By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The change of guard in the US White House with Barack Obama taking over the world’s most powerful presidency has had positive psychological impact on the Muslims in the US, said prolific writer Dr Omar Khalidi known for his Khaki and Ethnic Violence book, while addressing Muslim media persons at American Center today in New Delhi.
Muslims are getting active in society and politics. They are getting interested in politics of the country by fighting election, by casting vote and by campaigning for other candidates, said Dr Khalid, staff member of The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He added that Muslims are doing so because they feel this is must to get share in development of the country and to impress its foreign policies.
“Contrary to perception outside, Muslims in the US are completely free to express their views. They are interacting with academia. Islamic Studies is being made a subject of research in universities. They are also holding interfaith dialogues. This all is helping in removing misconception about Muslims and Islam in the US,” he said.
Urdu is also taught in seven universities there. The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts – the program with which he is attached — is the largest research centre on Islamic architecture in the country.
He admitted some Muslims have faced problems at entry points like airports, but what is good is that the government has not kept it secret, and has worked to check errors. This has happened with even natives, he added.
On whether Muslims there are facing communal profiling by Homeland Security, Dr Khalidi, who is a trustee of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies, said this cannot be denied but he himself has not come across any such thing. He stressed that there is no problem for law abiding people and those who keep themselves transparent.
On difference in Islamic architecture in the US and Muslim world, Dr Khalidi said: Contrary to mosques in the subcontinent, almost every mosque in the US has a specified area for women faithfuls. Either the mosque is separated with a wall or curtain in the middle for men and women on either side or the balcony is erected for female worshippers.
On the influence of US Muslims on the country’s foreign polices, he said Muslims successfully lobbied against the proposed visits to the country of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
A little more about Dr. Khalidi:
He has lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and worked at King Saud University in the 1980s, and then moved back to the United States to obtain an M.A. at Harvard University in 1991, then earned a PhD at University of Wales at Lampeter, Wales, UK, in 1994. He is the author of several books and articles on art and architecture, and history. He has lectured and exhibited on Islam in America, mosque architecture, and on religious freedom at various forums and universities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Malaysia, India, and elsewhere. Most recently he has lectured on Islam in America in Germany in 2006. In May 2006, he organized an international conference on mosques in the West at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2007-08, he extensively lectured on Islamic architecture in Europe and United States. He visited Kabul and Herat in Afghanistan at the invitation of U.S. Department of State lecturing on Islam and mosques in America in summer 2009.