US imam asks if 'American' Islam exists
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
YAHYA Hendi is not sure that an "American Islam" exists. When the Palestinian-born imam talks about his religion, though, it sounds as if it has become as integrated into American life as he has.
Hendi, 40, is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution that in 1999 became the first university in the United States to hire a full-time imam. He teaches a course on interreligious dialogue there along with a priest and a rabbi.
He is also chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and a mosque in Frederick, another suburb north of the capital. He lectures around the country to explain Islam to non-Muslims and US religious pluralism to Muslims.
The question of whether Islam can be "westernised" a key aim of European officials seeking a "British Islam" or "French Islam" to help integrate Muslim immigrants seems to be more than an ocean away for this pragmatic thinker.
"Islam is a very inclusive religion, but Muslims have given it a bad name," Hendi, who was born in Nablus on the West Bank and came to the US 20 years ago, told Reuters. "Islam demands that Muslims adapt to their circumstances," he said, arguing that Islam had taken on some local customs and rejected others ever since it appeared in Arabia 1,400 years ago.
The two million or so US Muslims are well-equipped to adapt. Of the two-thirds born abroad, many are well-educated, in contrast to mostly poorer Muslim immigrants in Europe.
The other third are black Muslims or children of immigrants.
Of the 400 Muslims in Georgetown's 14,000-strong student body, 93 per cent were born in the US.
"When I preach in America, I preach in English," Hendi said, noting traditional Indian and Pakistani imams preach in Arabic, a language their congregations do not understand. Those imams would also not preach without wearing a prayer cap.
"I just go like this," he said, tugging at the suit he was wearing. "Sometimes I go in a Tshirt and give my sermon. Nobody argues with it or thinks it's out of the ordinary."
At his mosque, there are no separate doors for women and men and no curtain separating them during prayer. The mosque board was headed by a woman for the past five years.
"This wasn't an issue for us," said Hendi, who studied Islamic theology in Jordan and Christianity and Judaism including Hebrew for his doctorate in the US. "It would be unheard of in Europe or the Arab world."
So is an American Islam emerging? "I hesistate to use that term because it could imply changing the theology, and I hope that never happens," Hendi, a US citizen since 1993, said in his slightly accented American English.
"One of the glories of Islam is its ability to adapt to new circumstances without losing its soul," he explained. That meant that all Muslims everywhere even secular ones still agreed the "five pillars of Islam" are the core of the faith.
Reuters
Hendi, 40, is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution that in 1999 became the first university in the United States to hire a full-time imam. He teaches a course on interreligious dialogue there along with a priest and a rabbi.
He is also chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and a mosque in Frederick, another suburb north of the capital. He lectures around the country to explain Islam to non-Muslims and US religious pluralism to Muslims.
The question of whether Islam can be "westernised" a key aim of European officials seeking a "British Islam" or "French Islam" to help integrate Muslim immigrants seems to be more than an ocean away for this pragmatic thinker.
"Islam is a very inclusive religion, but Muslims have given it a bad name," Hendi, who was born in Nablus on the West Bank and came to the US 20 years ago, told Reuters. "Islam demands that Muslims adapt to their circumstances," he said, arguing that Islam had taken on some local customs and rejected others ever since it appeared in Arabia 1,400 years ago.
The two million or so US Muslims are well-equipped to adapt. Of the two-thirds born abroad, many are well-educated, in contrast to mostly poorer Muslim immigrants in Europe.
The other third are black Muslims or children of immigrants.
Of the 400 Muslims in Georgetown's 14,000-strong student body, 93 per cent were born in the US.
"When I preach in America, I preach in English," Hendi said, noting traditional Indian and Pakistani imams preach in Arabic, a language their congregations do not understand. Those imams would also not preach without wearing a prayer cap.
"I just go like this," he said, tugging at the suit he was wearing. "Sometimes I go in a Tshirt and give my sermon. Nobody argues with it or thinks it's out of the ordinary."
At his mosque, there are no separate doors for women and men and no curtain separating them during prayer. The mosque board was headed by a woman for the past five years.
"This wasn't an issue for us," said Hendi, who studied Islamic theology in Jordan and Christianity and Judaism including Hebrew for his doctorate in the US. "It would be unheard of in Europe or the Arab world."
So is an American Islam emerging? "I hesistate to use that term because it could imply changing the theology, and I hope that never happens," Hendi, a US citizen since 1993, said in his slightly accented American English.
"One of the glories of Islam is its ability to adapt to new circumstances without losing its soul," he explained. That meant that all Muslims everywhere even secular ones still agreed the "five pillars of Islam" are the core of the faith.
Reuters
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