By Noor Saadeh

Jan/Feb 2024

Dear reader, as I take pen to paper in early November, only God knows where we will be by the time this writing reaches you.

Behind the sound bites and agenda-driven propaganda, where did all of this supposed “ancient Jewish-Muslim animosity” begin? Muslims know there is no basis behind this trope, for among the People of the Book, Muslims assured the Jews of the safety and freedom to live and worship as their religion and culture required. 

There were no pogroms as in Czarist Russia and not being forced to live in ghettos, as is generally still the case in the U.S. (https://www.urban.org/). Muslims ruled Jerusalem for centuries in relative peace and security. Sultan Bayezid II even sent the Ottoman navy, commanded by Kemal Reis, to Spain to rescue all the Jews expelled after the Reconquista. Additionally, fleeing Jews found homes in Morocco, Palestine, and other Muslim lands (Vernon O. (2008). A History of the Muslim World Since 1260: The Making of a Global Community. Prentice Hall. p. 82). Muslims also helped Jews get out of Nazi Germany and other occupied European countries (“Last Train to Istanbul,” Ayşe Kulin and John W. Baker, 2013).

Given these facts, how did Muslims become the target of such vitriol, animosity and violence? Former prime minister Ariel Sharon (2001-06) and his contemporaries cemented the qualifier “terrorist” to Muslim. More importantly, how did Americans so enthusiastically ally themselves with undisputed political and financial support to Israel and reiterate the Zionist narrative?

      The Midwest in the 50s was a different time. I confess, I was a baby boomer. In very Eurocentric Wisconsin, we were children of Dutch, German, Scandinavian, and Polish immigrants. Nary a dark face appeared in a sea of blonde hair and blue eyes. Reading Sundown Towns, the premise of which is that no person of color could remain within a city’s limits after sunset, I was shocked to learn that my hometown had remained a Sundown Town until the early 70s. 

I recall reading “No Jews Allowed” signs in northern Wisconsin’s resort areas and abhorring nearby Oshkosh’s hateful KKK parades. The 2024 Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee, a Donald Trump stronghold. Yet in 1960 “Exodus,” a very emotional but mostly fictional blockbuster film debuted in theaters nationwide. It was hailed an Oscar winner, boasting handsome actors and a tear-jerker plot accompanied by a memorable soundtrack that so pulled at the audience’s heart strings that it was set to lyrics. It made the Top 10 charts. Puzzled, I began to see friends sprouting Star of David necklaces and bracelets. Classmates admitted their dream of joining a kibbutz to help kill those nasty Arabs. This was the blonde-blue-eyed Sundown Town of my youth? “Exodus, often characterized as a “Zionist epic,” has been identified by many commentators as having been enormously influential in stimulating Zionism and support for Israel in the U.S. Richard L. Coe  stated that the film “has this vitality of the immediate and will be of incalculable influence in reaching those unfamiliar with the background of Israel … It is safe to say that in several years, when this film will have played much of the world, its influence will have become critical” (The Washington Post  March 5, 1961).

 While Preminger’s film softened the anti-British and anti-Arab sentiment of the novel, the film remains contentious for its depiction of the Arab Israeli conflict.

Hollywood

Jewish moguls used to play a prominent and often leading role in much of the American film industry’s development. But where, when, and how was this country’s negative opinion and stereotyped caricature of the Arab (i.e., Muslim) formed that led to today’s mind-boggling support of Israel’s occupation, apartheid and genocide? 

The book and documentary of the same name: “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,” which “analyzes 1,000 films that have Arab and Muslim characters, produced between 1896 and 2000, out of which great majority, 936 titles, were negative in their portrayal, arguing that the slander of Arabs in American filmmaking has existed since the early days of the silent cinema and is present in the biggest Hollywood blockbusters today. Shaheen analyzes a long series of ‘demeaning’ images of Arabs through his presentation of various scenes from different American movies … showing Arabs as bandits, as a savage, nomadic race, and Arab women as shallow belly dancers serving evil, naïve, and greedy Arab sheiks. Most important is the image of the rifle in the hands of Arab ‘terrorists.’ The film then attempts to explain the motivations behind these stereotypes about Arabs, and their development at key points in American history, as well as why it is so important today…”

Cartoons, also largely produced, written and directed by Jews, were created for the young but with some mature and dark-themed undertones. Arabs (aka Muslims) were never spared. One particularly offensive Popeye cartoon revolved around half-clothed “natives,” turban-topped heads, making their exaggerated obeisance to King Popeye uttering “Salaami, salaami, bologna.” Remarking to a colleague that Muslims greet each other with salaam, her memory went right to the same cartoon as she gleefully repeated those words. I quickly explained how very offensive that was while giving her all the excuses, because she had no idea. She had been programmed. As had we all.

Epic blockbusters like “El Cid,” set during the fall of Islamic Spain, brought everyone’s favorite Hollywood Epic hero Carleton Heston (of” Ten Commandments” fame), as the dashing and eventual martyr/hero of the Spanish Reconquista. Again, another stirring soundtrack and handsome hero, (and who was ever more handsome or cast as much as Heston in these Biblical bigger-than-life roles?) and who won the day for the beautiful señora against the dark and very evil Moors (aka Muslim). 

Enter the “cute,” funny and often self-hating Jewish personality and comedian. The much-maligned Woody Allen comes to mind. The founders of American comedy acts are a Who’s Who of familiar names largely from the Jewish community (https://www.thefamouspeople.com/jewish-comedians.php).

What comprises American humor? Comedian Ricky Gervais summarizes this well: 

“We tease our friends. We use sarcasm as a shield and a weapon. We avoid sincerity until it’s absolutely necessary. We mercilessly take a shot at people we like or dislike basically. And ourselves. This is very important. Our brashness and swagger is laden with equal portions of self-deprecation. This is our license to hand it out. This can sometimes be perceived as nasty if the recipients aren’t used to it. It isn’t. It’s pretend fighting. It’s almost a sign of affection if we like you, and ego bursting if we don’t. You just have to know which one it is. I’m not one of those people who think that comedy is your conscience taking a day off. My conscience never takes a day off and I can justify everything I do. There’s no line to be drawn in comedy in the sense that there are things you should never joke about. There’s nothing that you should never joke about, but it depends what that joke is. Comedy comes from a good or a bad place. The subject of a joke isn’t necessarily the target of the joke. You can make jokes about race without any race being the butt of the joke. Racism itself can be the butt, for example. When dealing with a so-called taboo subject, the angst and discomfort of the audience is what’s under the microscope. Our own preconceptions and prejudices are often what are being challenged. I don’t like racist jokes. Not because they are offensive. I don’t like them because they’re not funny. Comedy is an intellectual pursuit. Not a platform” (“The Difference Between American and British Humour”, Time, Nov. 9, 2011)).

Not exactly the type of Islamic personality so beautifully outlined in Surat al-Hujrat (Quran, Chap. 49).

Sarcasm and Seinfeld

Although in the early days, the butt of jokes were wives, mothers-in-law, and self-deprecation, a new comedian arose ridiculing everyone and everything — the Jerry Seinfeld comedian. Americans came to love them. Sarcastic, ego-driven, and master of the put down. No one was safe, not even parents. And especially not God. God forbid. Everyone became fair game, and these odd anti-heroes joined the rich and famous. Nowadays they come at us in sitcoms, movies, ads and nightclubs. We fill stadiums to hear them and laugh, sometimes embarrassingly, at their dark humor and foul language, which has also become the norm and changed our very vocabulary. 

Our tastes have changed ever so gradually. Our sensitivities have become fewer. It’s just a joke. Can’t you take a joke? But from these beginnings sprang the Charlie Hebdos, the Quran burnings and the caricatures of the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). If we reflect, it’s not so innocent or funny or heroic. And for this writer, it leads us right to where we are today … and why our fellow Americans simply don’t comprehend the lack of humanity paraded before our eyes every day. 

Returning to Hollywood and the new multibillion dollar industry of gaming, we’ve been so overexposed to violence, torture, and killing that we’ve become immune. We no longer even flinch. Can you find any offerings without violence, language, gender identity on any platform? From our own young U.S. soldiers (“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common health diagnoses U.S. service members receive. Research shows that 5-20% of service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have developed the condition”, https://www.mcleanhospital.org/  ) to the Israeli military, the rate of PTSD is rising from the inordinate level of brutality and murder they commit (“The PTSD-stricken Israeli soldiers who wake up screaming,” Gloria Tessler, Dec. 29, 2022, The Jewish Chronicle) All for the love of nation and homeland, driven by the obliging media-filled propaganda.

Following the wide public acceptance of the movie “Exodus,” Jews became emboldened and entered the field of active dawa in American churches, gradually entering the public sphere. But not as the traditional Christ Killer. Even the Pope exonerated them (“Pope book says Jews not guilty of Jesus Christ’s death,” Phillip Pullela, March 2, 2011, https://www.reuters.com/), all part of the now widely accepted Judeo-Christian heritage on which the U.S. was supposedly founded and continues today (The Y Rebrands Itself, But Where Did the C Go?” YMCA of South Hampton Roads, ymcashr.org).

However, knowledge is power. Firstly, Iqra, read. Then, as God reiterates, hear, see, think! Taddabbur!

Let’s not be guilty of absorbing this propaganda or being blind and/or helpless in the face of the machinations all around us. Muslims must learn our real history and reclaim our narrative. Read, listen, watch. Social media abounds with platforms. A few notables — Blogging Theology, The Thinking Muslim and Middle Nation — present thinkers, scholars, historians, political analysts and real experts in their respective fields. They’re not your 5- or 10-minute YouTube videos. They demand time, attention, and taddabbur; however, God requires this. They’ll change your mind, enlighten and inspire you. We’re going to need all this information in the days ahead to turn the tide of propaganda so well and patiently established by the Children of Israel. 

Noor Saadeh is writer, speaker, and co-owner of Noorart

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On October 7, ISNA hosted a community service luncheon in Dallas, Texas with renown speakers like Ustadha Ieasha Prime and Shaykh Muhammad Ninowy. More than 400 people attended this event. 

In addition to issuing timely press releases and coordinating media inquiries, ISNA has also been hosting webinars to help the community deal with the devastating news emerging from Palestine. On October 29, the ISNA webinar. “Solidarity with the Victims in Gaza” featured an impressive speaker lineup including Muslema Purmul, co-founder of The Majlis, Miko Peled, author and human rights activist, and son of former Israeli General, Shaykh Mohammad Qatanani, member of the Fiqh Council. The one-hour session was moderated by ISNA Treasurer, Azhar Azeez. 

“This is a moment that requires us to be steadfast. We need to learn from our brothers and sisters in Gaza how they are putting their trust in Allah,” said Shaykh Qatanani. 

“Anyone who genuinely wants to know what is happening in Palestine can see it. We must reorient people to be able to see the truth,” Purmul said. “The information online is skewed and obscure. We see it so clearly. There is no ambiguity to genocide. But now since social media exists, we are no longer just at the mercy of controlled media outlets.” The webinar is available to view on the @isnavideos channel on YouTube. 

On October 15, MYNA hosted a webinar with political activist, Linda Sarsour, Sheikh Rami Nsour, and CAIR director, Corey Saylor. The objective of the event was to educate the youth on the genocide in Gaza. Speakers discussed the historical context of the current catastrophe, and what can be done to aid Palestinians. They also provided some spiritual guidance on what to do in trying times. 

MYNA also has a tab of helpful resources for youth about Palestine on its website at myna.org/Palestine. From guidance for student activists and encounters with law enforcement to resources for employees and employers. 

On November 6, MYNA joined a coalition of community organizations led by MAS National to create s space for conversation on the evolving situation in Palestine through a free weekly webinar series. The first session was entitled, “Bearing Witness: A Faith-Centered and GeoPolitical Analysis of a Genocide.” Speakers included Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Shaykh Suleiman Hani, and Sami Hamdi. 

On December 9, ISNA also hosted an interfaith Open House to create connections and foster a sense of unity and promote harmony and understanding. 

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By Luke Peterson

Jan/Feb 2024

The African American experience in the U.S. has been connected to the practice of Islam, particularly Sunni Islam, since before the country’s foundations. It is known, for example, that between the years 1701 and 1800, millions of Africans were brought to what became the U.S, through the inhumane commercial exchange known as the Triangular Trade — the three-legged British-Africa-America route that made up the Atlantic slave trade — which saw trafficked and abused Africans in bondage traded as property to wealthy elites throughout the American colonies. 

Through kidnap, rape, and pillage committed by the European slavers, this widespread and shameful practice (which was not, as is sometimes suggested, limited to plantation owners in the ante-bellum American South) brought thousands of observant Muslims to the Americas against their will. In all, some suggest that as many as 3 million African Muslims were kidnapped and deposited across the Americas, and the Caribbean throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (Sylviane A Diouf, “Muslims in America: A forgotten history, Feb. 10, 2021).

As many as 30% of Africans trafficked in chattel slavery during this period were Muslims, many of whom documented their experiences in writing. Historians and chroniclers like Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and Bilali Mohammad recorded their experiences as slaves in America, leaving behind both words and deeds instructing subsequent generations about slavery, black identity and, critically, early American Islam. Other records show Arabic served as a clandestine lingua franca for maintaining Islamic traditions while also eluding abusive slave owners, who classified literacy as a criminal activity. 

Others still, some freed and many still enslaved, fought under the banner of the U.S. during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and during the Civil War to decide, once and for all, their freedom and their future within this country. Traditional Arabic and Islamic names are documented across military muster rolls from those bloody conflicts as testimony to their presence in this country’s earliest armies. 

A view into 21st-century’s America’s cultural and political milieu, however, would see the denial of Islam’s long presence here, as it would seek to treat African American Muslims as something exotic or other within the national religious and cultural fabric. And though it may be true that the vast majority of African Americans have traditionally identified as Christian (79% of the community, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study), Islam has remained both a visible and stable presence within the African American community throughout the 20th century. 

Indeed, some African American leaders identified Islam as their people’s natural religion, leading to the foundation of its most famous offshoot, the Nation of Islam, founded in Detroit during the 1930s. While many regard its teachings as heretical, the Nation’s influence in the black American community grew during the 1950s and 1960s under the charismatic leadership of Malcolm X, — who many consider charismatic” — among other prominent Civil Rights figures. After returning from hajj, though, Malcolm X renounced the Nation’s teachings and encouraged his followers to convert to traditional Sunni Islam. He also changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, sought to end internal strife among the various camps working toward equality for African Americans and attempted to create a unified movement across disparate civic and social movements. 

This message of unity, and the threat he continued to pose to the conservative, white establishment, may well have sealed his fate as a conspiracy of operatives assassinated the visionary leader at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on February 21, 1965. Three members of the Nation were convicted, but long-standing evidence suggests that they were not the sole perpetrators of the crime. And in June 2022, two of those convicted for the murder, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam, were exonerated and subsequently awarded a large cash settlement by the state and city of New York. 

Things Begin to Change

This reversal of fortune coincided with a sea change in political representation for the Black Muslim community. Specifically, midterm elections in November 2022 saw electoral victories by more Muslim representatives and more Black Muslim representatives at the federal, state and local levels than any other time in American history. These elections boosted the visibility of African American Muslim leaders like Zaynab Muhammad (D-Minn.), Munira Abdullahi (D-Ohio), Ismail Mohamed (D-Ohio), Mana Abdi (D-Maine) and Deqa Dhalac (D-Maine). 

Their successes mirror the wins garnered on the federal level by prominent African American Muslim congressional representatives Ilhan Omar (D) and Keith Ellison (D), both from Minnesota. For his part, Ellison has held offices within the Democratic Party at both the state and federal levels — and continues to do so in his current position as Minnesota’s state attorney general. From 2022 onward then, an argument can be mounted attesting to new levels of representation, prominence and political influence for Muslims, and specifically for African American Muslims.

And the Most Prominent Individual Targets Are …

Perhaps predictably though, this newfound national prominence prompted an ugly, nativist backlash from the conservative, white and nominally Christian establishment. During Ellison’s 2022 campaign for Minnesota’s attorney general, for example, his opponent Jim Schulz (R) coordinated with Minnesota for Freedom, a right-wing advocacy group funded by the Republican Attorneys General Association. Schulz’s campaign relied upon blatantly racist and Islamophobic tropes within campaign ads that dramatized cities on fire and prison inmates rallying to support Ellison. In an open letter signed by 67 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders from Faith in Minnesota, an interfaith activist group based in Ellison’s home state, this ad campaign was denounced as a form of hate speech. 

Ellison has also been the target of hate speech and white nationalist vitriol both online and in print — even in foreign countries. In his “Burn This Book: What Keith Ellison Doesn’t Want You to Know: A Radical Marxist-Islamist, His Associations and Agenda” (CreateSpace: 2018), Trevor Loudon accuses Ellison of being a “radical Marxist-Islamist,” a by-now common, right-wing epithet linking oxymoronic scare words together to generate nativist and white supremacist fears of the specter of the other.

Ellison’s battle with endemic racism and Islamophobia perhaps pales in comparison, though, with that endured by his colleague and fellow Minnesotan, Ilhan Omar. Omar, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, embraces a progressive domestic and foreign policy agenda. This includes vocal criticism of the broken American tax system that sustains the uber-rich, mostly white elite, while allowing tens of thousands of citizens to go homeless. 

She has further won popular support among members of the minority American left for openly criticizing the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, an uncritical foreign policy position embraced within the U.S. and corporate America, leading to the grotesque enrichment of a number of weapons manufacturers, among them Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin. 

Omar is so staunch in her advocacy for human rights in Palestine that she authored and proposed an unprecedented bill in the U.S House of Representatives that would cut off military aid to Israel due to its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza’s civilian population during October and November. 

And though these policy positions have proven Rep. Omar’s dedicated support for a committed group of progressive, American political activists, voluminous amounts of online bile and racist condemnation for the egregious crime of publicly criticizing the U.S. political and economic relationship with Israel continues to follow her, including from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account. This racist and Islamophobic criticism culminated in a public censure of Omar in her position in the U.S. House as she was expelled from the Foreign Affairs Committee in February of 2023. 

Calling out the motivations of her political opponents, Omar concisely opined, “I am Muslim. I am an immigrant. … Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted?” Omar would later assess her ouster in terms of the centrist, white nationalist American viewpoint, stating, “This debate today is about who gets to be an American.”

Who, indeed? Speaking specifically to the African American Muslim experience, clearly, if Ellison and Omar are representative of this community, then the country as a whole has many miles to go before we truly embrace Black Muslim identity and learn to value it, thereby ensuring that all Americans, everywhere, are viewed as equal in perpetuity. 

Luke Peterson, Ph.D., Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Cambridge–King’s College, investigates language, media and knowledge surrounding political conflict in the Middle East. He lives in Pittsburgh, where he regularly contributes to local, national and international media outlets.

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By Nayab Bashir

Jan/Feb 2024

A mosque is often known as a Muslim’s second home. If you have nowhere else to turn, you can turn to the house of God. Those who have frequented mosques since early childhood find themselves comforted by the call to prayer and the familiarity of the lined carpets. If you know how to pray, wherever you go in the world you’ll know what to do in a mosque. North American Muslims have made their local communities “friends like family,” and visiting mosques frequently has become part of their identity. 

Yumi Ota (aka Khadija) is a journalist, social media personality and homeschooling mother of three living in St. Louis, Miss. A revert with no Muslim family members or old friends who share the faith, she has found that the mosque feels like home and community. It’s her emotional solace, the first place she goes to pray, meet new friends and raise her children. Ota and her husband make it a priority to take their children to the mosque often. She has enrolled her children in Quran memorization programs as often as six days a week. Although the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis’ Daar Ul-Islam Masjid has a room for mothers with young children, Ota found it too small and often crowded — and nowhere near large enough to meet the needs of St. Louis’ expanding community. 

A Japanese-American married to an Indian-American, Ota is aware of the importance of personal identity. Through her studies in journalism, she has learned that minority children raised within a community of the same race or religion grow up more confident of their identity. Muslims are a minority in both Japan and India, and so family participation in the local mosque’s activities is something for which they are both grateful. The mosque’s atmosphere and people help them raise their children to be unapologetically Muslim. 

“Any mosque for me, the only place I can be truly alone and cry my heart out when I am sad or stressed,” Ota said. “I want my children to feel the same way and love the mosques and eventually serve the community in them, God willing.” 

Muslim parents also want the next generation to have this security and love. While many mothers turn to their mosques for solace and clarity, and seek to guide their children to do the same, this is not always a simple and easy feat. Unfortunately, at times, mothers of young children receive unsolicited advice and criticism. Ota remembers this happening multiple times when her children were younger. Some of the people weren’t just critical — they were downright rude. 

She’s not alone in this experience. Many have accounts of their own childhoods in which they recall being scolded, while others have faced it with their children.

Seher, a professional organizer, content creator and social media manager, faced similar issues with her local Atlanta mosque. She knew the importance of taking her children to the mosque regularly so they would stay close to Islam and grow up within a like-minded community. However, once there she was asked to leave just for keeping her children next to her while praying, even though they were sitting quietly in one place. This very discouraging incident made her feel disconnected.

Many mosques had programs for children over the age of five, but not for those as young as her children. Although they had access to local libraries, fairs and parks, this disconnect was isolating. Even more important, as the brain develops rapidly between the ages of one through five, she considered an Islamic foundation essential. But in 2018, the concept of Islamic programs for her children was nonexistent in Atlanta. And so she reached out to friends Samia and Asra and co-founded the Iqra Kids Club (IKC). 

Together, the trio started their program at a mosque they felt had always emphasized the importance of family: the Roswell Community Mosque. They began hosting monthly programs in early 2018, and continue to do so. IKC seeks to introduce Islamic lessons and morals to toddlers and preschoolers in a fun and interactive way. Learning at their sessions is always a hands-on experience. Moreover, both parents are encouraged to attend to make it a family-bonding activity.

IKC aims to instill in children a joyful and meaningful connection to the mosque by creating a welcoming environment. Forty children join the group at each event, often with parents and siblings. A relevant Islamic topic is chosen, explained via an age-appropriate story, nasheeds, puppet shows, videos and crafts. Children learn about important values through interactive play and feel welcome. They look forward to the next session and ask their parents when they can go to the mosque again! 

Seher’s initiative has caught the interest of various people across North America. Many are hoping to start a toddlers’ program at their local mosques too. Furthering her efforts, the trio has started writing detailed lesson plans, along with craft templates, that will be available in 2024. 

Seher’s personal mission is that nobody should be turned away from the mosque. She’s working to help others understand that the bond with the mosque starts at a young age. All mosques should have a Mother’s and Father’s room for toddlers, along with toys and books to keep them busy while their parents pray. These rooms should be equipped with speakers and screens so they can see the congregation. Having such facilities will encourage more parents of young ones to visit the mosque, pray and listen to talks, because the absence of children today could lead to emptier mosques when they are older. 

As the Turkish proverb says, “Dear Muslims, if there are no sounds of children laughing in the back as you are praying, fear for the next generation.” It’s understandable that worshippers wish to pray or contemplate undisturbed. There’s no disrespect toward them. Parents shouldn’t let their children run wild in the house of God, be rowdy, spill drinks or litter. However, if they’re just being kids, that should be okay. 

In the mosque of the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), children were both welcomed and accommodated. Even the Prophet disliked to trouble the mother of a child crying during prayer. We can see this illustrated in the following hadiths:

• The Messenger of Allah would pray holding Umsama bint Zaynab bint Rasulillah. He would put her down when he prostrated and then pick her up again when he stood up (“Sunan Ibn Bukhari,” 114),

• The Prophet said, “When I stand for prayer, I intend to prolong it. But on hearing the cries of a child, I cut it short, for I dislike to trouble the child’s mother” (“Sunan Ibn Bukhari,” 707), and

• “The Messenger of Allah came out to us for one of the two later prayers, carrying Hasan or Hussein. He then came to the front and put him down, said takbir for the prayer and commenced praying. During the prayer, he performed a very long prostration, so I raised my head and there was the child, on the back of the Messenger of Allah, who was in prostration. I then returned to my prostration. When the Messenger of Allah had offered the prayer, the people said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! In the middle of your prayer, you performed prostration and lengthened it so much that we thought either something had happened or that you were receiving revelation!’ He said, ‘Neither was the case. Actually, my grandson made me his mount, and I did not want to hurry him until he had satisfied his wish’” (“Sunan al-Nasa’i, 1141).

No parent wants their child creating chaos in the mosque, and everyone is doing what they can to prevent that. The next time you hear a giggle or the pitter-patter of small feet, please consider the importance of that child feeling safe in a mosque and returning to it throughout his or her life. 

Nayab Bashir is a literature aficionado with an English literature degree to prove it. A mother of three children under ten, currently staying home with her youngest, and “studying for the LSAT.”

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By Tayyaba Syed

Jan/Feb 2024

Eight-year-old Etaf Saleh was playing outside with her siblings, while their baby sister slept peacefully inside the house. Suddenly they heard jets overhead and loud booms. “It’s war! It’s war!” Saleh’s mother began screaming and ushering them quickly to safety.

“We’d never witnessed anything like it,” recalls Saleh, now in her sixties, of her experience living through the 1967 Six-Day War in Silwad, a West Bank town next to Ramallah. “Bombs were coming down everywhere, and we started to escape toward the center of the town. My mom then remembered she had forgotten my sleeping baby sister and ran back home as we waited for her.”

The families were instructed to head up the mountains into designated caves. They hid there for seven days. That one week changed the trajectory of their lives forever. 

“I don’t know how we had food or anything, but every day there was bombing,” shares Saleh, who now lives with her family in Willowbrook, Ill. After seven days, they were instructed by the Israeli forces to return home even though the bombing continued. Frightened and weary, families held up white cloths and flags and headed back down the mountains. “Last year, my mom passed away at the age of 92. Yet she never stopped talking about what we endured and said that for years we [children] would wake up screaming at night from the trauma.”

The fear of being bombed, being killed, being separated from or losing your family, having to abandon your home and hide in a cave, surviving on little food, not being able to just be a kid and play and laugh and learn…what can that do to one’s psyche? 

On the eighth day, Saleh rode along with her mother and siblings in boarded trucks to escape to Jordan. Their father, who had been working in Kuwait, was waiting for them across the river. 

“My older brother was probably in eighth or ninth grade, so we had to cover him and other young [adolescent] men [so they would not] be taken away,” Saleh says. “In those few hours, we saw people lying dead in the streets. I remember asking why this was happening and was told, ‘They are killing us.’ How can I sleep as a child after this? I would hear the sound of bombs even after we had escaped and couldn’t unsee all those dead bodies I had seen with my own little eyes.”

After staying in Jordan for a few days, the Saleh family began heading to Kuwait. Her brother decided he wanted to remain in Jordan for high school. Saleh states how difficult it was to leave him and be apart from him; however, she admits, he became very resilient from the experience. Once Saleh herself was old enough, she insisted on pursuing her undergraduate studies abroad. 

“I got accepted into schools in Egypt, Jordan and Iraq,” she remarks. “However, my father wouldn’t let me go on my own. He told me I could go study in America instead and live with my oldest brother, who had come here in 1974, five years before me. The application and paperwork were never-ending, but we made it happen somehow. 

“My whole family was crying at the airport — all except me. I was just so happy to finally get out and be on my own, even though this was my very first time flying in an airplane at age 19. Before leaving Kuwait, my father taught me how to drive, I learned how to type and I took English classes. I was ready. You can’t let anything overpower you. If you don’t have iman (faith), you don’t have anything. That’s the most important thing.”

Made Her Stronger

Even though Saleh feels she had to grow up faster after experiencing the trauma of war, she still believes it only made her stronger. The current Israel-Gaza war brings back horrific memories, though. She cries every day and worries how the people, especially the children, will recover from it. 

According to Dr. Fahad Khan (licensed clinical psychologist and deputy director, Khalil Center, Lombard, Ill.) traumatized children can skip a stage of childhood.

“Trauma can affect how they respond to stress, affect their thinking and emotional abilities and even hinder natural tendencies such as creativity and fantasy,” says Khan, who has won awards from the American Psychological Association for his work and dedication. “Meta-analysis studies show signs of aging in traumatized kids and physical changes in the brain that can be measured. Someone who is older and is traumatized can accelerate [in aging] with post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] in adult life.” 

Khan states PTSD symptoms can linger long after the trauma ends and can be triggered at any moment: socially, emotionally and even within relationships. “The way our brains are structured and emotions are stored is different from where complicated thinking happens (in the frontal cortex),” he says. “When we are traumatized, high-level thinking leaves, and you can’t think rationally or logically in that emotional state of mind. What we want to see [more of] is more post-traumatic growth in people.”

Post-traumatic growth is the positive psychological change that some individuals experience after a life crisis or a traumatic event, according to Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/post-traumatic-growth), which also states that post-traumatic growth doesn’t deny deep distress. Rather, it posits that adversity can unintentionally yield changes in understanding oneself, others and the world. 

Trauma Beyond War

Trauma isn’t just limited to war. Fareeha Aziz of Houston also saw this in her oldest child, who was only eight when she was divorced. Suddenly she was a single mother of her newborn, two toddlers, and eight-year-old son. How does a child process such drastic changes?

“My kids had to grow up so quickly when everything happened,” Aziz recalls, who spent eleven years on her own before remarrying. “My eldest for sure was traumatized by it all, reckoning with reality and trying to process everything. My kids had to take care of themselves to help me. When children are around unpredictable situations and people, they start to understand adult subjects sooner than necessary.”

Despite the difficulty Aziz, 42, has endured, has done her best to keep a positive mindset about life and has full trust in God. Instead of focusing on the past or future, she is determined to make the most of whatever time she has left on Earth. “Ask Allah for help for whatever you’re going through and then really believe in [that help].”

Another example of trauma can be when your health is tested. Mother of four Nafeesah Zabadneh of Lombard, Ill., was diagnosed with Lupus in 2020. Lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes your immune system, which usually fights infections, to attack healthy tissue instead. It can cause inflammation and pain in any part of your body.

“I am 41, but I feel like I am much older and weaker,” states Zabadneh. “If you see how I walk, you can tell something’s wrong. I’m on the smaller side but feel so heavy. Lupus affects your organs and your breathing. Sometimes I’m so fatigued that I can’t even take care of my kids properly. I feel so guilty at times and just try to push through my debilitating health. I can’t even braid my youngest’s hair due to cysts on my joints and stiffness. I took things for granted when I was healthy, but I don’t want to be a burden on anyone.”

Many times, Zabadneh feels like she’s fighting against her own body. She describes it as “watching the world go by” while she stands still. She wonders if this is how it will always be or if it will get better, knowing that right now there is no cure. Major life changes, trauma and difficult circumstances can cause kids to grow up faster than normal, to age out of innocence much sooner. Zabadneh is seeing this with her eldest child. 

“I’m praying that I can still be there for my family and community somehow through all this,” she says. “I’m grateful for a supportive husband, and if it wasn’t for my 15-year-old I wouldn’t be able to take care of my toddler. She is like a second mother to her siblings.”

Tayyaba Syed is a multiple award-winning author, journalist and Islamic studies teacher. She conducts literary and faith-based presentations for all ages and is an elected member of her local school district’s board of education in Illinois, where she lives with her husband and three children. Learn more at www.tayyabasyed.com.

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By Sundus Abrar

Jan/Feb 2024

“Shame on you.” 

“She was my inspiration.”

“Tears started falling and I really loved you.” 

These are some of the emotionally charged comments that remain on an Instagram post of a Muslim influencer when she decided to stop wearing the hijab. Despite her very public presence on Instagram, she has opted to not clarify her reasons for doing so. Subsequent requests from Islamic Horizons for an interview were not answered. A’s identity is not the central concern in this discussion, but the turbulent reaction to her personal decision needs to be explored to understand how the actions of public individuals impact the broader Muslim community. 

Interviews referenced here were conducted prior to the ongoing and devastating siege in Palestine which has resulted in a rise in Islamophobic rhetoric and hate crimes affecting “visible” Muslims in North America. As the mainstream media continues to peddle a familiar bias narrative, many are beginning to question its validity. Social media, despite the persistent attempts of censorship on it, serves as a key access point to portraying the realities of oppressed populations. 

Muslims have consistently been vilified in mainstream media. This has far-reaching and tragic outcomes when Muslims are targeted in acts of hate and harassment. Presenting as visibly Muslim, an experience shared by women who wear the hijab, can be difficult in such unbalanced settings. Social media offers relative safe spaces for these women to connect and build resilience to overcome the challenges they encounter in their immediate environments. 

Leaving the Hijab

Before she stopped wearing hijab, A used her presence online to share different hijab styles and modest dressing. She also offered services as a hijab stylist which led to the launch of her hijab line. In a 2014 interview, published on a Muslim blog, she shared insight about when she started wearing hijab at age 11. “I wore it by choice because I had the right influence around me.” This positive influence was what many of A’s followers were seeking to aid them in their own hijab journeys. 

Like A, several other influencers have recently stopped wearing hijab. Two other women also marketed hijabs and modest fashion lines. They were vocal in their choice to wear hijab when they were maintaining this choice but did not discuss their reasons for why they stopped. Their dismissiveness only led to more questioning and frustration from their followers. 

People feel betrayed and disappointed when the unspoken expectations they have of influencers and public figures they admire are not met. These feelings are not unwarranted. A deeply resonating message, or niche, on social media, evokes an emotional response in followers which results in increased content engagement. This is the very currency for prominence and success on social media. An emotionally invested following online can often nly be sustained through an influencer’s consistency in messaging.

Do Influencers then have any responsibility to maintain this trust and be consistent in their personal choice to wear hijab? 

Scholarly Advice

Dr. Tamara Gray, acclaimed religious scholar and founder of Rabata, a Minnesota-based nonprofit Islamic organization for women, is thoughtful and thorough in addressing this concern. 

With a considerable following on social media herself, she recognizes the challenges that come with heightened prominence for influencers.  “The early companions didn’t want to be leaders because they knew this was hard, and I am going to have to put even more of my nafs aside,” said Gray. “Being in the limelight is really hard because now you have to make decisions that are not only about yourself but are also about those that are following you.” 

She uses the example of an account she follows which shares vintage fabric designs. Should this influencer change the focus of their content, the impact on their followers would likely not be deeply distressing. The same does not hold true if an influencer is using their platform to promote religion. They need to be more mindful and consistent. 

“Losing religion publicly can be a great sin,” said Gray. “It’s serious because it’s not only about you anymore. If what you did caused other people to struggle – if you put yourself out there as an influencer and you benefited from it and you set that aside – that’s not responsible.” 

Influencers are being watched in their personal settings, such as their homes and cars. Followers may develop a sense of closeness through these observations. The experience for the influencer though is very different. He or she does not have the same level of familiarity with her observers. “We need to be intentional and understand that we are creating relationships,” said Dr Gray. 

 Though followers may be upset about an influencer’s decision, Gray encourages thoughtful conduct in our engagement online.

“You are not fixing things by lashing out at someone. That is not the Islamic way.  You are just making sin for yourself. We need adab and akhlaq in interactions with people no matter who they are,” she said. 

Holding each other accountable is important for Muslims, but accusatory comments are not beneficial. Influencers who are consistent in wearing their hijab are also met with harsh comments.

Maintaining the Hijab

Tahirah Folk, New York native, model, and influencer, has often received unkind and accusatory comments online. As an African American she shares her experience with racism within the Muslim community, “The only place I felt I truly belonged as a Muslim was when I went for Umrah.” She addresses the criticism she has experienced about her approach to hijab in a Tiktok (@sincerelytahiry) post: “People who I will never allow to come for my hijab” went viral. The responses to it are polarizing. While some argue that women should be receptive to criticism, many women who wear hijab wholly endorsed the boundaries Folk asserts. “To give naseeha (advice) you have to be involved in the emotional wellbeing of the person,” Folk said. 

 Online, Folk has connected with her community celebrating Black Muslim women, and she is aware of the potential her prominence brings. “I have always been very intentional once I saw that I was getting a platform. I knew I wanted to represent a community that is often overlooked,” she stated. 

Upholding this concern, she called attention to a recent incident of exclusionary marketing. During New York Fashion Week. Veiled Collection, a popular brand for Muslim modest fashion, invited prominent Muslim modest fashion influencers to represent their brand. The concern was a glaring lack of diversity. Most influencers were light or fair-skinned. Folk’s view was echoed, and the complaint gained traction.  Veiled Collection finally offered a statement acknowledging their shortcoming in reflecting the diversity of Muslim women.

Though no actual changes were made to the event, the swift recourse inspired @everyblackmuslimgirl, an online community for Black Muslim to host EBMG Fest. This took place a few weeks after Veiled Fest and invited Black Muslim influencers and brands to showcase their products. It proved that collaboration opportunities through social media can amplify social issues and expedite solutions. 

Influencer and modest stylist, Hakeemah Cummings (@hakeemahcmb) shared Folk’s post criticizing Veiled Fest. She too has faced criticism online. She understands that there should be accountability, but she won’t respond to accusations or answer questions she feels she is not equipped to address. “The comment section is not a place to bully. If you are seeking a question, you should be asking a scholar. I am far from that.”

Real vs. Reel Friends

Cummings feels secure in her hijab and actively produces content to guide others on how to adhere to it, but she still relies on her sister’s opinion to ensure her content aligns with Islamic values. “There is really no one online who knows and loves me the way she does. I know that she will push back when I am getting self-absorbed and losing myself in whatever the trends are,” she added. She encourages women seeking support in their faith and hijab journeys to navigate online spaces thoughtfully and seek friendships in real life. “Have that one friend who you can call when you are struggling with your faith,” Cummings said. 

Social media platforms aim to increase engagement. More engagement yields more revenue. To achieve this, social media platforms employ a tool called the algorithm which ensures that users see content most like that which they engaged with the most. To manage this tool to the benefit of the user, Cummings recommends engaging and seeking out content that serves a person’s aspirations. 

She advises a break from social media for those that feel overcome with negative emotions. “It is emotionally taxing if the content you see online is constantly bringing you up and down.” 

Starting the Hijab

With every influencer who takes off the hijab, there are more who start wearing it. Dr. Areeba Adnan, a Toronto, Canada influencer and psychologist is one such example. Her platform @mintcandydesigns initially highlighted her DIY home projects, but now she shares more of her efforts in furthering her understanding of Islam. 

Adnan also teaches the “Influencer Blueprint,” an online course for aspiring digital creators.  “I feel a sense of moral responsibility to the eyes that are watching me. I feel it’s my responsibility to define my values and stay true to them.” 

Nevertheless, she emphasizes the limitations of the influencer culture. “There is an important distinction to be made- you may be influenced by people online, but they are simply people that you watch.”

Adnan has been open about her hijab struggle. Before she became an influencer, she had worn the hijab for five years. “I felt I wasn’t a good Muslim, and I am going to stop wearing hijab and focus more on learning about other aspects of my faith. That didn’t happen. It took me 12 years to come back to learning more about my faith and to wearing hijab again.” 

She advises women considering wearing the hijab or struggling to keep wearing it, to take time in assessing their concerns and persevere.  “It is important to really reflect and do the internal work, and it is important who we surround ourselves with in real life to help us understand why we wear hijab, “she said. 

“Good suhba (companionship) is essential to progress in our faith,” said Dr. Gray. “It’s not something that we have yet figured out how to entirely achieve online.” 

Sundus Abrar, an undergraduate degree in professional writing, aspires to generate dialog around current concerns within the Muslim community. 

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By Jimmy E. Jones 

Jan/Feb 2024

“Except his [Lut’s] wife, who we have ascertained will be of those who will lag behind.” (15:60)

The sad story of Prophet Lut’s (‘alayhi as salaam) wife appears in all of the Abrahamic scriptures. I grew up in a Black Baptist Church in Bible Belt Virginia during the 1950s and 1960s. Consequently, after I converted to Islam in the 1970s, I was reacquainted with the powerful lesson embedded in this important narrative: No matter how righteous or God-conscious your relatives are, it’s still possible for you to be so caught up in “looking back” at what displeases God that you end up “stuck” like a pillar in the problematic past.

When it comes to race relations in the Muslim American community, it seems that many African-American Muslims and their “allies” are too fixated on “looking back” at the twin American sins of slavery and segregation. Therefore, they often do not focus on the powerful positive perspective that Islam brings to this very sensitive, politically-charged issue. Consequently, many of us are so honed in on White supremacy and Black victimhood that we remain a bit stuck in a narrative that fails to move us forward. In this article, I intend to unpack both of these concepts in a way that might facilitate building a stronger, more cohesive Muslim community.

White Supremacy 

Given my life as a young Black boy growing up in the legally segregated South, I knew White supremacy quite well. Us “colored” children attended underfunded schools using books and supplies cast off by our White counterparts across town. When I encountered a White person in downtown Roanoke, Va., I knew better than to obstruct their path or get too close. 

In addition, the racially motivated brutal murder of Emmett Till on Aug. 28, 1955, was a terrifying reminder of what happens to young boys like me who dared to violate the prevailing racial norms. Even though I was only 9 years old at the time, the horrific Jet magazine open casket picture of Till’s brutalized 14-year-old body was traumatizing. The image was so powerful that it still impacts my interactions with White women almost 70 years later. 

Such was White supremacy’s nature in a state where Whites and Blacks were jailed if they intermarried. This reality lasted up until June 12, 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia banned such anti-miscegenation laws nationwide. Even though White supremacy was particularly detrimental to Black people, its negative impact also affected others.

For example, eugenics, the science of “improving the race,” became a very popular movement in the 1920s. In fact, 30+ states (led by Virginia) passed involuntary sterilization laws to rid society of “defectives” (e.g., immigrants, blind, deaf, “feeble minded”). A 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell, involved a poor young White girl that Virginia wanted to legally sterilize. This case became a major catalyst for the eugenics movement. “Liberal” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously stated in the court’s written opinion that “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”  

These words, and the ruling in which they were contained, led to 70,000+ forced sterilizations of the “unfit,” a practice that lasted until the 1970s. All of this was done by using the authority of various state laws. This pseudoscientific movement is meticulously documented in Edwin Black’s “The War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race” (Four Walls Eight Windows: 2003). Even liberal intellectual luminaries at Harvard, Yale and Stanford were ardent advocates of this “racial improvement” effort. 

The point here is that while “White supremacy” was a powerful negative phenomenon for Black people, it was also used to suppress and murder others. For instance, lynching is usually associated with Black repression. However, according to The Stanford Daily initially, it was actually more frequently used in the western part of the country against Mexicans before and after the Reconstruction (stanforddaily.com, May 19, 2022). 

Thus, White supremacy has always been about more than just Black and White. 

Black Victimhood 

Perhaps the most stunning outcome of the de jure segregation system that I endured during my formative years was that I never considered myself a victim. The people who nurtured me at home, in school and at the High Street Baptist Church that I attended never allowed me to focus on the fact that I was treated as a second-class citizen. Instead, they insisted that I strive to be the best I could be, no matter what the circumstances. Consequently, we all understood that excellence was the standard for every one of us young Black children. 

This refuse-to-be-a-victim attitude is in stark contrast to that of some of the Black leaders and their “allies” in the Muslim American community today, who often portray us as primarily victims of White supremacy and immigrant interlopers who adopt White supremacist attitudes. Far too little emphasis is placed on the value that we currently add to the Muslim community and the broader American society. 

Racism toward us is still a real and persistent scourge in both contexts. However, if you adopt the narrative presented by many African-American Muslim leaders and their “allies,” you would think that most Muslim “immigrants” are “anti-Black” and that most Blacks are very poor.

For a more optimistic view, consider the census data used by Eugene Robinson in his stereotype-shattering book “Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America” ‎ (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group: 2011). The data he references support the central thesis of the book’s first chapter: “Black America doesn’t live here anymore.” In the chapter, he asserts that by 2010, middle-class Black Americans had become the Black community’s largest segment. Racism is still a serious, deadly problem in this country. However, things have gotten a little better.

Facing Forward

If we Muslims want to avoid the fate of Prophet Lut’s(‘alayhi as salaam) wife, I strongly urge our community’s members to come together across ethnic boundaries in order to construct a more inclusive multicultural future for us and for all Americans by focusing on some Islamically inspired concepts that we all know quite well:

 • When it comes to the Qur’an and biology, there is no such thing as “race.” As pointed out in 4:1, all humans were created from a single being and its mate. Thus, “race” is indeed a social construct.

• Even though Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) clearly loved his people and place of birth, he never put his cultural allegiance above the shahada, which encourages Muslims to be in one mutually supportive community.

• A binary approach to solving the country’s racial issues (e.g., “You are either a racist or an anti-racist,” as per the currently popular author Ibram X. Kendi in his bestselling book “How to be an Antiracist”) will lead to even more racial animus. We should heed the lessons in the oft-quoted 49:13, that we are created as nations and tribes as a test of whether we can get to know one another.

• As witnesses for all humanity (2:143), Muslims are obliged to step up and have tough conversations around race that will lead to healing, rather than to increased bitterness and blaming (see Harlan Dalton’s “Racial Healing” [Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group: 1996] for an excellent discussion of how this might happen).

We should all take time to learn about the complex history of race relations in this country through books like Matthew Frye Jacobson’s “Whiteness of a Different Color” (Harvard University Press, 1999) or videos like the excellent three-part PBS series “Race: The Power of an Illusion” (2003).

Further, as a Muslim African American, I believe that we are better off if we focus on the value we bring to a situation, as opposed to acting like “victims” who need to be protected from “micro-aggressions” and be given “safe spaces.” Black victimhood is not the best response to White supremacy.

Jimmy E. Jones, DMin, is executive vice-president and professor of comparative religion and culture at The Islamic Seminary of America, Richardson, Texas.

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By Feryal Aboshama

Jan/Feb 2024

In 2021, I would scroll through social media and watch my people be hurt and bleed for simply existing and standing up for what they believe. Every night tears uncontrollably slipped down my face as I thought about the Palestinians. I would cry silently, feeling helpless and guilty, and constantly wake feeling guilty for being blessed with another chance to wake up, while millions of Palestinians either didn’t or, if they did, woke up orphaned and alone. All I could do was watch the people protecting our Holy Land die gruesome, inhumane deaths that traumatized the children and made them fear for the future they won’t have. 

I constantly questioned myself and wondered what I could do, because a simple social media post that only took a second to upload didn’t satisfy me. And so I turned to doing the only thing I could do at that moment: making protest posters with different sayings, like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “75 years is enough,” “Free my people” and plenty of other sayings, all painted in Palestinian colors. I then went on to paint a canvas to donate or sell for the Palestinian cause — but I kept the first one. 

Every Stroke

That painting depicted a tattered Palestinian flag in the background. On top, in bright white, it said “Free My People” with the shape of Palestine as the period. Every stroke of red reminded me of the unnecessary bloodshed. Every stroke of black reminded me of the smoke filling the air and the lungs of innocent Palestinian adults and children. Every stroke of green reminded me of the olive trees that used to stand as strong as the people fighting for their rights. Every stroke of white reminded me of every kafan (the cloth used to wrap the deceased) wrapped around an innocent life that departed too soon. Every stroke filled me with rage and sadness — rage because that isn’t what these colors represent, and sadness because that is what I am now constantly reminded of. 

While I still found myself feeling guilty, I turned to art, and day by day continued channeling that pain and sorrow in my art pieces, converting those emotions into hope … a hope that every Palestinian holds with pride, knowing that one day, with God’s Will, they will be freed.

Now, every day I turn on my phone and go straight to Instagram for real-time information. I would never have done this before, but here I am. Opening the app, I go through different Palestinian journalists’ accounts from Bisan to Motaz to Plestia and so many others who’ve become household names. Constantly praying and making dua for them, I hope that next account won’t be about another 1,000 quickly dismissed deaths.

One quote has stayed with me: “Even if the world was against me, I would still fight for what I stand for, until death.” I’ve always stood with Palestine, and will to the day I die. When I was younger, my parents taught me about Palestine. They told me when I fight for what I believe in to fight like a Palestinian, to have patience like a Palestinian, to smile like a Palestinian and leave it to God. Even back then I knew I had to fight for Palestine because, although I’m not Palestinian, they are my people — not just because I’m Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, but especially because I’m a human being who cares for all of humanity. This means that when my brother or sister gets hurt, I feel their pain. 

Today, I live in a constant state of awareness, gratefulness and dua. I’m aware of everything going on in Palestine, as well as everything I’ve taken for granted while innocent people don’t have an ounce of what I do. I’m grateful for every day I get to wake up and be with my family. I make dua that everyone in Palestine continues to fight with the strength provided by God. I pray for the day I get to see Palestine free. 

Feryal Aboshama, the second place prize winner of the Islamic Horizons essay contest, attends Eman Schools in Fishers, Ind. She will soon be going to university to study neuroscience and psychology, with a minor in Arabic.

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By Sundus Abrar 

Jan/Feb 2024

Protests calling for a ceasefire in Palestine are drawing increasing and diverse attendees. As Israeli attacks on Gaza continue with complete disregard for civilians and international law, Palestinians remain committed to broadcasting the atrocities inflicted upon them on social media. For Palestinian journalists, this task of accurately documenting the genocide takes precedence over their own personal safety.

According to The Washington Post (Nov. 14), “At least 42 members of the media have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war since Oct. 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, making this past month the deadliest for journalists since it started gathering data in 1992.”

Despite social media censorship and the mainstream media’s blatant efforts to suppress and discredit the content coming out of Gaza, the images and videos of the violence being inflicted upon Palestinians are circulating pervasively. A harrowing narrative is emerging, and the dire conditions are difficult to process. 

Some parents, out of concern for their young children’s emotional well-being, may decide not to share everything about these events. However, Fatmah Muhammad, a Palestinian-American residing in California, strongly encourages parents to involve and inform older children about advocating for the oppressed. “They think they are protecting their children, but who are these children going to be as grown adults? How is the ummah going to change if we are raising our youth to be complicit?” she asks. 

Muhammad grew up learning about Palestine through her parents, who were born and raised there. She participated in protests against Israel’s illegal occupation, but didn’t fully realize the extent of the occupation. When she first visited Palestine, aged 12, she came to an alarming awareness of the extreme restrictions they endure while living under constant surveillance and policing. Her children had a similar experience during their first trip in the summer of 2023. 

Her 10-year-old daughter Kareemah was distraught when their car was stopped at a checkpoint while driving to Ramallah. Israeli soldiers pointed guns at them as they searched the car, before letting them go upon realizing that they were American citizens. “We told our cousins about what happened, and they told us this is the norm. We were so terrified,” shares Kareemah. 

Muhammad’s children feel a sense of privilege compared to their family in Palestine. “When I go there, I get treated nice. I feel that I don’t deserve to go there. I can move around and go places. We can leave checkpoints, but Palestinians who live there can’t go everywhere,” shares 12-year-old Zakariyah. Some people born in Palestine are even prevented from visiting the al-Aqsa Mosque. This imbalance is what propels Muhammad’s children to actively advocate for Palestinians. 

Non-Palestinian Activists

“I don’t care if they become doctors, engineers or whatever they want to become. That’s secondary to me,” said Syed Rahman, an artist and parent of two in Chicago. “My primary concern is that I want them to be leaders in the ummah.”

Rahman, whose family originates from Hyderabad, India, is also profoundly aware of his privilege. Living as expats in Saudi Arabia, his parents couldn’t discuss politics openly or protest. Rahman is grateful for his parents’ efforts to immigrate to the U.S. “They struggled so I don’t have to.” 

A dedicated philanthropist, Rahman is also founder of the popular small business @ModernWallArt, which sells unique Islamic art. Having garnered a significant audience on the business’s social media account, he utilizes his reach to raise awareness and fundraise. Through the contributions from his online and immediate community, he has raised over $1 million for Human Concern International (HCI) for aid in Gaza. 

In collaboration with Jannah Circle, a Muslim women’s nonprofit, on Nov. 4 Rahman hosted an impromptu charity bazaar in his warehouse space in Skokie, Ill. Participating vendors donated all or at least part of their proceeds. Though the event coincided with the largest protest in Washington, D.C., it still drew over 500 attendees and raised $20,000. 

Rahman and his wife Mehreen Bukhari are keen on educating their daughter Ilyana, 6, about Palestine. Bukhari is forthcoming in her unwavering efforts to advocate for Palestinians, “I boycotted Starbucks before and then stopped. I would go to protests, but then when the ceasefire was announced I’d stop following up.” These fluctuations fuel her urgency in involving youth in activism. “I didn’t learn about it growing up. It’s only now that I am in my 30s that I am more aware and able to advocate for oppressed people. We can’t delay any change the next generation can bring.” She believes that their charity bazaar provided an opportunity for young kids to also learn about the situation in Palestine. 

Diversified Activism

In addition, Muhammad has diversified her activism while continuing to participate in protests. She has an immense following on her social media @KnafehQueens, where she markets her business that sells knafeh, a famous Palestinian dessert. On her Instagram account, she has sought to inform her followers and engage those who are new to the cause.

“I am trying to bring up the cause to people at different levels of awareness. Not everyone can talk politics,” says Muhammad. “By taking a public stance, I have lost some customers, but I trust in Allah.” She has encountered abuse and threats online, but remains firm in doing all that she can to raise awareness. “People have told me you should be careful. But this is my duty.” 

Her daughter Rheyanah, 17, is also engaging the community by organizing protests, fundraisers and qiyams. Muhammad cautions her daughter to find a balance between her academics, but is also immensely reassured by her children’s dedication. “It gives me hope. Israelis have said over and over that the kids will forget about Palestine, but Allah wants it in our hearts because there is so much beautiful history [there]. It’s a blessed land, and I hope to see that my kids are in it till the end.”

Like many others, she too draws her motivation from the Palestinians who, while living under the grueling conditions of oppression, continue to be resilient and retain their spirit of hospitality and kindness. She shares the welcome her family received during their trip to Palestine. “How they lead their lives every day is beautiful. The ones who have the least will give you the most,” she said. 

More people are gaining awareness of the severe oppression Palestinians have been living under for the past 75 years. The diversity at protests and the increased conversations online are a reassuring indicator of this. Every parent knows how much to share with each child, but there has to be some level of awareness in all Muslim children. Several parenting blogs and authors like Noor Kids have shared simple ways of explaining the occupation to young children. They don’t need to see graphic, violent images, but they do need to be aware. As parents living comfortable lives thousands of miles away, this is the least we can do.

Sundus Abrar, an undergraduate degree in professional writing, aspires to generate dialog around current concerns within the Muslim community.

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By the ISNA Green Initiative Team

Jan/Feb 2024

Today we are witnessing unjust wars, the degradation and exploitation caused by the Zionist apartheid state, of not only a group of people and their economy, but also the violation of the rights of voiceless nature. This is causing the exponential rise of unsustainable practices, environmental degradation, and biodiversity decline. Further choking the existence of the occupied people and their land is the added layer of climate change. High temperatures, increased rainfall, sea levels rising, and increasing toxic wastes in the land have become unmanageable. 

The dehumanizing and oppression of people deprived of human rights and the right of self-determination; illegal settler colonialism; restrictions on movement; the destruction of farmlands and the native biodiversity of fauna, flora and its pollinators — to the dismantling of renewable energy infrastructure and an agricultural economy — is a direct result of an apartheid state, resulting in an ecocide. Ironically, under the facade of the victim, today the apartheid state is the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Part of the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of agriculture and civilization, Palestine is located at the intersection of continents and has five phytogeographical areas. Since 1948, those Palestinians surrounded by Israel have been living under its brutal occupation, where uprooting olive trees, demolishing homes (Rebuilding Alliance.org) and marauding Israeli settlers are being used to constrict the Palestinians’ economy and limit their access to food, clean water, hygiene, and natural resources. Uprooting olive trees and choking off the water are tools for the ever-expanding boundaries of the Zionist state, not a “Jewish state,” as stated by Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesperson of Neturei Karta. 

This is not dissimilar to other stories of land acquisition, in particular apartheid in South Africa, European colonialism, or slavery in the Americas, and the same realities in the Ottoman and Arab empires. Archbishop Tutu said he saw “the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.” 

Zoughbi Alzoughbi (founder and director, Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center), who once visited a Native American reservation, said, “I found a historical map showing the stages of land dispossession of the First Nation people … To the staff and supporters of Wi’am the message was obvious; both Native Americans and Palestinians were Native to their lands, colonized by another people, told there was a way to live peacefully together, then violently removed from their own land, then forced onto small reservations of land, then slowly had even that land taken away by home demolitions and new settler colonies, only to end up treated by the colonizers as obstacles to peace and not as people.”

The Importance of Olive Trees

Olive trees are a primary source of income — about $12.3 million lost — for over 80,000 Palestinian families who rely on the olive harvest. According to UN figures, approximately 48% of the West Bank’s agricultural land is planted with olive trees. These trees account for 70% of Palestine’s fruit production and contribute approximately 14% to its economy. In addition, 93% of the harvest is used for olive oil production and the remaining 7% for local consumption. Olives, olive oil, and olive wood are used to produce soaps, table olives, and pickles 

Since 1967, 800,000 olive trees and 2.5 million trees have been uprooted — supposedly for security reasons. Since 1995, 60% of Palestinians have lost farmland to Israeli settlements, walls, military zones, by-pass roads and other closures (MIFTAH and VisualizingPalestine.org). Israeli agricultural export companies such as Mehadrin and Hadiklaim are among the primary beneficiaries of the destruction of Palestinian agriculture — they export produce from illegal settlements using stolen Palestinian land and water, as well as profit from the siege on Gaza.

Since October 2007 Palestinians have been unable to access their farmland (BDS & AlJazeera Nov 6. 2023). Israel has denied Palestinians access to their natural resources, including shared water resources, an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of oil reserves in the West Bank and more than $2.5 billion worth of natural gas off Gaza’s coast (UNPress, Oct. 17, 2022).

As the Israeli government cuts off fuel supplies, Palestinians living in Gaza use rooftop solar panels to help access electricity. However, since the Oct. 7 attack Israeli forces have ordered a complete siege of Gaza, which has cut off electricity and fuel supplies and targets hospitals via the solar panels on the AlShifa Hospital (ClimateHomeNews). 

Writing in The Guardian [UK] on July 9, 2019, Miriam Berger reported that Israel sprays the buffer zone to allegedly deprive potential “terror elements” of cover; however, farmers in Gaza say doing so damages crops and livelihoods. Forensic Architecture, a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, stated that over the last five years Israeli planes have sprayed herbicide more than 30 times on the Israeli side of the buffer zone with Gaza. Even private rooftop home gardens are not spared.

Israeli water construction is another way to strangle Palestinian agriculture so that Israel can acquire more land. Tel Aviv builds water pipelines through Palestinian lands that help destroy the land, a practice that constricts the Palestinians’ water use and causes the destruction of olive trees and ends a generational livelihood (Corradin, Camilla. Israel: Water as a tool to dominate Palestinians. AlJazeera News. 2016).

Only an estimated 1% of solid waste is currently being recycled. The Israeli occupation has transformed the occupied Palestinian lands into a landfill for hazardous and toxic wastes and sewage since 1967. In fact, 60% of Israeli waste ends up in the occupied areas. This reality chokes the life of Palestinians while destroying the soil, and poisoning and polluting the groundwater. Israel’s disposal of its wastes is a clear violation of international laws related to environmental protection (MiddleEast Monitor, 2018).

A Solution 

The Olive Tree is a symbol of peace in all Abrahamic faiths. The Torah says, “Even if you are at war with a city … you must not destroy its trees” (Deut 20:19-20).  In Gen. 8:11-12, a dove returned an olive branch to Noah on the Ark, signaling the Flood’s end. Quran 24:35 proclaims, “The parable of His light is as if there were a niche within it a lamp: the lamp enclosed in glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touch it.” 

The Quran explains that humanity holds a privileged position among God’s creations — vicegerent (khalifa) — and that each person is entrusted with caring for God’s creation. And yet it repeatedly warns Muslims against hubris by asserting that they are no better than any other creature. The Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) acknowledges that God’s knowledge and power covers everything. Therefore, abusing one of His creations, whether it is a living being or a natural resource, is a grave sin. 

Prophet Muhammad was a steadfast advocate of environmental justice, its preservation and conservation and environmental rights. He constantly sought to maintain a harmonious balance between all members of humanity and nature. He was a strong proponent of sustainable practices and equal access by all users of the environment. His words about the environment can be related to contemporary environmental issues.

In closing, the solution lies in the cry of the olive trees. This cry denotes a non-diverse, colonialist worldview, the exact opposite of the Abrahamic traditions. Muslims, as followers of the middle way — as God’s khalifah — are obliged to safeguard the trust gifted by God. Killing innocent women and children is murder, which God abhors. Indiscriminate killing cannot be validated as self-defense by any side. 

May God bless the slaughtered humans– and the destroyed environment. “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware” (49:13).

The ISNA Green Initiative Team comprises Huda Alkaff; Saffet Catovic; Nana Firman; Uzma Mirza; S. Masroor Shah (Chair).

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