Turning the Tides

We live in a time where people in America are entering Islam in droves. With more diversity than ever before, we’ve made monumental progress in protecting our civil liberties and combating the systematic discrimination many of us face at the hands of law enforcement. On the flip side, a shocking number of people are leaving the deen behind, reverts and born Muslims alike. Memorial Day Weekend, some of our wonderful members of Embrace leadership had the blessed opportunity to speak at the ICNAMAS National Convention in Baltimore, MD. They elaborated on how we can turn the tide and make holding onto Islam less painful through community support and accountability. Each of our speakers, Jaquelyn Crutchley, Shaun King, Shaykh Gyasi McKenzie, and Nuh Seifullah, covered a very important angle of this issue. To keep their ideas organized, I’ll be breaking down each section based on their segment, which will be: “The welcome reverts should have”, “The sisters’ struggle”, “the revert identity”, and a personal address to the reverts amongst us who are feeling disenfranchised.

The Welcome Reverts Deserve

Shaun King mentioned that he converted two years ago to a massive outpour of support from the top scholarly minds in America. So many generous people gave him gifts that when he flew home from that masjid, he had to buy an additional suitcase just to carry them. The next morning, Fajr rolls around, and Shaun and his wife realize something: she doesn’t know how to put her hijab on, and he doesn’t know how to lead her in prayer; what’s a couple of reverts to do?

YouTube search it.

Fortunately, the video he landed on was someone performing it perfectly, but what if the video had been uploaded by someone who isn’t educated on prayer fiqh (religious rulings) or someone from a cultural background that doesn’t perform the prayer as the Prophet SAW did? That was the risk that someone who had the red-carpet treatment had to take. Now, let’s consider someone who doesn’t have that support? Everything they learn carries that risk, as they lack an expert in their corner, just a text message away,to warn them against misinformation on these platforms. Relying solely on the internet, has resulted in disaster numerous times. Many of us reverts who’d been around a long time experienced someone who asked on Shaykh Google out of isolation, and when their time came to start meeting their fellow Muslims, found what they learned was not correct, and the course correction for that can be painful and embarrassing.

To contrast this, Shaun mentioned a New Muslim course’s graduation he spoke at, the MC of the event was a very young revert who, in the time that she’d been with that organization, had memorized more Qur’an than he did at that point. Many other bright minds flourished from the dedicated teaching of generous scholars and ustedhs, and it really shows how quickly we can progress in the right circumstances.

I mentioned earlier that Shaun’s reversion was one of the better examples, so what’s more common? A person enters the mosque, and the imam takes their shahadah, and there is a calvalcade of “Masha Allah’s” and “if you need anything let me know!” Then that support slowly dries up, or perhaps they struggle to find their place in the masjid and eventually stop attending altogether.

That’s a lot of loss. Compare that to after the hijrah (the pilgrimage where the Muslim traveled from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution) became fard (required) and the Meccan Muslims traveled to Medina, what was the first thing the Prophet did?

He assigned the migrants an Ansari mentor to help them adapt and understand the area and ensure they knew the Qur’an that had been revealed up until that point. The noise in the masjid was so intense that the Prophet SAW had to ask them to lower their voices. This is the type of enthusiasm that dawah and new Muslim education should be approached with. This type of enthusiasm still exists, as evidenced by that New Muslim program, but we should work to instill it across our entire community.

The Sisters' Struggle

It’s tempting to avoid posting about injustice; after all, in America, we live in a time of heavy scrutiny, and many social media algorithms prioritize “aspirational content.” So, it’s easy to default to posting about masjid nabi, aesthetic posts of Eid dinners, or gorgeous lecture halls full of wide-eyed students.

Injustice isn’t aspirational.

“Islam is perfect, Muslims are not” is something that we’re very often told, and that’s true. This life is a constant push and pull between what’s right and our nafs (our wordly desires), but sometimes part of rising above the evils in this world means coming together and realizing that something needs to change. Islam says to testify, even if it is against yourself. Meaning that if there is an issue within our community, it is up to us to step up and do what we can to solve it. That starts with acknowledgment.

Muslim women stand on the shoulders of some of the best of humanity, the ones whose faith led them to build universities, to teach caliphs, and to be some of the most renowned hadith authors. That potential still exists today, especially amongst our female reverts, yet a shocking amount of women in leadership report disrespect and exclusion from positions they’re more than qualified for. Why?¹ The trends show that some community leaders hold a bias against women, and not enough of us are calling it out, or perhaps we just don’t notice it. Either way, the result is the same.

Born Muslim are more likely to struggle with internalized Islamophobia than Muslim reverts, showcasing an incredible hidden strength for our community. Yet today fewer women are converting vs. our counterparts in the UK and Australia.² Regardless of the reasoning, our sisters are being hurt by our actions, and that means it’s incumbent upon us to come together to mitigate that pain. Not to mention, by directly addressing these biases, imagine how much more we can get done. Right now, many organizations have a significant amount of work resting on a small team of volunteers, leading to burnout, which, over time, can lead to a negative impact on results. By allowing these qualified women into the positions they deserve, will utilize the other half of our Ummah and uplift their voices and experiences to benefit all.

Cultural Supremacy

Despite the explosion of the Muslim population in America and the increased number of Islamic businesses and Muslim professionals, we are still politically vulnerable. The progress we’ve made in the last twenty years could still be undone by the wrong laws being passed. In Texas, one of the biggest community hubs in the US, politicians are basing their platform on how they can “crush the Muslims.” The pressure to change how we practice our faith comes from every side. Notably, some of this tension is even coming from within our communities.

There is a lot of debate on what counts as “Mainstream Islam,” and an unfortunate number of people push a version that is rooted in culture rather than the sunnah of the Prophet SAW. This can result in disparaging other’s cultural practice that does not conflict with the teachings of the prophet SAW. An example of this was regarding a revert named “Jose”, otherwise known as “Joseph” in English, or “Yusuf” in Arabic, the name of a prophet: one of the most beloved prophets in the entire deen. As soon as he took his shahadah, people were already asking him, “Whats your muslim name?” How unbelievable is that?

Even our own Shaykh Gyasi had a similar experience when speaking to a group of imams. When he introduced himself, they immediately started addressing him as “Yasir.” If you’re a born Muslim reading this, reflect on your experiences regarding your name. Some struggled with it, right? When they struggled with it, how many times did someone give up and just shorten it to something that sounds more American?

How did that behavior make you feel?

I highly doubt it felt nice. So then why are we doing the same thing to our reverts?

This is just one example of how we can subtly push our culture onto someone; this can lead to us feeling like our core identity has to change for us to be fully accepted into the Muslim community. On the final Hajj, what was the reminder the Prophet gave to the community?

“An Arab has no superiority to a nonarab, and a non-Arab has no superiority to an Arab.” The only way one person can be superior to another is in their deeds. I know you feel like you’re helping a person become closer to the Prophet SAW, but Islam wasn’t sent down to wipe out all other cultures; it was sent to purify them; conflating the two muddies the water and hurts both reverts and second-generation immigrants. Many of us have stories of someone we knew trying to be someone they weren’t because they thought Allah wouldn’t embrace their culture and end up fading away, or worse, apostating.

Why do we need reverts?

There has always been a huge social impact amongst reverts: Malcom X, Karim Abdul Jabbar, Mohammad Ali, all amongst the most impactful when it comes to working towards not only making Muslims more accepted in America but pushing racial relations forward for everyone. All reverts. When we embrace Muslims for who they are, we make real changes. When reverts are used in the way our qualifications deserve, we can be instrumental in countering popular Islamophobic talking points and changing the course of our future.

In the last section, I mentioned that this cultural divide is something that also hurts second and third generation immigrants; there was a very important reason for that, and it’s because it’s not only reverts that struggle with holding onto the deen: it’s our youth too. While there are many reasons for that, one of the pieces of the puzzle is that they struggle to relate and feel like they belong within our masjids. Now, this is actually an area we can help with, as reverts, we know what it’s like to grow up within a non-Islamic culture, and we may be more familiar with their interests, helping bridge that gap.

Solutions

Include Diverse Voices

The companions varied in their cultural and religious backgrounds: men, women, Arabs, and non-Arabs. Those coming from Polytheism, Christianity, and Judaism. That diversity was a significant factor in building up the Ummah to an international powerhouse. After the Prophet SAW passed away, the deen started spreading to new regions. What did Abu Bakr and later Omar do? Accommodated them. They adapted and only instructed them to change what explicitly contradicted the Sunnah. When they had difficulty understanding something, they explained it differently. Imagine that barakah we could be earning by implementing the same methods these giants used, Allah tells us to come as we are and having that foundation will push us forward.

On Women

When Imran prayed for a child, she pledged that she would devote them to Him. Allah granted this prayer; however, unexpectedly, she had a girl: Mariam. Instead of complaining, Iram made good on her promise and insisted that her child had a place at the monastery, which at the time only allowed men. Mariam became one of the most pious women in all of human history and one of the four women in Islam to perfect her character.

There is an imperative lesson here for our leadership: sometimes Allah will send you someone, with extraordinary credentials, who spent years studying the deen, and has all the motivation in the world to help that cause that you’ve been pushing for years. But they will be a woman, a revert woman. When you see her, you’ll have two options: to treat her with respect and enable her to do her job, or to dismiss her perspective and make her feel unimportant. Which one will Allah want you to take?

To the Disenfranchised

You are not alone. This organization is here to walk with you, through mentorship, Classes, and the companionship we work tirelessly to provide. We want to work with you, we want you to feel safe, to speak frankly about your struggles, and insha Allah, we want to help you become the leader we know you can be.

One of the core values of Islam is perseverance. Prophet Ayyub lost everything before Allah uplifted him and honored his struggle in the Qur’an, a permanent reminder. We know that what you’re going through isn’t easy, and we pray Allah grants you afiyah (ease), but if Allah guided you it’s because He decided that you’re needed and that what you’re going through will lead to something far better. There is no dua that you make that goes unheard, so stick with it. It’ll be worth it.

From,
Someone who’s been in your shoes.