Muslim contributions paved way for the West
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-14forum14feb14,0,3809207.story

By Parvez Ahmed
Posted February 14 2003

Muslims are as much a part of the social and religious fabric of Americana asany other minority. Despite our
shared past and future destinies, some writers try to marginalize the contributions made by Muslims in the making of America.  In consideration for brevity, one example will suffice. Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker recently wrote, "Apparently some Muslims in the United States, regardless of their testimonials to the contrary, do not yet share this heritage … They adopt only as much of American culture as suits their purposes."

                  
The insinuations that Muslims are the "they" in today's America and have not contributed to America's heritage are the furthest from truth. The Muslim connection to America's past is well-documented.

In Alex Haley's Roots, Kunta Kinte was a Muslim who came from the West African nation of Senegambia. Although the Islam brought by Kunta Kinte did not survive the social displacement caused by slavery, centuries later Kunta Kinte's faith has been resurrected in America. American Muslims with African heritage now number over 2 million. It will be a pernicious propaganda to deny their contributions to America's heritage.

Despite the hardships of slavery, Sylviane Diouf wrote in Servants of Allah, "Muslims realized incomparable feats in the countries of their enslavement. They came as Muslims and they lived as Muslims. With documented presence of 500 years, Islam was after Catholicism, the second monotheist religion introduced into post-Columbian America."

In a contrary viewpoint, scholars such as Leo Wiener of Harvard University, in his 1922 book Africa and The Discovery of America, and Ivan van Sertima, in a 1976 book called They Came Before Columbus, conjecture about Muslim presence in America before Columbus. Their conclusions are based on ethnolinguistic connections between people living in West Africa and Native Americans living along the Gulf of Mexico.

Islam's Western roots trace back to Spain, where the Muslims preserved and enhanced the earlier Greek philosophies and sciences. Their effort later gave birth to the European Renaissance. Shortly after 9/11, Carly Firoina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, had this to say, "Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other (Islamic) civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. … Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership." A portrait of Suleiman "The Lawgiver" hangs in the U.S. Senate.

Eurocentric history has erased from our collective memory the contributions of this "other" civilization. Yet Muslim mathematician Musa al-Khwarizmi is credited with the Hindu-Arabic numeration which enabled humanity to discard the abacus and count using papers and pen. Islamic constitutional precedents also played a part in our constitutional debates. Azizah al-Hibri, a University of Richmond law professor, wrote that important Islamic works were frequently read by many 18th-century thinkers, from Voltaire to Volney. Alexander Hamilton, citing Ottoman practices, argued in favor of giving authority for taxation to local governments and not the federal government. The U.S. Constitution bears a striking resemblance to the Charter of Madinah, the constitution of the first Islamic government instituted by the Prophet Muhammad and co-signed by all Muslims and Jews living in Madinah.

Racism is born out of ignorance. Muslims have contributed to the making of America and will continue to be a part of its rich fabric. I hope all Americans will abandon for good the road of discord, disharmony and divisiveness. For there is more in common among Muslims, Christians, Jews and other great cultures than some may think.

Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D., is chairman of the board for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations. He is also a member of the Independent Writers Syndicate.

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