Hebben Amerikanen en moslims veel gemeen?

quote:

Op maandag 19 juli 2004 10:33 schreef pberends het volgende:
Stelling: Hebben Amerikanen en moslims veel gemeen?

En zo ja wat natuurlijk.

Paar voorbeelden (het gaan over het algemeen, niet over individuele gevallen):

- Ze zijn beide geloofsfundamentalistisch.
- Conservatief als de ziekte.
- Altijd een gezinsachtig beleid dat gevoerd wordt.
- Denken dat ze gelijk hebben.
- Houden van censuur (vooral op de tv )

quote:

Op maandag 19 juli 2004 10:33 schreef pberends het volgende:
Stelling: Hebben Amerikanen en moslims veel gemeen?

En zo ja wat natuurlijk.

Paar voorbeelden (het gaan over het algemeen, niet over individuele gevallen):

- Ze zijn beide geloofsfundamentalistisch.
- Conservatief als de ziekte.
- Altijd een gezinsachtig beleid dat gevoerd wordt.
- Denken dat ze gelijk hebben.
- Houden van censuur (vooral op de tv )

quote:

Op maandag 19 juli 2004 10:58 schreef BobRooney het volgende:
Heel veel Amerikanen zijn moslims

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Op maandag 19 juli 2004 10:34 schreef peenhaar het volgende:
- zijn alletwee vernielzuchtig in andere landen
- ze zijn beide voornamenlijk allochtoon

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Op maandag 19 juli 2004 11:04 schreef ShaoliN het volgende:
Ik weet er nog 1: Hebben appels en peren niet veel gemeen?

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Op maandag 19 juli 2004 11:31 schreef pberends het volgende:

[..]

Minder dan 2% hoor, en die moslims zijn meestal ook echte Amerikanen.

quote:

African American 24%
Arab Americans 26%
South Asian 26%
All Other 24%

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Detroit's Muslims debunk '5th column' myth

By Muqtedar Khan
Special to The Daily Star
Wednesday, July 07, 2004

The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a Michigan-based think tank, recently published a survey of the character and opinions of mosque-goers around metropolitan Detroit. The findings of the report underscored the remarkable moderation of mosque-goers on politics, public policy and Islam. The survey provided some scientific basis for a claim that moderate Americans have been making all along - that the vast percentage of American Muslims are liberal and their presence in America is economically, politically and culturally beneficial. Allegations that American Muslims may constitute a fifth column are beginning to look increasingly shallow.

ISPU was set up by concerned citizens from Michigan who are interested in advancing socially responsible and morally critical analyses to help American leaders make better public policies. Their key concerns are providing intercultural understanding, fostering multiculturalism and pluralism, advancing respect for human and civil rights in America, contributing to human development, understanding scientific progress and fighting poverty and social marginalization.

The study provides an interesting profile of the active Muslim in the Detroit area. The average respondent is 34 and married with children, well educated, an immigrant or born of immigrants, and earns over $75,000 a year (while being a tad stingy when it comes to giving to mosques). He or she is either progressive (38 percent) or traditional (25 percent), rarely conservative (8 percent), politically conscious (68 percent are registered to vote), very discerning (85 percent disapprove of President George W. Bush's performance), a bit ethnocentric (there is some evidence of clustering around mosques) and politically liberal (supporting affirmative action and universal healthcare), but also socially conservative (worrying about sexual promiscuity).

According to the ISPU report, there are 33 mosques in the Detroit metropolitan area, five of which have come up in the last three years. The average number of people associated with each mosque is about 1,968, which means that roughly 65,000 Muslims associate with mosques and mosque-related activities. Based on this count, ISPU estimates that there are about 125,000 to 200,000 Muslims in the Detroit area. The number may be a bit low, however, since the estimate relies on a rather dubious claim that one-third of Muslims attend mosques. There is no scientific or rational basis for this figure, except the optimism of some Muslim researchers about the high religiosity of Muslims.

The study's most important contribution is the survey of attitudes toward Islam. According to the survey, 38 percent of Detroit Muslims adopt a flexible approach to understanding Islam. This is an important and promising result. When Muslims adopt a flexible approach, what they essentially imply is that place and time must have an impact on how religious sources are interpreted. This allows the American context to shape Islamic practice and often leads to facilitation of greater gender equality in mosques and a more positive attitude toward democracy, freedom and human rights. It also fosters better inter-faith relations and higher engagement with the mainstream culture, politics and society. These Muslims also provide the necessary community support for the development of progressive and liberal Islamic movements, institutions and ideas.

According to the study, only 8 percent identified themselves as Salafi - extreme conservatives who practice gender discrimination and segregation as divine law, and believe that all non-Muslims will go to hell unless they embrace Salafi Islam. The study celebrates this fact and concludes that conservatism and radicalism may not be present among Detroit Muslims. However, one must factor in the possibility that many Salafis may not identify themselves as such in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, environment. Salafis are generally also very anti-American.

Interestingly, 28 percent of respondents identified themselves as followers of traditional legal schools and scholars, meaning they adhere to an often-fossilized articulation of Islamic laws by scholars who lived over 500 years ago. Strong adherence to such classical views translates into insensitivity to contemporary demands for religious pluralism, gender sensitivity and modern conceptions of nationhood and citizenship.

The combination of 28 percent traditionalists (a category many Salafis may be hiding in) and 8 percent Salafis make Detroit mosques equally as conservative as they are progressive. It is fair to assume that 36 percent conservative and 38 percent progressive Muslims could make Detroit mosques a battleground for the proverbial soul of Islam. The character of the mosques, therefore, will be determined by the influence exercised by those who are theological free lancers (25 percent). If they lean to the past, the conservatives dominate, and if they look to the future, the progressives will prevail.

Finally, Muslims who advocate participation in American mainstream society and politics achieved a decisive victory over anti-American Muslims, who advocate an isolated existence for Muslims in America. According to the survey, 93 percent of mosque-goers believe Muslims must engage in US politics.

The study has a bias. It surveys only the one-third of people who go to mosques, who are easily more conservative than those who do not. Thus, it is heartening that even in this category, 38 percent are progressive and 25 percent are open.

The American Muslim community is undergoing a significant transformation. Institutions like ISPU do a great service by tracking this. Hopefully more studies will provide a better picture of Muslims in America and help fight the misgivings, suspicions and fears that Sept. 11 generated among the American population with regards to their Muslim neighbors.

Muqtedar Khan is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and chair of the political science department at Adrian College. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR

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Op maandag 19 juli 2004 11:04 schreef ShaoliN het volgende:
Grappig. Een geloofsovertuiging vergelijken met een nationaliteit.

Ik weet er nog 1: Hebben appels en peren niet veel gemeen?

quote:

Op maandag 19 juli 2004 10:48 schreef pberends het volgende:

[..]

Een modale moslim en een modale Amerikaan om het zo maar te zeggen is een stuk geloviger dan een modale Nederlander.

quote:

Op maandag 19 juli 2004 10:33 schreef pberends het volgende:
Stelling: Hebben Amerikanen en moslims veel gemeen?

En zo ja wat natuurlijk.

Paar voorbeelden (het gaan over het algemeen, niet over individuele gevallen):

- Ze zijn beide geloofsfundamentalistisch.
- Conservatief als de ziekte.
- Altijd een gezinsachtig beleid dat gevoerd wordt.
- Denken dat ze gelijk hebben.
- Houden van censuur (vooral op de tv )