why would you say that does so I'm this
is dr. Yang's a theory of expertise and
I'm not an expert by any means of Islam
in America but my own experiences they
have led me to come to arrive at certain
conclusions among which are there's just
a massive diversification of Muslims in
the United States and there's certainly
no monolithic teaching or any really
type of Orthodoxy or one group that
could could represent in any way all of
these different strains of a song in
this country and that partially has to
do with the fact that Islam is not a
church in the sense that you do not have
a Catholic tradition or an Orthodox
tradition you know at the broadest
levels people divide the Muslims into
Sunni Shia but then within the city and
within the Shia there are many many ways
of expressing their tradition so I think
that in the United States you're seeing
definitely certain aspects of Islam
emerging one of them which is probably
the most obvious for many of us is the
immigrant phenomenon because since the
United States has opened up the doors of
immigration particularly to the Arab
world and to the indo-pak area near here
asian countries that you're getting a
lot of immigrants that have come in and
initially many of them
professional people though there is part
particularly you'll see a lot of
physicians and a lot of engineers that
have come in from the Arab world Egypt
and Jordan Iraq and many of them began
to work at quite high levels if you go
into Silicon Valley Frances where I'm at
you would be amazed and how many Muslims
are working in these corporations that
are developing a lot of the technology
now and many of them working at very
high levels you'd be amazed at the
amount of professors also in
universities that are teaching in
engineering physics at some of our top
universities so you have that element
which is a very extremely westernized by
and large brood westernize in the sense
of their education not necessary in the
sense of their their the religious
background many of them will be devout
Muslims but they will still be very much
grounded in a Western scientific ethos
in particular and oftentimes alienated
from their own spiritual tradition and
then you have another immigrant group
which is more of a merchant and labor
group so you'll find in New York City
many many taxi drivers many people
washing cars gas station attendants
people in your convenience stores will
be from different places Yemenis
somalians Ethiopians also from India
from Bangladesh from a few Johnny's many
many particularly at now after the war
many of them have come here as refugees
and what's happening is is as with every
immigrant group they're having a lot of
traumatic experiences in entering into
the melting pot which is less of a
melting pot than it was traditionally
right because now there is a celebration
of diversity at one level in this
country so people are encouraged
to maintain their traditions their
encouraged to celebrate their diversity
at one level but what you're seeing
often is that their children who are
raised in this country are raised
basically Americans in the sense that
they're in schools being exposed to
American culture American ways of life
they're going to the cinema they're
listening to the music they're getting
into a lot of the adolescent adolescent
experimentation and this causes a real
serious conflict within a lot of the
immigrant families also another problem
is marriage because many immigrant
families want their children to marry
within their ethnic grouping and you're
having people falling in love and
sometimes it will be non Muslim with a
Muslim which is particularly exacerbated
when it's a Muslim girl and a non-muslim
man has fallen in love this is becoming
quite a common phenomenon in this
country so you have that that happening
and then you have also the indigenous
American situation and you will with
with the indigenous Americans I think
you'll find also a lot of different
groupings the the generation that Hakeem
and i are from is probably a it's a lot
different that we became also over 20
years ago and the people that are
becoming Muslim now are actually very
different in what they're looking for
and what their orientations are then
then ours were for instance so I think
that within the within the indigenous
community you have a very large segment
of african-american but this is also
breaking down because there are now a
new generation of children in this
country that aren't necessarily black
they're not necessarily white they're
not necessarily Hispanic you have a lot
of children of the children of the of
the 70s the 60s and the 70s and so
you're getting a lot of a mixture
no it's not as black and white in this
country as it used to be there really is
a diverse and you're all seeing it
because you're in these schools so
you're seeing this new phenomenon and
and and so there's a lot of people
coming coming out of that background
that are coming into Islam the tiger
woods phenomenon right I mean where do
you place him right because he he's not
african-american he's not asian american
he's not white American so it's this new
phenomenon so you have that aspect but
and within the african-american
community I think you have and dr.
Yang's much more verse than I am in this
but my own experiences you do have
different groups you have within the
african-american community people that
are coming out of black nationalist type
movements that are very politicized in
their outlook and approach and then you
have people also that have come out of
the Nation of Islam children of the
people of the nation of islam and you'll
see many many names even in the popular
culture like Tupac Shakur right who's
who has you know he was had Muslims in
his background he's Gaza Muslim name
you'll see many of these popular artists
now coming up with a Muslim name now
some of that is just a cultural
phenomenon of taking Islamic names but
there are many of them whose fathers
were in Muslims in the nation of islam
or had come into the what is it in
Muhammad's group things like that so you
have that grouping and then you have
many african-americans who are more
within the mainstream Sunni tradition
and so you have a lot of groups that are
really trying to discover trying to get
beyond the kind of the black nationalist
approach and really trying to see what
what is this what is this teaching about
and kind of rediscovering
Islam for themselves and that's a very
promising development I think in the
country and then within the white
American community Caucasian American
you'll also get diverse groupings but
oftentimes the white Americans tend to
be more attracted to Sufism and come in
often times through Sufism many many
white Americans have come in to Islam
through the books of Idris Shah many of
them have come through kind of groups
like dr. yang was talking about the Sufi
what he called the popcorn Sufi groups
that get into Islam through that and
then start reading and and you know
somebody will get interested in roomie
and they'll hear these sayings I'm
neither my heart is the is a temple for
the Hindu and the synagogue for a Jew
and the church for the priest and a and
a mosque for the Muslim and and think
that in the sense Sufism is this kind of
Universalist teaching but then as they
get more rooted in the tradition they
start discovering that roomy was a
practicing Muslim his whole life that he
prayed five times a day they and so they
begin to see that oh there is a place
for this thing called Sharia or sacred
law so for many many white Americans the
law is a kind of almost alien thing and
in a sense Americans I think a lot of
Americans do have a somewhat of an
aversion towards a law-based tradition
especially when you're coming out of a
tradition that may you know in some ways
as a love based or in some ways is it
certainly focuses much less on the law
and more on the spirit and so you have
that element within the community but by
and large what you find is you move out
into the landscape of American Islam is
that it's an incredibly diverse
landscape and it's actually hard to
pinpoint any strong streams you have
organizations that have attempted to
create some kind of
National Coalition like ISNA which is
the Islamic Society of North America
their conference which is yearly held
yearly brings now at about 25,000 people
will show up to that many of them are
still immigrant first that their their
immigrant with first-generation children
that are coming but again that is
beginning to change also so really I
think all of us as observers are seeing
rapid and and very very striking changes
within the tapestry of Islam in the West
the presence of Islam when I first
became Muslim in the mass 70s I'm by 77
I think Islam was just you know Muslim
there was just not and you'd be amazed
at how little understanding people had
at all and then BOOM 1979 Iranian
Revolution and suddenly Islamist is
really in the news and in the media and
but as the immigrants began to come to
this country in large numbers and the
Black Muslim presence became felt it's
more and more now Islam is really I mean
you're just seeing Muslims all over the
place there are mosques in all of the
cities of this country several you'll
find mosques in places that you would
never expect them like a vacuum new
mexico right and there's really it's odd
because you really you'll find you know
these back waters where you would never
expect to see and there will be you know
somewhere like El Centro California
there's a group of doctors their Muslim
doctors and Muslim merchants who have
come together and they pray and do this
thing in a very small community in in
Southern California so there's
definitely the presence is here and it's
it by by all of the outward signs it
would only seem that it's going to
increase and continue you are starting
to get a lot more can
versions my own experience that in the
last probably five years you're seeing a
lot more people converting to Islam than
before in our own area we're seeing more
like on a weekly basis and that was not
the case when I first became Muslim it
was quite unusual many many women have
come into Islam in the culture as well
and not through marriage you know
surprisingly enough and I think real pea
will say the same thing about England
it's a it's a phenomenon in England
you're really getting a lot of women
becoming Muslim so it's it's very
interesting you know I mean within my
own family my sister became Muslim I'm
Muslim my wife is Muslim and our two
kids so we've been arguing with the
family lightheartedly that we should
start celebrating the eat instead of
Christmas because we outnumber the
Christians now so you you know you're
seeing these type of things and I think
it's very exciting and it's very
interesting and it's also there are
there are aspects of it that are
frightening because there's still a lot
of real deep ignorance within our
culture and there's a lot of fear
related to Islam still and any time I
know that all the Muslims that I know
any time a bomb goes off somewhere
everybody starts you know hopefully
there's no Muslim names identify I
really it's it's definitely a concern in
the Muslim community because suddenly
the phone calls you know the hate calls
to the mosque the women start getting
accosted you know people are beaten up
you know we had a moss it was burnt down
in yuba city in California you know this
stuff really affects just a newspaper
some newspaper article and we we all
feel it so we're living in a very
precarious type of environment and I
think all the Muslims in this country
really feel that that that there's just
it's very very precarious and you know
Oklahoma City was an example you had
people on the
Radio immediately you know these talk
already just saying well there were
three Middle Eastern looking people
identified near the scene and boom you
know one of the Iraqi we lost her baby
she aborted her baby because our houses
the rocks were being thrown at them and
in the neighborhood there's just
recently another interesting phenomenon
is care which is the Council on
american-islamic relations and this is a
group that's actually started doing
something just about hate crimes against
Muslims started monitoring them and
having people report them it's trying to
get some statistics on just what's going
on working with the law enforcement
agencies in this country trying to go
and and talk to these people and also
dealing with a lot of harassment that
takes place in the workplace there are
many women in this country who one day
they decide to start wearing the hijab
for instance which happens you know girl
be 22 23 years old and then she's just
decides you know I want to start
practicing my well she goes to her work
with her hey Gavin and suddenly you know
the manager says you can't wear that
here and there there been a lot of cases
now and and basically so far I think as
far as i know the muslims have won all
of the cases involving this that it is a
religious right for a woman to wear the
veil and it's interesting to the french
government i don't know if people are
aware this the french government
outlawed wearing the scarf in their
public schools they did not outlaw like
wearing crosses that you know people
could show a display of their Christian
faith but they outlawed wearing the
scarf and a lot of Muslims just said
well you know what why is it they have
nuns teaching in some of the public
schools that where they wear the habit
and things like that so these type of
contradictions were pointed out but it
was very interesting so I think we're
going to see just a lot more examples of
this type of
of stuff now there are you know there's
Muslims working in Washington in you
know our congressman has a very devout
Muslim on his staff now congressman tom
campbell and so you're getting muslims
in the political process you're getting
muslim starting to get into you know
newspaper there's a lot of muslims that
are majoring in journalism in this
country wanting to go into these areas
so i think we're going to just see a lot
of interesting things in the future well
it's not too much learning to say no i
could add some things to it both Hopsin
Sullivan accession for you as teachers I
think it's probably important that maybe
we you know we might put more emphasis
on this it's important for you to get a
sense of what we've just been talking
about from a practical point of view
terms of the Muslims you meet in the
world understanding where they're coming
from so to speak and so you know I think
what we just said is pretty important in
terms of when you take away from here as
teachers I think having been a teacher
myself I mean it's pretty part we have
an obligation to to what to get to the
true picture
to truth across to our students right
and so all of these stereotypes they're
pretty well embedded and in terms of
recognizing the truth we have to be able
to enable those students to rise above
the stereotypes and to see Islam and
Muslims for what they really are and
what it really is and that's not an easy
thing to do and it's complicated by the
different kinds of Muslims that we meet
and so one of those that's important to
recognize this not only do we have this
amazing diversity in process because
it's an extraordinary process in this
honda's saying there's emerging new
elements that are emerging particularly
among this young generation the children
of the immigrants and that is going to