About the Author:
As you mentioned in the preface to your book, she is an American Muslim of Pakistani immigrant parents who was born in Chicago. She has invented a title for herself: “I am a self-proclaimed Muslim feminist cowgirl… my spirit is a blend of American individualism, the American West, the Islam I grew up with and practice, my family’s code of ethics, and the feminism I believe in.” She has published another book “Why I am a Muslim”.
She was a 25-year-old law student in New York when this book was published in 2000. She has written editorials for the Denver Post, fiction for the Susquehanna Review. It seems that she has mixed some of the Islamic rules with the circumstances of living in America to create a light-minded Muslim feminist. From the evidence you provide in your book, you probably say your five daily prayers and fast during Ramezan and help charity, but you think modest dress is enough to save the Hijab, or on doomsday you wouldn’t be guilty for not obey a full Halal diet. .
She believes that American Islam, as it grows and evolves, will offer a model for Islam in all other worlds: a purer Islam. “I think American Islam is a purer form of Islam than what is practiced in some Islamic countries.”
About the book
Hasan published his book before 9/11. After this event in an interview on national radio, she said that some conservative Muslims have told her, “You can’t be a Muslim and believe that!” and she replied: “Yes, I can!” In the interview she did not mention what her meaning of “it” was, so a look at her book would give an idea of what “it” meant.
This book is written in ten chapters, each one covering a different topic. Broadly speaking, these are sects of Islam, hijab, tenets of Islam, the military in Islam, the media and Islam, feminism, reform, growing up in America, and politics.
This book is not an autobiography, although in narrating the plight of Muslims his experiences are conspicuous, nor is it a historical explanation of the development of Islam, while it does contain some background on some issues to familiarize a completely unknown American audience with the Islam. In this sense, his experiences illustrate what it is like to be a young Muslim and live in the United States. For example, when you prefer to tell a waiter at a restaurant that you have an allergy to pork, rather than say that you follow a religious diet, you are implying that, even today, it is rare for an American to encounter unusual problems, that he would regard as unnatural.
She tries to correct some misconceptions in American minds. She tries to make Americans believe that what one Muslim does cannot be done for all Muslims. If a Muslim carries out terrorist actions, it does not mean that they all have a belligerent ideology. She tries to say that the image of oppressed Muslim women in the minds of Americans is not correct, in proving her claim, she exemplifies herself as a Muslim student with feminist ideas who lives freely.
By correcting the mind of Americans, he sometimes strives to improve their attitude and change what they have already believed. She says that Jihad means a struggle and above all an “internal struggle to strengthen one’s belief against corrupting and anti-Islamic forces” (p.49). According to her, this meaning is shown in the Qur’an and in the life of the Prophet of Islam, so it is not a holy war against all Americans. It is obvious that she herself strives to soften Islamic principles in order to introduce them very gently.
She brings up another topic to gain common sense between Americans and Islamic principles and emphasizes the similarities between these two. She claims that “Islam was founded on the same principles and ideas as the United States.” In her desire to integrate with a common religion, she says that as “Western culture and Judeo-Christian ethics are defined by the belief in one God, also the main belief of Islam”, it is better to consider “Judeo-Christian-Islamic”.
She describes the difference of being a Muslim and living in the United States versus other countries this way: “American Muslims don’t have the cultural support system that most Muslims around the world have. Each Islamic country has its own body of Qur’anic interpretations, including a group of scholars who established those interpretations, called ulama Here in the United States, Muslims are mostly flying blind, even though we have a National Fiqh Council, created by and composed of some Muslim leaders Americans… However, we need to create our own support systems to deal with our new approaches to the Qur’an.” (p. 132)
When it comes to politics, she believes that an important part of American politics is electing a Muslim representative to Congress. And, in her opinion, the reason Muslims do not enthusiastically participate in politics is “because they are concerned about America’s overwhelming anti-Muslim policy, especially the implicit lack of support for the Palestinians.” (P.152) She Then she continues with the activities of Muslim institutions such as AMA, MPAC and AMC so as not to leave a disappointing picture in this part.
Criticism and evaluation
According to Hasan, “…this book is about other Muslims like me, living as Americans and Muslims and discovering their spirit and identity as we go along.” She is suspected of her claim that her book is about nearly six million Muslims living in the United States and that they are all just like her. I think that since there are so many interpretations, ideologies and lifestyles related to Islam in the United States, it is a great adventure to think that they all think like her or even live in circumstances like hers, because dealing with minorities is different in different parts of America.
What I can say at first is that I think the title of this book “American Muslims” is not appropriate at all. Hasan is a young woman who narrates her own perception of Islam and, in my opinion, she is not allowed to generate what she thinks to all Muslims living in the United States.
The second point I noticed is that no matter how young and inexperienced she is, she cannot imagine a correct and multidimensional perspective of Islam. Her experience shows that she has no prophecy in the study of Islam to judge whether what American Muslims do is in accordance with Islam or not, although it is obvious that she has at least taken a look at the Qur’an. For example, she believes that the hijab (head covering) according to the Holy Quran and the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is not necessary for women except at the time of prayer. In her opinion, it is enough for women to dress modestly.
The other weak point that I understood was that his statements are very general, that is to say without specifying the meaning of his terminology (like “modestly” in attracting women or “feminism” in his idea) and on the other hand he affirms something without giving. evidence and reference for that. When she narrates a sentence from the Qur’an, she does not specify where she has read it. For example, she mentions: “In truth, Islam is supposed to be practiced and interpreted by each individual and not transmitted by a pope-like figure. The Qur’an says so.”
Recommendation
So I think that what he has written in his book is just his point of view on Islam and cannot be trusted. It’s a very personal, completely personal narrative. Even from the cover image which is the writer’s photo, you can guess how personal it can be! So while it is interesting to know how a young Muslim woman thinks in the days leading up to 9/11, reading this book for another Muslim who already knows about Islam and at the same time may disagree with the author can be boring.