NEED A ‘LIBERAL,’ AMERICAN ISLAM
TUESDAY’S ISIS-inspired attack in New York City, the deadliest since 9/11, left eight dead and several more injured. The perpetrator, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, is an Uzbekistan native who had moved to the U.S. in 2010. The attack comes on the heels of ISIS having major setbacks territorially in Iraq and Syria, and it is likely that we will see an uptick in similar attacks as the group attempts to save face following its failed attempts to establish a physical caliphate.
But a counter-extremism strategy that is hyperfocused on military tactics will result in limited success because it cannot penetrate the ideological layers behind the violence, and will, in the long run, serve the Islamists by providing more fuel for their narratives.
Let’s be blunt: America has a radicalization problem and without us confronting it head-on and calling it out we are hiding from the reality of the times we are living in. After the attacks, many American Muslim social media pundits quickly went on the defensive seeking to try to reclaim the narrative of the media’s use of the term “Allahu
akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) once the general public at large heard that these were the words that the attacker echoed as he crashed into a school bus and exited the vehicle.
Like them, I agree that the term is used on a deeply personal level and said at least 20 times a day by me, my family and the broader American Muslim community, but quite frankly these individuals and many others have missed the point as a whole during this time of pain, hurt and death.
Prominent American Muslim commentators such as Linda Sarsour instantly took to the internet to defend the term “Allahu ak
bar” and declare that we should “prosecute the criminal not a faith.” This instant sterilization of Islam that occurs almost immediately following a terror attack, while it may be well-intentioned, does more harm than good. It immediately shuts down debate and aborts any channels toward dialogue and civil society-led solutions.
As an American Muslim, I want to take active steps to reclaim the term, and reclaim my faith from the hands of those who wish for our community to adhere to a strict and narrow brand of Islam. Therefore, for me to imply that Islam, or more specifically, Islamist ideology, had nothing to do with Tuesday’s attack, is to commit a grave injustice against my own faith.
The American Muslim community is diverse and not a monolith. American Muslims have been in the U.S. since its inception. Now is the time to reclaim an American Islam. An Islam that underscores our commitment to the liberal principles of freedom, democracy, human rights, secularism, pluralism and our respect for diversity of thought.
Muhammad Fraser-Rahim is executive director of Quilliam North America.