By Junaid S. Ahmad, Norfolk, VA
In the aftermath of the horrific tragedy of September 11, a skewed notion is emerging of how Muslims in America ought to think and act as loyal and patriotic Americans. One such fashionable idea rapidly gaining currency necessitates that they should, at all times, be overly conscious of the fact that they are a minority, and that they are perceived as less patriotic than their fellow Americans. Such a notion, in my opinion, could seem plausible only when one wants to perpetuate a self-imposed status of an outsider and a foreigner, the one who feels that he/she is not, and will never be, a part of the American political mosaic. This line of thought is replete with fallacies.
To be a citizen, and I mean citizen in the truest Aristotelian sense of the word, places, and ought to place, a heavy burden on people. Otherwise, the word becomes meaningless. All citizens in this country have an obligation to voice their opinions and share their knowledge with the communities they live in and the people they interact with. Although this may seem as a truism, and I think it should be, it is quite often forgotten in the politics of conformity. To the extent that the society in which one lives is free and democratic - and I think we as Americans have no excuse on this one - it becomes imperative for members of that society to participate in public affairs actively and meaningfully. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
Another important area of concern to Muslims in America is where should their primary efforts, concerns, and interests lie. There is a section of opinion in the American Muslim community which is solely concerned with affairs and developments in other parts of the world, primarily the Muslim world. These American Muslims often render necessary and substantial services such as charity and relief, as well as engaging in activities directly related to some Muslim country’s politics, society, economy, or international positions, to ameliorate some undesirable situation. But this again aggravates the sense of being an outsider/foreigner that is no less caused by some of our own well-meaning Muslim leaders than by the host society.
The simple ethical position for anyone living, paying taxes, and participating in American society, including Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc., should be to be primarily concerned with the affairs and policies of our own nation, of our own government, the United States of America. The reason for this is rather straightforward and has been articulated by the world-renowned American dissident intellectual, Noam Chomsky, to people all across the United States and the World: “You are responsible for the foreseeable and predictable consequences of your actions; you are not responsible for the actions of someone else.” This elementary principle logically extends to the role played by citizens of a particular nation-state. If we truly accept that we are Americans, then we will attempt to first and foremost concern ourselves with what the United States, our own country, does both at home and abroad. If we do not accept that we are Americans first and foremost, then it is a different story.
We, as American Muslims, like any concerned and engaged American, therefore, must express our views and share our knowledge of what is being done in our name across the world, since it is here that much of the “imposed ignorance” and lack of credible information distorts much of American public opinion. Generally speaking, many Muslims have a clear and sharp understanding of the suffering and despair perpetuated in many of the countries in the Muslim world. They also know what types of policies engender such agonizing distress. Again, we ought to be concerned with our own policies, that is, the policies that emanate from Washington and are likely to aggravate the sufferings.
From these observations it follows that American Muslims, like other Americans, have a moral responsibility to point out to our government and fellow Americans that our sanctions against Iraq have killed around 1.5 million Iraqis; our generous support for Israel has perpetuated the occupation of Palestinian land, going in its 35th year now, and our support for dictatorial regimes all across the Middle East has deprived their people of freedom and democracy. In addition, American-led corporate globalization, which has exacerbated the misery and impoverishment of the Third World, as well as ordinary Americans here at home, needs to be combated and exposed for all of its disastrous consequences. There is a distressing state of affairs in many parts of the world, and many of the policies that have caused this state of affairs that can either directly or indirectly be attributed to Washington. As Americans, we can work toward changing these policies. If we take our citizenship seriously, then we need to speak out and act. If we do not, then as some Muslim intellectuals suggest, we have the option of packing up and leaving this country, which would be the moral decision considering the abdication of responsibility as citizens. As our century’s greatest mind (according to Time magazine), Albert Einstein, once said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”