Neil MacFarquhar, with whom I have had the privilege of working, has this piece in today’s New York Times. He notes that Muslims living in American culture and society need a different kind of imam than is found in most of the Islamic world. I think this is largely due to the fact that critical thinking—though not always top-notch—is far more prevalent here than in most Islamic countries. The pressures of the majority society around them are also quite different.
Foreign imams, who tend to be brought in to provide a professional level of religious guidance, are not at all attuned to American society. They are, as a result, seen as disengaged or irrelevant. Instead of reasoned argument, the piece quotes a specialist in Islamic Law at UCLA, they engage in ‘hadith slinging’, justifying a particular point of view with one hadith only to be countered by another imam offering his favorite hadith.
An interesting side note: The imam who is featured in the story, Sheik Yassir Fazaga, is a product of Saudi religious education at the ‘Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, a Virginia campus of al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.’ He strongly disputes that ‘Wahhabism’ in itself promotes violence. The whole article is worth reading.
A Growing Demand for the Rare American Imam
NEIL MacFARQUHARMISSION VIEJO, Calif. — Sheik Yassir Fazaga regularly uses a standard American calendar to provide inspiration for his weekly Friday sermon.
Around Valentine’s Day this year, he talked about how the Koran endorses romantic love within certain ethical parameters. (As opposed to say, clerics in Saudi Arabia, who denounce the banned saint’s day as a Satanic ritual.)
On World AIDS Day, he criticized Muslims for making moral judgments about the disease rather than helping the afflicted, and on International Women’s Day he focused on domestic abuse.
“My main objective is to make Islam relevant,†said Sheik Fazaga, 34, who went to high school in Orange County, which includes Mission Viejo, and brings a certain American flair to his role as imam in the mosque here.
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June:01:2007 - 11:47
Many Imams here cannot even speak in English, or the main language of the mosque goers.
By the way, the Saudis shut down the IIASA(Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America)that you mentioned.
It would seem that the Saudis granted diplomatic visas to some of the people working there and that one televised speech was by a person linked to supporter of terror.
I actually attended Arabic language classes at the IIASA some years ago. The local Muslims knew the place as the “Mahad” or “Mahad Islami”. It was located on Hill Top in Fairfax Virginia.
It is a shame that it was closed. The Arabic language classes, including advanced grammar classes, were offered almost for free (around $80) and students from any backround were allowed to attend. I saw regular white Americans, Americans of colour, Jews, Christians and Buddhists taking Arabic classes there.
The teachers that they brought were top notch. One of my teachers had over 25 years of Arabic teaching experience and had taught at local universities.
Since 9/11 and the funding investigations, including those involving the wife of Prince Bandr, the Saudis wont get near to anything that has anything to do with religion. They shut down their religious affairs office at the Embassy.
At my work they have a community day every year and the Islamic/Arab Association hands out hundreds of free Qur’ans to interested people. In past years the Saudi Embassy would come up with a box or two of them, the last few years they have not been willing to give anything.
I think this is an over reaction on the part of the Saudis, but hopefully they will change. Americans dont need less information on Islam and Saudi, they need more, but just the right kind of information.
June:01:2007 - 13:01
I actually think it’s a smart move on the part of the Saudi Embassy to refrain from involvement in any religious activity for the time being. The only publicity they will get is negative publicity. What’s coming off the Saudi book presses, including annotations to the Quran, remain problematic for many and inexplicable to most Americans. Stop funding imams and you stop getting blamed for the intolerance those imams preach.
What would be most helpful is also that which is politically impossible. No Saudi diplomat, other than perhaps a senior prince, will take it upon himself to criticize any book that has received the imprimatur of the Saudi ulema. That way lies career death. No matter their personal opinion, no matter the demands of pure logic–e.g., that Bin Baz may not have been the most astute of interpreters of religion, biased as he was toward, literally, a flat earth–to offer any criticism would be to hurl oneself to the lions.
Keep funding Middle East, or Arabic, or Islamic Studies programs at American universities, but make sure that there are no strings. That’s the smartest thing that can be done for now, IMO.
June:01:2007 - 13:45
I guess you are right there. I tend to look at things with an “insider knowledge” and sometimes fail to remember that things that might seem obvious to me arent so to the average American who doesnt know any Muslims, doesnt know about Islam and has never traveled in the Middle East.
Here in the DC area it is easy to forget that most other Americans do not have any day to day dealings with Muslims. Their own basis for opinions lays in what they read in the media, which often doesnt do a better job.
June:01:2007 - 15:47
No, the media tends to work from a very limited range of storylines, scripts, if you will. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t have much to be blogging about.
Too many times in my embassy office, I’d have a reporter who’d just arrived in-country. His (or her) story was already written before the plane landed. They were only looking for confirmation of their stereotypes.
December:28:2009 - 22:26
[...] Yasir Fazaga (USA) http://xrdarabia.org/2007/06/01/the-development-of-american-imams/ [Fazaga] strongly disputes that ‘Wahhabism’ in itself promotes [...]