Muslims For A Safe America

Al Qaeda has repeatedly stated that it is attacking Western targets in order to force a change in American foreign policy towards the Muslim world. Al Qaeda says it will stop attacking America, if America gets its troops out of the Muslim world, stops supporting dictatorships in the Muslim world, and stops supporting people of other faiths over Muslims in various conflicts.

Like Al Qaeda, many American Muslims are also angry about American foreign policy, and the suffering of average Muslims, in the Muslim world.

But many American Muslims do not support Al Qaeda’s vision for the Muslim world.

Al Qaeda wants the U.S. to leave the Muslim world, so that it can establish its own version of an “Islamic state” or Caliphate.

While many American Muslims want to see secular democracies in the Muslim world, many other American Muslims don’t object to the establishment of an Islamic state (or states) in the Muslim world. But what is an “Islamic state”? American Muslims don’t agree on what an Islamic state should look like. The only thing they agree on is that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) established an Islamic state in Medina. But American Muslims understand the example of the Prophet in very different ways. Some American Muslims look back at Medina and see a very conservative model; others see a more progressive model in Medina. We’ve seen various models of self-proclaimed Islamic states in modern times: Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan under the Taliban.

In Al Qaeda’s ideal Islamic state, how would women be treated? How would people of other faiths be treated? How would the poor be treated? How would Muslims of different sects be treated? How would people accused of crimes be treated? Al Qaeda operated for years in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Is that the sort of Islamic state Al Qaeda envisions for the rest of the Muslim world? Many American Muslims would prefer a more progressive Islamic state.

If America leaves the Muslim world, and if average Muslims in the Muslim world (who want freedom and the right to pick their own rulers) reject Al Qaeda’s vision, will Al Qaeda wage war against them the way Al-Zarqawi waged war against Iraqi civilians in Iraq? Or will Al Qaeda just run out of steam, without the American bogeyman around?

So what’s the option for American Muslims? If turning things over to Al Qaeda is too risky, should American Muslims simply accept current American foreign policy?

It’s not an either-or situation. American Muslims are not obligated to accept the vision of either the Bush administration or Al Qaeda. American Muslims, working in conjunction with Muslims overseas, are smart enough to chart out their own course on American foreign policy. But they haven’t done that.

Ultimately, many American Muslims want the Muslim world to be safe, because many American Muslims feel connected to Muslims around the world, and because a safe Muslim world is less likely to be hostile to America than a Muslim world that feels threatened. The safety of American Muslims is intertwined with the safety of Muslims around the world; the less safe Muslims around the world feel, the more vulnerable to attack American Muslims, and other Americans, become.

Many American Muslims believe the U.S. government can undermine the ability of Al Qaeda to collect financial resources and to recruit human resources to be used against America. The U.S. government can do this through a foreign policy that demonstrates a genuine concern for the well-being of average Muslims overseas, and through a foreign policy that eliminates those grievances in the Muslim world that turn Muslims against America and towards Al Qaeda.

Ironically, grassroots American Muslims, who complain about American foreign policy in private, have not made a serious, concerted effort to chart out or promote a new course for American foreign policy. Yes, a very small percentage of American Muslims do write to, or talk to, their elected representatives on issues of personal concern to them, but the vast majority of grassroots American Muslims just sit hopelessly and pessimistically on the sidelines. No one has given them direction or leadership or hope.

Many American Muslims have fundamental questions about American foreign policy. Is America simply seeking to dominate the world, including the Muslim world, militarily and economically and culturally? Is there anything sincere or positive about President Bush’s stated desire to spread democracy and freedom in the Muslim world, or is it simply a power grab? Should American Muslims support any American efforts to promote freedom and democracy in the Muslim world? Or is the American government too untrustworthy to deal with?

Where will American Muslim direction or leadership on American foreign policy come from? It’s hard to say.

If American Muslims (working in conjunction with Muslims in the Muslim world) can come up with a real vision for the Muslim world, a vision that energizes and mobilizes our community, and if we work to persuade our elected leaders to adopt our vision, we could have a significant impact on the lives of Muslims around the world. We could also make our country safer, by reducing the hostility that many Muslims overseas feel towards America based on American foreign policy.