The recent convictions of Aafia Siddiqui and Faisal Shahzad, both once international students in the US, has brought a cloud of suspicion on all Pakistanis traveling to the US. This is a terrible prospect for those of us — like this author — who have over the years enjoyed American hospitality and who wish Americans no harm. It is a tragedy since the cultural exchange between these two populous and important nations is and can be a dialogue amongst civilizations and faiths.
Perhaps the most striking contrast to Aafia Siddiqui and Faisal Shahzad can be found in the efforts of Dr Akbar S Ahmed — that indefatigable defender of Islam and Islamic tolerance. Pakistan’s diplomat and more famous for his film on the life of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Akbar S Ahmed, the Ibn-e-Khaldun Chair at the American University, has done more than any other living Pakistani to challenge perceptions of Pakistan and Islam in the West.
He is not the first though in the US. We would do well to remember the intellectual par excellence, the late Dr. Eqbal Ahmad who, through his work and interaction in the US, won numerous admirers. His interviews with David Barsamian echo to this day for sheer relevance and clarity of vision the man had. There is one main difference though. While Eqbal Ahmad came from a tradition of resistance and the Left, which often left him at odds with his critics, Dr Akbar S Ahmed is a hardboiled civil servant, polished by the dictates of diplomacy. Consequently, Dr Ahmed has the ear of those who matter in Washington, including President Obama. He interacts with a broad spectrum from the establishment to anti-establishment, from Right to Left, and this makes him a unique anthropologist.
His recent book Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam should be prescribed reading for all Pakistanis travelling to the US, especially for an education. It gives a remarkable account of identity formation in America, its numerous waves of immigration and also within the American Muslim subset, which are the subsets of two distinct large sets. Dr Ahmed’s journey, where he was accompanied by a team of enthusiastic researchers, is in many ways more monumental than the 19th century French politician and author Alexis De Tocqueville’s journey and work on the US, which seems to have inspired Dr Ahmed. Tocqueville had come from France at a time when the US had already inspired one revolution and a republic there. There was no gap there to bridge unlike the festering fistula that now separates the Muslim world and the US. Akbar S Ahmed seems to have dedicated his entire life to the cause.
That both Muslims and the US have to come to grips with each other is now abundantly clear to both sides. Neither is going anywhere any time soon, which makes the situation of Muslims living in the US all the more important. It is their responsibility more than anyone else’s to explain Islam to the Americans and America to Muslims.
In the many identities and permutations that Dr Ahmed has examined in his book, three strike me as particularly unhelpful in this regard. The first one is that of a literalist Muslim who is incapable of thinking original thoughts and therefore is incapable of reaching out to other cultures and faiths. The second is the Muslim who, in an overzealous zeal to integrate at all costs loses — as is the case with Dr Ahmed’s representative sample — any and all credibility he might have with the community. The third one is what has been dubbed as the Americans with predator identity, something that this book traces back to the times of Winthrop and Josiah Winslow.
It is ironic that the foremost practitioners of social Darwinism in the US are those who vociferously oppose the scientific theory of Darwinism. All this makes for a clash of fundamentalisms, with a great majority not just of Muslims but also Americans being a prey for all sides.
Dr Ahmed and others like him stand firmly in the middle. They do not reject modernity and the West but also claim inspiration from the principles of Islam and teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). In doing so, they are often under attack from all of the three groups mentioned above. They are abused by literalist Muslims for not being Muslim enough, by overzealous integrators for being too Muslim, and by the third group for harbouring terrorist sympathies secretly. And yet the sanity and the future not just of inter-communal relations in the US but between the East and the West now hinges on the success of these dedicated middle-grounders. Only they have sufficient credibility to play bridge-builders.
Very good review of Book. I will definitely buy this book.
I am a great admirer of Akbar sahib. His relentless efforts and clarity of thought combined with a command over written and verbal expression has provided Pakistanis (of all faiths) and Muslims a rational voice and presence.
But since the post mentions he is not the first one, then, it behooves me that one of the first Pakistanis in US and one who stands first amongst the giants in representation of Pakistan and Islam be mentioned.
Yes, that would be Fazlur Rahman Malik, (September 21, 1919 – July 26, 1988).
And I would now quote from Wiki:
Fazlur Rahman Malik (Urdu: فضل الرحمان ملک) (September 21, 1919 – July 26, 1988) was a well-known scholar of Islam; M. Yahya Birt of the Association of Islam Researchers described him as “probably the most learned of the major Muslim thinkers in the second-half of the twentieth century, in terms of both classical Islam and Western philosophical and theological discourse.”
Rahman was born in the Hazara area of British India (now Pakistan). His father, Maulana Shihab al-Din, was a well-known scholar of the time who had studied at Deoband and had achieved the rank of alim, through his studies of Islamic law (fiqh, hadith, Qur’anic tafsir, logic, philosophy and other subjects).
Rahman studied Arabic at Punjab University, and went on to Oxford University where he wrote a dissertation on Ibn Sina. Afterwards, he began a teaching career, first at Durham University where he taught Persian and Islamic philosophy, and then at McGill University where he taught Islamic studies until 1961.
In that year, he returned to Pakistan to head up the Central Institute of Islamic Research which was set up by the Pakistani government in order to implement Islam into the daily dealings of the nation. However, due to the political situation in Pakistan, Rahman was hindered from making any progress in this endeavour, and he resigned from the post. He then returned to teaching, moving to the United States and teaching at UCLA as a visiting professor for a few years. He moved to the University of Chicago in 1969 and established himself there becoming the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought. At Chicago he was instrumental for building a strong Near Eastern Studies program that continues to be among the best in the world. Rahman also became a proponent for a reform of the Islamic polity and was an advisor to the State Department. He died in 1988.
Since Rahman’s death his writings have continued to be popular among scholars of Islam and the Near East. His contributions to the University of Chicago are still evident in its excellent programs in these areas. In his memory, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago named its common area after him, due to his many years of service at the Center and at the University of Chicago at large.
Today, there is no worthy book about Islam or Qur’an that does not reference Fazal sahib as a citation. He has gravitas which cannot be ignored. And through his works, he offers the middle way of Qur’an and Islam that outshines all those who want to malign Pakistanis, Muslims and peoples of other faiths who are bridge builders.
Speaking of bridge builders, there are too many. But I want to particularly mention Diana Eck (The Pluralism Project, Harvard University, 2 Arrow Street, 4th floor, Cambridge, MA 02138). I have been a follower and admirer of her efforts for a while now. Recently, I came across a former student of hers at a Unitarian service. I was most touched and moved by the sermon he offered that day on Islam and Qur’an. The sermon was not a preaching but a conversation was from the heart, offered peace and coexistence and a desire to appreciate and acknowledge the common grounds. It left me reassured, that there are many, even if few in numbers, who do not see from the lens of what is generally represented in the media. Our peaceful and secure world is intertwined with the bridge builders.
Akbar sahib’s contributions, both for Jinnah and Islam are quite unique.
And though it seems that each effort is worthy of itself to be admired and adulated, I think we have neither known enough about him nor seen a hight point yet.
I must say, years ago, he opened the door for me to my own personal approach, where I did not have to prove to Muslims for being “Muslim enough” and nor to non-Muslims for diluting my own Muslim identity to “non existence”. Not that I was ever shy from being Pakistani enough or Muslim enough, but one surely needs a sure footing in these ways and in these times.
I cannot thank Akbar sahib enough nor admire him enough and through these columns wish him the stars.
I admire your clairty of thoughts, Hamdani Ji. Good post but I wish the review was a bit longer.
Muslims outside of muslim countries – unfortunately – are now defining Islam. Unfortuante because many of them have even more perverse interpretations of the religion than the mullah induced Muslims within muslim countries.
Glad you highlighted this. I just finished reading it and it is very good. I think an authentic portrait of Muslims in America.