington Post found that an unfavourable image
of Islam was creeping up to 49 per cent among Americans.
This
fear and hostility has been reinforced by the American public’s basic ignorance
and misunderstanding of Islam. For example, the Pew Forum’s September 2010
survey of religion literacy found that only about half of Americans know that
the Quran is the holy book of Islam. It also found that less than one third
know that most people in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim nation –
are, in fact, Muslim. What many did know and fear were stereotypes of Muslims
based on misinformation.
Mainstream
Muslim Americans have too often been equated inaccurately with terrorists and
people who reject democracy. Muslim Americans cherish the freedoms guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution as much as others and, as the Gallup World Poll of 35
Muslim countries reported, like all Americans, majorities of Muslims globally
desire democracy and freedom, while they fear and reject religious extremism
and terrorism.
Failure
to recognise and appreciate these facts continues to feed a growing
Islamophobia in America that threatens the safety, security and civil liberties
of many Muslim Americans. And this is the case despite the fact that, as Gallup
and Pew polls have shown, the members of the community are as educationally,
economically and politically integrated as other Americans.
It
is time to remember and act on the words of the former president, George W.
Bush, in calling upon all Americans to distinguish between the religion of
Islam and the fraction of Muslims who commit acts of terrorism. So, too, should
we recall President Barack Obama’s words reminding Americans that: “[T]he U.S.
is not – and never will be – at war with Islam … Bin Laden was not a Muslim
leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, Al-Qaeda has slaughtered
scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own.”
It’s
time for Americans to turn a deaf ear to their preachers and politicians of
hate and get it right with their American Muslim fellow citizens.
(John
L. Esposito, author of “The Future of Islam,” is founding director of the
Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Sheila B.
Lalwani is a research fellow at the center. THE DAILY STAR publishes this
commentary, which first appeared at The Huffington Post, in collaboration with
the Common Ground News Service) (www.commongroundnews.org).
World’s
Muslim Population reaches 2.2 Billion
Pew
project that Pakistan is set to overtake Indonesia as the country with the
world’s largest number of Muslim’s as it’s Muslim majority population pushes to
over 256 million. The number in the U.S. will double to over 6.2 million while
Afghanistan’s Muslim population is set to rise by almost 74% as the number
rises from 29 million to 50 million, making it the country with the ninth
largest Muslim population in the world.
Better
living conditions combined with increased life-expectancy in Muslim majority
countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, net migration and global
population growth are given as the main factors driving the growth. Despite the
projection, Muslims will remain a relatively small minority in the Americas and
European countries and the Christian majority in these countries is expected to
be just as impressive.
While
Islam has experienced rapid growth in worshipers of all denominations, it is
likely that it will not overtake Christianity as the most dominant world
religion as the number of Christians is expected to also reach 2.2billion by
2030. Between them, these two major world religions will make up over half of
the Global population at almost 33 per cent by 2030.
“There
has been a lot of speculation about the growth of the Muslim population around
the world, and many of those who speculate don’t have good data,” said Brian
Grim, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum. “Instead of a runaway train, it’s
trending with the general global population.” “This will provide a garbage
filter for hysterical claims people make about the size and growth of the
Muslim population,” Philip Jenkins, a religious history scholar in Christianity
and Islam told the Washington Post.
Certainly
with the world population set to reach 8.3 billion by 2030 the explosive growth
of world religions is just as impressive. (Via CNN.) (HSH)
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