Islamophobia in America

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Praise be to He, protector of Man of faith.

This morning, after sahur, I was sitting in the study room drinking a cup of water when I noticed the latest issue of TIME addressing the topic of Islamophobia in America. I mean, I am aware that such a sentiment exists in the West but for TIME to create a dedicated front cover article on it, I think it deserves some discussion.

The problem seemed to be aggravated by the proposal to build a Muslim cultural centre and mosque, two blocks away from Ground Zero in New York. As many of us are aware, Ground Zero would refer to the location of the 9/11 attacks. Some are arguing that to build a mosque there would reflect insensitivity towards the families of those killed in the attack. Some of the more lurid questions regarding this proposal include: "Will there be any weapons or military training at the mosque?"

Astagfiruallahalazim... And the 46% of the general American public also believe that Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage non-violence towards believers.

I have to say that while I am relatively far from the situation in America, this news saddens me. And it makes me grateful that at least in Singapore, we do not have protestors outside our mosques and Muslims here are allowed to proudly claim they are Muslims without fearing defamation or assault etc.

Last semester I took a module on the History of Islam and we also touched upon current day issues such as the above; Islamism, Islamophobia, Islamist- all these are nouns coined only in this 21st century and force the noun Islam to coexist with all these other affixes that do not do justice to itself.

If our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w were to be here to see the world today, I think he would be both happy and sad. Happy in that his ummah has spread even further than the Middle East to all parts of the world; growing larger than any of the kaum of the Prophets before him. But he would be sad too when he sees the state of Iman his ummah is in... which is further weakened by the hostilities and violence propagated by both muslims and non muslims towards each other.

We have let our Prophet, the al-muallim down and we should all be ashamed of ourselves.

Wallahualam Bissawab.