The Politics of Muslims in America

The lack of dialog among Muslims within my local Mosques is really one of the reasons why I created this blog. In Muslim traditions, the Mosque was more than just a place for prayer and sermons. It was a place of live debate and an exchange of ideas and interpretations on spiritual and social matters relevant to the Muslim community. The mosque was often the center of political discourse in a Muslim society. Hence the theocratic nature of some Muslim societies. Furthermore, the political systems in Muslim societies were more nuanced than the two-party system here in America and other Western nations. I digress, the point is when Muslims immigrate from majority Muslim countries to Western societies with governments that are secular in theory, they are faced with an interesting political dilemma. That having been said, I am in no way suggesting that Muslims have any intentions of introducing Sharia Law or anything of the sort into Western societies. This is simply ridiculous because Islam urges Muslims to honor the laws of the societies in which they live. Furthermore, there are many varying interpretations of Islamic Law within the Muslim community. However the political dynamics of the West present an interesting set of dilemmas which divide the Muslim community along racial, ethnic, socio-economic and ideological lines.

The Trade Off: Here in the U.S., there is pretty much a two-party-system. Which means that there are pros and cons for being a Muslim in either party. For example if a Muslim votes as a liberal based on Islamic principles of social justice they must reconcile this with conservative Islamic interpretations on the immorality of abortions and gay rights, because the democratic party supports gay rights and is pro-choice. Similarly a Muslim who votes conservative because of the republican interest in traditional morality must reconcile this with the Islamaphobia and corporate greed that the republican party has come to represent.

What’s this have to do with the Mosques? Well Mosques reflect how politics can divide the Muslim community. As I stated previously, I feel that there is a lack of dialog in many American Mosques, this does not mean that certain Mosques don’t support a partisan perspective. In fact, most of the Mosques I have been to have leadership that is active in either the Liberal or Conservative party. Why is this a problem? There is nothing wrong with supporting a cause, as a Muslim I take an active role in American politics. The problem arises when Muslims with democratic principals only attend a particular mosque because it calls for social justice and conservative muslims only go to a particular mosque because it calls for the implementation traditional mores in America.

Politics is always a hot button issue. It makes people uncomfortable because it exposes extrinsic differences in upbringing, economic and social status. We Muslims take pride in seeing ourselves as a community united across differences by a shared faith. In many respects this is true, but we are not a monolith on every issue. Politics is an issue that does divide the Muslim community. My argument is that we in the American Muslim community should talk about it anyway. A discussion on politics should not be avoided, this only leads to people listening to isolated dogma on either side without having a lively exchange. When we understand the fundamentals of why Muslim Americans have varied political associations we can become even more united as a community.