American Muslim life: An American Muslim fourth of July

Muslims with explosives

Despite the rain and lightning, people still showed up at the Islamic Society of Central Florida’s Fourth of July celebration, with barbequed halal chicken being passed out to the multi-cultural attendees, who came after seeing a full-page ad in the local paper inviting the community. “People are saying, ‘So what that it’s raining?”, said ICSF grill master Keith Shaw. “We want chicken!” Meanwhile, 50-year old Abida Naz waits to be sworn in as a US citizen in Rockland, New York. “I have a lot of pride as a citizen,” she said after the swearing in ceremony. “I’m so anxious to vote.” However, feelings of happiness were muted in Utah, where Fourth of July parties were paused to remember the fate of Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, who was captured by Iraqi insurgents. Conflicting reports of his possible execution kept his family on edge, as local civic and Mormon groups planted small American flags on their lawn. “We don’t know anything yet,” said Tarek Nosseir, a local Muslim leader and spokesman for the Hassoun family. “We just keep praying.” Being a Muslim in America involves conflicting feelings sometimes, since there are affinities for both America and the Muslim world it is so often pitted against. While there is tremendous respect and admiration of the freedoms granted by the Constitution, there is also bewilderment at cases like that of Ansar Mahmood, a green-card holder in New York who is facing deportation this weekend for taking a photo of a dam and unwittingly helping two illegal immigrants find an apartment, despite seven US senators and 20 members of Congres pleading on his behalf to an unrepentant Homeland Security department. “He could not believe he had been treated this way,” said Mahmood’s attorney, Rolondo Velasques, “by the country he has so wholeheartedly embraced.”

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