Ahmed Tharwat

The first time I heard about the new television program Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I paused for a moment, thinking it must be a show about all the people who want to cash in on the FBI's five million-dollar bounty on Osama bin- Laden's head. Remember him? He's the rich Saudi millionaire who seems to be behind everything that's wrong with our world today.
bin Laden has been accused of bombing our embassies and downing our airplanes. This guy is portrayed as more dangerous than the bankrupt North Koreans with their nuclear arsenals, and the terrible communist Chinese with their oppressive government and appalling reputation for human rights. Come to think of it, the United States shamelessly does business with both of them. bin Laden is a mad Arab, a Muslim extremist who could single-handedly destroy our western civilization. He is more evil than the Y2k bug and just as bogus, I might add.
The state department issued a travel warning during the month of December asking Americans to be on the lookout when travelling abroad. This advisory ended January 7, which is the end of the whole month of Ramadan.
I asked Matthew Ramadan, the President of the American Muslim Council, MN Chapter, whether or not he thought this was coincidental. Here is his response:
"According to a survey of national media outlets by the Muslim Internet news service iViews.com, linkage of Islam and Muslims with terrorism has increased 51 percent since the beginning of the month of December (the month of Ramadan). (see http://www.iviews.com) The survey tracked the words "Islam" or "Muslim," occurring within a three-word proximity of "terror" and its derivatives."
Why are so many Americans scared of Islam and Muslims? Why is Islam misunderstood in the west and specially in America? The modern thinker Edward W. Said, who is incidentally a Christian Arab-American, once wrote in his book covering Islam: "There is a consensus - in the west - on "Islam" as a kind of scapegoat for everything we don't happen to like about the world's new political, social, and economic patterns. For the right, Islam represents barbarism, for the left, medieval theocracy; for the center, a kind of distasteful exoticism."
Of course, we can't blame everything on the media or on our foreign policy experts' scare tactics to rally the American people around their shortsighted policy. But a lot of this is due to the way Islam is presented to the American people by Muslims themselves. Muslim leaders sometimes use Islam and Jihad as sound bites to rally their oppressed people behind their empty slogans, while demagogues rage against the west (and specially against the infidel American) to make the evening news.
When a handful of disturbed individuals out of a billion Muslims from more than 100 different countries all over the world commit or are accused of ill advised and self-serving violence, their religion will almost always be associated. Matthew Ramadan says, "In the case of the Algerian suspect, a search of Lexis-Nexis and Dow Jones Interactive databases produced 129 (113 print, 16 broadcast) mentions. However, the arrest in the same month of two suspected militia members accused of plotting to blow up a California propane plant generated twenty one stories on page one." (Officials say the resulting firestorm could have killed as many as half the people within a five-mile radius of the plant and was intended to spark an uprising against the government.).
Try to understand the frustration of Muslims all over the world who have to live with such perception. The Associated Press reported on January 16 that an American soldier serving with the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo was charged with sexually assaulting and killing an 11-year-old Kosovo Albanian girl.
As heinous as it may sound, this alleged crime may unfortunately overshadow the efforts that American troops have contributed to this troubled area of Kosovo. However, no one will ever seriously associate such horrible acts with the religion of the accused American soldier, unlike the case when someone who happens to be a Muslim commits similar atrocities.
Now, it is tempting to bring up the religious card again with a headline: "Christian Soldier Rapes and Murders 11-year-old Muslim Girl in Kosovo ……"
"They come to protect us, now they rape our women," said one angry Kosovo Muslim resident. Despite our feelings, we mustn't judge millions of professional, well intended and decent American servicemen based on the appalling behavior of a few.
We must as Muslims get involved in our communities, workplaces and neighborhoods to tell the American people and the world the real story about Islam. Islam is about building, not destroying; Islam is about peace (the name Islam is derived from it) not violence; Islam asks us to be like what most Americans are now, centrists not extremists. "We have created you as a nation of centrists," says a verse from the Islamic Holy Book.
Muslim-Americans should know that most of their fellow Americans, despite a few misguided folks like Jessie Helms, are people of goodwill. We should invite our American friends to learn the truth about Islam. When you are asked about your religion, I hope that you will admit that you are a proud Muslim-American. Is that your final answer? You shouldn't have to phone a friend for help with that.

Ahmed Tharwat


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