War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims

Foreword

Foreword I celebrate this book by Melody Moezzi as a thoughtful and moving effort to come to terms with being an American Muslim from a positive and proactive perspective.This is important to me personally, to my wife and to our children andgranddaughter,asweallseektonegotiateandmediateouroverlappingidentities as American Muslims from Sudan. Melody’s gift as a facilitator of free- flowing and intimate conversation is in her ability to bring the warm and spontaneous voices of her subjects to the reader, diminishing her intermediacy andbringingthosesheinterviewsintodirectconversationandsharedreflection with the reader. I also celebrate this book as a global citizen and human rights advocate, because Melody’s initiative is about the creative possibilities of diversityandpluralismwithinandamongcommunitieseverywhere .Thelimitedpurpose of this brief foreword is to provide some background and context for this mediation of identity,from the demographic realities of diversity to an affirmation of the supreme value of pluralism—not only for immigrant and host communities in the United States but also on a global scale. Throughout history, Muslims have thrived on diversity—ethnic and cultural , as well as religious—which often matured into sustained pluralism.The remarkablehistoricalsuccessof Islamasaworldreligioncanbelargelyattributed to its ability to adapt to the preexisting religious and cultural experiences of the communities it sought to incorporate over time. Building on the foundational modelof theProphetMuhammad’smissioninWesternArabiaintheearlyseventhcentury ,Muslimshavealwayssoughttoadapttopreexistingsocialandcultural conditions, with minimal imposition of their own religious or political viewsandlifestyles.Thequalityof beingMuslimorIslamichasthereforeevolved over time as the deeply contextual outcome of constant interaction within and amongIslamicfamiliesandcommunitiesandtheirneighbors.Allelementsand processes that determined Islamic identity at any given point in time and place were also the product of dynamic interaction with non-Muslim communities athomeandabroad,fromsub-SaharanAfricatotheIndiansubcontinent,from Eastern Europe and Central Asia to Southeast Asia. xi Not only have recent Muslim immigrants to Western Europe and North America been formed and transformed by that dynamic mediation of multiple and overlapping identities in their regions of origin, but they also bring with them that knowledge and skill, which they can pass on to their own children andsharewithwidercommunitiesintheirnewlyadoptedhomes.Butthisdoes not mean that such processes of integration and transformation were ever easy, or free of the risk of hegemony and oppression, within and among Islamic families and communities and in their relationships with others. At one level, Muslims have always had to deal with severe, often violent ethnic and theological differences in their local or regional settings. Like all other human beings, Muslims have had to negotiate complex power relations within prevalent patterns of socioeconomic stratification that were often compounded by religious and political hegemony. Immigrant and minority Muslim communities have further had to cope with similar tensions in their relationships with host communities or dominant cultures. The dynamic nature of such mediation of multiple and overlapping identities has always been shaped by the attitudes and concerns of other communitiesandhowtheyperceivedandinteractedwithMuslims .Thisincludessimilar processes occurring within and among those other communities, whether indigenous or immigrant.Thus, the“sociology of immigration,”including how previouscyclesof immigrationweretransformedandincorporateintheUnited States, for example, is also relevant to the experiences of more recent Muslim immigrants to this country. In this light, the experiences of Muslim immigrants to the United States and Canada, for instance, can be seen as variations on the ancient theme of adaptation and renegotiation of overlapping identities in new settings.A clear understanding and positive engagement of these adaptations should balance the wisdom of past experiences elsewhere with the specific requirements of these new settings. It is important to appreciate and respect the perspective and experience of children born and raised in this new social and cultural environment . The experience of being born of Muslim parents and raised in the home of Muslim immigrants must be understood on its own terms, rather than assuming it to be a simple replication of the experience of immigrant parents. An effort to understand the experiences of this younger generation should invite recognition of both the commonalities of the immigrant experixii Foreword ence and the particularity of being from a Muslim background, even when children do not consciously identify as Muslims. I have so far deliberately avoided any reference to the post-– environment in the United States, because that should not be taken as the defining framework for this book,despite the serious implications of that tragedy.As an American Muslim who has had to deal with that event and its aftermath throughout the world, I do not believe it appropriate or productive to present this book as a defense of Islam and Muslims. The atrocities of – are...