Beliefs and Practices of Muslims in the U.S.A.

Beliefs and Practices of Muslims

Muslims - terrorism; Muslims - Arabs; Muslims - mosque; Muslims - extremists: "Like watercolors on a child's easel," Akram notes: words and images related to Muslims run together, making a messy picture, the opposite of the "beautiful mosaic" Carter portrays about different people and beliefs, such as Islam, in the introductory quote. (Akram)

Islam, in Arabic, reportedly means submission and peace. As followers of Islam, cited to be an Abrahamic faith, Muslims' beliefs are based on Islamic teachings of.".. The oneness and uniqueness of God (Allah) and the accountability of man." (Uddin 32) Islam teaches that a person's earthly deeds will determine his/her rewards and punishments after he/she dies. In regard to guidance of Muslims while living on earth, Islam teaches that Allah selected Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus to be prophets and that the Prophet Muhammad completed the prophet lineage. A Muslim's faith constringes on faith in Moses and Jesus and also purports that Allah revealed scriptures not only to Moses and Jesus, but also to Abraham and Muhammad. Muslims, however, teach the Jesus Christ was only a man. The Qur'an, Muslims believe, presenting the word of Allah (revealed to Muhammad), provides the way they are to follow. (Ibid) Uddin (Ibid) reports, "Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, especially in the United States," and that "every fourth person on this planet is a Muslim." Muslims, individuals from a mirage of races and countries, may have arrived in America before Columbus, as Islamic words and Muslim names, by traders from the Kingdom of Mali in northwest Africa, sometime after 650, are engraved on Nevada bedrock. (Ibid)

Beliefs and Practices

Words from the Quran reveal basis for Muslim past and current beliefs:

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteous is the one who believes in Allah, and the Last Day, and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and gives away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask and to set slaves free, and keeps up prayer and pays the Zakaat; and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in the time of conflict. These are they who are truthful, and these are they who keep their duty." (The Holy Quran 2:177) (Gibson)

The Kalima, known as the "brief expression of faith," summarizes the five basic Muslim beliefs, which are stated to be belief in:

1. God, Who possess the most perfect and excellent qualities.

2. Angels, who act upon the heart of each person, inspiring him to do good.

3. Prophets and Messengers of God, sent to all the nations of the world, who taught virtue by their own high moral example.

4. Books of God, which were revealed to all the nations through their respective prophets, containing guidance on how man should live and conduct himself.

5. Life after death, when each person shall become conscious of all the deeds, good or bad, he/she did in this life, and shall face the consequences." ("Basic beliefs and practices) On particular Muslim practice, hlal, a religiously mandated system of Muslim food practices, similar to kosher regulations for Jew, made news in 2000 in New Jersey, home to one of the nation's largest Muslim communities. New Jersey became the first state to provide consumer protection laws for food prepared under the Muslim dietary laws, deeming Islamic practices on equal footing with Judaism and Christianity in the civic arena. (Gibson) Other beliefs Muslims strive to practice, "in order to submit to God, and to be at peace with fellow beings," include:

Salaat: prayer

Saum: fasting

Hajj: pilgrimage to Makka

Zakaat: given, charity-tax (giving portion of wealth to help those in need). A Muslim's duty to others is to invest his/her time; resources; money; energy; etc. For their welfare.

Religion Statistics around the World.")

Demonization Concerns

Akram contends that "the demonization of Islam and Arab-Americans the demonizing of Arabs and Muslims in America began well before the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001." Reasons contributing to some of Muslim's hardships and discriminations, Akram purports include: