Berkeley lecturer urges 'uprising' against U.S. Muslim scholar declares at rally 'you haven't seen radicalism yet!'
A University of California at Berkeley lecturer speaking at an anti-war rally Saturday called for a Palestinian-style intifada, or uprising, against the United States in response to American actions in the Middle East.
Hatem Bazian, a native Palestinian with a Ph.D. in Islamic studies, stirred up the San Francisco crowd, asking three times, to resounding affirmations, "Are you angry?"
U.C. Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian
The comments at the outdoor rally held at United Nation's Plaza were caught on a digital camera's movie format by a reader of the popular weblog Little Green Footballs.
An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people attended the "emergency" action organized by the radical anti-war group International A.N.S.W.E.R. in response to the increased fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
The International A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition is an umbrella group tied to the World Workers Party, a Marxist organization that supports authoritarian regimes and communist dictatorships.
The lecturer in Berkeley's Near Eastern Studies and Ethnic Studies Departments continued:
"Well, we've been watching intifada in Palestine, we've been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don't have an intifada in this country? Because it seem[s] to me, that we are comfortable in where we are, watching CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and all these mainstream ... giving us a window to the world while the world is being managed from Washington, from New York, from every other place in here in San Francisco: Chevron, Bechtel, [Carlyle?] Group, Halliburton; every one of those lying, cheating, stealing, deceiving individuals are in our country and we're sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it's about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here.
And we know every – They're gonna say some Palestinian being too radical – well, you haven't seen radicalism yet!"
On his website, Bazian says he teaches courses on Islam, Islamic law, Sufisim, Arabic, and politics of the Middle East at U.C. Berkeley as well as at San Francisco State University, Berkeley Graduate Theological Union and Diablo Valley College.
He also provides "guidance to the community on issues pertaining to Islam and Muslims in the Bay Area."
Bazim, his website says, was chairman of the U.C. Berkeley Graduate Assembly and from 1995-1999 was coordinator of the Graduate Minority Students Project of the Graduate Assembly, "through which he spearheaded statewide efforts to defeat proposition 209," which sought to eliminate affirmative action programs in California.
He is co-host and assistant producer of the radio program "Islam Today" in the Bay Area and was a translation consultant for the San Francisco Chronicle on stories relating to Islam, Muslims and world politics.
At the rally Saturday, Bazian said the Vietnam War will be regarded as "child's play" compared to the U.S. experience in Iraq:
"And the people in Iraq understand who's the foreigner in the country. It's not the Arabs who are coming to help. Even if more Arabs who come to help, they understand who's helping and who's opposing them. The – it took the British three years to unite the Iraqis against them. And it took less than a year for the – for the Bush administration to unite all the Iraqis. And they need to understand: what took place in Vietnam will be child's play to what will take place in Iraq ... ." A Berkeley student at the rally expressed support for Iraqi attacks on U.S. troops, charging "the occupation is a source of tremendous violence against Iraqis."
"In light of that, you know, I think we've got to support the resistance; we've got to say that we support attacks against the occupying forces," he said. 'So I mean – and you can imagine what kind of an inspiring thing that is for people in Palestine, for people in Bolivia, for people in Argentina, Colombia, all over the world, facing down the barrel of a US-supplied gun. Seeing the people of Iraq fight back, that's what we need." An unidentified speaker encouraged attacks on U.S. troops worldwide:
"We stand here – we stand here recognizing that the war on Iraq is illegal, that the war on Iraq is illegal, and that resistance, that resistance against this war is protected by international law. It is legitimate, and that we – and we in this movement support the resistance against American imperialism by any means necessary."
His name is "Hatem". Yup, that's his message as well. Why do we allow this? Freedom of speech. It's a tangled web.
I'm hoping our FBI or Homeland Security depts are closely investigating this scumbag. If so much as a firecracker is found we should kick his butt out.
It must warm the hearts of California taxpayers that they are subsidising this guy.
This sounds to me like a direct call for violence against the United States. This is illegal. Wonder if the Bush administration has the guts to prosecute?
ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES 190AC
ISLAM IN AMERICA: COMMUNITIES AND INSTITUTIONS
Hatem Bazian
Format: lecture and discussion
21 November 2003: This course is AC APPROVED.
Course description
Schedule (for spring 2003)
Background
COURSE DESCRIPTION
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The course traces Islam’s journey in America, beginning with an examination of the first exclusionary acts in the new colonies directed at Muslims of West and North African descent, early arrivals in the 16th century, and a look at narratives and documents relative to African Muslim slaves. Building on this early history, we deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the US and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. We spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities, since they constitute the largest groupings. Also, we examine in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. We also conduce a short survey of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the on-going war on terrorism.
Required Reading:
Sylviane Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York University Press, 1998
Allan D. Austin, African Muslim Slaves in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles. Routledge, New York, 1997
Sulayman S. Nyang, Islam in the United States. Kazai Publications, 1999
M. A . Muqtedar Khan, American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom. Amana Publications, 2002
A Course Reader with selections from the following:
Esposito, Joel. Islam, the Straight Path
Alex Haley, Roots
Malcolm X and Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Gomez, Michael. "Muslims in Early America", Journal of Southern History LX (Nov 1994), pp. 671-710 (available at
http://www.stanford.edu/group/relstud199/gomez.pdf) Turner, Richard Brent. Islam in the African American Experience
Lincoln, C. Eric. The Black Muslims in America.
McCloud, Aminah Beverly. African American Islam.
Evanzz, Karl. The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad
Smith, Jane I. Islam in America
Al-Amin, Jamil. Revolution by the Book: The Rap is Live. pp. (prologue) vii – xviii
Haddad, Yvonne. Mission to America. pp. 79 – 104
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, Esposito, Joel, et al. Muslims on the Americanization Path?
Haddad, Yvonne. The Muslims of America
Keppel, Giles and Milner, Susan. Allah in the West
Metcalf, Barbara. Making Muslim Space
Waugh, Ealre. Muslim Families in North America
Waugh, E.A. The Muslim Community in North America
Wolfe, Michael. One Thousand Roads to Mecca
Waugh, E.A. The Muslim Community in North America
Lang, Jeffrey. Struggling to Surrender
Amway, Carol. Daughters of Another Path: Experiences of American Women Choosing Islam
An Employer’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices. Council on American-Islamic Relations
Course Requirements:
Attendance of the weekly lectures: 10%
Participating in class discussions: 10%
Mid-term exam: 20%
Final exam: 30%
Research paper 10 pages: 30%
SCHEDULE for Spring 2003
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1. Indigenous Islam in America
2. Immigrant Islam
3. Islam, Civil Rights, and Globalization
4. Technology, Institutions, Terrorism, Hip Hop, and Inclusion
The course is organized thematically to cover a number of important areas related to current research on the subject of Islam in America.
1. Indigenous Islam in America
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Jan. 21st – Feb, 25th
The first section of the course traces early Muslims in pre- and post-Columbus America. The students are introduced to the most recent research pertaining to early Muslim presence in America. A reference made to journey across the Atlantic and back by a Muslim navigator, Khashkash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad, is in the work of the Muslim historian and geographer, Abul-Hassan Ali Ibn Hussian Al-Masudi (d. 957 CE), which points, possibly, to a pre-Columbus contact with the indigenous people. Another account of a journey undertaken by the navigator Ibn Furrukh appears in the works of Muslim historian, Abu Bakr Ibn Umar Al-Gutiyya, which speaks of crossing the Atlantic, landing in Gando and visiting King Guanariga. Students examine these Islamic sources and other recent works to provide a longer historical view when examining American history and possible contacts between Africa and the New World before 1492. The question of "who discovered America" continues to pre-occupy many researchers’ time and effort, and this section offers the students another possibility to consider.
Islam in the African American community is an integral part of the history of slavery in the United States, and not as a function of some "alien" presence in this country. On the conservative side, some 10% of all the slaves brought into the New World were identified as being Muslim. This view is based on Philip Curtin figures of some 9.5 million slaves brought to America (plus or minus 20%). Another group of scholars has recently estimated that around 15-20% of all slaves brought to the New World adhered to Islam and the total number of all slaves brought was closer to 12-15 million. At present, scholars differ on the actual number of slaves brought to the Americas and much research needs to be undertaken, but the presence and impact of Muslim African slaves can no longer be over looked. Islam and Muslims have been in America since its early years, often held unto their beliefs, and managed to pass them to the next generation.
Alex Haley, in Roots, selected a Muslim for his ancestor and many faulted him for this, but it seems he was ahead of his time. In looking at Muslim African slaves in America, we are presented with a different picture of the slave. We have a picture of highly educated and sophisticated human beings who, while confronted with the monumental difficulties, were yet able to hold unto their belief system and resist against all odds. In the course, we examine the narratives of Abdulrahman, Job Ben Solomon, Bilali Mohammed, Salih Bilali, Umar iBn Said, Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, and Mohammed Ali ben Said, which help us understand the early life of Muslims in America. History is not only a matter of the past it is also a contributor to the present, and it can shape our ideas about the future. The course seeks to trace cultural, political, and social elements that can be attributed to Islamic influence in the African American community, which can serve as a foundation for a better understanding of our contemporary society. In addition, African Muslim slave narratives deal with the issue of racism in early America, how some Muslims were set free by being re-defined as "Arabs" vs. "African," and what this meant in terms of race constructs at the time.
Jan. 21st Islam and Muslims in America: An introduction.
An overview of Muslim communities
Areas of settlement
Demographic details
Jan. 28th Chronology of Islam in America.
Pre-Columbus America and the Muslim World
Reading of Dr. Abdul Hakim Quick article on the subject.
Feb. 4th Muslim Slaves of West Africa
Reading chapter one in Diouf’s
Narratives of Slaves from Austin’s
Feb. 11th African Muslim Slaves: Communities and Institutions
Chapter three and four Diouf’s
Austin’s narratives
Feb. 18th Resistance and the Legacy of African Muslim Slavery
Chapter five and six in Diouf’s
Chapter two, Slave Rebellion in Brazil, by Joao Jose Reis (see reader)
Literacy and education
Feb. 25th Importance of Muslim Slave narratives
Read Austin’s narratives
Alex Haley’s Roots
2. Immigrant Islam
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March 14th – April 1st
The second focus of the course is on immigrant Muslim. Muslim Immigrants are not any different from others who landed on the shores of this country seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Aside from the early colonialists, every immigrant group has faced some level of discrimination, stereotyping, and rejection as they attempted to fit in into American society. However, immigrants from non-European countries had to contend with racism directed not at the fact of being a new comer to America but on possessing a different skin tone. Muslim immigrants, in addition—like Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and others—had to struggle to fit into a Christian society, which often acted with hostility toward new comers.
Most American history sources gloss over Muslim immigrants’ contributions to America. Over the years, thousands of Muslims have made it to America from vast regions of the world. However, the early Muslim immigrants in the 19th century were Arabs from what was known as Greater Syria and those from Indo-Pakistan. These Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Lebanese, and Indo-Pakistani immigrants were poorly educated laborers, who came seeking greater economic stability. Many returned, disenchanted, to their homeland, while the others who stayed contended with the ever present discrimination, racism, and hostilities. But nothing was more painful than the isolation they felt in this foreign land.
The early wave of Arab and Indo-Pakistani immigrants came to an end in 1924 with the adoption of the Asian Exclusion Act and the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, which allowed only a tickle of "Asians" into this country. In 1924 within the American racial map, the US designated Arabs as Asians. But this changed during the 1960s, and the US now classifies them under the undefined rubric of "other". In this regard, Muslim immigrants share the history of Asian Americans who suffered institutionalized racism in the form of government policy. A similar case is taking place today under the newly adopted Patriot Act. This section of the course focuses on understanding the two groups of immigrants, patterns of migrations, areas of settlements, levels of adjustment to a new country, and economic, social, and political activities between them and the indigenous Muslims on the one hand and the rest of the society on the other. Also, students are introduced to the cultural norms of Arab and Indo-Pakistani communities, with an eye on food, clothing, and their festivals in America. One key element is the adjustment of Muslims, immigrant and indigenous, to the dominant Christian week and Friday being a work day rather than a religiously mandated holy day.
March 4th Muslim Immigration to America – 18th and 19th Century
India and the road to America
Syria, Lebanon and Yemen: Immigration patterns
March 11th Immigrants and Early Conversion to Islam
Alexander Russell Webb; An Early European Convert.
African American Converts
The mixing between the immigrants and indigenous populations
Reading; Dr. Omar’s chapter (see the reader)
March 18th Muslim Arab Immigrants in the 20th Century
Immigration Patterns
Immigrants from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen.
Countries and regions, areas of settlement and economic activities
April 1st Indo-Pakistani Immigrants in the 20th Century
Immigration Patterns
Areas of settlement, causes for migration, and economic activities
3. Islam, Civil Rights, and Globalization
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April 8th – April 22nd
The course moves toward the dynamic period of the 1960s with a greater involvement of the Nation of Islam in the human and civil rights movements, and to a lesser extent the anti-Vietnam war efforts. Also beginning in the mid 1960s, the US administration, hoping to influence countries in the Third World in the face of Soviet success in helping anti-colonial struggles, opened widely the door of immigration for foreign students, and among them came Muslims. In this sense, we deal in this section with the initial contact between the indigenous and immigrant Muslim communities, which begins to shape future relations.
At this stage, Islam is seen and adopted as a path or resistance by African Americans in their quest to change the society, while the newly arriving immigrants have come to the land of opportunity with a shot at the "American Dream." These two groups are acting under a set of conditions beyond their own control: the Cold War, the Vietnam War, Arab Nationalism, Oil Wealth, the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, poverty, and battles over education and jobs.
In the course, we examine the Muslim role in the Civil Rights movement, the particular contribution of Malcolm X, and the shadow he continues to cast on the minds and hearts of young and old in America. Also, Malcolm was an early convert to the global struggle and the links that needed to be made with Africa and the Middle East, which brings him into contact with immigrant Islam in New York and other cities. No person has had more impact on bringing Americans toward Islam in the last 40 years than Malcolm. His journey to Mecca, possibly single handedly, managed to cross Islam into white America and caused the eventual movement of the Nation under W.D. Muhammad to Orthodox Islam. After Hajj, Malcolm began a process, which continues today, of bringing Arab Muslim scholars to help guide the community toward what he considered a "pure" version of Islam and away from the earlier teaching of the Nation of Islam.
Students are introduced to the major issues confronting the immigrant-indigenous Muslims as they attempt to draw closer to one another in this period. This formative period is key to understanding the current relations between both groups and, to a large extent, global circumstances were the primary villain behind many internal problems. During this formative period, we place greater emphasis on the role of women in the Nation of Islam, a society with a mandated dress code, and we introduce students to the culture and value system relating to gender, gender relations, and role definition. Often, the media use the construct of gender in Muslim communities as a sharp sword to gain support for foreign and domestic policy initiatives. Thus, students are given an understanding of these issues as a way for them to reflect on gender relations and formation within their own society.
April 8th Black Nationalism and Civil Rights
The emergence of the Nation Islam
MLK and Malcolm X
Civil Rights Movement and Islam
Documentary
April 15th Malcolm X’s Impact and Islam in America
Muhammad Ali and The Vietnam War
The emergence of Sunni Islam
W. D. Muhammad and conversion to orthodox Islam
April 22nd Immigration reforms in 1964/5 and Cultural Norms in Muslim Communities
Foreign Students who did not go back
The building of masjids across the US
Islamic Society of North America
4. Technology, Institutions, Terrorism, Hip Hop, and Inclusion
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April 29th – May 13th
The last section of the course deals in depth with Islam in the US over the last thirty years and a closer treatment of the impact of the technology, institutions, and the war on terrorism on the Muslim community. In my recent research on the "Silicon Rush," I found that a large number of Muslims moved to the Bay Area as a result of the explosion of the technology industry and the expansion in granting H1 immigrant workers visas. Students are given a view of primary research and raw qualitative data about the Muslim communities in the Bay Area and additional examples drawn from other areas around the US.
This type of immigrant is completely different from the earlier generation, for many of them are professionals, already married, and have immediate financial expectations that they often realized on the first day on the job. Many possess high degrees and are very fluent in the English language, which make cultural barriers less of an issue than before. In the Bay Area, we see a dramatic shift from San Francisco being the top of social, political, cultural, and religious activities to San Jose and Santa Clara becoming the focal point. Also, we see the rapid development of institutions throughout the area supported by the high levels of income generated by this new crop of Muslims who are imbedded in the computer industry. Students are taken through the development of the Muslim communities in the last 30 years and provide with authentic voices representing various groups and institutions operating in this area. The focal point of this is to understand the specific cultural, political, social, and religious outlooks present in each and among the three groups under consideration. The area has experienced a massive expansion in the number of Muslims and, as a byproduct, the emergence of a network of Halal meat services (Halal refers to meat adhering to Islamic codes in the slaughtering process, which is somewhat similar to Kosher labels for the Jewish community). Also, a large number of Halal restaurants have sprung up around the Bay Area, including seven located in Berkeley alone, with the Indo-Pakistani cuisine dominating the tables. We often think of Indian food absent consideration of the large Muslim community belonging to this larger designation even though a number of the restaurants are operated by them in the Bay Area.
With this initial background, we begin to examine 9/11 and its impact on the Muslim community in the last two lectures. We deal with 9/11 from the perspective of Muslim Americans, immigrant and indigenous, and how it impacts them Following the events of 9/11, a powerful spotlight was directed at the Muslim American community with negative and positive consequences. The negatives on the macro political level have produced racial profiling in airports, imprisonment without trial, closing down of Muslim community based charities, and the freezing of assets. As one person expressed it at a community gathering, "Muslims live in a virtual interment condition," with wire taps, FBI monitoring, 5000 interrogations, and undercover presence in mosques and community activities. Students receive a first hand look at a community living in fear and facing the full force of the state. What would have been the value of a similar look in a course on the Japanese in America during WW II?
Also, students are encouraged to examine their own response to 9/11 and how they view or relate to the Muslim American community. Not all the responses to the events of 9/11 were negative. On the contrary, the Muslim community received massive support from various sectors within the American society, which has lead to the inclusion of Muslims in every public setting and to viewing them as part of the fabric of this society. This section deals with the dynamics between the majority and a minority within a minority community at a time of crisis and how best to deconstruct the arguments in the current debate on terrorism and to attempt to view it from the point of view the Muslim American community. Aside from the effect of the events of 9/11, we also discuss the impact of Islam on the music scene and the Hip Hop community.
April 29th Islam in America from 1970-2000
Civil war and immigration
The Silicon Rush and the Growth of Muslim Communities in Coastal Areas
Demographic shifts in the past 20 years
An assessment of institutional building efforts
May 6th 9/11 and its aftermath
Civil rights issues
War on Terrorism and the Muslim American Communities
Immigration and racial profiling
The racialization of Muslims
Council on American Islamic Relations, Guest Speaker
May 13th Muslim American Institutions in Post 9/11
The Masjids in post 9/11
Development of schools
Charity organizations and how to fulfil a religious duty
Electoral politics post 9/11
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BACKGROUND
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6 December 2002
President Bush, in his message to the American Muslim community on the occasion of the end of the month of Ramaddan on December 5th, 2002, said: “Here in the United States, Muslims have made many contributions in business, science, law, medicine, education, and other fields. Muslim members of our Armed Forces, and of my Administration, are serving their fellow Americans with distinction, upholding our Nation’s ideals of liberty and justice in a world at peace.”
It is rare that I quote President Bush in any of my work, but his message to Muslims last night touches at the heart of my proposal to the American Culture Committee, to offer the students a view of who are the Muslims in this country. I am writing this letter to request the approval of ES 190AC, Islam in America: Communities and Institutions, as an American Cultures course. The course is a new one in Ethnic Studies and attempting to deal with a field of research relating to a community that often has been over looked or considered only tangentially in the context of American culture. In this regard, Muslim communities are often examined solely in reference to their religious identity, important as that might be, at the expense of all other variables, including race, ethnicity, language, gender and class.
When students think of Islam, they often recall prevalent media images and develop conclusions based on what is most current in the news, which, on the individual level, leads to some serious misconceptions, while the outcome at the societal levels can be discrimination, stereotyping, and racism. Likewise, the encounter with Islam and Muslims is devoid of context and to a large extent is media driven, thus our most common frame of reference is of Middle Eastern "fundamentalists" and “terrorist” abroad, and recently, since 9/11, in “our” cities and towns. Muslims are far more diverse than popular images would allow and Islam presence in America is longer what most might think.
From a demographic point of view, Muslims in America are divided into two main groups; indigenous Muslims—mainly African American with increasing numbers of white converts— and immigrants who came to this country for a number of reasons, chief among them education, economic opportunity, and seeking a refuge from war torn regions. Thus, Islam in America, on the one hand, as a topic of academic research, deals with the history of African Americans, slavery, and the presence of Muslims in early America, which points to a forceful admission to this country accompanied by a long history of oppression. On the other hand, when dealing with immigrant Muslim communities, the focus shifts drastically toward a voluntary movement to America and is viewed more through immigration studies, patterns of migration, post-colonial and cold war dislocations, and adjustments and adaptations to new social conditions.
The cultural, political, and social contributions of the indigenous African American Muslims to what is America of today can never be overstated, and it is very timely for students to begin to examine Islam in America from a wider lens than what is being offered. American society has been influenced by African Americans in general and African American Muslims in particular in a number of ways, the least of which are the politics of resistance and the movement for social justice, which can be directly attributed to Islam among the early African Slaves. How much influence did Islam have on Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois and the builders of the Moorish Temple? Can we study 20th century America without a critical examination of the development of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Imam W.D. Muhammad, or Louis Farrakhan? What are the roots of these movements, how did Islam fit into their worldview and, what impact have they had on America? Not to dwell on the political and social justice dimension, Sylviane Diouf in her book, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, provides amble evidence pointing to Islamic influence on the development of blues music, a fact that escapes many who enjoy its sounds. The study of African American Muslims influence on shaping America’s consciousness in relations to race, ethnicity, and class is a given and central to understanding our contemporary society, which is a fundamental academic mission of this class.
A similar case for cultural, political and social influence can be made on behalf of thousands of Muslim immigrants who made it to America for a variety of reasons. The contribution of this group is greatly understudied and often completely overlooked in examinations of immigrants who helped build and shape America. The image of the camel has, over the years, captivated the imagination of Hollywood when it comes to “Arabs” and “Muslims”, but Hollywood has failed to document the story of their introduction into the American army and the importation of Arabs in the 19th century as trainers. A fact of local Californian history is the presence of the remnants of the camel herd brought in the 1855, in the city of Benicia, where an annual camel race is held.
Muslim immigrants came to American from a large number of countries, but two major groupings can be readily identified as early comers to this country: Arabs from Greater Syria and Indo-Pakistanis, who followed in the footsteps of the Sikh who settled in the Western States and Canada.
The contribution of these immigrants does not take hold until the mid to late 20th century and for a period of time was regionally focused in a few states in the Eastern Sea Board, Michigan, and Chicago. What attracted these Muslim immigrants was economic opportunity and promises of riches to be made in short period of time, which, if compared to home countries, held true but required hard work and putting up with a steady stream of racism. The number of Muslim immigrants increased as a result of changes made in the immigration laws, which introduced a younger generation that was more motivated by the pursuit of higher education and often supported by newly discovered oil wealth. A very profound impact of this new influx was a transformation in the class structure of the Muslim immigrant population from a blue-collar middle to low class type of community to one of upper class inclinations. Also, these students came to the US with an already constructed identity, which was greatly influenced by nationalism in both the Arab world and newly independent Pakistan.
Over a period of 30 years, these students managed to establish a large network of mosques, created Muslim student organizations, and began to lay the ground work for what eventually became a fully fledged national organization. The background differences and paths toward Islam pursued by African American and immigrant Muslims produced a host of problems, including racism. Often, immigrants came to the US already impregnated with racist constructs learned over the years through exposure to American movies and entertainment products given to third world countries in the guise of foreign aid. The function of these movies and media products was, on the one hand, to entice the young, smart, and vigorous to jump ship and immigrate to the US—communally known as brain drain—and, on the other hand, to expose the new comer to the race paradigm within the American society. Muslim immigrants, like their counterparts from other areas of the world, often embrace this racist construct and relate to African Americans in general and African American Muslims with the dominant societal attitude of race, which has been often a cause of discord within and between both groups. In addition to race issues, immigrants and African American Muslims have to contend with differences in class level, educational background, sense of belonging, religious orientation or adherence, and sectarian movements.
Since 9/11 and even a few years before, Islam and Muslims have become the issue of concern in global and domestic political discourses. The concept of America being a Judeo-Christian nation is currently going through a rapid process of adjustment, and Islam has reached considerable levels of acceptance among a sizable segment of the society. Islam, accounting for 5-6 million American followers, over 2200 mosques and 450 schools, is rapidly becoming the second largest religious community in the United States, which, in the last presidential elections, attracted the attention of both candidates, and G.W. Bush made a point in the debate to address their concerns. This was followed by the post office release of a stamp in honor of Eid (Muslim festivals at the end of Ramaddan and Hajj), which so far been reprinted twice. In my view, the events of 9/11 have helped push Islam into the “mainstream” and the center stage was given to a community that has been living on the sub-margins of society. At no other time in the history of this country, has attention been given to the inclusion of Muslims in every public space, a positive development considering all the negative ones faced by the community. This does not diminish all of what has been done to undermine the civil rights of the Muslim American community, but how often is a group handed the US Constitution and ordered to go to the top of the mountain to defend it!
While the focus on Muslims is uniformly political, yet Islam’s impact in the inner cities of America can no longer be overlooked. The cultural imprint of Islam is unavoidable in the inner city, from mode of dress with baggy clothing and head cover to the dynamic impacts on the musical lyrics of Hip-Hop artists and the increasing inclusion of Arabic terms in rap songs. In this regard, African Americans’ move toward Islam since Malcolm X has already produced the first generation of African American Muslims born into the religion and thus fitting in their multiplicity of talents into the wider American society. In addition, when observing college and professional sports, one can immediately come to terms with the prevalence of Islamic sounding names of many players—a side effect of this fact has been the awareness of athletic recruiters of the local mosques and taking prospective players to Friday prayers. During the spring semester when many athletes are courted to sign commitment letters with a college, the local Berkeley mosque receives a few new visitors and often followed by a visit with local Muslim faculty members, which point to a cultural change within the college sport structure and to a higher levels of understanding. Currently, the major areas of rapid adjustment to Islam in America can be found in the music, sports, and the computer industry, due to the increasing number of Muslims in these three fields.
Islam in America seeks to examine the diverse communities constituting the newly emerging ethnic-religious group, namely Muslim Americans. The course seeks to examine the diverse groups that constitute the Muslim American communities with special attention paid to the largest three segments: African Americans, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim populations. In addition, the course seeks to examine a number of important sub-groups that have been emerging in the US since the 1990. We give some attention to the case of Bosnian and Kosova Muslims, Caucasian converts, and Muslim immigrants from the ex-Soviet Republics, especially as it relates to political positions taken by the three major groups as well as economic assistance rendered.
The course takes a chronological approach in presenting the materials. We begin with a reading of various materials covering African Muslim slave narratives and the impact they had had on the African American community in particular and American society in general. The second theme of the course deals with the various waves of Muslim immigrants who made it to the US, areas of their settlement, and what modes of development they went through. In this area, the Indo-Pakistanis and the Arab immigrants constitute the two largest groups who made their way to America as early as the mid 19th century and continue to come in large numbers up to the present (maybe the numbers will diminish due to new immigration policies enacted in the post 9/11 period).
http://amercult.berkeley.edu/SPRING/EthStds190AC.Bazian.html
The puke probably has become a citizen. But, if not, he should be summarily deported after he serves a nice long term in Club Fed for sedition.
Thanks for the groundwork, I sent him my best wishes, and I'm sure they reflect the wishes of my FR brethren.
"Liberals" and Islamists will love the taliban, once they have succeeded in establishing it in the West. They may have a few disagreements about the details.
----------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Bazian's not so unique distortians by Alex Horovitz 10:09pm Fri Feb 21 '03 comment#5103 --------- I find it interesting that Dr. Bazian continue to march to the tune of a series of 1/2 truths. Of course he is still careful to include some elements of truth in his claims, but the whole truth is *always* absent. Take as an example his discussion of the division of Palestine (British Mandate): he neglects to include the part about Jordan ( 69% of the original land mass we knew as Palestine prior to 1929). Jordan as people may not be aware is 78% ethinic Palestinian and was deeded to the minority Hashemites who were expelled from Saudi Arabia in order to apease the House of Saud and secure an oil deal for the British. It is great to know that in the 15 years since I last ran into Dr. Bazian he has not changed. His agenda is transparent: get rid of Israel. I sure wish he would wake up to the fact that Israel is not going away and that working together we could establish a Palestine... ------------------------------------------------------------ Half Truths is what Zionism is all about by Dr. Hatem Bazian 2:04am Thu Aug 28 '03 comment#11461 ---------- Alex's assertain of half-truth is more of an accurate title for the Zionist project, "A land without a people for a people without a land," still wins the prize for the number one lie of 20th century. As to the Jordan, even if its population is 100% Palestinian, it is still not Palestine. Are you so unsure of yourself and Israel's existance that you have to demand it from others and make the point of it. For me it a sign of weakness not a strength. http://www.stlimc.org/front.php3?article_id=4070&group=webcast
