| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| An American Muslim visits Cairo |
| 2007-09-03 |
| Long article, only the best parts shown here. This summer, the 22-year-old Portland State University pre-law student pursued a years-long dream. The young Muslim traveled to Cairo to broaden his understanding of his faith, following the path forged by Malcolm X, whose thinking about race relations changed after he visited Egypt and other parts of the Mideast and Africa. At first, his voyage of discovery was a thrill ride. He was welcomed by Egyptians ecstatic to find not only an American-born Muslim, but one named after one of Islam's greatest heroes: Salahudin, the warrior who pushed the Crusaders out of Jerusalem and raised a hilltop fortress in this very city. But Ali brought his American tendency for criticism and skepticism to a part of the world that values obedience and cohesion above all. He challenged much of what he saw, and ultimately he found himself uncomfortable in the heart of the Muslim world. "This place went from like cool to weird in the last week," Ali said in the days before he left. "I'm ready to get back home. I'm kind of tired right now." At least you have that opportunity. The people that live there don't. I bet he takes it for granted. Cultural and class differences have long formed a barrier between African American Muslims and immigrant believers as well as within the black community between the Nation of Islam and those practicing mainstream Sunni Islam. What, you're kidding? But Ali belongs to a new group of African American Muslims who have encountered few such obstacles. In California and in college, he counts Arabs, South Asians and Iranians among his closest friends. "In college we're all one big group," he said. "In the mosque we're all together. Where I come from, there's no, 'that's the black mosque and that's the Pakistani mosque.' " Yeah, because those are the educated ones who know how to blend in to the infidel's society. Often under the tutelage of liberal-minded clerics, he was also encouraged to question the Koran and its teachings. He found himself leery of the ways of coreligionists with roots abroad, especially the older generation. Often, he said, they tried to impose their own cultural habits as religion. I am shocked, shocked to hear of this. "They say a tattoo is haram," or sinful, he said. "Why? Where is that in the Koran? They say, 'Well, the prophet never had tattoos.' I say, 'Oh, do you drive a car? Did the prophet drive a car? I don't see you riding around on no camel.' " Applying logic - no wonder he doesn't fit in. In early July, he flew to Cairo via Los Angeles and Moscow on a grueling 50-hour journey aboard the Russian airline Aeroflot and enrolled in Arabic classes at one of the city's language schools. Oof. Aeroflot? Must have really been trying to save money. "Man," he said, arriving for the start of classes. "I woke up this morning to the call to prayer today for the first time in my life." And then the next thing I thought of was to get the hell out of this country. But the petty ways some Egyptians viewed the faith he reveres rattled Ali. Once, he got into a cab with a driver who demanded he prove that he was a Muslim by reciting the fatiha, the opening chapter of the Koran. "For what?" Ali asked. "I want to see if you're really a Muslim," the driver told him. "Recite the fatiha." The driver flustered him. As if the measure of a good Muslim was how well he had memorized the Koran. It's not? Where did that idea come from? "You recite it for me," Ali demanded. "I want to see if you're a Muslim!" He yearned to head back to the Portland campus for Ramadan. He and his fellow Muslim students are organizing their second annual holiday "fast-a-thon": Non-Muslims can join in the traditional dawn-to-dusk abstention from food and drink. "There's a reason why they're over there and not here," he said. "They're really the best and the brightest." And they'll still strap bombs onto themselves and try to kill us. As his Arabic improved, he talked with people around Cairo and was touched by the simple hopes of impoverished Egyptians struggling to wriggle free of poverty and hardship. "You meet these ordinary people with these little lives, and they're like, 'Inshallah, life will be better,' " he said, using the Arabic for "God willing." Maybe if they had a little less inshallah, and a little more get-up-and-go, their lives would be better. But then they wouldn't be Muslims, would they? |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #6 Worst of all is howafter undergoing so much trivial bullshit overseasthis pathetic little wanker will probably find himself wanting for not being Islamic enough. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-09-03 22:34 |
| #5 For hundreds of years before Columbus landed on some Carrib islands, the muzzies were running a lucrative and sustained slave trade from sub-Sahara Africa through Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad. Notice how that all disappears in the 'blame the white man' guilt trip? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-09-03 18:18 |
| #4 Gosh, you mean that teh lions of Islam are LESS tolerant than the evil Christians that inhabit America. Who would have thunk it? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-09-03 16:38 |
| #3 following the path forged by Malcolm X, whose thinking about race relations changed after he visited Egypt and other parts of the Mideast and Africa. And discovered they wouldn't talk to him.Saying he "Wasn't black", yep he came back changed, having your lies thrown in your own face will do that |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-09-03 16:01 |
| #2 "There's a reason why they're over there and not here," he said. "They're really the best and the brightest." Ah the conceit of being at college, "I'm here, so I'm so much smarter than anyone else". I had that, once. "You meet these ordinary people with these little lives, and they're like, 'Inshallah, life will be better,' " 'Little lives'? Who does this guy think he is!? "You recite it for me," Ali demanded. "I want to see if you're a Muslim!" Ah, the master race - 'nuff said. Jerk. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2007-09-03 14:43 |
| #1 But Ali brought his American tendency for criticism and skepticism to a part of the world that values obedience and cohesion above all. He challenged much of what he saw, and ultimately he found himself uncomfortable in the heart of the Muslim world. Didn't grasp that key element did he? The word Islam means "submission", or the total surrender of oneself to God (Arabic: اÙÙÙ, AllÄh). Or as its implemented, by anyone who claims the name of Allah as their copyright or trademark. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-09-03 08:11 |