Thank You Representative King for Promoting Islam. No, Seriously….

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim

Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah

I didn’t watch the congressional hearings today on the radicalization of American Muslims.  Being an American Muslim, I already know what the problems are and how they should be addressed.  Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King, channeling the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, was challenged on many fronts as he tried to keep the scope of the hearings narrow.  He was not interested in hearing about radical militias who secretly plot to kill America’s first black president.  He was not interested in hearing about drug lords and the long reach of their terroristic gangs that kill many thousands of people every year.  He was only interested in talking about Moozlums.  You know, those sneaky Moozlums with their scary beards and suspicious headcoverings and the way-too-many mosques they pray to their moon god in.  Rep. King wants to paint all of Islam with a broad brush, condemning its fundamental practices while trying to mollify protesting Muslims by saying he doesn’t mean them, just the radical ones.  You know, the ones who dress that way and pray and don’t drink alcohol or eat pork.  Only the practicing Muslims are the dangerous ones.

I have been heartened by the reaction of the American Muslim community and by the many, many wonderful non-Muslims who have protested against this latest witch hunt.  (For previous witch hunts, google “Japanese internment” or “McCarthy and Communists”.)  I feel blessed to have such good people around me and I know that we will come through this one way or another.  And in my tradition of Islam, I say “Alhamdulillah ala kulli hal – Praise is due to Allah in all things”.   In Islam, we believe that everything happens does so only by the will of Allah and with His permission, and things that we see as bad or evil can actually be good for us. So even though I had an ache in my chest this afternoon reading some of the tweets about the hearings, even though I am concerned about raising my children as Muslims in a society that is increasingly polarized, I say, alhamdulillah for the hearings, and thank you to Mr. King.  Thank you for bringing Islam to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness, because now those people who have brains will see the hatred and bigotry and many of them will think to themselves, “Hmm, that doesn’t sound right, I think I have to do some poking around to see what the truth about Islam is”.  And those people are going to google around the internet (or Bing around, or Yahoo) and some of them are going to find excellent websites with lots of helpful and accurate information.  Others are going to get up the courage to talk to a friend, neighbor, or colleague about Islam.  Some will even have the guts to walk into an actual mosque and ask the Imaam some questions.  I welcome them, and all my Muslim brothers and sisters will welcome them with open arms.  

To all my non-Muslim friends and family, welcome.  Please ask me about Islam.  Ask me anything you’ve heard, even if you think it sounds stupid or provocative.  Trust me, I’ve probably heard it before.  I promise to give you the best answer I can, and if I don’t know, I’ll try to find out for you.  I chose Islam over seventeen years ago, studied the Qur’an, taught myself enough Arabic so that no one could lie to me about what I was reading, read the commentaries and books of the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him.  I’ll be happy to share anything I’ve learned with you.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, can our elected please, please give all this crap a rest and go back to doing your jobs?  You know, ending the wars, helping people get back to work, prosecuting bank fraud and Wall Street fraud, trying to balance the budget without killing health care and education.  You know, the stuff we elected you for?  I know the hearings are dramatic and all that, but except for the media, bloggers like me, and people who sell bottled water outside the hearing rooms, you’re not putting one damn person to work while you’re in the yammering for C-SPAN.