American Muslim

Happy Fourth of July!!

Asalaam Alaikum (Peace be with you),

I decided to write this post after experiencing an interesting cultural phenomenon, namely the American obsession with July 4th fireworks. And what made it all the more strange was that as Chicago popped, fizzled and sparkled, I was at the Islamic Community Center (ICC) at Lincoln and Peterson, sitting with Shaykh Husain for our weekly dhikr gathering where we sat and did a group silent remembrance of Allah (SWT). I was shaken from my concentration by the sound of firecrackers and started to mull on this, sort of, contradiction.

Here are a group of Muslim men, mostly clad in white, sitting quietly in a corner of Chicago engaged in the remembrance and thanks of Our Creator, Allah (SWT), while the world expects us, as Muslims, to be engaging in some sort of violent, vitriolic or belligerent behavior. But, on the Fourth of July, America as a whole becames this violent place - or better still, this place that embraces "symbolic violence" in order to re-act the past, the colonial heritage, the overthrow of the British, etc. It's as if Americans are given carte blanche on this day to express themselves through the medium of fireworks.

And, as we emerged from the mosque, to see fireworks exploding in the sky and I headed over to Devon for our usual post-dhikr meal at the Halal Brown's Chicken, I couldn't help but continue to be bemused by what was taking place around me as I went about a usual Friday night, as a Muslim in Chicago. A night where, as usual, I embraced my Muslim identity first and foremost and everything else came second.

Yesterday, I watched an amazing episode of Law and Order titled "Fear America" from 2006. I would urge everyone who reads this blog to watch this episode either on repeat on TNT or on DVD. At the end of the episode, one of the characters, an imam from a New York mosque, asks the pivotal question, "What am I first, Muslim or American?"

I am Muslim first and foremost and like many of the Founding Fathers that this country was built by, I am first defined by my religion and then by my nationality.


Here's wishing a bright future for all Muslims in America. May we continue to receive and aggrandize the acceptance of non-Muslims in this society and may we be thankful for being allowed to freely practice (for the most part) our beautiful religion of Islam in the U.S. May Allah (SWT) give us the taufiq (ability), hikma (knowledge) and sabr (patience) to put our religion before all other ties (nationality, tribe, community, etc.), but may He also give us the taufiq to do all this while still maintaining close ties to the communities we have in the U.S., particularly with our daily interaction with non-Muslims.