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Otherworldly<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Being the \u201cother\u201d is a fairly new concept for me. While I\u2019ve never liked being referred to as \u201cthe other daughter\u201d, I\u2019m accustomed to the label of \u201cthe other Fed Fund trader\u201d, \u201cthe other parent volunteer\u201d or \u201cthe other Sunday School teacher\u201d and I\u2019m certainly proud of the fact that I\u2019ve never been \u201cthe other woman\u201d or \u201cthe other wife\u201d. <\/p>\n

But do I want to be the \u201cother\u201d when it implies that I\u2019m somehow less trustworthy, less American \u2013 even less human? I read Nicholas D. Kristof\u2019s excellent editorial titled \u201cThe Push to \u2018Otherize\u2019 Obama<\/a>\u201d with equal parts horror and dismay. While I realize that politics is a dirty game, the latest dirty tactic of \u201cturning the candidate into a Muslim, maybe even the Antichrist\u201d strikes me as wrong on so many levels that I\u2019m left speechless.<\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019ve taken a deep breath and digested the implications of the current social environment in which the \u201cM\u201d word is the new \u201cN\u201d word, I realize that I can\u2019t afford to be speechless any longer. Being identified as a Muslim is now officially considered a smear. Why should I have to speak out against this new form of religious prejudice? Well, if I don\u2019t, then I can\u2019t blame anyone for misunderstanding me. And there\u2019s plenty of willful misunderstanding going around these days. <\/p>\n

The human tendency to \u201cotherize\u201d those whom we fear is nothing new, historically speaking. We just have to examine our treatment of Native Americans, African-Americans, Japanese during WWII, Jews, Catholics, each successive wave of immigrants \u2013 the list is a long one and unfortunately growing longer by the day. So it seems that today it\u2019s the turn of Muslims to receive this \u201cpreferential\u201d treatment \u2013 this time singled out as a religious group based upon the extremism of a few fanatics.<\/p>\n

Identity is a combination of how we see ourselves as well as how society at large views us. Social anthropologists expound on the importance of group identity\/tribal affiliations as a historical safety in numbers \u2013 it took teamwork to bring down the bigger mammals as well as bring in the autumn harvest. Once you were ostracized from the group, your chances of survival were greatly diminished. <\/p>\n

Peer acceptance remains a factor in today\u2019s society, even while the innovative leaps which arise from individuals who break the mold remain a key to our dynamic economic growth. Individuality has increasingly become a prized attribute once the basics of food, shelter, & clothing have been accounted for. <\/p>\n

So why should I be troubled by this push to single out American Muslims? Well, because it\u2019s not being done to applaud our ingenuity or intelligence, but rather based upon the notion that \u201cotherizing\u201d us will make it easier to discriminate against us. If we\u2019re not American enough, then we don\u2019t deserve the civil liberties accorded to each citizen under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. <\/p>\n

But whose definition of American are we using? Even when I showed my US passport prior to check-in at an airline ticket counter in Arizona recently, the ticket agent earnestly advised me to obtain a visa in order to re-enter America upon my return journey (to & from Canada.) \u201cBut I\u2019m an American,\u201d I kept insisting to her. \u201cI have a US passport.\u201d <\/p>\n

The level of anti-Muslim hysteria in America seems to be growing rather than diminishing post 9\/11. In the past year of participating in book presentations associated with the publication of The American Muslim Teenager\u2019s Handbook<\/a>, my teenagers & I have had the unique opportunity to field questions from a cross-section of Americans \u2013 from students to seniors, from religious youth groups to lawyers, from interfaith activists to cynics. <\/p>\n

The number one question asked by my fellow Americans is always the same: \u201cWhy don\u2019t Muslims speak out against\/condemn the acts of 9\/11?\u201d Seven years later, this question remains the biggest complaint against Muslims. Irrespective of our continual response \u2013 \u201cMuslims did speak out, you just never heard us\u201d \u2013 what more can we do to convince the average American that Muslims did not condone 9\/11, that Islam is a religion of peace, that American Muslims believe in democracy and civil rights for all people? It\u2019s clear that mainstream America hasn\u2019t heard us, even though many of us continue to emphatically denounce 9\/11, but we need to move beyond the definitions of who we are not in order to better articulate who we are.<\/p>\n

More troubling is the latest round of e-mails which seek to invalidate any<\/i> Muslim spokesperson based upon the vastly misunderstood notion of \u201ctaqqiya\u201d. I\u2019m a Muslim, and I had never heard this term until last year, when someone from the audience during a book presentation said, \u201cI know you\u2019re lying because your religion tells you to deceive non-Muslims until you\u2019ve taken over the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hmm, where in the Qur\u2019an is this claim made? Verse 16:106 \u2013 \u201cWhosoever denies having once believed, unless he is forced to do so\u2026 will suffer the wrath of God\u201d \u2013 is twisted to support the claim that the Qur\u2019an encourages Muslims to lie, though the intent of this verse clearly states that the act of concealing one\u2019s belief in Islam is only<\/i> permissible under threat of torture\/death. <\/p>\n

If you Google this term, it\u2019s illuminating to find a string of (anti-Muslim) websites which distortedly explain this concept in a manner intended to instill fear of all<\/i> Muslims in the reader. Even Wikipedia and the Britannica encyclopedia weakly define this term, but still imply a level of deception on the part of Muslims. Yet no Muslim I\u2019ve encountered believes that their religion condones, let alone demands, mendacity in any form. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this rumor currently making the circuit only serves to cast suspicion upon the average Muslim who is asked to take part in an interfaith panel discussion or offer a presentation on Islam. So first, we were blamed for not speaking up. But clearly someone heard us, because now we\u2019re being accused of lying. Talk about a Catch-22. It\u2019s enough to make conspiracy theorists out of even the most naive optimists among us.<\/p>\n

The mainstream media is largely silent on this topic. Maybe it hasn\u2019t hit their radar yet. Maybe it\u2019s just too confusing, especially to an outsider. Or maybe they\u2019re still stuck on the first \u201cW\u201d of journalism school (Who? What? When? Where? Why?) Instead of blaming al-Qaeda, somehow the entire Muslim population is in the cross-hairs. But that doesn\u2019t mean we should stop trying to reduce the misconceptions about Islam which abound across America. <\/p>\n

The excuse that \u201cI\u2019m not a scholar\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t know what to say will no longer suffice. People are clamoring to hear from a Muslim \u2013 any Muslim \u2013 so speak up! Explain what little you know and admit what you don\u2019t. The important thing is to begin the dialogue. Because if we remain silent much longer, we\u2019ll find it\u2019s too late. All of us, especially Americans, given our history, should be concerned about attempts to polarize the populace \u2013 you never know when you will become the \u201cother\u201d. <\/p>\n

As Frederick Douglass so aptly put it, \u201cNo man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.\u201d And no, I don\u2019t believe Barack Obama is a Muslim (he says he isn\u2019t and that\u2019s enough for me), but then again, when did passing a religious litmus test become a requirement for the highest office in our country?<\/p>\n

Dilara Hafiz is a retired investment banker, Sunday school teacher, and interfaith activist. She has recently published The American Muslim Teenager\u2019s Handbook<\/a> along with her daughter Yasmine and son Imran.
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