Editorial

The Moment of Reckoning

Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, the embers of racism and exploitation continue to be rekindled — and violently. Not just a few lives, properties and businesses have been lost, but also, and more importantly, humanity has suffered.

Muslim Americans, who are part of this country’s national fabric, continue to suffer right along with other despised minorities. The Muslim Ban notwithstanding, using spiteful and insulting language when speaking of and writing about Islam and Muslims has become a given.

As we share the American space and all its moments with our fellow Americans, we are obliged to look at the situations and realities that confront us and those of our fellow citizens who are considered equally unequal to those who dominate this country and its wealth.

Islamic Horizons invited our respected teacher and avid supporter Dr. Jimmy E. Jones (executive vice-president, The Islamic Seminary of America) to help enrich our readers. Not only he has contributed his erudite observations, but he has also blessed us with the seminary’s intellectual resources.

Over Labor Day weekend, true to its longstanding tradition, ISNA hosted its 57th annual convention, which will go down in history as its first (and hopefully last) virtual convention. Although virtual events are new for most of us, the response was encouraging and rewarding. Let’s pray that God releases all of us from this pandemic and that we can resume, to the extent possible, our pre-pandemic lives. We need to be able to pray, work and play together again.

Under the theme of “Struggle for Social and Racial Justice: A Moral Imperative,” 92 speakers participated in 28 titled discussions grouped into 10 sessions. These events, streamed for 26 hours over two days, were designed to open infinite avenues for individual-to-societal-to-global transformation. They successfully took participants on a guided tour of some of those pathways and instilled within us a sense of bravery, personal piety and comprehensive integrity. Available recordings can help motivate us to advance toward the longsought goal of justice for all.

This issue will reach quite a few subscribers before Nov. 3, Election Day 2020. In her timely op-ed, Prof. Nadia B. Ahmad (Barry University School of Law) argues that the Constitution is a living, breathing document that has space for all of us. She stresses that as a mother of three young children, “I cannot stand to hear the cries of children separated from their parents at the border. As the wife of an immigrant, I cannot bear the pain of the families ripped apart by the Muslim Ban.”

Proclaiming one’s obligation to vote, she urges Muslims to mobilize our communities like never before and to educate ourselves, for “We cannot sit out the election. We have to take action to restore dignity, integrity and honor to our nation’s capital. We cannot backslide any further as a democracy.”

On the international scene, it was satisfying to see Muslim Cham survivors of Pol Pot’s genocidal policies participate as witnesses during the proceedings of the UN-backed tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and unofficially as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal or the Cambodia Tribunal. Let’s hope that we will eventually see a day when similar tribunals will be set up to look into the perpetrators of crimes against Muslims in Palestine, Xinjiang, Myanmar, Illegally Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir and India itself.

On the domestic scene, we have become more aware of the racism and discrimination within our own community, despite Islam and the prophetic Sunna’s clear condemnation of both practices. It’s long past time that we abandon these attitudes and embrace all of our fellow Muslims as real brothers and sisters. ih

PUBLISHER The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)

PRESIDENT Safaa Zarzour

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Basharat Saleem

EDITOR Omer Bin Abdullah

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Iqbal Unus, Chair: M. Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Milia Islam-Majeed

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