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Youth,
Culture and Islam in the West 1
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Youth know of
Allah only in the context of “Allah will punish you,” for
such-and-such an action
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The
Muslim community living in the West is at a crossroads, and among all the
challenges we are confronted with is that of attempting to deal with our youth,
culture, and Islam in the West. It is not feasible to do justice to such a broad
topic in an essay of one thousand words. The attempt here is rather to put forth
certain issues for consideration and thus initiate a much needed dialogue at the
family and community levels.
The
research on adolescents in general and in particular minority adolescents points
to at least four areas which pose similar challenges to Muslim youth. First, the
youth must navigate the adolescent period—the so-called teen years. Second,
the youth must learn and practice Islam. Third, the youth must learn and feel a
sense of belonging to the dominant culture. Fourth, the youth must learn, make
sense of, and feel a sense of belonging to their parents’ culture of origin.
How well the youth navigate these four areas determines ultimately their
successful and stable passage through early adulthood. It should be noted at the
outset that the Islamic approach to life stages does not include the notion of
“the rebellious years” as a synonym for the teen years. Rather, for Muslim
youth, the onset of puberty confers upon them the complete rights and
responsibilities of adulthood as understood by the Qur’an and the teachings of
the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Such a dichotomy can be
very confusing for the youth because all of their teen peers from other faiths
are not yet considered adults and, therefore, are given a degree of latitude in
terms of upholding societal norms.
“Allah
Will Punish You!”
How
successfully the youth manage to establish Islam in their daily lives will
determine ultimately the degree of success or failure of our efforts to make our
home in the West. The ideas shared in this essay, as mentioned above, are
intended to initiate a dialogue and, therefore, the reader is free to agree or
disagree with what is being put forth here. A few questions to help jump-start
this dialogue would be to ask the youth, “What does it feel like to be growing
up as a Muslim in the current sociopolitical climate? Do you have the social
support and resources to help you navigate the challenges you face daily at
school, with your friends, and even at home?”
One
starting point for this dialogue is to consider the tasks that lie ahead for the
Muslim community in terms of dealing with our youth. First, it is imperative
that we help our youth to acknowledge and appreciate Allah according to all of
His characteristics and attributes. Far too often, youth know of Allah only in
the context of “Allah will punish you,” for such-and-such an action. There
is no doubt that the consequence of disobedience to Allah is punishment but what
are rarely emphasized are the boundless mercy, compassion, benevolence, and
all-forgiving aspects of Allah Most High. The Prophetic tradition tells us that
Allah Most High Himself said, “My mercy supercedes My wrath.” Even rare is
the dialogue between the youth and the parents, guardians, teachers, and
community members that reminds the youth of the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him) “All of the children of Adam (peace and
blessings be upon him) make mistakes, and the best of them are those who
repent.”2 It is not uncommon then to find
the youth distant, wary, and quite rightly fearful of Allah, but fearful less
out of actual fear and more out of fear of Allah because He is unknown to them
and, unfortunately, unappreciated by them. We need to begin to relate to our
children the vastness of Allah’s mercy and His forgiving, loving nature. Once
they come to acknowledge the oneness of Allah and the 99 characteristics and
attributes, for example, they will no doubt come to appreciate Allah and be
driven to live life in a manner that pleases Allah.
A
Dynamic Role Model
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We should aim to
develop youth who feel motivated to be effective and stable
ambassadors of Islam in the West
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Second,
it is critical that we also help our youth to understand, appreciate, and apply
the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Bearing
witness that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Messenger of
Allah is the completion of the testimony that enters one into the fold of Islam;
our youth must be exposed to the life of Prophet Muhammad less as an exercise in
memorization of the dates and events in his life and more as the mercy to
mankind! It is
indeed
unfortunate that certain actors in the present day socio-political drama have
taken to hurling insults and false allegations at our beloved Prophet. In their
desperate attempts to malign the religion of Islam, they turned their energies
to spewing hatred about Prophet Muhammad through the airwaves and in print. What
is even more unfortunate is the unconscionable silence from segments of the
Muslim community, especially the youth, who should have rightly raised our
voices and put pen to paper in defense of Prophet Muhammad. A more perfect role
model than Prophet Muhammad for all time and places will never be found, and yet
we have not helped our youth to even begin to understand his character and his
manners. Exposed only to dry, unstructured and lifeless presentations about the
life of Prophet Muhammad, the youth tend only to see him as a historic figure.
He is, on the other hand—as his wife the Mother of the Believers `A’ishah
(may Allah be pleased with her) described him—the “Qur’an in motion.”
The Prophet said about himself, “My similitude in comparison with the other
prophets before me, is that of a man who has built a house nicely and
beautifully, except for a place of one brick in a corner. The people go about it
and wonder at its beauty, but say, ‘Would that this brick be put in its
place!’ So I am that brick, and I am the last of the Prophets.”3
A more wonderful, dynamic, trustworthy, kind, merciful, loving, and
compassionate role model one could not find other than the Prophet Muhammad.
Once the youth come to know him, they would love him and wish to emulate him in
all complex and interconnected roles he played as the Prophet of Allah. How
wonderful indeed it would be for our youth to understand, appreciate, and apply
the teachings of our beloved Prophet!
Contextualize
the Teachings
Third,
there must be sufficient attention given to ensure that the youth develop their
own view of the world that is based on Qur’anic guidance and the teachings of
the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The challenges of
growing up in the West are numerous. More effort must be exerted towards
analyzing those challenges and then applying the guidance and the teachings with
the aim of arriving at a resolution that is at once comprehensive and
contextual. Ultimately, the task before us is to help the youth to have
sufficient exposure to these two sources of knowledge of Islam such that the
youth begin to have a sense of ownership of the knowledge and attempt to live
life guided by that knowledge. While ensuring the authenticity and accuracy of
the teachings of Prophet Muhammad for example, we could very much contextualize
the teachings and enrich their presentation by applying them to modern-day
dilemmas that the youth specifically are facing. Why should the youth be under
the impression that the Prophet of Allah did not address contemporary issues
relevant to the youth?! Or that the guidance in the Qur’an and even the
teachings of our beloved Prophet are outdated somehow or irrelevant to modern
times?! With sufficient dialogue between the youth and teachers who are
well-versed in Islamic teachings as well as in the prevalent culture, it is
entirely possible that our youth would master the science of using the lens of
Islam to analyze and resolve challenges in their own lives. What a wonderful
contribution it would be to future generations of Muslims if we work with our
youth to develop an outlook on life that is based entirely on Islamic teachings
and appreciative of all of the positive elements of both Western culture and the
culture of their parents’ origins!
Islamic
Culture and Cultural Islam
Fourth,
concerted effort must be put forward to help the youth to differentiate between
Islamic culture and cultural Islam. With regards to culture, the broad
organizing principle for Muslims is that all aspects of a particular culture are
acceptable except those aspects that are expressly prohibited according to
Islamic teachings. This principle stems out of the universality and timelessness
of Islamic teachings, thus making it possible for Islam to be practiced
everywhere and at all times. There is no sense that Islam wipes out the
indigenous culture of a particular people who choose Islam as their way of life.
Rather, the attempt of the indigenous people to apply in their daily lives the
guidance of the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him) gives rise to what is most aptly termed as Islamic
culture. This notion of Islamic culture stands in sharp contrast with cultural
Islam, which is essentially Islamic culture that has become corrupted over time.
In manifestations of cultural Islam, the organizing principle mentioned above is
violated through the introduction of very clearly forbidden practices as if they
are a part of Islamic teachings. The danger here is that the parents who only
know cultural Islam are bound to transmit erroneous and warped interpretations
of Islamic practices and rituals to their children. The youth need to understand
the difference between Islamic culture, which flavors authentic Islamic
teachings with the indigenous culture, as opposed to cultural Islam, which
flavors and favors indigenous cultural practices with only traces of Islamic
teachings far from the original sources, corrupted over time through oral
transmission.
Receiving
Mixed Signals
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There are times
when our youth suffer from massive anxiety and confusion during
times of international crises
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Fifth,
we should aim to develop youth who feel motivated to be effective and stable
ambassadors of Islam in the West. Part of the effectiveness and stability will
be a function of how clearly the parents and community members articulate their
stance towards the West. Unless and until the parents and the community members
resolve for themselves what it means to live in the West, the children will
continue to
receive
mixed signals. There can be no more doubt talk, no more double standards, both
in the home as well as in the community. At home for example, the parents watch
Bollywood and Cairowood movies every weekend. These movies are no less than
three hours long and full of indecency in dress, dance, and even dialogue. On
the other hand, when the youth wish to watch even the most benign Hollywood
production, the reaction of the parents is often that those “American”
movies are “dirty” or “indecent.” What is the message we are giving to
our youth? As long as the dirt and indecency is being produced by our people
from our culture, it is acceptable, but the dirt and indecency of the “West”
is unacceptable! A very decent-minded colleague of another faith confessed that
he had to turn off the VCR midway through a Bollywood movie he rented because
the content was so indecent. Apparently, the latest development in Bollywood is
that movies are being made whose target audience is South Asians living in the
West. These movies, according to this colleague, make even Hollywood productions
look tame. Again, what’s the message when we bring such movies into our homes?
Indecency and dirt, regardless of the source of their origin, should be rejected
without differentiating between ours and theirs.
Similarly,
there are times when our youth suffer from massive anxiety and confusion during
times of international crises. The common reaction from some Muslim parents
living in the West is to put down the West, insult the West, curse the West, and
say that they “hate” the West. Some families have replaced “Western”
television programming with direct feeds from Arab and Asian satellite networks.
There is so much hatred against the “West” spewed in the newscasts on these
satellite networks and the youth are the primary consumers of that hatred. The
youth wonder, sometimes even aloud: If this place is so bad, why are we working
so hard to live here? Why are we working so hard to sponsor more family members
and relatives to move to the West? Why?
Overall,
it was noted at the outset that this essay is only a starting point with some
thoughts to initiate discussion and dialogue on this very critical topic of the
youth, culture, and Islam in the West. It is our sincere hope that parents and
community members make it a priority to begin to have a dialogue with the youth
in order to develop some collective strategies to address this topic. Through
more dialogue, more research, and the direct involvement of the youth in both, in
sha’ Allah, we might be able to do justice towards resolving the
challenges confronting the youth today as well as the coming generations.
**
Altaf Husain is a licensed social worker in the United States and is a contributing writer to Islam Online since 1998.
[1]
This essay is based on a lecture delivered at the Islamic Society of North
America (ISNA) Conference held in Toronto, Canada, May 22–23, 2004
[2]
Musnad of Imam Ahmad – Vol. 3, Page 198
[3]
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 735; Narrated by Abu Huraira
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