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U.S. Muslims Strive for American Identity
By Kerri Houston
September 12, 2002

Imagine facing the heartbreak and mourning of September 11th as a patriotic American who also practices the religion of Islam.

Like most of our immigrant populations - including the Pilgrims - Muslims came to America to escape oppression and find safety for themselves and their families. Ironically, it is the very nature of their countries of origin that presents them with some of their greatest challenges here.

Back there, the police are not your friend. U.S. Muslims are often criticized for not "turning in" bad guys in their midst, but many of these first generation Americans remember what would happen in their native countries for tattling - the authorities would come after you.

Additionally, terrorist operatives in the United States don't reveal themselves to the Muslim community at large. The 9/11 hijackers were loners. They knew what many pundits seem not to have yet recognized - revealing their true identities and intent within the mainstream Muslim-American community is a risk they cannot take. Terrorists are indeed evil incarnate, but they are not stupid.

In addition to learning to trust the authorities, the media presents U.S. Muslims with a confusing challenge.

Their strongest advocate so far has been the President of the United States. One of their most significant adversaries has been reflexively prejudicial essays penned by some of our nation's leading columnists.

First generation immigrants grew up at best, with state-sponsored radio, print and TV; and at worst, with nothing. First amendment freedoms are not granted by the despotic states from which this community fled, and they have not yet learned how to use the media in a positive way to express their grief and solidarity. This is doubly painful as they watch some of our popular talking heads discover that they get more personal press time when they disparage American Muslims rather than trying to understand them.

After 9/11, statements of prayer and grief poured from over 20 of our nation's most prominent Islamic, Arab and Pakistani organizations - statements which were widely ignored by the national and local media. Although they were sent out in press releases and are still plastered on websites (it takes but 10 seconds to find them using a search engine), I still hear people ask "why hasn't the Muslim community expressed its grief and support?" It did. It has. Few covered it.

This community shares many fundamental American beliefs with both economic and social conservatives - the importance of faith and family, the values of entrepreneurship and economic liberty, and appreciation of the safety and security we enjoy in the United States. But even before the terrorist attacks, a lack of understanding of the core tenets of their faith and their book of worship engendered distrust and fear, as ignorance of anything seemingly mysterious tends to do.

Muslim immigrants in the United States form a relatively new community that is still mystifying for many. Some think "Muslim" and "Arab" are synonyms, but most Muslims are not Arabs; in fact the highest density Islamic population is in Indonesia. There are millions of Christian Arabs as well, both in the Middle East and in America, and Pakistanis are not Arabs - they are southwest Asians.

We are blessed in this country with what naturalized patriot and author Balint Vazsonyi calls "a common American identity" - regardless of race, religion or national original - our national pride is the tie that binds. You could emigrate to Italy or Denmark and live there for fifty years and you'd never be Italian or Danish. But when you take the oath of citizenship here, you become an American.

As this new population grows in familiarity with their new language and culture, there are many things they can do to join the quilt. They must find advocates in the non-Muslim community, focus on local and domestic issues that concern them, and continue to develop faith-based public policy institutes that explain the fundamentals of their faith within American domestic policy. The Catholic, Jewish, and Evangelical communities have been well-served by stellar organizations such as Michigan's Acton Institute, Seattle's Toward Tradition and the Beltway's Traditional Values Coalition. Muslims must do no less to foster an understanding of their true beliefs.

America is a nation born of religious tolerance, love of freedom and individual rights, modeled after a book of faith. Its strength comes from strong religious and patriotic beliefs combined with spirited entrepreneurship.

Forcing the many to pay for the sins of the few is not a core American value. After Japanese-Americans suffered in internment camps for the acts of their former countrymen we vowed this would never happen again on our soil. Did we not mean it figuratively as well as literally?

Soccer moms, office park dads and the folks next door can practice Islam, be loyal Americans, and mourn for the victims of 9/11 all at the same time. In turn, we must not turn our backs on our own heritage and common American identity; instead we should reach out to share it with those who need it the most.

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Kerri Houston is the national field director for the American Conservative Union.