Muslim Americans are no different than Jews, Italians and Polish Immigrants

If a Jinn asked me what wish I would like to be granted - I would ask that historical amnesia be erased from all peoples.  Alon Levy does a great job reminding us of how other immigrants were viewed by Americans. 

A couple of grafs to whet your appetite:

Islam and Christianity are so similar that they are almost, but not quite, the same religion. They're both monotheistic, with all the cultural implications this carries. They both have a progressive view of the world, in which good works and proselytization will create an increasingly better world. Their eschatologies are remarkably similar. Overall, Islam is hardly different from Protestant Christianity. It's entirely by accident that right now Muslim regions are more conservative and anti-democratic than Christian regions. Abstractly, there is nothing that prevents what is commonly called the West from eventually expanding as far south as the Sahara desert and as far east as Iran or even Pakistan and considering Islam as one of its two main religions. Just like there used to be a clearly defined Catholic West and a Protestant West, it makes sense to talk of a Christian West and a Muslim West.

More concretely, it's instructive to compare Muslims to Jews. When Jews started immigrating to the US from Eastern Europe en masse, they were significantly more conservative than Christians on most issues, including all of those that anti-Islamic Westerners consider now in their assessment of Islam. They were almost invariably ultra-Orthodox; secular European Jews typically accepted Zionism and emigrated to Israel or tried to assimilate into the surrounding mainstream culture. If the practices of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel today are any indication, these immigrants were insular, stayed in enclaves like Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg, had birth rates that would put today's Arabs to shame, and treated women with about the same level of respect as Mormon polygamist sects. As late as 1963, Betty Friedan considered Jewish-Americans and Italian-Americans as examples of groups that were more patriarchal than mainstream America in The Feminine Mystique.

Comments

[Irving]

All perfectly true. Every newcomer is looked down upon until a few generations grow up and become part of the culture. It happens slowly, too slowly for some, but it happens.

Ya Haqq!

[Irving]

By the way, Jinn is plural, Jinni is singular.

Ya Haqq!

[toujoursdan]

You might find this interesting. Here in Canada, the CBC is about to launch a sitcom about Muslims in Saskatchewan called (seriously!) "Little Mosque on the Prairie".

See: http://tinyurl.com/tm5kc

Fatima and Rayyan are headed to aquafit when they notice a man wearing a tiny black Speedo standing on the pool deck. They scramble to cover their hair with towels before approaching Johnny, who they discover is their instructor. "There's been a mistake. We can't take this class," says Rayyan. "Oh, have you never met a friend of Dorothy?" says Johnny. "Friend of Dorothy?" whispers Fatima. "It means he's gay," says Rayyan, picking up on the Judy Garland reference. She turns to Johnny. "You don't understand. We're Muslims. Men can't see us in bathing suits. They're too revealing." This prompts another crack from the flamboyant and cheeky swim coach: "Not revealing anything I'm interested in."

The scene -- filmed last week at a public pool in Etobicoke, Ont. -- is part of the CBC's newest half-hour comedy, "Little Mosque on the Prairie". The first eight episodes, originally slated for the fall of 2007, were rushed into production and will now debut on Jan. 9 at 8:30 p.m. The show, which is shot mainly in Regina, is set in the fictitious Prairie town of Mercy (pop. 10,000) and focuses on a group of Muslims trying to assimilate into a small Canadian community. "We try to find the hilarity in everyday scenarios," says Zarqa Nawaz, the show's creator. "Muslim women cover their hair because they're worried men will be attracted to it. But what if the guy is gay and isn't attracted to it? Does that count?"

The CBC doesn't have a history of producing shows that attract audiences (even if they are good) but I hope this is successful.

[Leila]

Am I the only one who sees more similarity between Judaism and Islam rather than Christianity?

[Baraka]

Salaam,

The WaPo has a review of Genieve Abdo's book "Mecca & Main St" looking at some similar concepts:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/09/AR2006110901671.html

[Folquerto]

As human beings muslim Americans certainly are not different from other human beings. Sadly though the islam is not a twin of christianity or of judaism.The difference is seen when one focusses on detail, going beyond the superficialities. Jews have in their Torah the law that adulterous women must be stoned to death. The Jews do not do that. They abolished that insane law long ago. But Muslims do and convict adulterous women to that kind of barbaric death, obeying the words of Mohammed. Let's look at taqiyyah, the doctrine of calculated deception. This is qoranic teaching. A muslim's word need not be kept when it is spoken to an infidel. A cease-fire means nothing to a muslim, when he according to his right of taqiyyah sees a possibility of gain. Is this christian doctrine also? No, it is not. Very much not. In orthodox christianity the same practice is called in latin restrictio mentalis and it is condemned as an error by the Pope Innocentius XI in the Errores varii de rebus moralibus d.d. 4 march of the year 1679. The difference between Islam and Christianity is not gradual. They are opposites.

[Folquerto]

But Muslims do and convict adulterous women to that kind of barbaric death, obeying the words of Mohammed. Let's look at taqiyyah, the doctrine of calculated deception. This is qoranic teaching. A muslim's word need not be kept when it is spoken to an infidel. A cease-fire means nothing to a muslim, when he according to his right of taqiyyah sees a possibility of gain. Is this christian doctrine also? No, it is not. Very much not. In orthodox christianity the same practice is called in latin restrictio mentalis and it is condemned as an error by the Pope Innocentius XI in the Errores varii de rebus moralibus d.d. 4 march of the year 1679. The difference between Islam and Christianity is not gradual. They are opposites.

[Anonymous]

toujoursdan mentioned the new CBC show 'Little Mosque on the Prairie". On December 24th CBC ran a program called "Peace Tree". I've seen it before - it was originally created as CBC's Christmas special in 2004.

Here's what the web-site for the program says:

http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/?program=Peace+Tree
---
Shazia is Muslim and Kylie is Christian, but they both dream of celebrating each others' festivals - Christmas and Eid. How do they convince their parents that it's really all about peace?

Starring Aiishwariya Haran as Shazia Jamal a seven-year-old girl from North York, Ontario, Sonika Ramachandran as Tasneem, Shazia's 5 year old sister and Jacoba Rozema as eight-year-old Kylie Jenkins and Shazia's best friend.
---

There is also a web-site for the show created by the production company. I really recommend visiting this web-site as it has an interactive "Peace Tree". It provides classroom activities, information about the film, and various other interesting information.

http://www.sandalwoodproductions.com/peacetree/
---
"'The Peace Tree' is a dramatic video which shares the message of uniting our diverse communities through our rich and vibrant celebrations, thereby preventing the rise in conflict and promoting peace.

'The Peace Tree' is entertaining, but also engagingly educational by dramatically exploring the thoughts of children from diverse cultures and faiths who are growing up in our multicultural land. Without bias or prejudice, our children share their voices of their vision of a country where every child can join hand in hand to celebrate all our
vibrant festivals together and live in peace. "
---

ALSO ... the following link has a 2 minutes and 41 second long trailer (highly recommended!):
http://www.sandalwoodproductions.com/peacetree/synopsis.html

[Reality Check]

Jews, Christians, Athiests, Buddhists ... none of these people worship the words of a dude who raped a 9 year old girl.

Thats what Islam is all about: murder and rape and the violation of human rights everywhere.