The Face of America to the Muslim World

As an American, a writer, a scholar, and a Muslim I take seriously Senator Bradley's exhortation for all Americans to accept the "creative responsibility inherent in citizenship" and strive to rebuild the international image of this country in the wake of President Bush's disastrous leadership. Everyone knows that the last six and half years of arrogant unilateralism and unconsidered belligerence has totally shattered America's image, especially in large parts of the Arab and Muslim world. At no other time in American history has there been a more urgent need for all of us to work together to communicate American values and traditions to all nations. So, in the spirit of taking up Senator Bradley's challenge, and in light of our dwindling image in the Middle East, I think it is time for American Muslims to become the face of America to the Muslim world.

Muslims are now the largest religious minority in the United States. And yet the American Muslim community, while infinitely diverse in its faith, practice, ethnicity, and political persuasion, has for the most part managed to avoid many of the problems of identity and integration that are currently plaguing Muslim communities throughout Europe. This is partly due to the fact that the majority of European Muslims come from impoverished immigrant families who have formed insulated ethnic communities cut off from the rest of European society, while the majority of Muslims in the United States are either middle class converts (primarily African-Americans) or educated immigrants from a wide array of ethnic backgrounds. America's long and storied history of assimilation and multiculturalism tends to prohibit the formation of insulated communities, meaning American Muslims are united less by their individual ethnic identities, than by a shared political and cultural ideal (one that we could simply call "Americanism"). It is precisely this shared sense of national identity, coupled with the socio-economic advantages of living in the United States, that has made American Muslims far more resistant to the pull of jihadism than their European counterparts. As such, American Muslims are ideally suited to become the public face of the United States to the Muslim world.

From my discussions with American Muslim organizations and individuals, I can say with confidence that Muslims in the U.S. are indeed eager to play an active role in counteracting the influence of bigotry and extremism in their faith. Unfortunately, thus far there has been little attempt by this Administration to seriously harness the creative energies of the American Muslim community. This is too bad. Because while American Muslims would have no way of reaching, let alone converting hard-core jihadists who view us all as apostates, we can still represent the freedoms of faith and conscience for which America is revered in all parts of the world.

That's because the majority of Muslims, while enraged at American foreign policy, nevertheless accept the fundamental principle for which America stands: constitutionalism, popular sovereignty, government accountability, pluralism, and human rights. By engaging moderate Muslim groups, foundations, parties, and individuals to promote shared values like human rights, pluralism, rule of law, and democracy, American Muslims can play an active part in facilitating the development of an effective ideological counterweight to jihadism. After all, the war on terrorism is, as the President repeatedly reminds us, a war of ideology. But one cannot win an ideological battle solely with guns and bombs. On the contrary, the only way to defeat an ideology of hatred and fanaticism as defined and spread by Muslim terrorists and extremists is with an ideology of hope and tolerance as defined and spread by Muslim moderates and reformers. Unfortunately, while the jihadists have at their disposal the absolute attention of the worldwide media and a nearly endless supply of funds from wealthy Saudi backers (many of whom remain unaccountable to the Saudi government), moderate Muslims, who have little money or media attention, have thus far been unable to make themselves heard. That's why we need the full backing of the government. The U.S. must do whatever it can to give moderate Muslims the tools to develop and foster their own ideologies of peace, tolerance, democracy, and pluralism. Then maybe the New American Story, which now includes some 6-8 million American Muslims, might have chance of reaching the Muslim world.

Reza Aslan is the author of No God But God, published by Random House.