By Arsalan Iftikhar | WashingtonPost.com
August 22, 2011
Like millions of young Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist members of the millennial generation here in the United States, our next generation of young American Muslim girls and boys are also similarly seeking to engage with civic and religious leaders who are more in tune with the needs of their Facebook and Twitter generations. Just like many churches, synagogues and temples around the country are cultivating new ways to engage their younger populations, it is also equally important for our American mosques and Islamic religious leaders to similarly embrace these new trends if we are going to nurture the next generation of proud American Muslim citizens around the nation. Want to reach the young Muslim faithful? The Muslim faithful are online.
Recently, the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center released a very comprehensive public opinion study on Muslim-Americans entitled “Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future” which gives a fascinating look into a cross-section of the American Muslim experience nearly one decade after the tragic September 11 attacks on our country.
Since Islam is certainly the most misunderstood (and vilified) religion around America today, it should come as little surprise that the recent Gallup study found that over thirty-seven percent (37 percent) of American Protestants, 35 percent of Catholics, and 32 percent of Mormons across the United States think that Muslim Americans are “not loyal citizens to America;” whereas over 80 percent of Jewish Americans say that American Muslims are actually loyal citizens (and not a threat) to the United States.
Continue reading Arsalan’s August 2011 Washington Post Column Here…
