Georgetown professor speaks on Muslim identity, politics

On Wednesday night, Yvonne Haddad, a professor of the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University, presented a public lecture titled “Islamophobia and the Reconstruction of Muslim American Culture” to a group of approximately 50 students and community members in Robertson Hall.

“What my talk will be about is how we moved from Islamophobia into a coalition of groups in order to find a space for Muslims in North America,” Haddad said at the start of her talk. “What you have is Muslims now engaged in the political process. They feel very comfortable being American and feel very comfortable criticizing American foreign policy. This would not have been possible 10 years ago.”

Haddad gave an extensive account of the troubled history of Islam’s relations with Christianity, discussing the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Protestant Reformation.

“The word ‘Islam’ as an epithet has a long history,” she said.

Haddad also analyzed the evolution of U.S. sentiment toward Muslim immigrants over the course of the 20th century. She explained that in 1967, there were 78,000 Muslims in the country, while today there are somewhere between 3 and 6 million.

Haddad said that 20th-century immigrants experienced racial discrimination until the 1970s, when the discrimination became political due to their support for Palestine in the wake of the 1967 War.

“It was not until 2001 that the discrimination [turned to] religion,” she said.

While Haddad stressed that the events of Sept. 11 were not the only factors that sparked this change in attitude, she did discuss a “new generation that came into existence after 9/11.”

“It is very important to see that what we have is a very definite break,” Haddad said. In the wake of the terrorist attacks, she added, the roles of women and imams have been redefined, and a new openness to engage in dialogue with other branches of American society has emerged.

Haddad also described the ongoing networking processes American Muslims use today as mosques begin to collaborate more and more with community services and interfaith organizations.

“It’s moving much faster than I can document ... it is something that is gradually taking place all over the United States,” Haddad said.

Haddad explained that these events are part of a broader effort to create a new form of Islam compatible with American society.

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“We are not going to bring Islam that is manufactured overseas and impose it on our society, but rather we are going to reinterpret the Koran and indigenize Islam as part of America,” she said, adding that members of the new generation “see themselves not as Muslims in America but as American Muslims.”

“The world is intertwined. Our problem is that here in the United States a lot of Americans are aware of how what we say here is heard over there,” Haddad added.

Haddad specializes in 20th-century Islam, Arab social and political history, and Islam in North America and the West. In 2006 she coauthored “Muslim Women in America: the Challenge of Islamic Identity Today” and coedited “Muslims on the Americanization Path?” which was published in 2000. The Wilson School and the Center for the Study of Religion both sponsored the event as part of the continuing “Crossroads of Religion and Politics” lecture series.