: Generation M: Growing Up Muslim In America

In the TV special “Keeping Faith: Muslim Kids in America,” which aired this past Sunday on Nickelodeon, one Muslim schoolgirl recounts having heard taunts of “Go back to your own country!” in the months following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “This is my country,” she protests. “I was born here!” The show highlighted the lives of Muslim children in the US, and followed them as they went through their daily routine, combining American culture with their Muslim faith. Even in a post-9/11 America, Muslim youth are feeling more comfortable expressing their Muslim identity, through high school clubs, clothing and dress that are uniquely American Muslim, and even music. Through poetry, films, and cultural expression, American Muslim youth are helping define the parameters of Islam in America, reconciling their two identities in the process. There’s also “For Us By Us” websites, community organizations, social networking sites, and summer camps that cater to them as well. But there are many challenges ahead. David R. Hodge, a professor who helps train social workers to deal with the problems facing Muslim youth, cites the difficulty of prayer and fasting in school, a significant degree of peer pressure because of their beliefs, and being ridiculed or worse for failing to follow secular values. This week, Nashala Hearn, a Muslim sixth-grader in Oklahoma who was suspended for wearing a head scarf was joined in her legal complaint by the US Justice Department. But challenges such as these don’t scare “Generation M“. “After September 11, the older generation who ran the show thought it was best to lie low,” said Atif Jaleel, 23, a Muslim youth organizer. “We decided we must become active.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.