US Muslims Struggle to Prove Patriotism

Working for years to improve their image in past 9/11 America, US Muslims are drawing concerns about stigmatization of their religion following a recent congress hearing on the radicalization of their religious minority.

“When people look at me walking down the street, they’ll feel like I’m an al-Qaida radicalist,” Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, told the Canadian Press on Saturday, March 12.
Bakri-Bazzi, a law school student and president of the Muslim Legal Society at Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s Detroit area campus, has been trying to improve image of true Islam who condemns terrorism.
Yet, the new congress hearing, called by New York lawmaker Peter King, ignored the positive steps Muslims have taken in fighting terrorism since 9/11 attacks, she said.
This hearing, she thinks, would only spark backlash against innocent members of her community just going about their lives.
The feeling of betrayal was shared by many American Muslims.
Mohamed Kobaissi, manager of Arabica Café, feels it was hard for many Americans to accept his loyalty to America, his homeland, and Islam, his religion.
“We’re always under attack by the media,” he said.
Kobaissi proudly points out that he served food to former President Bill Clinton and got to shake the leader’s hand in the mid-1990s during a visit to Detroit Metropolitan Airport when he worked for a nearby hotel.
“Trust me — I’ll be the first guy to defend the US, but at the same time I like to (say) Islam is nothing about terrorism,” Kobaissi added.
Since 9/11, US Muslims, estimated between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was stigmatizing their faith.
Anti-Muslim frenzy has grown recently over plans to build a mosque near the 9/11 site in New York, resulting in attacks on Muslims and property.

American Patriots

Rejecting King’s hearing, many Americans shared Muslims’ feelings of betrayal to their years-long efforts in building and working for their US homeland.
“No community is working more diligently than the Muslim community,” said Sally Howell, an associate professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
“Really, there is nobody in our society that is more concerned about this than the Muslim community.
“There have been instances of this coming from their community and they don’t want it to happen,” added Howell, author of several books and essays on Arabs and Muslims in Detroit.
Allen Ghamlouche, the owner of Arabica Café and friend of Kobaissi, attacked the hearing for targeting the Muslim minority, the easiest target for many.
“They’re not trying to find the truth,” Ghamlouche said.
“The non-Muslims are looking for the boogeyman.”
Facing growing criticism, many Muslims expressed their fears that such a hearing would demonize Muslims. “It’s unjust to single out one group from another,” said Hashi Shafi, head of the Somali Action Alliance.
“It’s really an emotional time. It’s just too much. . . . We cannot be on the hot spot all the time, every year.
“Just as we had in 2008, and 2009 and ’10 and now 2011, Somalis are still in another hot spot. It’s unfortunate.”
These fears were shared by Kassem Allie, executive administrator of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, one of the nation’s largest mosques.
As King promised further hearings on the issue, the planned follow-ups will only drive those already susceptible to being radicalized further underground, Allie added.
“The greatest fear is the people we don’t know about — the people we don’t see,” Allie said.

Source: OnIslam