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Islam In The United States
Part IV: Organizations
One of the largest Islamic organizations is the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) which says that 27 percent of mosques in U.S. are associated with it. ISNA is an association of immigrant Muslim organizations and individuals that provides a common platform for presenting Islam. It is composed mostly of immigrants. Its membership may have recently exceeded ASM, as many independent mosques throughout the United States are choosing to affiliate with it. ISNA’s annual convention is the largest gathering of Muslims in the United States.
The second largest is the community under the leadership of W. Deen Mohammed or the American Society of Muslims with 19 percent of mosques, mostly African-Americans having an affiliation with it. It was the successor organization to the Nation of Islam, once better-known as the Black Muslims. The association recognizes the leadership of Warith Deen Mohammed. This group evolved from the Black separatist Nation of Islam (1930–1975). The majority of its members are African Americans. This has been a 23-year process of religious reorientation and organizational decentralization, in the course of which the group was known by other names, such as the American Muslim Mission.
W. Deen Mohammed guided its members to the practice of mainstream Islam such as salat or fasting, and teaching the basic creed of Islam, the shahadah.
The third largest group is the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). ICNA describes itself as a non-ethnic, open to all, independent, North America-wide, grass-roots organization. It is composed mostly of immigrants and the children of immigrants. It is growing as various independent mosques throughout the United States join and also may be larger than ASM at the present moment. Its youth division is Young Muslims. Why Islam? is a community outreach project of ICNA; it seeks to provide accurate information about Islam while debunking popular stereotypes and common misconceptions through various services and outreach activities.
The Islamic Supreme Council of America (ISCA) is a small organization representing Sufi teachings, which, according to adherents, is the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. The ISCA’s stated aims include providing practical solutions for American Muslims, based on the traditional Islamic legal rulings of an international advisory board, many of whom are recognized as the highest ranking Islamic scholars in the world. ISCA strives to integrate traditional scholarship in resolving contemporary issues affecting the maintenance of Islamic beliefs in a modern, secular society. It has been linked to neoconservative thought.]]
Tucson Islamic Center, Tucson, Arizona.
The Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) is a leading Muslim organization in the United States. According to its website, among the goals of IANA is to “unify and coordinate the efforts of the different dawah oriented organizations in North America and guide or direct the Muslims of this land to adhere to the proper Islamic methodology.” In order to achieve its goals, IANA uses a number of means and methods including conventions, general meetings, dawah-oriented institutions and academies, etc. IANA folded in the aftermath of the attack of September 11, 2001 and they have reorganized under various banners such as Texas Dawah and the Almaghrib Institute.
The Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) is a group dedicated, by its own description, to Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United States for the good of Muslim students. The MSA is involved in providing Muslims on various campuses the opportunity to practice their religion and to ease and facilitate such activities. MSA is also involved in social activities, such as fund raisers for the homeless during Ramadan. The founders of MSA would later establish the Islamic Society of North America and Islamic Circle of North America.
The Islamic Information Center (IIC) (IIC) is a “grass-roots” organization that has been formed for the purpose of informing the public, mainly through the media, about the real image of Islam and Muslims. The IIC is run by chairman (Hojatul-Islam) Imam Syed Rafiq Naqvi, various committees, and supported by volunteers.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was established in the U.S. in 1921, before the existence of Nation of Islam, according to its members. This sect, however, is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims and not considered a part of the Ummah, or worldwide community of Muslims.
Muslim Congress is another National Muslim Organization. It is primarily a Social Welfare organization and runs many social projects, including Food Distribution to the homeless in their “No More Hunger” project and also provides Scholarship. It is under the leadership of Islamic Scholars.
Political
Muslim political organizations lobby on behalf of various Muslim political interests. Organizations such as the American Muslim Council are actively engaged in upholding human and civil rights for all American
- The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) is the United States largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, originally established to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. CAIR presents itself as representing mainstream, moderate Islam, and has condemned acts of terrorism and has been working in collaboration with the White House on “issues of safety and foreign policy.” The group has been criticized for alleged links to Islamic terrorism and it has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates.
- The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is an American Muslim public service and policy organization headquartered in Los Angeles and with offices in Washington, D.C. MPAC was founded in 1988. The mission of MPAC “encompasses promoting an American Muslim identity, fostering an effective grassroots organization, and training a future generation of men and women to share our vision. MPAC also works to promote an accurate portrayal of Islam and Muslims in mass media and popular culture, educating the American public (both Muslim and non-Muslim) about Islam, building alliances with diverse communities and cultivating relationships with opinion- and decision-makers.”
- The American Islamic Congress is a small secular Muslim organization that promotes “religious pluralism.” Their official Statement of Principles states that “Muslims have been profoundly influenced by their encounter with America. American Muslims are a minority group, consisting largely of immigrants and children of immigrants, who have prospered in America’s climate of religious tolerance and civil rights. The lessons of our unprecedented experience of acceptance and success must be carefully considered by our community.” The AIC holds an annual essay writing competition, the Dream Deferred Essay Contest, focusing on civil rights in the Middle East.
- The Free Muslims Coalition states it was created to “eliminate broad base support for Islamic extremism and terrorism” and to strengthen secular democratic institutions in the Middle East and the Muslim World by supporting Islamic reformation efforts.
- Muslims for Bush was an advocacy group aiming to drum up support from Muslims for President George W. Bush. It was co-founded by Muhammad Ali Hasan and his mother Seeme, who were prominent donors to the Republican Party. In 2010, co-founder Muhammad Ali Hasan left the Republican Party. Muslims for Bush has since been reformed into the bipartisan Muslims for America.
- American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) was created in July 2012 by MD Rabbi Alam, a Bangladeshi-born American politician. This newly created organization is one of America’s largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organizations. It is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, with two regional offices in New York City and Madison, Wisconsin. AMPAC a bipartisan political platform for Muslim Americans to participate in political races. AMPAC presents an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public, and seeks to empower the American Muslim community and encourage its social and political activism. On September 11, 2013, AMPAC organized the Million Muslim March which took place at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
- The Islamic Center of Passaic County, the American Arab Civic Organization, and the American Muslim Union, all based in Paterson, New Jersey, voice Muslims’ opposition to terrorism, including the November 2015 Paris attacks.
Charity
Charitable donations within the Muslim American community are impacted by domestic political and social climates. ISPU found in 2017 that, “23 percent of Muslim Americans increased their giving to organizations associated with their faith community and 18 percent joined, donated to, or volunteered at a civic organizations for the first time as a result of the 2016 national elections.
In addition to the organizations listed above, other Muslim organizations in the United States serve more specific needs. For example, some organizations focus almost exclusively on charity work. As a response to a crackdown on Muslim charity organizations working overseas such as the Holy Land Foundation, more Muslims have begun to focus their charity efforts within the United States.
- Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) is one of the leading Muslim charity organizations in the United States. According to the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, IMAN seeks “to utilize the tremendous possibilities and opportunities that are present in the community to build a dynamic and vibrant alternative to the difficult conditions of inner city life.” IMAN sees understanding Islam as part of a larger process to empower individuals and communities to work for the betterment of humanity.
- Islamic Relief USA is the American branch of Islamic Relief Worldwide, an international relief and development organization. Its stated goal is “to alleviate the suffering, hunger, illiteracy and diseases worldwide without regard to color, race or creed.” They focus on development projects; emergency relief projects, such as providing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina; orphans projects; and seasonal projects, such as food distributions during the month of Ramadan. They provide aid internationally and in the United States.
- Project Downtown is a non profit organization originated in Miami, Fl. From what started as two men giving away a few sandwiches eventually turned into an array of chapters all over the United States giving away thousands of packets of food, hygiene bags, clothes, and other necessities of life to those who cannot afford it. The motto of Project Downtown is “We feed you for the sake of God alone, no reward do we seek, nor thanks.” (Qur’an 76:9)
- Compassionate Care Network, Chicago, CCNchicago was formed in 2004 to offer basic health screening for the uninsured population in the community. It offers health screening for obesity, hypertension, diabetes and health awareness for the indigent people. It has formed a network of 200 providers and enrolled several thousand patients. In 2014 CCN’s work was recognized with honors from the Governor of Illinois and also by President Obama at the White House. In 2015 CCN was invited to participate in White House policy recommendation discussions with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Research And Think Tanks
The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, with offices in Dearborn, MI and Washington, DC, is an independent, nonpartisan research organization specializing in addressing the most pressing challenges facing the American Muslim community and in bridging the information gap between the American Muslim community and the wider society.
Controversy
A 2011 Pew poll reported support for extremism among Muslim Americans is negligible. The poll indicated all segments of the Muslim American population were opposed to violence and to a correlation between support for suicide bombing and religiosity measures. A 2007 Pew poll reported that very few Muslim Americans (1 percent) supported suicide bombings against civilian targets in at least some circumstances, with 81 percent reporting that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians are never justified. Favorable views towards Al Qaeda were held by a comparably smaller percentage among Muslim Americans, two percent very favorable and three percent somewhat favorable. Fifteen percent of American Muslims under the age of 30 supported suicide bombings against civilian targets in at least some circumstances, on the other hand, 11 percent said it could be “rarely justified” in a 2007 Pew poll. Among those over the age of 30, just six percent expressed their support for the same. (Nine percent of Muslims over 30 and five percent under 30 chose not to answer). A March 2010 Bipartisan Policy Center paper points out an increasing number of American Muslims are playing high-level operational roles in al-Qaeda and aligned groups, as well as larger numbers of American Muslims who are attaching themselves to these groups.
Terrorism that involved Muslim perpetrators began in the United States with the 1993 shootings wat CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, followed by the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City. After the September 11 attacks and the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, there was concern about the potential radicalization of American Muslims.
Between 2001 and the end of 2009, there were 46 publicly reported incidents of “domestic radicalization and recruitment to jihadist terrorism” that involved at least 125 people between 2001 and the end of 2009. There had been an average of six cases per year since 2001, but that rose to 13 in 200While the seeming increase in cases may be alarming, half “involve single individuals, while the rest represent ‘tiny conspiracies,’ ” according to Congressional testimony. Furthermore, a 2012 study by the University of North Carolina indicated that the yearly number of cases of alleged plots by Muslim-Americans appears to be declining. The total of 20 indictments for terrorism in 2011 is down from 26 in 2010 and 47 in 2009 (the total since 9/11 is 193). The number of Muslim-Americans indicted for support of terrorism also fell, from 27 individuals in 2010 to just eight in 2011 (the total since 9/11 stands at 462). Also in apparent decline is the number of actual attacks: Of the 20 suspects indicted for terrorism, only one was charged with carrying out a terrorist act. This number is down from the six individuals charged with attacks in 2010.
Muslim Americans are significantly represented among those who tip authorities off to alleged plots having given 52 of the 140 documented tips regarding individuals involved in violent terrorist plots since 9/11.
The Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 caused 280 injuries, and five civilian and police deaths. Attempted attacks, like the Curtis Culwell Center attack and 2015 Boston beheading plot have attracted substantial media coverage and inflamed community relations. In 2015 the New America Foundation released information about violent extremist groups in the U.S. While the Boston Marathon bombing had a high injury toll, only four deaths were counted by the group, and the group’s count of only deaths from violent extremism showed that since 9/11, 48 people had been killed by anti-government extremists, compared to 28 by Jihadists.
Some Muslim Americans have been criticized because of perceived conflicts between their religious beliefs and mainstream American value systems. Muslim cab drivers in Minneapolis, Minnesota have been criticized for refusing passengers for carrying alcoholic beverages or dogs. The Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport authority has threatened to revoke the operating authority of any driver caught discriminating in this manner. There are reported incidents in which Muslim cashiers have refused to sell pork products to their clientele.
Islamic Extremism In The United States
At least one American not of recent immigrant background, John Walker Lindh, has been imprisoned, convicted on charges of working with the Taliban and carrying weapons against American soldiers. He had converted to Islam while in the United States, moved to Yemen to study Arabic, and then went to Pakistan, where he was recruited by the Taliban.
Another American that was not of recent immigrant background, José Padilla, of Puerto Rican descent and the first Hispanic-American to be imprisoned and convicted on suspicion of plotting a radiological bomb (“dirty bomb”) attack. He was detained as a material witness until June 9, 2002, when President George W. Bush designated him an enemy combatant and, arguing that he was not entitled to trial in civilian courts, had him transferred to a military prison. He had converted to Islam while serving his last jail sentence in prison, and went to Pakistan where he was recruited into Al-Qaeda.
In 2015 four U.S. Marines were killed and three injured in Chattanooga, Tennessee by a twenty four-year-old Kuwaiti man, a naturalized US citizen with an engineering degree.
Islamophobia
According to a 2011 Gallup poll, over the preceding decade there had been an increase in Islamophobia, which it defined as “an exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims, perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life.”. Another 2011 poll provided by The Washington Post through the Public Religion Research Institute states that 48 percent of Americans are uncomfortable with Muslim women wearing the burqa. A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that Muslims were the most disliked religious group in the United States with an average “cold” rating of 40 (out of 100), which is lower than the 41 cold rating received by atheists. According to a poll in November 2015 by the Public Religion Research Institute, 56 percent of Americans believe that the values of Islam are at odds with the American values and ways of life.
Public institutions in the U.S. have also drawn fire for accommodating Islam at the expense of taxpayers. The University of Michigan–Dearborn and a public college in Minnesota have been criticized for accommodating Islamic prayer rituals by constructing foot-baths for Muslim students using tax-payers’ money. Critics said this special accommodation, which is made to satisfy the needs of Muslims alone, is a violation of Constitutional provisions separating church and state. Along the same constitutional lines, a San Diego public elementary school is being criticized for making special accommodations, specifically for American Muslims, by adding Arabic to its curriculum and giving breaks for Muslim prayers. Some critics said exceptions have not been made for any religious group in the past, and they see this as an endorsement of Islam.
The first American Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, created controversy when he compared President George W. Bush’s actions after the September 11, 2001 attacks to Adolf Hitler’s actions after the Nazi-sparked Reichstag fire, saying that Bush was exploiting the aftermath of 9/11 for political gain, as Hitler had exploited the Reichstag fire to suspend constitutional liberties. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Anti-Defamation League condemned Ellison’s remarks. The congressman later retracted the statement, saying that it was “inappropriate” for him to have made the comparison.
At Columbus Manor School, a suburban Chicago elementary school with a student body nearly half Muslim Arab American, school board officials have considered eliminating holiday celebrations after Muslim parents complained that their culture’s holidays were not included. Local parent Elizabeth Zahdan said broader inclusion, not elimination, was the group’s goal. “I only wanted them modified to represent everyone,” the Chicago Sun-Times quoted her as saying. “Now the kids are not being educated about other people.” However, the district’s superintendent, Tom Smyth, said too much school time was being taken to celebrate holidays already, and he sent a directive to his principals requesting that they “tone down” activities unrelated to the curriculum, such as holiday parties.
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Last Update: 02/2021
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