Washington Times: Changing Minds

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

I have a column in today's Washington Times about a promising initiative in the American Muslim community designed to promote civic engagement. This initiative picked up steam after the terrorist plot uncovered last month in which nine Pakistani Muslims living in Britain planned to kidnap, torture and behead a fellow British Muslim -- a soldier who had served in Afghanistan. The American Muslim community has not reached the same level of radicalism as Europe's Muslims, and part of the thinking behind the initiative is that one reason for the differences between Muslims on the two continents is that American Muslims are far more engaged in the society in which they live. An excerpt:

But civic engagement is a process, rather than a given. Since the terror plot's announcement, [al-Husein] Madhany has approached officials in American Muslim organizations with a promising idea. It involves focusing a forthcoming conference of a major American Muslim organization on the theme of civic engagement. The conference's speeches would center on this theme, and at the end the organization would announce a contest for excellence in sermon writing that engages the issue of "how North American Muslims, individually or collectively, can take leadership roles in long-term civic engagement efforts."

Using theological sermons to spread this theme would be an important step because those who hold the pulpit are seen as authority figures in the Muslim community. There will be an immediate on-the-ground impact if the pulpit is used not to condemn those who participate in American democracy, but to encourage such participation.

Civic engagement, according to Mr. Madhany, occurs at many levels. Volunteerism, starting at a young age, is central. "We should promote children entering the Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America," Mr. Madhany says. "It's also not dismissing your Muslim children's career goals if they include becoming fire chiefs, first responders, public servants within government, or policemen."

Mr. Madhany explains that aspects of this project would include involvement in education boards, parent-teacher associations, county boards and tax boards. What is critical is involvement in issues of importance to the community -- not through advocacy organizations (of which there are plenty within the American Muslim community), but through groups focused on social services and the social good.

Read the whole article here. On a personal note, al-Husein Madhany -- who designed the civic engagement initiative that my column discusses -- is a long-time friend of mine, and plays a prominent role in my book My Year Inside Radical Islam.

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