Op-Ed: Post-9/11, Domestic Concerns Greater Than Foreign Ones for American Muslims

September 7, 2003

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/opinion/07KHAN.html?ex=1066968000&en=761f4d1d9cdb8183&ei=5070

On September 7, 2003 The New York Times ran an op-ed piece by Muqtedar Khan, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom," in which he said that before Sept. 11, "the word that best summed up the Muslim sense of self was 'fateh' — a conqueror. Many religious and community leaders were convinced that Islam would not only manifest itself in its truest form in this country, but would also make America — already a great power — into a great society. Some even proclaimed that one day America would be an Islamic state." He goes on to say that "today, many Muslims realize that it is not their Islamic identity but their American citizenship that is fragile. Before Sept. 11, Muslims in America focused primarily on changing United States policy toward Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq. Since Sept. 11, the attempt to reconstitute our identity as American Muslims is making domestic relations — and civil rights and interfaith relations — more important."