Muslims Are Americans, Too

A young patriot and a Muslim

For Alexander Kronemer, it was one of those moments that parents dread, a time when your child becomes acutely aware of how brutish and insensitive the world can be. It began, innocently enough, as Kronemer and his son were watching the Washington Redskins on TV. However, father and son could not finish watching the game because they had to leave for the younger Kronemer's wrestling practice.

"He wanted me to put the game on the radio," Kronemer says. "He was young and naive and thought the Redskins might score."

However, before the radio could be tuned to the game, they both heard a station broadcasting a vitriolic, hate-filled diatribe against American Muslims and the Islamic religion.

"It was saying that a Muslim American wasn't a patriotic American," Kronemer, a Muslin said."I was deeply in shock from the hateful things that were being said."

But his shock only deepened when he looked at his son and saw that he was being dramatically impacted by what he was hearing. "I was too angry to talk about it immediately, but when he came out of wrestling practice I asked my son if he wanted to talk about it. And he said 'no.' And I knew the damage was already done," Kronemer said.

Kronemer, a writer, lecturer, and documentary producer, said the incident prompted him to make the  My Fellow American, a short film that was used tonight as an introduction to the program What Is the Truth About Islam and Muslims in America? (Everything You Always Wanted to Know - But Were Afraid to Ask) at the Newseum.

"We are living in very polarizing times," Kronemer said. "People want to demonize, not debate. We need to remind people that behind the demonizing rhetoric are real people."

"We, in this country, are at a crossroads. Will we continue to let some divide us and make us into smaller groups or are we going to embrace our diversity and our differences?" he added.

Following the short film and Kronemer's remarks, a 4-member panel discussed the issues of Islam and American Muslims and took questions from the audience on the issue.  The panel members were:

• Melissa Rogers, director for the Center for Religious and Public Affairs at the Wake Forest University Divinity School
• Haroon Moghul, a Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
• Asma Uddin, an International Legal Fellow for the Becket Fund for Religious liberty
• Rabbi Marc Schneier, the founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding

Obviously, the campaign against Muslims intensified after the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist activities committed by Islamic groups. The panel stressed, however, that such incidents were the result of fringe extremist militant groups and were not supported, and indeed were condemned, by the majority of Muslims, not only in America but around the world. 

The panel agreed that more programs were needed to promote sensitivity, empathy, and understanding among all American people.

"It has to go beyond dialogue. It has to go to fighting for the rights of others," Rabbi Schniere said. "We (Christains, Muslims, and Jews) not only share a common faith, we share a common fate."

The rabbi said Jewish law outlined in the Torah proscribes such action. "I used to think the greatest law was to love your neighbor as yourself," Rabbi Schniere said. "But I was wrong. The Torah mentions loving your neighbor once. It mentions loving the stranger 36 times. If you think about it, it's really not that hard to love your neighbor. The real challenge is to love the stranger."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Tonight's program truly captured the technological essence of an early 21st Century media event. The short film that introduced the program has its own website where you can interact online with the issues presented. There was a video camera in the lobby if you wished to record reactions to the program to be placed on the website. The discussion was streamed over the internet, meaning that anyone anywhere in the world with a computer or smart phone could view it. And, viewers could send in questions for the panel by Twitter at the hash tag #truthaboutislam.