Understanding essential in changing unfavorable Islamic views

Daily Bruin: What is the basic mission of the Council
on American Islamic Relations and what is your role in the
organization? Hussam Ayloush: CAIR is one of the largest
Muslim advocacy groups in the United States today. It was
established in 1994 to promote a positive image of Islam and
Muslims in America and to defend the civil rights of Muslims and
non-Muslims throughout the country. Today’s mission seems to
be focusing more on the civil rights, especially … as we notice
civil rights being violated more and more over the last few years.
What we hope to achieve … is a society where a person’s
color, race, or religion is not a factor in how they get treated or
what kind of jobs they get. I started with CAIR in 1995 as a
volunteer to start up the office of Southern California. I was
asked in 1998 to become a full time person ““ full time
executive director of the office.

DB: How do you think the perception of Muslim Americans
has evolved since Sept. 11, 2001? HA: Every poll has shown
the number of Americans who perceive Islam unfavorably,
unfortunately, has increased since 9/11 ““ there is obviously
an understandable reason why, because the people who perpetrated
the terrorist attacks on 9/11 followed the Muslim faith. So,
immediately many people misperceived this act as a representation
of what Islam is. But on the other side, it is important … to
note many average Americans today are much more aware of what Islam
stands for and who the Muslims are than they were several years ago
““ which is leading to a slow change in the attitude towards
Muslims and Islam. Maybe a few years ago, I think a large segment
of our society and country didn’t know (about) Islam,
didn’t have an opinion. Today, yes, it sounds polar, it
sounds (as if) there are more people who are unfavorable toward
Islam, but I think this is shifting with increased understanding
and increased interaction with Muslims. (This is) leading to an
understanding that Islam is a religion that abhors and opposes
indiscriminate violence.

DB: Do you think there is anything about the United
States that has been especially good for Muslims? HA: If
you ask probably any Muslim in America today … whether they were
immigrants or indigenous Muslims who converted to Islam and who had
a chance to visit different countries ““ Muslim and non-Muslim
alike ““ I think you will find very little debate that
probably America is the best place for Muslims to live in. (This
is) for many reasons: one is the freedom of religion which is a
very important value in our belief system in Islam and a very
important value in our system of government in this country,
allowing people to choose their religion and choose how they want
to worship God. … And the second thing is America, by nature, is
very diverse, and when you’re diverse, you’re more
(likely to) welcome others that are different from you. Just look
at the way Europe is dealing with its growing minorities of colored
people ““ different religions, different languages ““
there is a growing level of racism we don’t witness here in
the United States, and that tells us why this place is a good place
not only for Muslims but for anyone who is not part of the
majority.

DB: Is there anything about the United States that
causes particular problems for Muslims? HA: I think there
is a level of struggle in the United States … between those who
want to accommodate … and be inclusive and those who want to keep
(power) in the hands of certain majority, excluding anyone who
looks different, who speaks different, who worships different. So
that struggle is not new to Muslims. Jewish people have to go
through it, Italian people, Irish people, Africans, Americans,
Hispanics today ““ we’re just the new kids on the block
today and we realize this is part of the struggle until we get
accepted by the majority. Now specifically about what is happening
today, we feel that in the name of fighting terrorism, we are
(pushing) our country and our citizens into a high level of
intolerance ““ maybe pushing our nation to a high level of
intolerance where people who happen to be of an Arab background or
Muslim background are being singled out as a threat to our nation
““ when in actuality American Muslims are among the most
law-abiding citizens of our nation.

DB: What is the relationship between the United
States’ foreign relations and the work CAIR does? And how
important are the foreign relation activities the United States is
doing now? HA: CAIR’s main focus is definitely
domestic ““ focusing on the media, civil life, political
engagement and activism within the Muslim community. But also, from
our name, that is, Council on American-Islamic Relations, we want
to ensure that there is no single event or individuals who
undermine the relationship between America and Islam. CAIR stands
for making good relations between Islam and America, and we do not
think there is a contradiction or a dichotomy between being
American and being Muslim. And we feel that we have a role as
Muslims who are Americans to play, and that role is to be a bridge
between what America stands for, which is the superpower of the
world today, … the most advanced economic and technological
country in the world, and Islam, which is the largest or one of the
largest religions and fastest growing religion in the world. We
feel that we can play that role with them ““ making sure that
misunderstandings are cleared. Specifically, when our country is
perceived as an aggressor in the Muslim world today because of our
unconditional support for Israel and its policies, because of our
support of many dictatorships, in the Muslim world and other
countries, too … that is an issue where we think we can play a
role because we hear both sides and we know where is an
exaggeration and where is a fact. And through our role as citizens,
we can influence (things) in a positive way to make sure … our
policies are based on the same values that we promote, values of
justice, equality, fairness ““ so even our foreign policy
abides by those values and, at the same time, our image as a
country and as a nation is perceived in a correct way, not based on
foreign policies made by (one) administration. And that is where
our role comes in. It comes more from an American perspective
rather than just foreign policy involvement.

DB: Do you think there is anything about the Middle
Eastern and Arab and Islamic culture that the administration or
people in general in the United States just completely don’t
understand that has had an impact on their ability to deal in a
respectful way with the Middle East? HA: I think that
definitely there is a lot of arrogance that is perceived by others
about our policies, especially in our administration these days
““ where we try to impose rather than work and engage. And
this is not something that Muslims and Arabs alone feel. Actually,
this is more common in Europe … than other places. Largely the
French people, Spanish people, Italian people, (act this way)
toward us. … This is the perception and there is certainly a lot
of truth to this perception. What fuels an increased
misunderstanding between Islam and America today and the West in
general is, I guess, the practice of double standards where a
misdeed or misaction by a lunatic Christian or a Jew is never
blamed on Judaism or Christianity, for example. (But) the misdeeds
or misactions of a lunatic Muslim is easily blamed on Islam by
people who are in power, people who are in decision-making
(positions) even though in both cases the mainstream followers and
leaders of both religions criticize and condemn such acts. But
there is almost a willingness, or maybe an accepted process where
the condemnation from Muslims toward such acts is not given the
right attention. And that adds to the misunderstanding where the
average person feels today that the growing number of Muslims in
our country or outside are a threat to us … at a point where
actually the growing number of practicing Muslims is actually a
safety net because these are the people who will be able to contain
the fringe element who are causing the unjustified violence.

DB: Do you want to address this issue of terrorism a
little more specifically? Would you like to talk about CAIR’s
stance on suicide bombing and maybe, if you could, discuss even the
difference between a legitimate form of resistance and illegitimate
form? HA: This is, you know, common sense actually. Human
sense that doesn’t require a position paper. Any country, any
nation under occupation has the legitimate right, according to
human rights and International law, to defend themselves against
occupation ““ regardless of who the occupied or who the
occupier is. In the specific case of the Israelis and the
Palestinian people, they certainly have the “¦ right to defend
themselves or resist the Israeli armed forces who are occupying
their villages and their towns. In this era of blaming any violence
on terrorism, there’s an attempt first to dehumanize and
demonize the Palestinian people ““ to make them seem like some
vicious people that is after killing our people. And while we
don’t agree with every act committed by the Palestinians, it
is alright to say, “This is acceptable.” “This is
not acceptable.” We should not delegitimize the right of the
Palestinians to fight against Israeli soldiers, for example. And
attacks against Israeli soldiers, when they get unfairly labeled as
terrorism, is a dishonest description of the situation ““
let’s change the titles and the names of these people,
instead of Palestinians, let’s switch it around. How would we
feel if another nation invaded Jewish cities and the Jewish people
resisted against this army? Would this be called terrorism? What if
the Germans invaded France and the French people resisted, Nazi
Germany for example? We still call it French Resistance and we
actually glorify that resistance because it helped defeat Nazism.
So, we need to be able to be fair and balanced, truly fair and
balanced when we depict this conflict. … Oversimplifying the
conflict is doing a disservice to everyone involved, especially for
us here in America.

DB: So you see a definite difference, in other words,
between targeting a soldier and targeting someone … HA:
In a pizza parlor, for example. Yes. There is no comparison between
these two. One is you are targeting people who are attacking you,
and the other one is targeting people who are not involved. And
actually some of these people might be as opposed to this
occupation as you are. This guy in the pizza parlor may be one of
those who refused to serve in the Israeli army. So we have to, you
know, while we have to be able to criticize certain acts by the
Palestinians, we have to look at the bigger picture, which is, look
at, “Why are the Palestinians resisting?” And that is
because there is an occupation. And no nation would accept
occupation, eventually. And if we want to do a service to the
Israelis and the Palestinians “¦ (we should) really remind
ourselves, “What is the root cause of the conflict
there?” The root cause of the problems and the conflict is
the occupation. Once the occupation ends, then we can go and tell
the Palestinians, “Hey, why are you fighting? That’s
unacceptable.” But as long as there is occupation, it is
unfair to blame the Palestinians for resisting. You know, we can
criticize a certain act here and there, but we cannot go and say,
“Stop shooting at the Israeli soldiers.” By doing this,
we are undermining peace. There is no peace as long as there is
occupation.

DB: Is there anything else about CAIR you would like to
add? HA: Our main focus “¦ because actually we do
very little for the Middle East ““ our main focus over the
last few years has been two things in the United States: that is to
really correct all misperceptions about Islam in the media,
newspapers, in Hollywood ““ the movie industry ““ because
it seems today (Islam) is the chosen target today “¦ that used
to be African Americans, the Native Americans. “¦ We’re
working with those industries and those fields to correct those
misperceptions. And the other second most important thing for us is
truly our feeling that our civil rights are eroding ““ not our
civil rights as Muslims, but as Americans. And unless we speak with
one voice as Americans, what kind of America will we leave for our
kids? Things will not get better. And that’s why we’re
working very closely with various civil rights groups, interfaith
groups, religious, ethnic groups ““ to ensure the issue of
injustice toward people of different colors, people who happen to
be immigrants, people of different religions, are stopped.

Hussam Ayloush is the executive director of CAIR Southern
California. Compiled by Derek Lazzaro and Jenna Sutton/Daily Bruin
senior staff.