Muslims in America: Finding Common Ground, a panel discussion featuring three prominent Maine Muslims and intellectuals, attracted a sizable crowd to Skidompha Library’s Porter Hall Nov. 12.
The three panelists – Reza Jalali, Mohammad Tabbah and Jenan Jondy – began with 10-minute opening statements.
Tabbah took the podium first. Originally from Syria, Tabbah chairs the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Center of Maine. He is the Section Head of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Eastern Maine Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University in Boston, Mass.
Speaking about the core beliefs of Islam, Tabbah said Muslims believe “there is no god except Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” Muslims must pray at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening; fast during the holy month of Ramadan; give 2.5 percent of their savings to charity and make a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia once in their lifetime.
Whereas the Christian practice of tithing asks followers for 10 percent of their income, Muslims give 2.5 percent of their savings in any given year. If a family lacks savings, they are not required to give anything.
The pilgrimage to Mecca is similarly tied to an individual’s financial and physical well-being. If a Muslim cannot afford, or is too sick to make the journey, he/she does not have to go.
Jalali, an author, educator and activist, is the Dean of Student Life and the Coordinator of Multicultural Studies at the University of Southern Maine. He teaches Islam at Bangor Theological Seminary, is the Muslim Chaplain at Bates College, and serves on the Amnesty International USA Board of Directors.
“Maine is now home to seven mosques, one Buddhist temple and one Hindu center of meditation,” Jalali said.
“Islam has been present in Maine and America for a long time,” Jalali said. Muslim tradesmen accompanied Christopher Columbus and other European explorers on expeditions to America over 500 years ago.
The first Muslims to arrive in Maine were Albanian tradesmen who worked in textile mills in Biddeford in the early 1900s, Jalali said.
Jalali, originally from Iran, has lived in Maine since 1985. “What was hard to accept was how uninformed and biased the public was about Islam,” he said. “To most of my coworkers and neighbors, my religion was shrouded in mystery.”
Jenan Jondy, from Flint, Mich., an educator and the outreach coordinator for the Islamic Center of Maine, was the only American-born member of the panel. Growing up, Jondy and her family “were the only Muslims in the town.” Despite her native status, many fellow Michiganders assumed she was an immigrant unable to speak English.
“I went to the post office and the lady was like, ‘Come here,'” Jondy said, poking fun at the clerk’s slow, loud speech and exaggerated gestures.
As a girl, Jondy’s father taught her to reject American stereotypes of Muslim women. “You walk in front of me or you walk beside me or people will think you’re being submissive to a man,” she said, recalling her father’s instructions.
“I grew up hunting and fishing – I was a huge tomboy,” Jondy said.
Even now, false stereotypes persist. For example, there is often a perception in America of Muslim women as uneducated. In reality, “43 percent of American Muslim women have a bachelor’s or graduate degree,” Jondy said, compared to 29 percent of American women overall.
The west underestimates the diversity of belief within Islam, Jondy said. “It is the most eclectic population within one religion in the world.”
The portrayal of Muslims in the media, as well as the actions of extremist groups, complicates life in America for Muslims like Jondy. She described following the story of the Washington, D.C. sniper and, eventually, hearing the news report about the capture of John Allen Muhammad.
“Please, God, don’t let him be Muslim,” Jondy said, describing her thought process at the time. “James? Yes. Smith? Yes. Muhammad? Here we go again…”
After their opening statements, the panel took a steady stream of questions form the audience. Even as a CONA spokesperson announced the end of the event near 9 p.m., several attendees, still eager for answers, stayed in hope of asking the individual panelists.
The first question was about the difference between the Shi’a and Sunni branches of the Muslim faith. In the beginning, the division was largely political, Tabbah said.
“With time, people start polarizing more and more. With time, it wasn’t political. It was a difference in the religion itself,” Tabbah said. “Every year that gap is getting bigger.”
Another audience member asked for a definition of the term “jihad.”
“It’s not what we see today – the terrorism we see today,” Jondy said.
“The whole term – holy war – is not in Islam,” Jalali said. “It’s a Christian term.” The Catholic Church first used the term during the Crusades of the Middle Ages, Jalali said.
“It’s absolutely inaccurate to associate holy war with jihad,” Jalali said. For Muslims, the term “jihad,” can refer to a number of less violent struggles. “One Jihad could be giving up smoking. One jihad could be losing weight.”
In addition, a group can undertake a collective jihad. For example, a neighborhood can begin a jihad to rid their streets of crime, Jalali said.
The panelists answered multiple questions about al-Qaida, the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“I never met anybody who was happy who committed suicide,” Jondy said, referring to the Sept. 11 hijackers and countless suicide bombers before and since. “These are people living under extreme conditions.”
“Eighty-five percent of the people killed by al-Qaida are Muslim,” Jondy said.
“When there is injustice, when you are faced with the daily humiliation of occupation and you are the third generation of refugees and the world seems unsympathetic to your plight – when you treat people like animals, like savages – they have every right to hit us like savages,” Jalali said.
“I’m not defending it,” he said.
Another audience member asked if Islam, like Christianity, incorporates a large variety of denominations or sects.
“As Muslims, we can go to any mosque,” Jalali said. “Nobody would ask me what kind of a Muslim you are. When it comes to the core beliefs, we are the same.”
The panelists also talked about Shariah, the term for Islamic law. “The word Shariah means ‘way of living,'” Tabbah said. “The way I fast is part of Shariah. Everything I told you today is part of Shariah.”
Shariah imposes harsh penalties on offenders, but also makes it difficult to prove certain crimes. To prove an allegation of adultery, for example, “You have to have four witnesses who see it as clear as the sun,” Jondy said. If an accuser cannot prove the allegation, the accuser may face penalties for bringing a false charge.
“It’s a very, very strict system of justice,” Jondy said.
Shariah relies on the assumption of an egalitarian society, Jalali said. In order to punish a thief, a government must first ensure it has built a “society where there is no need to steal.”
Hijab, which refers both to the headscarf or veil worn by many Muslim women and the Quran’s dictates regarding dress, was a particularly passionate subject for the panel.
“There are different reasons why women cover themselves,” Jalali said. “It can be a cultural/tribal issue.”
Often, Muslim women have no choice in the matter, but are subject to the whims of changing governments. “My mother was unveiled against her wishes,” Jalali said. “A generation later, my sister and my nieces were forced to veil themselves.”
“[Hijab] is clearly stated in the Quran,” Jondy said. “If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be covered. All of the Muslim scholars will say hijab is clearly stated.”
Despite somewhat different opinions on the integrality of hijab to their faith, Jalali and Jondy agreed that the doctrine places restrictions on the dress and comportment of men, as well.
“God addresses the men first,” Jondy said.
Throughout the evening, the tone was one of education and reconciliation. “The only way we can live in peace is to have harmony and understanding,” Tabbah said. “I think that’s what we really need – to understand each other.”
“With all the Islamophobia, I see a lot of learning, I see a lot of support,” Jondy said. “I think good is going to come out of it.”