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Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam

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A number of Western authors have recently speculated on the nature of those Muslim citizens living within pluralistic Western democracies and their potential impact on those societies, yet most have been polemics with little in the way of reasoned thinking or research to back up their assertions. That is clearly not the case with "Journey into America", which picks up where Journey into Islam: the Crisis of Globalization left off. In that book Akbar Ahmed explored how globalization is affecting and changing Islam, whereas "Journey into America" looks more specifically at the opinions and beliefs of Muslims living in post 9/11 America. Ahmed and his researchers don't shy away from asking hard questions of their subjects, delving into subjects such as the increased likelihood of homegrown terrorism, the issue of women wearing the hijab or burkas, can you be a Muslim and an American, and relations with people of other faiths or who profess no faith. The result is not so much about the clash of religions or cultures, but profound insight into questions of identity, of self, and of community. Most Americans have little idea of what Islam is about, what Muslims believe and do not believe, and "Journey into America" goes a great distance towards addressing those questions. By the end of the book I found that I learned as much about America and Americans as I did about Muslims and Islam, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, and likely a point Ahmed is attempting to make. And rather than being aimed at intellectuals, Ahmed's writing style is clearly aimed at a broader market and should be quite interesting reading for most lay readers. Not only will "Journey into America" answer many questions you had, it will likely also provoke readers to ponder their own questions about themselves and our society. The hallmark of a great book!

This has got to be one of the meatiest research books I have ever read! I'm not a big American history buff, but I learned way more about American identity than I expected. Yes, this book is about Muslims but it is also about other faith traditions and identity constructions in American society. You will not be disappointed!

Akbar Ahmen's Journey Into America is an excellent resource for understanding individual Muslim perspectives on living in America. Beginning with a questionnaire developed with his students at American University, a team (including Muslim and non-Muslims) visited many different Muslim communities and spoke with a large number of individual Muslims in the US. Beginning with the question: "What does the Mayflower event mean for you?", the team explored three responses to the American experience: the primordial, the pluralist, and the predator. An interesting analysis of those follows. The team also explored three attitudes of Muslims and their responses as Modernists, Literalists, and Mystics and Others, and these labels are explored related to the respondent's integration into American society.

The variety of Muslim communities is both very interesting and disturbing. While most communities and individuals do seek integration into American society, there is a sizeable group that feels alienated by American culture and likely will never fully integrate. Clearly Muslims know they are a minority in this culture--as do Jewish Americans--and that poses a challenge for any minority, beginning with America's earliest history. The discussion of African American Muslimes, and how they date back to our earliest history, including Muslims among slaves brought from Africa, and how today most African American Muslims would identify as Sunnis, is revealing.

The discussion of interaction among native born Muslims (mostly African Americans) and immigrants is also significant in its implications.

As one who is non-Muslim, but who works with a number of Muslims in our Portland community, the book has expanded my understanding and appreciation of distinctions among the American Muslim community, both in terms of the questions of Muslim integration into American society and in a myriad of interpretations of the borader world-wide Islamic religion itself.

I highly recommend the book.

Don Riggs

Portland, Oregon

Journey Into America The Challenge Of Islam by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is a detailed study on how Muslims fit into American communities. Ambassador Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC. According to The Religious Tolerance Organization and the Pew Forum, "in 2010 it was estimated that there were approximately 1.57 billion Muslims in the world. Muslims in the world represent about 22% of the world's population and they are the second largest religion in the world and Islam is growing about 2.9% per year which is faster than the world population which is increasing approximately 2.3% annually." According to Ambassador Ahmed there are nearly 7 million Muslims who live in the United States today and the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims has been strained since 9/11. What is great about Ambassador Ahmed's study is that it is comprehensive and it helps to dispel many of the myths while hopefully being a catalyst to stimulate dialogue which will possibly and eventually lead to a greater understanding of what it is like to be Muslim in America. I am sure that Ambassador Ahmed hopes that his work will inspire the reader to go beyond the stereotype and to truly connect person to person heart to heart rather than just viewing every Muslim as a potential terrorist. This impressive project by Ambassador Ahmed and his team also provides a glimpse of the interfaith work that is being done to heal the tension between Muslims and non-Muslims. Ambassador Ahmed makes it clear that it is important that we all work together as a team to create more harmony. Journey Into America is available as a book and a DVD. I also suggest that you also read Ambassador Ahmed's book Journey Into Islam The Crisis Of Globalization. Ambassador Ahmed and his team traveled extensively in the U.S. and around the world to compile this information in two books and a video. Reading this body of work by Ambassador Ahmed and his team is certainly a great beginning for anyone who is interested in understanding Islam and a great tool for any individual or organization interested in doing interfaith work with Muslims and non-Muslims. For more information on Journey Into America and Journey Into Islam visit Journey Into America site and listen to the Onlinewithandrea interview with Ambassador Akbar Ahmed and two members of his research team - Jonathan Hayden and Frankie Martin.

Andrea R. Garrison

Host/Producer Onlinewithandrea

Author/Producer The Crossing Over Of Mattie Pearl

Akbar Ahmed's each book ventures into areas that keep on raising the bars to theological and intellectual standards. Journey into America personally connects on inter-religious basis with Americans of all faiths. The personal contacts with all kind of different people and learning from them how they perceive Muslims and Islam is troublesome. Professor Akbar Ahmed story is full of challenges. You never know how you are going to be received or treated by both Muslims and people of other faiths.

What the author does not bring out is how, after 9/11 numerous well funded Think Tanks and vested interest groups orchestrated the anti-Muslim and anti-Islam movement to discredit all American Muslims and malign the religion of 1.5 million Muslims living in the world today. This is very un-American and what we see in Journey into America is the hate that was created deliberately which never existed before 9/11.

This book is a must for all Americans to know what happens to a large majority of law abiding citizens for a crime of only a few people.

Iftekhar Hai, President

United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance

[...]

America has no national language, no national religion, and was built on equality in the eyes of the law. Then why do so many citizens find themselves outcasts? "Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam" is a memoir and social issues discussion from Akbar Ahmed as he hopes to reflect on his own experiences and comes to American readers with the affirmation that American Muslims exist and are not the enemy of the American people. He also tackles issues of the challenges of being accepted as American, the divide of Jews and Muslims in America, and white people converting to Islam. "Journey into America" is an intriguing look at Islam in America, and is a fine read.

I look upon this book as a missed opportunity. The premise is great...an exploration of America's Muslim community. Given the fact that I don't know a great deal about American Muslims, I snapped up a copy of "Journey into America."

But reading it, I began to realize that for every insight and for every time the author conceded that American Muslims might be bringing some of their community's problems on their own heads, there were unfounded and unfair statements made about non-Muslims.

For example, the author buys into the argument that the war in Iraq caused a million deaths...despite the fact that the Iraq Body Count, which is a left-wing anti-war group attacked that estimate (done in a Lancet article) as wildly overstated.

Then there's the author's perception that the Holy Land Foundation, which was a major HAMAS fundraising arm in the US, was just being picked on by Islamophobes in the US Government. I'm sorry but there was abundant evidence that that group was dirty and giving money to a terrorist organization for "peaceful" purposes is a ludicrous claim (since money is fungible and frees up other money for violent action).

The thing that really bothers me and this is not so much a criticism of the book's merits as it is of the attitude of a lot of people the author interviewed is that Muslims in the US are special victims of persecution. I wondered about that: so I looked at the most recent statistics from the Department of Justice about hate crimes and I found that while Muslims are disproportionately victims of such acts, they are far and away not the principal victims...Jews are. And most hate crimes in the US are racially motivated and against blacks.

I also think that some other attitudes both the author expresses in his book are rather troubling to say the least. He decries the fact that some Christian evangelist wanted to send missionaries to Iraq after the 2003 invasion to convert Iraqi Muslims to Christianity. Given the fact American Muslims can freely evangelize for their own faith in America, arguing that it's wrong for American Christians to do the same in Muslim lands is pretty galling.

Finally, I just don't think that the author and a lot of the people he talks to give the United States enough credit for the enormous tolerance it showed in the aftermath of September 11. Were there a smattering of hate crimes and discrimination directed against American Muslims in the wake of that horrific crime? Definitely. But consider what happened in another democracy to a Muslim minority after a much smaller incident. I'm talking about India in 2002. In a place called Gujarat, some Muslim extremists confronted some Hindu extremists on a train. Somehow, a fire got started on the train and dozens of Hindus died. In direct retaliation, Hindu fanatics went on a rampage, aided and abetted by the local government and as the Wikipedia page about the incident recounts:

"[There were] retaliatory massacres against Muslims on a large scale, in which 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed. 223 more people were reported missing. 523 places of worship were damaged: 298 dargahs, 205 mosques, 17 temples, and 3 churches. Muslim-owned businesses suffered the bulk of the damage. 61,000 Muslims and 10,000 Hindus fled their homes."

When you compare the problems that Muslim Americans suffered in the wake of September 11 with a horror movie like that described above, it's very hard to listen to people talking about rampant intolerance and hatred toward Muslims in America. They just don't know how bad things can get in some places and how those places are not in the United States.

I'm not saying that Muslims should be glad that they were not slaughtered on a large scale in the US after 9/11. I am saying that they ought to consider what happened in a place like India and keep their problems in the proper perspective. And they also ought to ask themselves what would be the fate of non-Muslims in Islamic countries if a group of Christian or Jewish fanatics did something like 9-11 (maybe flying a hijacked jetliner into the Kaaba Stone in Mecca at the height of the Hajj).

So I'd recommend that anyone who is interested in this topic get this book out from the library and read it, but when you read a claim that is jaw-dropping, do some of your own research to see if it's fair.

In characterizing the American behaviors, I finding the author's classifications no different than what you find in any society. The author attempts to explain some American behavior by interviewing the members of the Klu Klux Klan, a criminal terrorist group that no more explains American psyche than interviewing Al-Qaeda to understand the behaviors of the common citizen in Saudi Arabia. The author's "research" is biased, and conclusions are poorly substantiated. The author also fails to consider other more obvious reasons for explaining American behavior towards people of the Muslim faith or Arab ethnicity in the aftermath of the 911 terrorist attack. Unfortunately, my reaction is that this hate-mongering book that is an attempt to further divide two cultures which share a common belief in the goodness of God and mutual respect for others.