Honeymoon for Obama and American Muslims

Eight years after 9/11, Muslims feel like a new chapter is opening.

On September 25, between 4 A.M. and 7 P.M., nearly 50,000 Muslims will gather on Capitol Hill to “pray for America.” This will be a first. This unprecedented event is taking place following an initiative thought up in July by a group of Imams from the Dar-ul-Islam mosque in New Jersey. “Never has the Islamic community prayed on Capitol Hill for the soul of America. We’re Americans. We need to change the face of Islam so people don’t feel every Muslim believes America is ‘the great Satan,’ because we love America,” explained the president of Dar-ul-Islam, Hassen Abdellah.

It was Obama’s famous speech in Cairo, addressing the Muslim world, which inspired the Imam to come up with the idea of praying at the Capitol. “For the first time in my lifetime, I heard someone of his stature talking about Muslims not in an adversarial sense, but in the sense of being welcoming and acknowledging that.

we are integral citizens in this society.” Abdellah continued, “He said he had his hand open to the Islamic world. The Islamic world wants to open their hand and shake it.”

His enthusiasm marks the beginning of the honeymoon period between Barack Obama and the Muslims of America. Eight years after the tragedy of 9/11, which made all American Muslims potential suspects, sometimes even outcasts, there is the feeling that a new chapter is finally about to be written. “Yesterday I was seen as a terrorist, and today I’m allowed to go and pray at the Capitol,” Aly Aziz, from the Islamic Society of New Jersey, delights in saying. During the Iftar dinner organized by the White House for Ramadan, a tradition which goes back to his predecessors, Barack Obama repeatedly said that “Islam is part of America.” “We are celebrating the sacred month of Ramadan, but also the way in which Muslims, a community with extraordinary dynamism, have enriched America and its culture.” Several intellectuals, sports stars, artists and entrepreneurs attended the banquet: living proof of the success of the American integration model. In a far from safe gesture, the president paid tribute to the sacrifice made by Kareem Khan, a young American Muslim who died in combat in Iraq. A crescent is carved into his grave, just as others bear the Christian cross or the Jewish star. “These brave Americans are joined in death just as they were in life – by a common commitment to their country,” said Obama.

Public opinion polls show that American Muslims are rather satisfied with their lot. Certainly, contrary to Muslim immigrants in Europe, they enjoy an average standard of living, by American standards. The majority of American observers refer to the model of American secularism to explain this success, and while in France secularism was designed to protect the state from the influence of religions, the opposite has happened in America, where the principle of secularism aims to ensure religious freedom and to protect this freedom from an invasive state. “The nation is presumably wired to be more tolerant and able to handle differences,” Vaisse said.

The violence in the French suburbs in 2005 and the murder of the Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh in 2004 further reinforce the conviction that the way in which Europe deals with Muslim minorities seems to be a brush-off. Obama’s sharp criticism regarding the introduction of a ban on wearing headscarves in France showed that America can not comprehend why Paris banned girls from wearing them in schools nor why the government is so against the burqa. Washington, convinced it has the right model, is also organizing guided tours aimed at elite European Muslims.

Sleeper cells

Some, however, express their opposition to Obama’s portrait of Islam in America, which they consider to be too idyllic, hiding a reality which is as diverse as the numerous communities which form part of it. Although many groups appear to be well integrated, others sometimes turn to radicalization, for example the Somali communities in Minnesota who were protecting sleeper Jihad cells prepared to export combatants to the Horn of Africa. This radicalism also poses similar problems to those that are faced in Europe.

This pessimistic train of thought, far more prevalent among Republicans than Democrats, criticizes Obama for his naivety and calls for a reflection of the European model and warns against underestimating the risks of multiculturalism, which could end up impinging upon American values of freedom.

The White House argues that it has never let its guard down when it comes to radicals and sees only one way of fighting radicalism politically: giving the Muslim community a sense of belonging and freedom so that its desire is to defend the American model rather than destroy it.