American Muslims As Teachers

Explaining Faith Defuses Misconceptions, Gains Converts


Courant Staff Writer

August 29, 2002


As the 9/11 anniversary approaches, American Muslims are bracing.

Many are preparing to talk, even more, about their religion, having been thrust into the role of unofficial spokesmen for Islam, caught between those who use Islam to justify terrorism and those who equate it with the terrorist attacks.

"I would say it's been a difficult year. For a lot of Muslims it's been a year of soul-searching, being called on to defend oneself, and to educate people about Muslims," said Colleen Keyes, dean of academic affairs at Tunxis Community College in Farmington. A convert to Islam, Keyes has given dozens of speeches in the last year.

"We are making progress with interreligious and intercultural understanding, due to the willingness of Americans who are open-minded and Muslims who are willing to go out and talk about Islam," Keyes said. "I've seen a lot of anger. I've also seen a lot of compassion."

The attention focused on Islam has also brought seekers and the curious to mosques across the state. And that may be behind an increase in conversions at several area mosques.

"What's happening is that all the public speaking has stimulated a lot of interest, and people have gotten a sense of the humanity of Islam," said Imam Qasim Sharief of the Islamic Center of Hartford. The mosque has had about 20 converts in the last year.

"People use their own ability to make decisions, and they have arrived at the conclusion that the religion has great merit," Sharief said.

Increases in conversions also were recorded at Masjid Medina in Windsor, Masjid Mohammed in New Haven and the Islamic Center of Greater Hartford in Berlin.

"People start to read about the Islamic faith, they get beyond the media hysteria, they see themselves the quality" in Islam, said Ali Antar, a president of the Berlin center.

Antar, a professor at Central Connecticut State University, said the Muslim community is apprehensive about the anniversary.

"Most Americans are able to distinguish between Muslims and people who commit crimes," Antar said, but "Muslim Americans feel singled out, as if they are guilty and have to prove themselves innocent, to apologize for crimes committed by others."

Keyes said there are people who think violence is a tenet of Islam. "Some people get angry if they don't hear you say that Islam preaches violence. They only want confirmation of what they think Islam is," she said.

Muslims who use the Koran to justify violence are wrong, as are Christian religious leaders who preach against Islam, such as the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham. "Franklin Graham and Osama bin Laden are both distorting the Koran. ... That's why it is the duty of people who are educated to keep going out and talking."

Fatima Antar, a professor at Manchester Community College, has a calendar overflowing with speaking engagements. She says people sometimes have difficulty reconciling their understanding of women in Islam with the image she presents.

"When I speak about women in Islam, and people try to compare that with what they see on television, there is no match," Antar said. "That's because those images are not inclusive. How the Taliban demeaned women is not Islamic. It does not mean all Muslim women are like that, or that all Muslim women are enjoying the liberty that Koran gives us. Are all Christians living according to Bible?"

An August survey of 945 Muslim American households, by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, found that 57 percent experienced bias or discrimination after the 9/11 attacks. Also, 79 percent reported acts of kindness and support from friends and colleagues of other faiths.

The survey also found that 67 percent said the media had grown more biased against Islam and Muslims, and 48 percent said their lives had changed for the worse in the year following the attacks.

Asma Khan, a spokeswoman for Muslims Against Terrorism, a New York group founded five days after the attack on the World Trade Center, said education is the only way "to stop the cycle of hate."

"We're challenging mosques and imams that preach hate," Khan said. "It's important to separate the politics from the theology of the religion, to differentiate when it's a political attack using Islam. A predominately Islamic state may view the U.S. as an enemy, but that does not make the U.S. an enemy of Islam."