March 10, 2013
Islam and Muslims in the Post-9/11 America
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
A Review by Tashie Zaheer
It is really a difficult task to read a 341 page political book loaded with events and stats and even more difficult of a task to try understanding it. I did however, manage to do it and by that I only mean that have read the book.
It really astounds me to even think about the number of hours and the dedicated effort it must have taken Mr. Ghazali to follow every action and response thorough out the US since and regarding the horrendous incident of 9/11 in the year 2001. 
Mr. Ghazali has called it a “source book” and that it is indeed. In this book he has chronicled not only the details of what happened but also what transpired in the aftermath of 9/11.
In his familiar and unique style, Mr. Ghazali has told a story of how an unforeseen and an unexpected incident changed the thinking of so many, so quickly, so drastically and how that change impacted the lives of one American Community, the American Muslims.
Dear Friends, I hope, you agree with me when I say that most of the past decade has been really trying rather tumultuous for the entire community of American Muslims.
By nature, most of us were raised as non-interfering and “minding our own business” types. The circumstances following 9/11 forced us from a very private to a public life. Unfortunately, this incident divided our communities; it damaged the fabric of our society, affected the health of our democracy, and above all colored and clouded the wisdom of our policy choices.
Here is something that concerns me very much. In his book, Mr. Ghazali tells us that immediately after 9/11, the FBI reported 1,700% increase in “hate crimes” against the American Muslims. Unfortunately, as I am sure all of you already know, this situation not only continues but has escalated to new heights.
The recent attempts of the Obama Administration at changing and or strengthening existing gun laws in this country has created another storm of hatred against the administration and the president. This has given an unprecedented rise to “hate groups” disguised as so called “patriotic groups”.
It was reported a couple of days ago that in the year 2008, there were 194 “Hate Groups” in the country but as of now the homeland security estimates this number to be 2016. These Militia groups are armed with “Assault Weapons” and are trained to fight military style. And here is the scariest part. These Militia groups are training to fight against the Government of the United States.
An analyst from the “Homeland security” mentioned at MSNBC that what’s happening today unfortunately resembles to what was happening before the OHIO bombing. This is a “red flag” that needs to be taken seriously.
Coming back to Mr. Ghazali ’s book, he has extensively written about the erosion of “Civil Rights” under the administration of George W. Bush and has also talked about the bigoted Politicians, Radio and TV talk show hosts, the opportunistic campaigns of “Islamophobics”, and the right wing extremists.
Mr. Ghazali reminds us of the Senate Finance Committee’s witch-hunt against Muslim Charities especially, the Holy Land Foundation, FBI’s surveillance of mosques, Muslims forced to spy on Muslims, Discrimination and harassment of faced by American Muslim men & women in air travel and travel in general. I personally remember someone yelling at me and saying, “Go back to your F--- country” while I was parking my car to go to my office in Los Altos.
Last but not the least, Mr. Ghazali reminds us of the US Government’s attempt at silencing the American Muslim Advocacy groups like CAIR and ISNA, to name a couple.
Ladies and Gentlemen, What Mr. Ghazali has highlighted as the challenges we continue to face as American Muslims in this chosen homeland of ours, is a monumental task that we must take on in order to protect not only, our civil rights and liberties but those of our next generation, and the generations after that. I sincerely hope we have not forgotten about George W. Bush’s gift to us all, the “Patriot Act” exclusively targeting American Muslims.
We are often reminded that the nations and groups who don’t remember their history and take the time to learn lessons from their mistakes, vanish from existence.
Mr. Ghazali tries to lesson our pain by sharing with us that we are not alone in this fight. Japanese Americans, American Jews, Irish Americans, and above all, African Americans have all endured similar intolerance, social prejudice, unfairness, and legal injustice in the past. As Americans, I believe it is incumbent upon us to ensure that this doesn’t happen to us or any other community ever again. I would like to take a moment to remind all of us a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. He said, “An injustice committed anywhere in the world, is a threat to peace everywhere in the world”.
Mr. Ghazali presents all of us, an opportunity to visit the recent past and remember how we were found guilty by association so quickly, by so many in a country that prides itself as being the land of law & order and guarantees justice and fairness for all through the constitution.
At the end of the book, Mr. Ghazali has included a few appendices that provide demographic data about American Muslims, the recent Muslims Immigration to the US, formation and development of Islamic organizations in the US, Hidden agenda of the Gallup Polls and the PEW institute. Just before that, his last chapter tells another story. This story is about the constructive response of American Muslims and Arabs to all the challenges faced by them.
In this section, Mr. Ghazali not only tells us about the positive steps taken by the American Muslims and Islamic organizations but effectively leads us to ideas and suggestions by re-affirming that as a community, American Muslims have a strong sense of optimism and have the ability to come together and fight back.
As a community, we have come long ways but we have ways to go. We need to understand that as individuals we are the ambassadors of the American Muslim Community. Each one of us bears the responsibility to reach out, share and educate our non-Muslim friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
The American Muslim Voice (AMV) and the United Muslims of America (UMA) have done a commendable job of reaching out to other communities through inter-faith and inter-communities programs and events.
Allow me to talk about one last thing that I personally see as an issue that can be resolved, should we all come together to do so.
In his book, Mr. Ghazali has repeatedly mentioned the phrase, “Seven million strong American Muslims”. If you recall, in 2004, in his famous speech in Cairo, President Obama also used the same number and was criticized relentlessly.
If you look carefully, there are numerous organizations that have given their estimates of Muslims in America. This number ranges from under 2.0 million to 6.0 million, 7.0 million and all the way to 10.0 million.
Mr. Ghazali speaks to this issue in this book on page 233. He describes to us the method by which CAIR reached the conclusion that there are 6.0 to 7.0 million of us Muslims in America. To the best of my understanding, the method is based upon extrapolations of some data gathered from some of the mosques.
I could be wrong but, in my humble opinion, this method would be considered “unscientific” by most standards, to say the least.
Dear Friends, we happen to live in the age of nano-technology where we have the ability to measure the one hundred thousandth of a human hair. I may be naïve to say this but I really don’t think counting people is that difficult a task if we put our minds to it.
Personally, I can not think of one good reason why we would not want to know the “real count” of Muslims in America?
According to one report from a reliable source, we had 2,106 Mosques in US in the year 2011. In addition to the Mosques, we have many more Islamic organizations and schools. It may not be the easiest thing in the world but I think we need to try to come up with a number that is based on facts not samples and some extrapolations. May be, American Muslim Voice (AMV) can take the lead on this project.
Tashie Zaeer is President of the Urdu Academy of North America and ex-president of the United Muslims of America.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
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