Being Muslim in America

There's an interesting article, previewing a BBC documentary on Tuesday night. Reading the article reminded me of the many questions and reactions I've gotten to the religion I grew up with. Also with a last name like mine, it's hard to hide that part of my heritage. In general I tell people that I was raised by an atheist, but Islam still had strong influences in my life ... I don't reject the religion out of hand but in general along with all the major monotheistic religions in the world. But this entry isn't about that, cuz I don't believe in proselytizing.

Rather I would like to rectify perceptions I seem to get everywhere around me. Like people believing that women are forced to wear head scarves. The history behind the hijab is rather complex, however there are three things all Westerners should never assume because a woman wears it:

1. She is oppressed (often quite the contrary, in the US its because she's an activist, for anything from women's issues to teaching children to read, and well respected in her community)
2. She supports terrorism (generally no Muslim supports terrorism; frankly it's anathema to the Q'uran and al-Qa'ida and other terrorist groups who use Islam to justify their cause are heretics according to the book.)
3. She was forced to wear it (often its more a cultural thing--or a sign of her activism in America).

I certainly can't speak for all Muslims everywhere, the religion is incredibly malleable and often the line between cultural and religious traditions are blurred. For example, a wedding in Saudi Arabia will be nothing like a Bangladeshi wedding. Muslims in Europe are different from Muslims in Indonesia or America. Islam is more progressive than some may believe, for example:

1. Women have the right to own land
2. Women have the right of divorce

Unlike its other monothiestic counterparts, Islam is unusual because it does not believe in the concept of original sin; the interpretation is that God forgave Adam and Eve anyway, so there's no sense in not accepting His forgiveness. (For that reason alone, if I had to pick a monotheistic religion, I would rather be a practicing Muslim than anything else--guilt of sin??? I'm masochistic enough with my choice of sports)

Most Westerners seem to get their perception of Islam through the practices of those weird countries in the Persian Gulf, where tribalism seems to have more a say in tradition than Islam and where the rather bizarre and puritanical form of Salafism (return to the times of the Prophet) started. But that's another entry, if not an altogether dissertation. I figure this will bring up more questions than answers, but I can only leave with one thing ... don't assume you know ... and Fox News sucks!!!