Loyalty to One's Nation - Honoring Independence Day and July 4th

“Your religion or your country?” “Excuse me?” This was a very common question that was encountered in the wake of 9/11. Every Muslim person who had witnessed the Gulf Wars, and knew of what President Bush's views were on foreign policy basically knew what was in store following the horrific attack that we watched in frozen disbelief. The sheer size of the attack, the escalation that would quickly follow, the frowning faces down the halls at school, the friends who no longer responded to texts and messages, and the way kids were horrified to “look” Muslim on the street, were just a few reactions meted out by the non-Muslim Americans. Many bewildered Indians (particularly Sikhs) will bear testament to the random attacks which, were foreseen, took place later.

Yet despite all this never did we Muslims think that we would be questioned for how loyal we are or we should be, and even worse we didn't realize we had to pick between our religion or our place of residence (as many of my Muslim acquaintances around my age were born here and can barely speak or understand anything beyond English).

So let's get right to the Quranic answer: “O ye who believe, obey God and obey the Prophet and obey those in authority from among you” (4:60). What this means is that there is no implied conflict between being patriotic and being religious for a Muslim, with the condition that the country that they live in let's them freely practice their religion. Now as much as I never want to take President Bush's side on anything, he did not ban the wearing of scarves, or forbid people to congregate at mosques, or prevent the building of mosques (we're looking at you, Europe). Yes, there were a few Muslims who complained of being let go from their jobs (not few, alot) after they filled out paperwork stating they were Muslims or after their bosses found out they were Muslims.

But even in such a case, most did not complain and just dealt with it. Even in the case that the country one lives in does not allow Muslims to freely practice their faith, the suggested course of action is to migrate from such a country. Only if after migrating and living in another country, if one is not allowed to practice one’s faith, then are Muslims allowed to perform Jihad (a word that got completely butchered after 9/11 by political terrorists in the Middle East and far right Christians in the media).

So how did we show our loyalty? Many people enrolled in the army, many more worked in information gathering and DHS, as translators. Many offered medical services to those who were wounded, making people more aware of the teachings of Islam. Ahmadi Muslims in particular established the charitable organization “Humanity First” to meet the needs of the poor and displaced people, including needy Americans, and we started holding blood drives in our mosques as well. Interfaith dialogues were held, to dispel fear of Islam being something mysterious and counter to the culture and government of the country we live in. The Ahmadi Muslims took the initiative to get out and dispel these misunderstandings and start contributing to their countries. We don't know if or how much that countered the events of that day, but we also prayed that never again would a day like that occur in our country, much less be carried out by one of us.

Naeema Bhatti