Cultures clash in US mosques

Young Muslims steeped in American life are tuning out imams brought in from foreign countries to teach Islam.

from the May 17, 2007 edition

Page 3 of 4

Page 1 | Page 2 | 3 | Page 4

Foreign imams may isolate mosques

And it's not just second-generation Muslims who have problems with ultratraditional imams. As immigrant communities blend, an Indonesian imam, for example, can easily alienate Pakistani and American Muslims alike.

"When [immigrant imams] are helping you and answering your questions, they're giving it from the perspective of wherever they're from without taking into consideration where they are, what's the context, what's the country like, what's the culture of the country," says Gulrukh Rahman, a Pak­istani Muslim in New York City who has lived in the US for 12 years. "A lot of that is pushing young people away from the mosque."

Those who embrace foreign imams are often urged to withdraw from American culture, says Ms. Rahman. She worries that these communities will become completely shut off and needlessly reclusive.

Boston-area Muslim Nakia Jackson experienced firsthand the result of one such closed community in a Philadelphia mosque. Congregants denied her entry when she couldn't recite select portions of the Koran from memory, which is not a requirement to pray in a mosque. When she reported the incident to the mosque's imam, he was indifferent, she says.

This self-imposed isolation may result from negative perceptions of American culture. Imam Omar Abu Namous, a Palestinian who presides over the Islamic Cultural Center Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Manhattan, says American culture is haraam, the Arabic word for sinful. "From the religious perspective, whether it is Christian, or Jewish, or Islamic, this culture is an outlaw," he says.

He points to his granddaughter who, he says, stopped attending college classes because her professors talked only about sex. Now she is completing her degree online to avoid such professors.

Imam Abu Namous, who has lived in the US since 1979, encourages congregants to have formal, businesslike relations with secular Americans but to socialize predominately with like-minded Muslims until America returns to its true Christian roots, creating a moral society more agreeable to Muslim values.

1 | 2 | Page 3 | 4 | Next Page