A Quiet Revolution (39 page)

Invariably there would also be a U.S. government representative as speaker or publicly acknowledged visitor to the convention. Sometimes these were well-known figures—Robert S. Mueller III, for example, di- rector at the time of the FBI, was the keynote speaker at one of these con-

ventions in
2002
, and in
2005
, Karen Hughes, deputy Secretary of State

at the time, came to the ISNA Convention to meet with the organiza- tion’s leaders, as well as with other groups within ISNA, including “young people.”
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The importance of cooperating with government agen- cies in every way in matters of security was naturally a message that, in

2002
and subsequently, was repeatedly emphasized at all of the conven-

tions—both by officials of the organization and by U.S. government speakers. The overt presence of government officials also demonstrated and made formally visible the organization’s collaborative stance in re- lation to U.S. government agencies.

The speeches given by Muslims were generally distinct in themes and content from those delivered by non-Muslims. Muslims typically spoke more cautiously and less critically with respect to any American government action. The following synopsis and overview of some ex- amples of such speeches conveys a sense of the general tenor and flavor of these conventions and their typical conversations.

*

Muslim Convention Speakers

“America, our home.”
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Firstly what happens to America happens to us. [Applause] Second, with regard to safety and security: we should support all efforts for this. No support of criminal behavior. We can have grievances and differences of opinion but crim-

inal behavior is not to be tolerated.

Third, with regard to civil rights: guilt by association, racial profiling, that is not acceptable.

Fourthly, our duty is to inform about our faith. We must clearly say what is wrong. If a Muslim commits wrong we must say it is wrong.

Fifth: American foreign policy must be based on justice. As Martin Luther King said, “Injustice in any place is a threat to justice in every place.” This means that Muslims need to be politically active. [Applause]

—Muzammil Siddiqui, former president of ISNA,
1997
–
2001
, from his talk at the ICNA-MAS Annual Convention, July
5
–
7
,
2002
(author’s notes)

The phrase “America, our home” or some variant thereof was a re- current phrase at all the conventions, as were statements such as “what happens to America happens to us.” While such statements certainly em- phasized a point that was rhetorically important, they were obviously also simply statements of fact.

Other predictably common and recurring themes among Muslim American speakers were expressions of the importance of showing “zero- tolerance for the fanatics and bigots among us,” and of fully cooperating with the forces of law and order, remarks which were typically accom- panied by forceful condemnations of terrorism. Other speeches reflected a new awareness of the extent to which American Muslims were indeed now American as well Muslim—even more fully perhaps than they had

realized. As one speaker noted, it was quite clear now, in these difficult post-
9
/
11
times, that Muslims were here to stay. There are no long lines, he pointed out (reiterating a point made by an earlier speaker), forming at airline counters of Muslim immigrants eager to return home. Sep- tember
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in fact had exploded the myth of return: “If you want to know if you’re going home or not,” he said, “just listen to the accent of your kids, then you’ll know that you’re not going anywhere.” Whatever they had imagined when they came, the majority of immigrants now under-

stood, he said, that America was in fact “home.”
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Muslim Americans often represented their hopes and experiences and even their criticisms as integrally part of the American experience and of the ongoing
American
story. One speaker, for example, began by declaring that terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians was ab- solutely unacceptable: “no matter how just your cause,” he stressed, “in- cluding the sufferings of the Palestinians.” American Muslims had the privilege of being able to participate in the public debates and conversa-

tions under way in America, he continued, and they were in position to convey the concerns of Muslims to policy-makers. It was their respon- sibility to take up this task and in this way they would become bridge builders. “However imperfect this nation is,” he said, “remember it is a nation built on certain ideals.” No matter how hypocritical American foreign policy might be, the fact remains that America is built on a moral foundation. “The vision of Americans and that Americans have of themselves” is as a moral nation, he said. “The fact is, America would be nothing without its moral perspective.” The Muslim community, he continued, “must contribute towards strengthening the moral founda- tion of this nation.”
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Another speaker, touching in part on these same themes, noted that America was a “very young country.” “Yesterday,” he said—speak- ing on July
5
,
2002
—“we had the
4
th of July. America will be a great force in world history if Muslims and other forces work together to make sure

that America does not go the way of other civilizations. Every Muslim owes it to himself that the prophetic message is loud and clear in this country so that America will not be remembered in history as a techno- logical giant but a moral pygmy. You have the responsibility,” he con- cluded.
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Another speaker, having begun his talk by labeling terrorism as intolerable criminal behavior and emphasizing the importance of an American foreign policy that was based on justice, brought home his point by invoking the words and leadership of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.—thus invoking not the Islamist but the American tra- dition of struggle in the cause of justice.

Martin Luther King was a name frequently invoked at these post-
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conferences, as was the African-American experience and struggle generally. Often African Americans were referred to as models of resolve and activism for immigrant Muslim Americans. African American Mus-

lims and non-Muslims were now also commonly featured speakers at the conventions. There had always been some African American pres- ence among the speakers at ISNA conventions, even before
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/
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, but after that date the presence of African American voices at ISNA, in particular

Muslim voices, seemed to become entirely routine. When I was attend- ing ISNA conventions from
1999
to
2001
, some African American Mus- lims seemed to be regular speakers, among them Siraj Wahhaj, imam of

al-Taqwa Mosque in New York and the first Muslim to offer an opening prayer at the U.S. House of Representatives (in
1991
); Imam Zayid Shakir, scholar in residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute; and Sherman Jack- son, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Michigan. On oc- casion, Warith D. Mohammed himself, who was on the ISNA board, also made an appearance.
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Presenting their own narratives, American-born Caucasian as well as African American Muslims unambiguously foregrounded how their stories and perspectives as Muslims were integrally part of the story or stories of North America in a variety of ways. One of the more arresting speeches I heard embodying this perspective was that presented by Ingrid Mattson who was at the time—
2002
—the vice president of ISNA. Matt- son, who was a Canadian Caucasian convert to Islam, took up the sub- ject of terrorism and the importance of speaking out against terrorism (as many Muslim speakers clearly felt called upon to do) by telling the story of an African American slave who had fled slavery on the underground railroad and made his way to Canada. Asked how he had found the courage to undertake so desperate a journey, he had replied, Mattson re- counted, that on one occasion, after a brutal beating by his master, he had found himself dreaming of burning down the master’s house. The realization that in doing so he would also kill the master’s wife and chil- dren had ceased to matter to him, he said. He simply could not get the thought out of his head. He knew then, said Mattson, that he would have to flee no matter how dangerous the journey and whatever the cost—he would have to leave in order to save his own soul.
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Besides implicitly underscoring the fact that America had not al- ways lived up to its democratic ideals, Mattson’s narrative obviously fur- ther contributed to the broad framing narrative that such stories were collectively bringing into being at these conferences: of American and Canadian Muslims as intrinsically and inextricably American and Cana- dian—not foreigners and aliens who embodied hostile, un-American perspectives. Mattson’s narrative and the narratives of other Muslim speakers underscored how Muslim Americans, in their present struggles against discrimination, could find inspiration in Americans who had struggled under similar and indeed sometimes far worse conditions. For Muslim Americans now, this narrative emphasized, the struggle against

discrimination on their own behalf was also a struggle to make America itself a better place, the society that it aspired and proclaimed itself to be.

Non-Muslim American Convention Speakers

Every group and every generation must win liberty anew. There is no guarantee that liberty will be here if we don’t fight for it.

—Marcy Kaptur, congresswoman for Ohio,

speaking at ISNA
2007
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Whether by strategy or coincidence, Muslim American organiza- tions in
2002
seemed to have had more non-Muslim speakers at their conventions than they had had previously. Certainly there had been non- Muslim speakers at the ISNA conventions that I had attended prior to
9
/
11
. I had heard Paul Findley for example, the former U.S. senator, speak against the sanctions in Iraq at one such convention in the late
1990
s. But as of
2002
and through the ensuing years, non-Muslim speakers seemed distinctly more in evidence, and they were often featured on ple- nary sessions. In addition, in the case of one of these conventions, at least

—that of ICNA—non-Muslim women speakers were, reportedly, fea- tured for the very first time in
2002
.
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Among the non-Muslims speakers at the
2002
conventions, for ex- ample, were Ralph Nader, who was running for U.S. president that year as the Green Party candidate. Others included James Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute and senior analyst at the polling firm Zogby International; Hilary Shelton, vice president of the NAACP; David Bo- nior, congressman from Michigan and chief minority whip for the Dem- ocratic Party; Karen Armstrong, well-known writer on religion; Grayland Hagler, an African American preacher and activist; the Reverend Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance; Yvonne Haddad, professor and scholar of Islam in America at Georgetown University; and Stanley Cohen, a civil rights lawyer.
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As a rule, non-Muslim speakers were far more outspoken in their criticisms of the administration than were Muslim speakers. Nader, for

example, was forthrightly critical of the administration’s actions in rela- tion to civil liberties, and he urged Muslims to take a stand against these erosions in civil rights and to “speak out against injustices.” Haddad noted in her talk that Islam was a “religion of justice” and that Muslims did not necessarily “agree with a lot of the American government’s for- eign policy.” Muslims, she said, were demanding justice and this was “their right as American citizens.” But there had been an effort by some, said Haddad, “to silence Muslims and to say that if you’re not support- ing American foreign policy you’re becoming un-American. And that’s not acceptable, because the United States has freedom of speech and pro- vides constitutional guarantees to disagree with American foreign pol- icy.”
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African American speakers were often among the most outspoken in their criticisms of the administration and of American history. Ha- gler, for example, a Christian preacher and activist, addressed the issue of terrorism by speaking about the activities of the Ku Klux Klan when he was growing up. “I don’t feel safe in America,” he said. “Never did. I am scared when I see a police car in the mirror, and what they’re going to do to me.” And he was afraid now, he went on, of what the conse-

quences of
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would be in terms of erosions of civil liberties. “I am an

African American Christian,” he said. “When we look around our fam- ilies, we African Americans,” he continued, “we see that they’re Christian and Muslim.” (Applause) “We are one,” he went on. “I instruct deacons to bow down when they visit a Muslim mosque. Your struggle is my struggle.” Hagler was similarly outspoken in his criticism of the admin- istration’s pro-Israeli policies and its neglect of the Palestinians.

The presence of non-Muslim speakers, including those who were prominent in their fields, grew more pronounced over the ensuing years. The list of non-Muslim speakers at ISNA alone over the following years, for example, included Amy Goodman of Democracy Now; David Cole, civil rights lawyer and author of
Enemy Aliens;
Robert Fisk, the well- known British journalist and author of
The Great War for Civilization;
the Reverend Richard Killmer, executive chair of the Religious Campaign Against Torture; and Jeanne Herrick-Stare, a Quaker who was also part of the Campaign Against Torture and lobbied on behalf of the Friends Committee against the extension of the Patriot Act.
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