-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- African Muslim Says Islam in America Teaches Reconciliation
(Mozambican says U.S. mosques embrace all ethnicities, major sects) (600) By Jim Fisher-Thompson and Greg Garland Washington File Staff Writers Washington -- Islam as practiced in America contains subtle alterations that change the religion by erasing many of the schisms that plague Muslims elsewhere, thus promoting reconciliation, says Bayono Valy, a journalist and researcher who also serves as press officer for the Islamic Council of Mozambique. Valy recently led a roundtable discussion at the American Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique, based on his participation in the Department of State-sponsored International Visitor Leadership Program. After touring the United States for three weeks, he argued that American Muslims offer a model of Islamic reconciliation, whether divisions are theological or ethnic. Valy's remarks were reported by the U.S. Embassy in Maputo after its public affairs section hosted him and about 25 other Muslims and journalists at an iftar event to break the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month Ramadan. Speaking from direct experience during his U.S. visit, Valy dispelled the common misimpression that Muslims form an underclass in the United States. He listed figures to the contrary, citing high income and educational levels among Muslims living in America. In fact, he pointed out, Iranian-Americans are among the most successful immigrants in American history. Taken together, he said, Muslims represent perhaps the fastest-growing religious group in the United States, now outnumbering Jews and many individual Christian denominations. According to the embassy, what struck Valy most was not size, growth or affluence of Islam in the United States -- it was its relative lack of internal discord. The sectarian and ethnic schisms that plague Islam in the Middle East and Africa simply do not exist in the United States, the Mozambican told his audience. Typically, American mosques encompass many ethnicities and both major sects without distinguishing one from the other, Valy explained, noting that the practice of treating all Muslims equally reflects the original Islam of Mecca before the Sunni-Shi'a split emerged. Islam as practiced in the United States thus presents Muslims around the world a model of unity and internal reconciliation, he said. With that in mind, he counseled his fellow Muslims to stop thinking of the United States as an enemy of religion but rather to begin to see that American Islam has something important to offer traditional Muslim societies. Valey also offered his view that American Muslims arrived at this point by accentuating what believers have in common, rather than their differences. American converts, including African-American Muslims, simply do not care about Old World divisions, he said. As a result, American Muslims of all backgrounds tend to see themselves as Muslims, not Sunnis or Shi'as, he told the roundtable participants. Prompted by audience comments about the low level of education among Mozambican Muslims, Valy called for more and better education in general in Africa. American Muslims, he said, succeed in part because of their educational attainments. One explanation for the unity of American Islam, he said, lies in its well-educated leadership. Valy said that he met American imams with doctorates in political science and other social sciences, and that most hold undergraduate degrees. Valy also challenged the notion held by some that Islam discourages women from working. Even in Saudi Arabia, he said, women work within the home. The question is not whether women will work; it is rather what kind of work they will do. Educate women, he said, and the country and Islam will move forward. Leave them ignorant, and they will hold back the community and the country, he said. For additional information, see Muslim Life in America (http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/muslimlife/homepage.htm). (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) NNNN
