Discussion: Da’wah to College Educated People

In the previous post, Brother Abu Abdir Rahman, made some good points on the above topic that I began responding to, but my comments were so long that I decided to put up here instead. Brother Abu Abdir Rahman’s original comments are here.

I also thought that “The R” made some excellent comments as well. (And yes I have observed the mental illness issue)

Here is my response to Brother Abu Abdir-Rahman:

Wa alaykum as-salaam

Yes, Masha Allah, the MSA’s have been very active lately and have been holding some very good programs lately. You made many excellent points, but I see that the problems I speak of still remain.

However, I believe, from my experience, that another place where Muslims are very active are on College campuses. Just go to any of the D.C., NY, NJ,
Houston, etc., area Muslim Students Associations and you will find them engaged in many forms of dawah on campus.

It is true that they are having many programs on campus lately, especially in those areas, but you have these problems:

- Program is well attended, but many are packed with more Muslims than non-Muslims. This to me reflects lack of day to day (other than mundane) interaction with non-Muslim students. Non-Muslims are more likely to attend a program if a friend invites them, than if a stranger hands them a flyer

- Many efforts are put into the program, planning it, inviting the speaker, advertising, etc and stop there. End of program, end of da’wah … until the next program. Many of the MSA members (especially the males) I have found do little in the way of everyday face to face interaction where da’wah means the most. And this is because many of them are either immigrants or the children of immigrants who do not identify with many of the students in general.

- Because the MSA is comprised of first or second generation immigrants, they unintentionally form their program around their thinking. When a person, regardless of race does convert on campus and comes to the MSA, he/she may be uncomfortable because the MSA chapter is very “Desi-centric” or “Arab-centric”. This leads back to feelings of estrangement that you and I mentioned.

- Sisters seem to be more active on campus in da’wah than brothers. It is not a problem that the sisters are active, Masha Allah. It is that the brothers are not as active. This is part of the reason why I think more white sisters are accepting Islam nowadays, and Allah knows best. The sisters also seem to be doing a much better job of making these new convert sisters feel comfortable.

Since you noted the lack of professional AAMM, the presence of these organizations poses a few questions:
1) Are they less active/efficient/numerous in dawah than the prison/’hood’ dawah organizations?
2) If so, which is the causal factor that has caused the prison/’hood’ dawah to be more effective?

I have given da’wah in the prisons, in the hood and on college campuses. In the prisons, it is not strange to have 5-6 people convert at one time with little to no pressure. College students who convert usually show up at the masjid after several weeks, months or sometimes a couple of years of study, attending MSA programs and contemplation. One program is rarely going to cut it for a college educated individual…or in society in general for that matter.

College students and college educated individuals are going to want to know if your religion stands up to critical analysis. Is this a thinking man’s religion? Some of them may have even traveled to Muslim countries and seen many un-Islamic practices that they have questions about. This is why one on one critical discussion and interaction is a must on college campuses and the society in general.

Many brothers think that “da’wah is da’wah wherever you give it, it is the same”, and make huge mistakes. Having been in all of those environments, I can tell you. It is different.

Time is perhaps the reason why Muslims are effective in the prison/’hood’ systems/communities because the members of those groups constantly run into our dawah or meet Muslims. Furthermore, the ability to assess ones values and ask the meaning of life once in prison or struggling in the ‘hood’, perhaps opens AAMM minds to Islam a lot more. On the contrary, that is not the instance with MSA dawah to potential professional AAMM in college because those AAMM are often occupied with studying to maintain the competitive grades needed for MD/JD/MBA programs or rigorous technical courses in engineering or architecture that they simply tune out many aspects of their social/college community life.

Without a doubt this is one of the most critical differences. In prison, there is a lot of time on one’s hands.

Having assessed a problem, we should work towards improving it! I think some recommendations to remedy this problem would be have professional Muslim organizations have joint events/conferences/rallies with professional African American organizations on issues they are both concerned about (i.e. civil liberties, role of minorities in America, etc).

I agree, but this takes an effort where each individual Muslim in college settings takes it upon himself to interact with non-Muslims of all stripes. This doesn’t mean forcing yourself to be friends with certain individuals. Let things come naturally. Usually an opportunity will present itself.

The MSA has be do more than just put on a program, but be prepared to take on converts, welcome them, make them feel comfortable and know their obstacles.

Here’s a scenario: A Black American college student embraces Islam enthusiastically. He goes to the masjid near campus. The other MSA members are Desi and often speak urdu amongst themselves. The Arabs do the same. He is being pressured to take an erratic emotional stance on the Palestinian conflict, something he hasn’t thought much about. (And before 9/11, he would have been told that EVIL ACTIONS like blowing up a daycare or a pizza parlor was “Islamic” and that he needed to believe that too. He would then be diluged with DUMB FATWAS endorsing it)

There are some (a handful of) other Black American Muslims around, but none of them are college educated, none have a steady job and they are trying to talk him into quitting school. They tell him that he needs to completely change his wardrobe immediately, and throw out all the meat in his refrigerator. (So when he is hungry, he sneaks to McDonald’s hoping to not be seen by these brothers) Further, he can’t have an intelligent conversation with any of them and they are seemingly angry all the time. So he begins to feel lonely after some time. He has become a hermit when he was once a social bug. Everything is made haraam and difficult. “If it’s not haraam we’ll get a fatwa and MAKE it haraam!”

So he does not fit in with the immigrant students as they have their own ethnic circle, nor does he fit in with the Black Americans.

Meanwhile back on campus, his old friends are inviting him to come to the basketball game, to socialize, or just to hang out and/or talk in the student union about issues and all other types of social recreation that he had grown accustomed to. He resists for a while. But then he begins thinking about the fact that the only time he has an intelligent conversation is with these old friends. Soon he disappears and is not seen again. And this scenerio repeats itself.

Many are faced with the choice of quitting school and leaving critical thought and everything they are to conform with the other Black American Muslims or continue to be alone and have superficial “friendships” that do no deeper than basic conversation. Eventually, in many cases he burns out over the long term anyway from the constant pressure to conform to something that he is not. He rejects the legalistic dogma imposed upon him and either begins to come around sparingly or disappears.

As for solutions, the first step is to recognize that this actually exists. We pretend that we are in one situation when we are in another. So step #1 is to drop the slogans and face reality.

For example, we love to point out to non-Muslims that there are black churches and white churches, while in Islam any person of any color can go into any masjid and pray. Sounds wonderful and on the surface, this is true. A Muslim can indeed pray in any masjid. But this statement is bordering on lying because it implies that every masjid in America is utopian mosaic of ethnicities when that is not the case. The reality is that Muslims have Pakistani masjids, Palestinian Masjids, Albanian Masjids etc, many of which (as CAIR noted) blatantly cater to one ethnic group. And I have not even mentioned the problems of importing Imams that can not even fathom what I am talking about or even those that are American but are trained to think that what I am saying is “not beneficial”.

Another of my favorites is that we quote that demographers say that Islam is fastest growing religion in America. Again, yes that was true…because of immigration. But the same demographers are saying that by 2100 because of reductions in immigration from Muslim countries, Islam will either be stagnant or decrease in numbers. Obviously, Allah is the one that knows the future, but they are looking at current trends. So mistake #2 is trying to grow Islam through immigration. This leads to ignoring the situation of converts.

When it comes to converts we pat ourselves on the back after seeing a new shahaadah in the masjid and feel good about it. According to CAIR, 23% of masjids reported 11-49 converts in 2001. Let’s say that each masjid averages about 5 per year. That would mean that there are about 50,000 new Muslims in the past five years (5 converts X 2,000 masjids X 5 years). What is happening to all these converts? Are they sticking around? What happens to them in light of the fact that several masjids are catering to immigrant groups? Do we think about it? Are we getting the picture now?

The same thing goes for the MSA. Feel good after a shahaadah, but how is this brother really doing?

First steps first. Heads out of the sands. Recognize the problem