ISNA Thugs

Really interesting piece! Hope you continue to write and submit about these issues-perhaps some profiles and interviews with the people referred to in this text.

Umbreen,
Beautifully written on a very important subject. I like the fact that you took off the gloves when it came to expressing your understanding of ISNA and its ``accomplishments.`` I must commend you for your restraint and civility. All the time I lived in the States, I was shocked by the medieval mentality of ISNA leaders and the backwardness of their flock. ISNA is the unfortunate conclusion of the Saudi Wahabbi takeover of the MSA a long, long time ago. Many of ISNAs tiresome leaders have been in the pay of the Saudis at one time or another. Up until 9/11, ISNA unabashedly represented the most extreme position possible in Islamic interpretation. They never served American Muslims and only championed whatever trash that flowed from Riyadh. In politics, they were always on the same side as Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell, and Dubya. In 2000, ISNA and its affiliates got the vote out for George, especially in FL. Busloads of hijabi-clad females, with free sitter services for their young ones, swarmed into polling booths to give Dubya the edge in FL and elsewhere. In 2000, it would not be wrong to claim that ISNA decided the presidency in favor of the Republicans. After Sept 11, 2001, ISNA has been scrambling to find a position, any position, but remains very discredited by the majority of Muslims in North America.
Thank you for articulating this hidden set of facts.

Umbreen:

welcome to chowk!

i had given up on ISNA way back…and reading this it seems nothing has changed since…ISNA is passe…and will soon be relegated to the fringes…like its paymasters...i hope!

unless

the younger second/third generation of muslims decide to infiltrate and take over

lve

t

Naseeb should create organisation to replace ISNA.

umbreen:

thank you for writing this. what you delineate is a sorrier state of affairs than i had imagined.

i think younger generations of muslims seeking a voice in the U.S. should form a separate organization. the chances of ISNA stumbling upon an enlightened leadership are probably slim.

Well written...

Mullahs have been co-opted for a very long time to sideline the progressive and liberal leadership amongst Muslims... it is the oldest trick in the book...

I second the suggestion of Naseeb forming a strong counter-organisation to this mullah-nonsense.

#5, {``the chances of ISNA stumbling upon an enlightened leadership are probably slim. ``}

Please don`t take ISNA too seriously - their leaders certainly don`t. It is a forum for first generation Muslims to find suitable matches (MD, resident, green card holder, US citizen, US born and raised, tall, fair, beautiful, light-complexion, Urdu-speaking Sunni, innocently divorced, without issue, wears hijab, etc) for their children. :)

I told ISNA guys they were gonna get it in the back. I was hoping this would be it, but alas....it`s just another clueless PMU Feminazi.

Semi-nasha and tbone...ahem, tbhai seem giddy at the new addition. Uncle chaudhry hamidm should be joining soon too...yeehawww!

But I`m sure Sattar will start the fireworks with Umbareen for excluding the Ahmedis as objects of discriminatin by ISNA.

Let the show begin. I`m going to sleep...yawwwwn!

:-)~~

Thanks to Chowk editors for publishing such ``taboo`` subjects. Muslim organizations are often ``untouchable``. Almost all muslim related publications in America, sell a ``good boy`` image of Muslims, pretending that problems don`t exist.
ISNA might be doing some good work. If one wants to find the good points, they are easy to find. Now about the negative side:
(1) Old school mentality
(2) ``Rich`` people are often the decision makers and leaders
(3) Salesmanship is greatly rewarded
(4) People who end up in leadership are often those who have the ability to (sell religion? and thus) collect the most amount through fund-raising
(5) They have never replied to any letter I sent them. So I guess I don`t exist for them
(6) The only time I exist for them, is when they need money. Then they want me to blindly give them money, ``in the name of Islam``
(7) The worst thing I know of is, they gave a ``community service award`` a couple of years ago, to a salesman named ``Ahmad Sakr``. ``His Masjid`` is 3 miles from me, and I got a chance to know him well, BEFORE he got this award.
(8) Ahmad Sakr`s example taught me that it`s an old boy`s network. ``you scratch my back, i scratch yours``
(9) I wrote them a letter to ask, Is Ahmad Sakr getting this award because he did some fundraising for ISNA? Is it all about the money? (I got no answer)
(10) I wrote another letter to specifically ask Siraj Wahaj: At the Chicago convention in 2003, you were fundraising and said you were contributing $2,000 of your personal and your wife`s money. Many fundraisers in non-muslim organzations get a cut of the money they raise. Do you get a percentage of the money you raise, as your commission? (I got no answer)

One of the good things was a Muslim convert, and a PhD, and a woman, got into the leadership, named Ingrid Mattson. She`s probably having to battle over every inch of political territory, with the old-school boys.

But the Bush connection is very disturbing to me. Is the leadership plain stupid, or are they a bunch of uncle Toms, on their knees, happily brown-nosing Karen Hughes? This type of insane decisions by Muslim ``leaders`` makes people further lose ``faith``, rather trust of these imposed ``leaders``.

African American Muslims as a group are probably the most knowledgeable, most devoted, most humble, most friendly, among the American Muslims. It is very sad, that I have frequently seen them being mistreated by old-school Arab and SouthAsian muslims.

A horrible thing I saw, which showed me how out of touch the leadership of ISNA is...In the 2003 ISNA conference at Chicago, one of the sessions was titled ``the spirit of giving`` and I thought it was going to be a lecture on charity, service to humanity, etc. But it was a trick to get people to come to a fund-raising session. There were a couple of politicians there, on the panel. I wanted the people to hear what they had to say. But they got almost no time, because one of the board members named Abdullah (ISNA president?) was so busy doing the fund-raising preaching that he forgot there was a panel of other speakers. The guy was so boring, and begging so blatantly, that thousands of people got up at the same time, rushing to the exits (The large hall seated about 10,000 people).

>>> ``Women in ISNA’s board of directors are limited to a sample space of one, and she too expressed her elitism on the topic of mixed gender prayers by saying, “Most Muslim women are content with separate prayer space in the mosque,” echoing white supremacists who said blacks have an innate preference for segregation.``

It seems you`re saying that it`s cool for women and men to stand together to pray in a mosque. I think it`s not progressive, rather it`s counter-productive. Equal rights for women does not mean that men and women are ``the same``. Gender-bending ideas of feminism may be very beneficial to folks who favor homosexuality or bi-sexuality, but it has done a lot of harm to the family structure.

Mixing women and men in a single line for prayer at the mosque, would not prove women`s equality to me. Instead, it`s a distraction. It`s a very small thing, which some women have greatly exaggerated and magnified, like Asra Nomani. The salat (prayer) usually takes 5 minutes. Is it too much to ask, to have 5 minutes of peace, free from distraction? Before the prayer, and after it, there are more than 23 hours that a woman has, to freely rub shoulders with men to her heart`s content.

One of the women who got lots of press coverage for saying she wants to lead prayers, and wants mixing of men and women in the masjid, during prayer... well let`s look at her character. Not that the male imams` characters are exemplary. But, Asra Nomani has a child, without marriage.

If you really must have prayers led by women, or mixing of men and women during prayer at the masjid, then you are free to form your own masjid to do so. But don`t ask everyone else to do the same. Similarly, there are homosexual men and women who believe they are Muslim. What they do with their own life, is their own responsibility, and they might be overall better human beings than some other heterosexual muslims. But this doesn`t mean that they should demand that Islamic teachings be changed to say that all Muslims are free to practice homosexuality. Also, we shouldn`t expect that legitimate Muslim scholars should conduct ceremonies for homosexual marriages.

Personally, I interpret Islamic teachings subjectively. But the main teachings of Islam are objective, so I surrender and trust the wisdom in them.

Music is very close to my heart.

>>> ``Flyers promoting an event with Muslim artists, comedian, Azhar Usman, Nasheed singers 786 and Malaysian singer, Ani Zonneveld were snatched from volunteers and other attendants who had paid tickets to attend ISNA, and tossed out by ISNA representatives who called it “trash” and “unislamic filth.” ``

I had a similar experience at a Muslim event in L.A. They called the cops on me because I was handing out free music CD`s. They told me music was un-islamic and haram. The closed mindedness shocked me and I wrote a long poem about the experience. It was really hard to believe what they were saying, because the event was actually all about singing. It is an extreme view to say that singing is not music. They were also using percussion sounds, claiming that tabla, daff, and drums are not ``music``, and not haram. On stage, the singers were also using a synthesizer (organ), to play the accompaniment of percussion. The hypocracy was that the same synthesizer (musical instrument), has 200 other instrument sounds, other than percussion. So apparently, their subjective interpretation was, that you could use the same instrument to play drums, and then that instrument is ``halal``, but if you press one button and change the ``tabla`` sound to ``piano``, then the same instrument is haram. Unbelieveable extent of closed-mindedness

Readers vs. Leaders:
In all fairness, we should give ISNA a chance to respond. I`d like to hear their side of the story also, so I`ve invited their leadership, plus MSA and MYNA (co-sponsors of ISNA conventions), a total of about 20 folks in leadership positions, to respond the concerns raised here. In the past, I end my letters to them with the phrase ``expecting your usual deaf ear``,
: o )
I`m hopeful that some will get hearing aids soon. To encourage them I`ll say: I assure you, I don`t want your job, I`m not trying to steal your chair, I don`t have a political agenda, I`m not here to compete with you, just want a productive, two-way dialogue.
Given that there is no ``grievance procedure``, the leadership never gets to hear the concerns of the common folk. I long for the day when they welcome people`s valid input, and not ignore it as mindless criticism. I long for the day when they will respond to every letter sent to them, like our government officials do. And I hope for the day when their websites will have a ``grievance form`` so that the complaints by the constituency are investigated and addressed in a timely fashion. Am I dreaming?

Yet, I`m really hoping some of the younger folks at MSA and MYNA will respond and tell us about some of their challenges. A few people go into leadership positions for the right reasons..., not for power, not for fame, not to make the resume more marketable, not for money, not for preaching... the few good ones are often forced out after overwhelming pressure?

The writer has strong grievances against ISNA and some very valid concerns - however her demeanor is more vindictive than constructive. Ironically, it is similar to the autocratic judgmental ``Older generation`` that the writer is attempting to criticize.

Certain greviances seem genuine and need to be investigated

1. Lack on inclusion of the shia community .
2. Apparent Lack of participation or inclusion of the African- Amerrican Muslims
3. Lack of leadership positions for women in the organization......

Th writer is also very irrespoinsible and shall I say juvenile in insenuating a link between ISNA which is a social and religious organization to terrorism and terorist organizations without any credible proof. It reflects very poorly on the her judgement.

As for the alleged link between Saudi money and ISNA it is ironic that witha 6 million strong muslim communtity with a per capita say of about 30K amounts to a GDP of US$180B - ISNA still has to depend on handouts to the saudis. Sadly this statistic true across all muslim communities in the USA - perhaps the most affluent in the world, mosques and othere islamic organizations are run on the support of 5%-10% of the membership - with the rest 85% being freeloaders. That is an indictment on the majority
of Muslim community in the US. Consequently he who contributes also has influence in the running of the organization - This is a universal economic principle....

As for the other grievances such as mixed gender prayer halls etc etc - they are subject to religious intepretations and are highly subjective from community to community - The author treats this issue in a machiavallian fashion to equate it with gender discrimination - which is just plain baloney.

As for other issues such as manhandling people, ISNA being an organization for people to find prospective marriage partners - hey more power to them. The muslim general population in the mosques tends to be rude, rowdy, nosiy and often times unreasonable- consequently larger organizations have to resort to a professional security staff. I donot condone their heavy handed tactics but people including the generation born and bred in the US often retain their parents prejudices, narow-mindedness and bigotry albeit in a more subtle fashion. After all the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Umbreen:

Are you stating a first hand experience? Somehow I was under the impression that Naseeb and ISNA had joined hands to conduct the event on the long weekend. I am kind of surprised at ISNA`s reaction on Naseeb`s event. OTOH, I think it is good that both Naseeb and ISNA had their event on the same weekend since the media can report the variety among the muslims.

On the whole, I would agree with your observations about ISNA/ICNA and other derivatives. I had attended one such event by ICNA or ISNA almost 6-7 years ago, in Pittsburgh, on my aunt`s request. Interestingly, there were quite a few African Americans who participated in that event. One of the key speakers was Imam Siraj Wahaj. Most of the female speakers (converts) held archaic views and underestimated the intellectual standing of their audience. A large majority of the male speakers was brought in from Pakistan to discuss irrelevant topic areas. They were 99.99% Jamaatis.

[It is worth inferring that ISNA wants to promote only non-ideology based businesses like boutiques and halal meat stores. ]

Excellent observation.

A lot of your thoughts hit home. I have seen ISNA representatives up close and really a lot of them are quite intolerant on a lot of issues. I frequently make it a point to go to their seminars and challenge them about issues which plague the Islamic world.

However, I also believe that it is up to American Muslims themselves to take responsibility of steering ISNA in the right direction. If 90% of Muslims in America are alienated by ISNA, why aren`t they doing anything about it? If they are so concerned about the fact that Muslims all over the US will be demonized by one ISNA, then they should try and get involved!

Conclusion: Get involved in ISNA and set things right instead of just complaining about them!

nice article umbreen.

i have never been to an isna meeting (alhumdulllilah) but have met some of its members in social gatherings - bunch of retards, and unfortunately quite intolerant (as you pointed out). with saudi money and saudi version of islam they can do no good.