American Muslims respond to Conservative Rhetoric

Last spring I taught a course I designed called, “Islam, Politics, and the Middle East.” One the issues we examined was the rhetoric of the Religious Right concerning Muslims in America. In a way that resembles the anti-Communism crusades during the Cold War, conservatives have argued that radically militant Islam represents "true" Islam and that Muslims operate with a unified conspiracy to infiltrate America using “silent Jihad” (Immigration, back-door politics, securing infliential positions, etc.) The assumption is that America Muslims have no desire to participate in democracy, hoping rather to subvert it in order to eventually destroy it. Recently, American Muslim leaders (the Fiqh Council of North America) have responded, issuing a Fatwa (official statement) defending the compatibility of Islam and American democracy. As quoted in the Huffington Post, the Fatwa states:

As a body of Islamic scholars, we the members of FCNA believe that it is false and misleading to suggest that there is a contradiction between being faithful Muslims committed to God (Allah) and being loyal American citizens. Islamic teachings require respect of the laws of the land where Muslims live as minorities, including the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, so long as there is no conflict with Muslims’ obligation for obedience to God. We do not see any such conflict with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The primacy of obedience to God is a commonly held position of many practicing Jews and Christians as well.

Find the story at the Huffington Post here.