Yesterday Phin and I watched a short PBS documentary about Muslims in America since 9/11. It reminded me how much I love Islam and Arabic and the Middle East...and it gave me something to write about on my blog. Hurrah! Here's what I learned:
I was unaware that there was such a strong push to organize and/or standardize (to some extent) Islam in America. Actually, it seems more like there's one guy, Hamza Yusuf, an American who converted to Islam in his teens, who's behind most of it. He started the
Zaytuna Institute and Academy, the purpose of which is to educate and encourage the study of
classical Islam, not fundamentalism. For a religion that has little to no hierarchy or organizational structure, I think this is fantastic.
I was also surprised at how many Muslims seemed offended at the suggestion that they make a public statement against terrorism. One thing I've often heard (or even occasionally said myself) is that Muslims in the US need to publicly denounce terrorism, making it clear that just because a woman wears a head scarf doesn't mean she's a crazy conservative. But many people in the documentary pointed out that being a terrorist is the exception, not the rule. The terrorists are the ones who are crazy, the ones who have taken a mostly peaceful religion and tried to make it barbaric. Should regular Muslims have to publicly define exactly what their beliefs are just because they share a religion (or share parts of one since the fundamentalists manage to twist everything around) with a small percentage of freaks? I don't think so.
Another thought: as I was watching, I was struck by the similarities between life as a Mormon and life as a Muslim. Both religions share similar core values, but more importantly, their members are often exceptionally devout (as compared to cultural Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc. I'm not saying that all Muslims and Mormons are all 100% active members (or even close to that), just that I would guess these religions produce a higher number of active members than many others), and may suffer social consequences or even be ostracized for their beliefs. A clip of a sermon by Hamza Yusuf could have been a Mormon church talk. He warned that people will judge them for their outward appearance and their resistance of mainstream pop culture type values (remember junior high?). Then encouraged his congregation to stand up for their values, explain their beliefs and values to their neighbors who might misunderstand their conservatism for fundamentalism, and invite people to events and meetings to learn more about their religion. Sound familiar?
Anyway. I thought it was really interesting.
I went to the dentist the other day (it was actually the Utah College of Dental Hygiene where I pay $5 and get X-rays and a full exam and cleaning. Sure, it takes a few hours, but it's almost free. And their clinic does all sorts of dental procedures for very cheap). There were 2 students taking turns working on my mouth, one who was very gentle and one who made my mouth raw and bloody (oh, Ginny, how I missed you!), and although they were both fairly new to the whole dental hygienist thing, they had already picked up on a very common dental habit. It goes something like this:
