I've talked about how young Muslims, growing up in the West, feel alienated, in one of my previous blog posts.
The parents of these young Muslims immigrated to US, from their own troubling countries, & have first-hand knowledge of what goes on there or how bad those countries are; Somalia, Sudan, Middle Eastern countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc.
Then, after immigrating to the West, those parents had 3 options of how to raise their kids; strict Islamic & within the boundaries of their own cultural background, take a balanced approach between Western & Eastern values & cultures, or take the proverbial "do as the Romans do while in Rome" approach. All these approaches have their own pros & cons, but all in all, they all will work until their kids are younger than teen years & haven't started building their own identities.
Once, their children get into their teen years & start developing their own identities, with the help of their peer groups, their own understanding of Islam, & depending on the level & kind of support they got from home, then those children start to either see the hypocrisies, discriminations, & biases in the Western societies against Islam & Muslims, or they become just one of many ignorant Westerners.
Now, this article, in itself, is flawed, in the sense, that we all know that you cannot take a very small sample (a little slice of the Somali community in only one American city, Minneapolis) & extrapolate it to all American Muslim children. You are going to get shocking, & certainly wrong, results, if you do do that.
Having said that, & depending on what kind of Muslim children we are talking about here (as I explained above), the results may completely surprise you or they may not. For example, there are many children of Ismailis in the West, who are second or third generation Westerners, & they don't want to go back to Uganda or Kenya. Looking at these people, a person who knows & understands Islam, would never recognize that these Ismailis are Muslims, since, they don't have a problem with drinking, pre-marital sexual relations, dating, wearing clothes that even respectful non-Muslim Westerners would hesitate wearing etc.
These "children" consider themselves South Asians but they don't want to go back to an Islamic country, since their parents took the proverbial "do as the Romans do while in Rome" approach in raising them. There are also new generations of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nigerians, Arabs etc. who have the same attitude towards Islam & they will never give away their freedoms to go back & live in the countries from where their parents originated.
On the other hand, there are Somalis, Pakistanis, & children of people from Middle Eastern countries, who are completely opposite on the spectrum. They are very strict in abiding by the rule of Quran, or Shariah, & would not consider otherwise, regardless of how much it benefits or harms them.
The attitudes of these latter kinds of Muslim youths become a problem for the West when these youths are alienated by the society. Their friends become other Muslim friends who think like them, & not the "white" ones, who drink & party. When these Muslim youths grow up further & become of age where they start looking for jobs, they are again made to feel alienated by the labour market, which discriminates based on name & appearances. Western labour markets are heavily based on "networking." While "laissez-faire" Muslims change their names & appearances to network & mingle in the labour market, Muslims, who are strictly following Islam, are left behind. This happens regardless of merit or education or skills background. That further alienates & angers those Muslims who follow Islam & Quran by the book. They start to feel that those noble values their parents & teachers led them to believe while they were young that the West is fair, just, honest, & people in the West respect honesty & truth, & the jobs are based on objective merit, etc. are all a façade.
These feelings of alienation & anger lead to believe these Muslim youths that they won't feel such alienation in their countries where there is Islam & Shariah-based laws. Since, they have not lived in those countries, themselves, for a long time, they have not experienced some harsh realities of living in those countries. These feelings of alienation & anger are also currently making many Muslim youths to join such groups as ISIS.
So, not all young Muslim Americans want to live under Shariah law. There is a wide spectrum. Some do & some don't. The ones who do want to live under Shariah law are made to think like that by the false promises the West made itself to these people. The West portrayed a very noble picture of a honest, fair, just, & an objective society, but fell far short of it. And whenever, reality falls far short of the expectations, anger & disappointment follows.
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A US film maker, Amy Horowitz, went out onto the streets of Minneapolis to speak to young Muslims & found that most of those questioned would rather live in the Muslim countries they came from & under Sharia law than in the US.
Horowitz asked the simple question: “Do you feel more comfortable living under American Law or do you feel more comfortable living under Sharia law?”
The majority of the people answered that they’d rather live under strict Sharia law. Sharia law gives women virtually no rights at all, they can be married at the age of 9, & is a literal interpretation of the Quran, which governs all aspect of life.
Horowitz then asked Muslims in a predominately Somali area of Minneapolis if they would rather live in the US or Somalia.
Somalia, which has been engulfed in civil war for 3 decades, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet most of the Somalians Horowitz spoke to said they would prefer to live there than in the US, except for one young boy who said he wanted to live in Saudi Arabia.
Horowitz believes that many young Muslims he spoke to answered the way they did because they feel alienated from US society, despite being born or growing up in the US.
“What we find among the Muslim immigrants in Europe & the United States is that the first & second generation are more radical than their parents, they’re not integrating as time goes by & there’s a larger alienation,” he told RT.
One young Somalian wearing a baseball cap & speaking fluently in a strong American accent said he did not feel American.
“I speak fluent [English] & I can articulate what I’m trying to say, but other than that, as far as my culture & my preferences & everything I’m still Somali,” he said.
Horowitz explained that it is this generation of immigrants that has become problematic to Western countries.
“The fact that the vast majority of young people I asked would rather live in Somalia or Saudi Arabia as opposed to the United States, it blew me away,” he said.
The parents of these young Muslims immigrated to US, from their own troubling countries, & have first-hand knowledge of what goes on there or how bad those countries are; Somalia, Sudan, Middle Eastern countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc.
Then, after immigrating to the West, those parents had 3 options of how to raise their kids; strict Islamic & within the boundaries of their own cultural background, take a balanced approach between Western & Eastern values & cultures, or take the proverbial "do as the Romans do while in Rome" approach. All these approaches have their own pros & cons, but all in all, they all will work until their kids are younger than teen years & haven't started building their own identities.
Once, their children get into their teen years & start developing their own identities, with the help of their peer groups, their own understanding of Islam, & depending on the level & kind of support they got from home, then those children start to either see the hypocrisies, discriminations, & biases in the Western societies against Islam & Muslims, or they become just one of many ignorant Westerners.
Now, this article, in itself, is flawed, in the sense, that we all know that you cannot take a very small sample (a little slice of the Somali community in only one American city, Minneapolis) & extrapolate it to all American Muslim children. You are going to get shocking, & certainly wrong, results, if you do do that.
Having said that, & depending on what kind of Muslim children we are talking about here (as I explained above), the results may completely surprise you or they may not. For example, there are many children of Ismailis in the West, who are second or third generation Westerners, & they don't want to go back to Uganda or Kenya. Looking at these people, a person who knows & understands Islam, would never recognize that these Ismailis are Muslims, since, they don't have a problem with drinking, pre-marital sexual relations, dating, wearing clothes that even respectful non-Muslim Westerners would hesitate wearing etc.
These "children" consider themselves South Asians but they don't want to go back to an Islamic country, since their parents took the proverbial "do as the Romans do while in Rome" approach in raising them. There are also new generations of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nigerians, Arabs etc. who have the same attitude towards Islam & they will never give away their freedoms to go back & live in the countries from where their parents originated.
On the other hand, there are Somalis, Pakistanis, & children of people from Middle Eastern countries, who are completely opposite on the spectrum. They are very strict in abiding by the rule of Quran, or Shariah, & would not consider otherwise, regardless of how much it benefits or harms them.
The attitudes of these latter kinds of Muslim youths become a problem for the West when these youths are alienated by the society. Their friends become other Muslim friends who think like them, & not the "white" ones, who drink & party. When these Muslim youths grow up further & become of age where they start looking for jobs, they are again made to feel alienated by the labour market, which discriminates based on name & appearances. Western labour markets are heavily based on "networking." While "laissez-faire" Muslims change their names & appearances to network & mingle in the labour market, Muslims, who are strictly following Islam, are left behind. This happens regardless of merit or education or skills background. That further alienates & angers those Muslims who follow Islam & Quran by the book. They start to feel that those noble values their parents & teachers led them to believe while they were young that the West is fair, just, honest, & people in the West respect honesty & truth, & the jobs are based on objective merit, etc. are all a façade.
These feelings of alienation & anger lead to believe these Muslim youths that they won't feel such alienation in their countries where there is Islam & Shariah-based laws. Since, they have not lived in those countries, themselves, for a long time, they have not experienced some harsh realities of living in those countries. These feelings of alienation & anger are also currently making many Muslim youths to join such groups as ISIS.
So, not all young Muslim Americans want to live under Shariah law. There is a wide spectrum. Some do & some don't. The ones who do want to live under Shariah law are made to think like that by the false promises the West made itself to these people. The West portrayed a very noble picture of a honest, fair, just, & an objective society, but fell far short of it. And whenever, reality falls far short of the expectations, anger & disappointment follows.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A US film maker, Amy Horowitz, went out onto the streets of Minneapolis to speak to young Muslims & found that most of those questioned would rather live in the Muslim countries they came from & under Sharia law than in the US.
Horowitz asked the simple question: “Do you feel more comfortable living under American Law or do you feel more comfortable living under Sharia law?”
The majority of the people answered that they’d rather live under strict Sharia law. Sharia law gives women virtually no rights at all, they can be married at the age of 9, & is a literal interpretation of the Quran, which governs all aspect of life.
Horowitz then asked Muslims in a predominately Somali area of Minneapolis if they would rather live in the US or Somalia.
Somalia, which has been engulfed in civil war for 3 decades, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet most of the Somalians Horowitz spoke to said they would prefer to live there than in the US, except for one young boy who said he wanted to live in Saudi Arabia.
Horowitz believes that many young Muslims he spoke to answered the way they did because they feel alienated from US society, despite being born or growing up in the US.
“What we find among the Muslim immigrants in Europe & the United States is that the first & second generation are more radical than their parents, they’re not integrating as time goes by & there’s a larger alienation,” he told RT.
One young Somalian wearing a baseball cap & speaking fluently in a strong American accent said he did not feel American.
“I speak fluent [English] & I can articulate what I’m trying to say, but other than that, as far as my culture & my preferences & everything I’m still Somali,” he said.
Horowitz explained that it is this generation of immigrants that has become problematic to Western countries.
“The fact that the vast majority of young people I asked would rather live in Somalia or Saudi Arabia as opposed to the United States, it blew me away,” he said.
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