Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2000, pages 87-90

Muslim-American Activism

America, Islam, and the New Millennium Conference

The America, Islam, and the New Millennium Conference held April 26 to 28 at Georgetown University was attended by more than 50 of the world’s most prominent Islamic scholars, activists, and academicians, joined by American policymakers, academics and other observers. The conference was sponsored by the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), the nation’s only Islamic think tank and research center, and the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding (CMCU), headed by scholar and lecturer Dr. John Esposito.

In his opening remarks Dr. Ahmed Yousef, UASR executive director, quoted from Ernest Zundel’s The West, War, and Islam: “Westerners view the Islamic world as being comprised of huge harems, wild sex orgies, opulent palaces, flying carpets, incredible wealth, fierce warriors, hordes of thieves, shrewd dishonest traders, cruelty and religious fanaticism.” Most of these images, commented Dr. Yousef, “have come from myths such as 1001 Nights, and Hollywood movies which for some 50 years have portrayed Muslims in a negative light.”

The first panel on “Islamic Vision for the 21st Century” included chairperson Dr. John O. Voll and panelists Dr. Murad Hoffman, Graham Fuller, Dr. Abdul Latif Arabiyat and MP Merve Kavakci. Fuller, discussing political relations between the United States and Islam, said this is “the first time in the history of the world that Islam has the complete freedom to search for its own agenda.” Yet, Islamic movements suffer from many obstacles and political inexperience. Ultimately, Fuller said, the U.S. will have to accept the legitimization of political Islam.

For their part, he continued, the Arab countries will have to pay more attention to the case of Iran and not “simply cast it off as a Shi’i phenomenon.” He also described “the absence of democratization in the Muslim world as its single most urgent problem,” which needs to be resolved.

Merve Kavakci, the Turkish parliamentarian who was not permitted to be sworn into the Turkish General Assembly while wearing the hijab (Islamic religious scarf), said, “All three of the sacred revelations of God [Judaism, Christianity, Islam] carry the message of the 10 commandments in them ...these are the common values that bind us as humanity.” She pointed out that although these principles are found in universal declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.N. Charter, there are daily violations of basic human rights and freedoms by the very governments that have signed these international conventions. “Violations of these kinds have to be viewed as against all of humanity,” she concluded.

Next, author and lecturer Murad Hoffman, a Harvard Law School graduate and a German citizen who served as German ambassador to Algeria and Morocco prior to becoming a Muslim, discussed American foreign policy in the Muslim world. In his speech before conference banquet attendees Ambassador Hoffman said, “There are now 1.2 billion Muslims all over the world… and Islam is globalizing as the only growing religion.” He stressed that in the next U.S. elections, the Muslim vote might become decisive and that Muslims control most of the world’s remaining oil reserves. Under such circumstances, Hoffman said, “Americans should realize that it is in their vital national interest to be seen not as the supreme enemy of the Muslim world,” but rather as its true friend. Yet, he concluded, the United States is not on that track, and for some foreign observers that is puzzling.

Dr. Abdul Latif Arabiyat, former speaker of the Jordanian parliament, discussed “An Islamic Vision for the 21st Century.” He said the Islamic world feels that it is its right and obligation to provide visions for the upcoming century. “This world suffers from tyranny, injustice, oppressive imperialism, and purposeful defamation of its thought, creed and human message,” he said. At the same time, he pointed out, “The Islamic world feels it has a massive treasure of global values and principles that humanity needs if it hopes to fix the foundations of modern civilization.”

The second panel considered “Challenges and Opportunities for East/West Cooperation” with chairperson Dr. Antony Sullivan. Dr. Azzam Tamimi presented “Islamic Movements as Social-Political Phenomena,” Dr. Sulayman Nyang spoke on “Christian-Muslim Minorities in East and West,” and Ms. Caroline Keeble spoke on “Terrorism, Sanctions and Resistance.”

The answers to the problems of the Muslim world, according to Dr. Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Thought, may be found in the reform programs being initiated by Islamic movements in the Muslim world. He said that “since the beginning of the 19th century, Islamic thinkers and reformers have been trying to meet the challenge of finding a way out of the state of backwardness in which they found the Muslim world.” Right from the outset the objective of reformers was to create an Islamic renaissance that could also protect the Arabs from the European colonial campaign that had begun when the French first landed on the southern shores of the Mediterranean.

Dr. Tamimi then described the origins of the most prominent Islamic movements, including the Ikwan Al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) of Egypt, the Jordanian Islamic Movement, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) of Algeria, Al-Islah Party of Yemen, En Nahda of Tunisia, and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine.

Caroline Keeble of UASR, speaking on the need for greater understanding and dialogue between Islamists and the West, stressed that “unless we are able to construct a language of international and cross-cultural diplomacy” that is specific to dialogues between representatives of our two interests, America and Islam, “we will never be able to remove ourselves from the images and words that have come to shape the perceptions that are guiding our interaction and responses to one another.”

Next, Dr. Nyang of Howard University addressed the relations between Muslims and Christians in the West and East. The very reason, he pointed out, that Muslims who were the minority in the Middle East were able to succeed was due to the fact that so many Christians embraced Islam (as in Egypt and Syria). Yet, “Islam succeeded differently in different contexts and through different historical events,” Nyang concluded.

The third panel on “Islam in the New Millennium” was chaired by Dr. Imad Ad Deen Ahmed. Dr. Mahmud Rashdan of Zakra Private University in Jordan presented “Islamic Perspectives on Globalization,” Dr. Anwar ‘Eshki spoke on “Grand Strategy for Civilizational Dialogue,” Dr. Rachid Benissa spoke on “A Civilizational Dialogue: A Search for Common Ground,” and Dr. Rasha al-Disuqi presented “Muslim Women in Politics: 21st Century Transformations of Feminine ‘Being’ in Islam.”

The second day of the conference began with brief opening remarks by Imam Shakir El Sayed. Two parallel sessions were held, one on “Islamic Movements in the Arab Muslim World” and the second on “Islamic Movements in Asia and Africa.” Speakers on the first panel included Dr. Muhammad al-Afendi, Shaykh Ali al-Baiannouni, Dr. Abdul Elah bin Keiran and Dr. Mustafa Abu Sway. On the second panel were Dr. Muhammad Abdullahi, Dr. Louay Safi, Ms. Avis Ayise Allman and Dr. Zahid Bukhari.

After a brief midday break there was a panel on “Islam and Muslims in the United States, Europe and Canada” with chairperson Dr. Yvonne Haddad and panelists Dr. Suheil Ganouchi, Dr. Munir El-Kassem, Dr. Rachid Benaissa and Dr. Azzam Tamimi. The final panel of the conference was on “Modern Technology in East/West Communications” with chairperson Aly R. Abuzaakouk and panelists Dr. Ahmad Turkistani, Dr. Muhamad Olimat and Dr. Maher Abdullah.

Later, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Ronald Neumann, in his keynote address delivered at the conference banquet, recognized the importance of the conference and the ongoing work of both UASR and CMCU. Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti, formerly the imam of the Dar Al Hijrah mosque, one of the leading mosques in the United States, closed the conference with a presentation on “Setting an Islamic Agenda for the New Millennium.” Speaking on the topic of democratization in the Muslim world, Imam Al-Hanooti süid, “In an effort to change the pattern of stagnant, ineffective, oppressive, and repressive and unresponsive governance on the Muslim world, Muslim scholars have taken to discussion of democracy.” He stated that, “Islamization of democracy is in fact contemplating the reclamation of those aspects of modern democratic theory that are of God.”

Discussing women’s issues, Imam Al-Hanooti said they have been “addressed in modern fiqh as issues of culture rather than religion and Islamic law and this has been to our detriment.” Addressing the issue of women in leadership roles, Imam Al-Hanooti said, “A woman can hold a position of leadership if the Ummat [community] is in need of her in that capacity.” Referring to the Palestine-Israel peace process, the imam said that there is no way for peace to be accomplished if the negotiating powers are not equal in influence or the ability to fulfill their agreements and demand their rights. Closing his presentation, Imam al-Hanooti said, “Islam is the religion that calls mankind to peace, and the Muslim is a bringer of peace. Yet we understand that peace is more than a word to be utilized for the sake of political expediency. It is a condition that must, and can only exist alongside justice.”

—Adila Masood

Muslim Groups Appeal to State Department

Muslims of the national capital held a “Life is Sacred” rally on May 24 in support of all their co-religionists who are oppressed and persecuted in other parts of the world. Rally participants said their purpose in gathering in front of the U.S. State Department was to urge the U.S. foreign policymakers to take measures to stop the suffering of Muslims in Algeria, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine and China. Despite the heavy rain, El-Hajj Mauri Saalakhan of the Maryland-based Peace and Justice Foundation expressed the concerns of American Muslims over the double standards in how the United States approaches conflicts involving Muslims all over the world.

—Alima Bissenova

The U.S. and “Political Islam”

Ahmad Moussalli, professor of Islamic and Western philosophy at the American University in Beirut and senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, spoke on “Islamist Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy, and the Middle East Peace Process” at USIP on May 4.

Moussalli underscored the close relationship between American foreign policy and Islamist politics. During the Cold War, the Middle East fell victim to Soviet-American polarization. Today, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, American policy is still underpinned by the three goals of access to oil, support of pro-Western regimes, and support of Israel. Moussalli noted that the U.S. was originally viewed favorably by the Arabs, as it was against British and French imperialism. Later, though, when the U.S. failed to be objective in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Arab goodwill was strained.

Over the past 10 years, the U.S. has been concerned about activist Muslims in the Middle East. The U.S., Moussalli said, did not attempt to bring about changes in the area or to open new contacts with different groups. With the demise of the Soviets and the return to their home or other countries of the “Afghani Arabs,” the “Green Threat” replaced the “Red Menace.”

During President Ronald Reagan’s tenure, Islam was only a footnote. Since the Gulf war, the U.S. has adopted the attitude that all Islamist movements are radical, and that one cannot talk reason or reach agreement with them, Moussalli said. Arab governments, in turn, have attempted to eradicate even “moderate” Islamist movements along with the “radicals.”

These groups’ main arguments against the U.S. are that it supports repressive regimes and an unfair settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. U.S. flirtations with Islamist groups stopped after the World Trade Center bombing, Moussalli continued. The U.S. also supported regional governments’ repression of their own people: there was to be no opposition—secular or religious—attempt to participate in government.

While the U.S. argues that it has no quarrel with Islam (being a civilization) but only with Muslim groups that use violence, actual American policy has been to give no support even to moderate Islamic groups. Moussalli gave the examples of the U.S. backing the Algerian government’s cancellation of democratic elections in which the moderate Islamist FIS was winning, and U.S. support for the Turkish army’s move to dismiss a coalition government in which the Islamist Refah party was the major participant, and the outlawing of Refah.

Moussalli stressed that in today’s new global politics, the U.S. can bring together realism and morality, but this requires a greater understanding and openness with regard to the region. He charged that in fact the U.S. is not implementing its own policy statements.

The U.S., he said, can put serious support behind two historic changes in the Middle East: an Arab-Israeli peace agreement, and an opening in countries of the region of political participation, economic development and human rights. In terms of the peace process, all the tracks must be put together, Moussalli said. This could produce people-to-people agreement, whereas now there are only regime-to-regime agreements.

U.S. regional policy must also factor in religion. If the U.S. increases popular political participation, it increases the legitimacy of regimes and therefore the legitimacy of the peace process and any peace agreement. Today, he noted, Arab states have to become more repressive in order to apply pressure on their own people to support the unpopular peace process.

—Hugh S. Galford

ISNA Regional Conference in Syracuse Deals with Issues Large and Small

The Upstate New York Council of Masajid (mosques) conducted a Regional Conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) at Syracuse University in New York from May 27 to 29. The three-day conference attracted more than 300 participants, despite the fact that it was preceded only a week earlier by ISNA’s East Zonal Conference just across the Canadian border in Toronto.

The Syracuse conference, organized by six area mosques with backing from ISNA headquarters in Ft. Wayne, IN, attracted equal numbers of men and women from the neighboring areas of Rochester, Buffalo, Ithaca, Binghamton, Cornell and Albany.

The theme of the conference was “Islam in the U.S.—Prospects and Challenges.” Former ISNA president Abdullah Idris Ali of Canada, a familiar figure in North American Muslim circles, opened discussions with an animated comparison of difficulties faced by the Prophet Muhammad in his time and challenges faced by Muslims in America in ours, paying homage to the way in which both sets of challenges have been met. “No one said the task was easy, but also no one said that it is insurmountable,” he concluded.

In current ISNA president Dr. Muzzamil Siddiqui’s several appearances at the conference, he expounded on the theme of the conference and also discussed such topics as the role of the mosque in a non-Muslim society, raising Muslim children in America, the need for interfacing with non-Muslim American groups, and Muslim participation in mainstream American life. “Where there are some hazards to the health of Muslims here, there are large opportunities for growth and promotion of Islam in the United States as well,” he explained.

Dr. Siddiqui also chaired a session devoted exclusively to answering questions from the floor. Displaying his scholarship and command over both English and Arabic languages, he addressed not only questions from the daily lives of individuals, but also larger issues of the community and the Ummah (universal Muslim brotherhood).

One panel talked about threats to Islamic identity in America, another considered challenges to Islam in America posed by its own ethnic diversity, and yet another group, including the writer, dealt with political activism in the United States, with a focus on the work of the American Muslim Council (AMC). One session was set aside for a first-hand report on efforts under way to assist Muslims inside American penitentiaries and specific experiences of local imams in helping former inmates take a constructive role in normal life after their release.

A separate session for young participants discussed issues of interest to them and recommended measures the adults attending can take to help Muslim youth in America cope with the two diverse environments in which they are growing up.

A sub-theme of the conference was its reflection of the slow but steady maturing of Islam in America, and the extremely beneficial role for themselves and their country Muslims can take in American political and societal life if they organize themselves to do so. The conference also underlined the grass roots role of the mosque in providing a meeting ground and a platform for individual Muslim communities scattered throughout the U.S. and Canada.

—M.M. Ali

Law Professor Discusses the Status of Muslim Marriage Contracts in American Judicial System

On May 20, the Minaret of Freedom Institute, a Muslim think tank near Washington, DC, invited to its annual dinner Dr. Aziza Al-Hibri, a law professor and Muslim feminist. Professor Al-Hibri is on sabbatical leave from the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond and is currently a scholar in residence at the Library of Congress. She has written extensively on the subject of women and Islam. She has been named a fellow at the National Humanities Center, where she will be writing a book on Islamic marriage contracts in American courts next year. Dr. Al-Hibri is also the founder of KARAMAH, a Muslim women lawyers organization “dedicated to empowering Muslim women within an Islamic framework.”

At the dinner, Dr. Al-Hibri discussed the subject of her most recent research: Muslim marriage contracts in American courts. Dr. Al-Hibri said that serious research and authoritative resources on the subject are direly needed, especially in light of a ruling by a Virginia court in which a misinformed judge stated that “Islamic law of marriage is contrary to public policy, and hence it is unenforceable.” In practical terms, this means that Muslim married couples seeking a divorce can no longer use their marriage contracts to guide divorce proceedings.

In Islam, marriage contracts are intended to detail the rights and obligations of each partner. These contracts play an especially critical role for Muslim women, who are entitled to insert mutually agreed conditions within their marriage contracts. The most common use of marriage contracts is to determine the amount of Moakhar Al-Saddaq, the sum of money to which a wife is entitled in case of a divorce. Some women also stipulate in their contracts whether or not they wish to retain or waive the right to divorce. Thus, making Muslim marriage contracts unenforceable egregiously disadvantages women who may lose financial guarantees documented within the contracts.

If that happens, Dr. Al-Hibri argued, “Muslims will be prevented from fully exercising their religious beliefs.”

Moreover, trained in the separation of church and state, U.S. judges have serious constitutional restrictions that prevent them from delving into matters of religion. This is further exacerbated by the utter lack of knowledge of Islam that characterizes the American judicial system.

Many judges simply have no idea what Muslim marriage contracts entail. They are not familiar with terms indispensable to understanding the nature of Muslim marriage contracts. There have been instances when U.S. judges have, for example, confused Mahr, a sum of money or gold presented to the bride as a gift at the time of marriage, for a bridal price. Such a notion of bridal price, Dr. Al-Hibri argued, is in total contradiction to the very spirit of Islam and can adversely affect the outcome of many cases.

Even worse, this ignorance of Islam makes judges vulnerable to some highly questionable sources of knowledge. When they are presented with misinformed “expert” testimony by people who lack proper training in Islamic law, judges are unable to discern the difference between religious and cultural interpretations.

Professor Al-Hibri asserted that it is therefore the duty of the Muslim community to provide qualified expert testimony to the U.S. judicial system. “We should define the rules and terms of the discourse on this issue,” she said.

—Asma Yousef

AMA Holds Leadership Conference in Chicago

The American Muslim Alliance hosted a leadership training conference in Chicago on June 17. The conference, which focused on educating Muslim leaders and activists on the structure, policies and issues that define national and state politics, was one of a series of such conferences AMA has held around the United States to show Muslim leaders and activists how to become involved in the American political system.

Speakers for the Chicago conference included Illinois Congressmembers Danny Davis, who spoke on Coalition Building, and Jan Schakowsky, who spoke on Illinois State Politics; AMA national chairman Dr. Agha Saeed, who provided an overview of the U.S. political system; Ms. Ayesha Mustafaa, editor of the Muslim Journal, who described “How to Put Your Community on the Political Map”; and representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties.

For information on future leadership conferences, as well as the AMA national convention scheduled for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in Los Angeles, contact the AMA National Office in Northern California at (510) 252-9858 or the AMA Web site at <www.amaweb.org>.

—Richard Curtiss