wfn.org | Close Up: American Muslims find tolerance stronger than fear

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 9, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.
10-21-71BP{396}

NOTE: "Close Up" is a monthly UMNS feature that takes an in-depth look
at
issues of the day. Photographs, charts, a sidebar, UMNS story #397, and
commentary, UMNS #398, are available.

A UMNS Report
By Amy Green*

Hasina Mohyuddin has noticed strangers aren't as friendly anymore when
she's
out with her two young boys. Some seem to be sneaking a second look at
the
cloth, or hijab, draped around her head and neck.

The guarded curiosity has waned with the shock of Sept. 11, but
Mohyuddin,
28, still refuses to fly commercially.

"I think people would feel uncomfortable, with me wearing my hijab
sitting
next to them," says the Nashville, Tenn., woman, who always covers her
head,
neck, arms and legs in public in keeping with her Islamic beliefs.
"Once you
step into an airport, people become a little more paranoid."

Mohyuddin knows that despite their yearning for interreligious
fellowship
amid the apprehension that has followed the Sept. 11 attacks, many
Americans
still fear what they don't understand, and they are wary.

Yet in a country founded on religious freedom, Mohyuddin and others
believe
Americans are marking the first anniversary of the attacks by
celebrating
their nation's religious diversity and opening the doors to their
churches,
synagogues and mosques.

For the past year, religious leaders across the country have nurtured
the
impulse felt by many Americans since the attacks to reach across faith
boundaries, and they have organized interfaith dinners, services and
other
activities.

Their efforts are in defiance of the attacks that not only left
thousands
dead in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania but also threatened the
religious harmony that has made this country unique, they say.

New interest in Islam

While many Muslims still endure hateful words and violence for the
attacks
organized by Islamic terrorists, many religious leaders note Americans'
new
interest in Islam and interfaith fellowship as evidence the country's
religious diversity will thrive.

"Many groups have made a great effort to understand Islam and the
Muslims,
and on the Muslim side there's been a great effort to represent their
faith
historically and accurately in contrast to what happened in the
terrorist
attacks," says R. Marston Speight, a former Methodist missionary in
North
Africa and author of God is One; the Way of Islam.

He notes media portrayals of Islam have been more positive than in the
past.

Sales of books about the faith are up, and Muslims have helped educate
the
nation by speaking to various organizations and holding open houses at
their
mosques, says Hodan Hassan, spokeswoman for the Council on
American-Islam
Relations, a national Islam advocacy group.

Conversions to Islam also have increased, and church members have
helped
Muslims feel safer by visiting their homes and joining them on grocery
shopping trips and other errands. In Los Angeles, church members
gathered at
a local Islamic school for days after the attacks to reassure parents
dropping off their children. Elsewhere, mosques have been flooded with
everything from donations to cards and cookies.

In perhaps the most memorable show of religious solidarity, Roman
Catholic,
Protestant, Jewish and Muslim clergy joined President Bush three days
after
the attacks at the National Cathedral in Washington to mourn those who
perished and lead Americans in prayer.

"Those of us who are gathered here - Muslim, Jew, Christian, Sikh,
Buddhist,
Hindu - all people of faith want to say to this nation and to the world
that
love is stronger than hate," Episcopal Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon said
during
the service.

Religious leaders across the country held similar services. In Seattle,
St.
Mark's Episcopal Cathedral drew thousands of Muslims, Jews and
Christians
the first Sunday after the attacks.

In Nashville, the Rev. David McIntyre invited a rabbi and official from
the
local mosque to the 690-member Crievewood United Methodist Church in
November for a service because he says "it's harder to objectify and
vilify
people who have a face."

The three religious leaders read from the Old Testament, New Testament
and
Quran, and church members sang the hymn, "O God of Every Nation." With
one
of the nation's largest Kurdish and Somali populations, Nashville has
25,000
Muslims.

"I just wanted to participate in some kind of action to symbolize and
affirm
harmony and peace among the nations and among the religions," McIntyre
says.

Rage and fear

Yet many still fret over the hate that remains. A Texas stoneworker was
sentenced to death in April after shooting an Indian-born gas station
owner
last October. Mark Stroman, 32, blamed his actions on post-Sept. 11
rage. He
also is charged with gunning down a Pakistani and wounding a
Bangladeshi in
separate incidents.

Elsewhere, Muslims have been assaulted and their mosques vandalized.
Some
say they were fired from their jobs or targeted by law enforcement
because
of their faith.

Speight cringes at the Rev. Jerry Vines' remark about the Muslim
prophet
Mohammed in June at an annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in
St.
Louis. Vines, pastor of the 25,000-member First Baptist Church in
Jacksonville, Fla., and a former president of the denomination,
described
Mohammed as a "demon-possessed pedophile."

"That was absolutely scandalous, outrageous," says Speight, adding
Vines
"ought to know better."

Mohyuddin, who was pregnant with the youngest of her two sons in
September
2001, was afraid to leave her home for days after the attacks. But
encouraged by phone calls from friends and neighbors, she mustered her
faith
to shop with her mother and now is at ease running errands alone with
her
boys, 2-year-old Ibrahim and 7-month-old Mohammed. She is reassured by
the
large number of Muslims who live near her home.

"Is your faith stronger or is your fear stronger?" asks Mohyuddin,
echoing a
frequent refrain among Muslims after the attacks.

In many ways, Mohyuddin could not be more American. She was born in the
United States after her parents emigrated from Bangladesh and has spent
most
of her life in Nashville. She grew up watching "Sesame Street" and now
watches Nickelodeon cartoons with her boys. Her family lives in a
comfortable home on the outskirts of the city. Her husband, Shuaib, 33,
emigrated from Pakistan with his parents when he was young and now is a
doctor at a Nashville hospital.

On a recent trip to the post office and bank, few seem to notice her
gray
hijab or long skirt and long sleeves despite the summer heat. Later
behind
the wheel of her minivan, her oldest boy wearing a SpongeBob T-shirt
and
munching a Gummi Worm in the back, Mohyuddin vents her anger at the
media
for what she feels is hostility toward Islam and her disappointment
that too
many people, like Vines, misunderstand her faith.

"I hope that people who have questions about Islam will go to the
mosques
and ask people who know," she says. "I would feel better if people
would
come to me and just ask."

One creator, different faiths

Though Mohyuddin is in a religious minority among Americans, Muslims
still
number 5.8 million in the United States, according to the 2002 World
Almanac. Worldwide, Islam has 1.2 billion followers, less than a fifth
of
whom are Arabic.

The United Methodist Church officially condemns prejudice against
Muslims.
In its Book of Resolutions, the church calls on its members to counter
bigotry against Muslims and Arabs, and to seek better relations between
Christians and Muslims. "United Methodists ... recognize with respect
peoples of the religion of Islam, who number about one-fifth of the
human
race," the church states in one of two resolutions on Muslims. 

The denomination encourages members to learn about other faiths because
"from those encounters you reflect and renew on your own faith," says
the
Rev. Bruce Robbins, staff head of the church's Commission on Christian
Unity
and Interreligious Concerns.

"And we try to remember that God is the creator of all humankind," he
says.

The commission is working closely with several interfaith
organizations,
such as the Anti-Defamation League and the World Council of Churches,
and
visited a mosque as part of a recent meeting, Robbins says.

Other United Methodists are reaching out in a variety of ways. The Rev.
Jack
Soper and about 70 of the 900 members at Arapaho United Methodist
Church in
Richardson, Texas, gathered for a dinner at the Dallas Central Mosque
in
January. The church members thanked the Muslims for their hospitality
by
inviting them to dinner in April, and about 70 from the mosque turned
out.
Another gathering is planned for Thanksgiving.

"It's helped us identify what we love the most about our particular
expression of faith while entirely respecting theirs," Soper says.

Mohyuddin, who notes Muslims also follow Jesus' and Abraham's
teachings,
believes those efforts are an important part of demonstrating the
similarities among faiths. She says Muslims should do more of the same.

"I think it's much more important for Muslims now more than ever
because you
want people to know who you are," she says. "We have the same things -
faith
in God, love for our families - the things that are truly important.''
# # #
*Green is a free-lance writer in Nashville, Tenn. She formerly covered
religion for the Associated Press.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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