The Final Call

Islam 2009: A challenging year for a fast growing faith

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Dec 30, 2009 - 3:25:04 PM

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(FinalCall.com) - Closing out 2009, observers considered the state of Islam and Muslims over the past year and agreed that although there was continued turmoil, there was also record growth.

    —NEWS ANALYSIS—   

‘The American war against the Iraqi people continues. The war in Afghanistan is intensified. The American war is extended to Pakistan. A new war against people who demand justice has been started in Yemen; Gaza continues to suffer from land, air and sea siege that prevents food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other necessities from reaching one and a half million human beings’ —Ali Baghdadi, Arab Journal

In the face of difficulties directed at Islam, the religion remains the fastest growing faith in the world with 2010 seen as a year for cautious optimism.

“In spite of all the challenges facing Muslims in America and around the world, we are still holding fast to our faith,” said Hodari Abdul-Ali, chair of the Social Justice Task Force of the Muslim Alliance in North America. He added, “I am seeing every week at Jumu'ah prayer, young people accepting Islam in leaps and bounds.”

Arab Journal publisher Ali Baghdadi agrees that Islam as a religion continues to thrive, citing “simplicity, universality and steadfastness against oppression and injustice makes it appealing." But Mr. Baghdadi expressed concern about Muslims in the present social-political climate.

“The state of affairs of Muslims in 2009, however, like in previous years, concerns me the most. Muslims have been going through some of the most serious and alarming trials. Millions of Muslims worldwide continue to suffer,” Mr. Baghdadi said.

For Muslims, 2009 is ending as it began; with an increase of Islamphobia, religious profiling, a continued negative media propaganda attack on the faith through slander campaigns and criminalization of Muslims in the eyes of the public. A poll released in September by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 38 percent of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence. Such opinions aren't unexpected given a steady media diet of “jihadist,” “Islamic” terrorists and the new catch phrase, “home grown” terrorists.

In 2009 there was further infiltration and surveillance of mosques, Islamic centers and organizations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Many of the FBI charges leveled at Muslims were acquired in setups by agent provocateurs instigating criminal activity.

“Most of the domestic terrorists they arrested were enticed, it was entrapment and everybody could see it clearly,” said A. Akbar Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam.

“These government informants were people who were in trouble, trying to save themselves by helping them setup other Muslims,” Mr. Muhammad said.

The U.S. government also spied on Muslim American citizens, shown in recent disclosures that the Department of Homeland Security spied on the Nation of Islam.

The Muslim community has endured the suspicion, scrutiny, persecution and a fatal encounter in the case of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a popular Dearborn Mich. cleric shot to death by the FBI. Authorities accused the imam of criminal activity and threatening officers who came to arrest him with a firearm.

Since the World Trade Center attacks September 11, 2001 the U.S. government has demonized Islam and played on the fears and emotions of the American people. Islamic institutions have been desecrated. Muslims were victims of hate crimes and witch hunts that consigned many to CIA operated prisons like Guantanamo Bay and other secret detentions around the world. Some detainees have been held incommunicado and without charges.

According to Malik Aziz of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, Miss., the events of 2009 are “business as usual” and mark a global trend.

“The blood of Muslims shed by the West in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kashmir, Somalia and Ethiopia is a statement that the lives of Muslims are only worth the nickels and dimes that are in the back pockets of Western capitalism and its cover of ‘the War on Terror,' ” Mr. Aziz said.

Some analysts say in 2009 the West, led by America, has escalated the war on terror and spoken with “two-faces” to the Muslim World. On the one hand President Barack Obama stated that “America is not an enemy of Islam nor will America ever be an enemy of Islam,” but on the other hand his troop surge in Afghanistan echoes the policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Mr. Aziz argues the Obama-continued war on terror is a coded term for “the war against Islam.” The president is dedicated to American establishment of “imperialistic over lordship over the Muslim lands.”

“The American war against the Iraqi people continues. The war in Afghanistan is intensified. The American war is extended to Pakistan. A new war against people who demand justice has been started in Yemen; Gaza continues to suffer from land, air and sea siege that prevents food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other necessities from reaching one-and-a-half million human beings,” Mr. Baghdadi said.

Mr. Muhammad contrasted the initial impact of President Obama on the Muslim World in contrast to former President Bush.

“The Muslims had great hope, even though as the year ends President Obama is looking for balance in his policies, but this whole week they had to admit that Barack Obama has changed the view of America in the outside world,” Mr. Muhammad said.

Although the Muslims are invariably under attack, the analysts projected a brighter forecast for 2010. “Fortunately, the American imperialist and Zionist project is failing. Muslims throughout the world are resisting. They refuse to capitulate. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Mr. Baghdadi.

“Looking forward, I believe 100 percent in the wisdom that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad conveyed when he said that we must ‘do for self and kind.' It was true when he said it and it is still true today. Muslims here in America need to focus on building institutions that will enhance our community life, and spend less time appealing to the ‘powers that be' to accept us,” opined Mr. Abdul-Ali.

“The Muslim community in America which has two separate columns and agendas, one immigrant, the other indigenous, must work extremely hard to find a common ground for one Islam,” Mr. Aziz said.