Importing Imams
“Culture governs everything about us and even molds our distinctive actions and natural inclinations. It is culture that makes us truly human….”
–Dr. Omar Farooq Abdullah
The first time I went to my local mosque after converting to Islam was a daunting experience. I was looking for the “Islam 101” class, nestled deep with the labyrinth of the sister’s floor (also known as the basement). Somehow making my way down, I asked the first, and only, person around where I could find it.
“Salaam alaykum, sister”, my brother in Islam said, looking vaguely over my left shoulder, “it is in the back room there.”
Poor fellow, I thought, he must be blind. Trying to move into his line of sight, I asked, “The room back by the sink?”
“Yes sister,” he replied, his eyes never meeting mine.
Then it dawned on me. It’s not that he couldn’t see, it’s that he was trying not to look at me. He had only come downstairs to make repairs, not to roll out the welcome mat.
Fast forward three years: I’m the Outreach Coordinator overseeing the class I had been searching for that first day at the mosque. The irony is that even though I’m the one ostensibly welcoming others into the mosque, I still don’t feel at home here.
The phenomenon of the younger generation, the native generation, fleeing the mosque, is one I have come to understand. Right now, the mosque is an island. It is indistinguishable from “back home,” wherever that happens to be, and inside it serves as a tiny refuge from the Western world for those seeking it out.
The culture of the mosque in my city (and I imagine this to be true of other cities) panders to the loudest, most conservative members of the congregation. They are the mainstays. They are the people who want to take new Muslims under their protective wings and teach them how to make wudu - whether or not they’ve already learned how. They are the ones that want the non-Muslims to come to the mosque dressed like “Muslims” do (or at least how regular folks do in their country of origin). And they are the ones who feel right at home, because their imam walks around in a thobe every day and because the khutba is in Arabic every week, followed by a short, badly translated summary in English (a token to the non-Arabic speakers). They feel at home because, in their minds, the imam is one of them. He came here for the same reasons they did: to reestablish a Muslim Utopia in The Land of the Free.
I don’t think the imam is aware of the mosque’s imbedded culture. But the imam’s own foreign comportment coupled with his lack of engagement with the broader community and the younger generation has created a huge void with the younger Western generation. Those of us from that generation, born Muslim or converts, tend to seek out greener pastures on university campuses or in community groups. There, we feel comfortable being ourselves. We don’t feel like we’re sticking out if we roll up at Jummah without an abaya. We actually understand the khutba being given because it’s in the language of the land. Most of all, we don’t feel like we didn’t quite make the grade because our mannerisms, our outfits, and our language isn’t patently South Asian or Arab. It is the same Islam but it feels like home – it feels like North America – which is, of course, where we actually live.
Importing imams from abroad creates a different environment from having an imam who was born and bred in the West. With a Westerner leading the mosque, the mosque community would, by necessity, become slightly attuned to the needs of its Western congregation. The imam may not have to say anything about the mosque microculture per se, but by allowing diversity in leadership we would soon come to realize that a Western mosque is just that: a building dedicated to the worship of God smack dab in the middle of the Occident. It must learn to be at home there, or wither and die, as we all feel too foreign on our own soil to keep it going.
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asalamu alaikum, ukhti,
thank you for putting into words what all too many of us are thinking. it would be great if ‘born in the west’ Muslims could establish a masjid community, open to all, but focusing on our own culture and community, rather than trying to import one from abroad. in order for Muslims in the west to thrive, we need to be creating community that is not so focused on ‘back home’. your points are right on!
personally, i have not encountered an MSA that doesnt, at minimum, attempt to impart these feelings of ‘the west is bad and my culture of origin is best’ for at least a decade. i am thrilled that your MSA encounters have been positive!
I agree with you Khadijah, there needs to be more emphasis placed on Muslims born and raised in the West. We do not have a “back-home” to go to. Our homes and our livelihoods are here.
I just find it so bizarre that a foreign culture is so deeple imbedded in our Mosques, in what should be an institution that is welcoming to everyone.
Asalamu ‘Alaikum,
I agree with your point that having a culturally influenced masjid makes it unwelcoming to those unfamiliar or alien to it. Instead of the masjid being a spiritual Islamic sanctuary, it may become more of a cultural exhibit that jealously protects its parameters from “western influence”.
These cultural masjids, whether Arab, South Asian or African, bring in Islam from a country whose culture has been merged, over the centuries, with Islam. The problem is how do we produce that here when Islam has not been internalized by Muslims’ western culture yet.
In fact, many times there seems to be a conflict between both. You were saying for example that the man did not look at you; in Islam that’s called lowering the gaze (I don’t know if he did it because of a cultural or Islamic intent). In the West, eye contact is important in communication.
So how do you let the person know that you mean no insult but at the same time be true to your religion? There are ways but they do not flow as smoothly as mutually understood cultural/religious traits.
Assalamu Alaikum,
Thank you for pointing out the need for local imams. Yusuf Ziya Kavakci Institute is an effort in this direction. http://www.yzkinstitute.org
I entirely appreciate the author’s perspective; I have seen environments where having a foreign Imam or succession of the same has not worked entirely well - for example, here in Calgary - but I have also seen communities where they ‘Ulamaa from abroad and achieved amazing community results, such as in Leicester, UK.
It is not as black and white as all that, nor are the results in either case foregone conclusions.
As for institutes ‘training’ (frankly I find the terms ‘training’ for Imams and ‘Ulamaa horrid - we are talking years of concentrated study of the Islamic sciences, not new hires for a call centre) - again in other countries where Muslims have been estalbished a little longer, there most certainly are precedents. Darul ‘Uloom al Arabiyya wal Islamiyyah in Bury, England,for just one, has graduated numerous prolific Imams and ‘Ulamaa who have made great strides in interfaith dialogue, bridge-building both amongst Muslims and without, adapting the madrasah concept to today’s newer demands and far more. They are university professors and the like, and their solid background and identity means they do not compromise that identity. Alumni of the institute such as Mufti Muhammad al-Kawthari have made great strides in bridging relationships and understanding, and they do so with principle.
It is an institute with a similar sense of principle, identity, and value for the Islamic sciences instilled in its students that is needed here, specific to the Canadian Muslim experience. If we so want ‘local Imams’, we also need remember we are asking for locally raised and taught scholars - anyone can go up and lead salah, to study the sciences of Islam is an intensive journey - and this is will take time.