Post-9/11 World: Meeting At Mecca And Main Street

My family is from Lebanon and I was born as a Maronite Christian. I'm not a Muslim, but I've written three books on contemporary Islamic issues. The latest book, Mecca and Main Street, grew out of trends I'd identified when I lived for many years in the Arab world, in Iran. Islamic revivalism was becoming more apparent in the public expression of Islamic identity here in the U.S., in the most unlikely of places, and it seemed a bit surprising. So, I decided to explore the depth of these trends and what this meant for American Muslims living in American society after 9/11.

The average non-Muslim Americans are not aware of what it is to be a Muslim in the post-9/11 environment. Part of that is based on distorted media coverage. It also has to due with the fact that before 9/11, people here weren't even aware that there were Muslims living here! They suddenly woke up to a minority that, for the most part, had been invisible. This has had a great effect, not only on Americans, but also on Muslims.

Muslims were then faced with the hardships of trying to define themselves and trying to explain their religion, which had suddenly become an American obsession. So, they faced a lot of responsibilities.

They had to first distance themselves from the types of Muslim stereotypes that Americans were then being exposed to on television, in print media and by the U.S. government. The primary challenge was to convey the message: "We're not like these militants you are seeing on television."

The second challenge was to try to educate the mainstream about their faith and Islamic doctrine, which was not the interpretation of the extremists.