American interest in Islam reached its pinnacle in the last quarter of 2001. The most important reason for this was certainly the attack against the World Trade Center on the eleventh of September of that year. Several studies undertaken to determine the roots of terrorist ideology and investigations of Islamic religion have allowed people to learn that Islam is a peaceful religion that enjoins tolerance, justice, mercy and love. Islam has suddenly become one of the basic topics of discussion in the world. World-renowned statesmen, political scientists, researchers and thinkers consider that it is necessary to understand Islam correctly and have given speeches underlining Islamic tolerance and willingness to reach agreement. Americans have approached Muslim organizations in order to find the most accurate information about Islam and Islamic history. As a result of this interest, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported that, after September 11, in America alone, 34,000 people converted to Islam.1
In an article written in Al-Ahram magazine published in Cairo, Dr. Walid A. Fatihi of the Harvard Medical Faculty wrote that, when he first heard of the attack, he thought that work he had done to introduce Islam to America would be set back by 50 years, but realized in a short time how wrong he was. He says:
On Saturday, September 15, I went with my wife and children to the biggest church in Boston, [Trinity Church in] Copley Square, by official invitation of the Islamic Society of Boston, to represent Islam by special invitation of the senators of Boston. Present were the mayor of Boston, his wife, and the heads of the universities. There were more than 1,000 people there...
...I read an official statement issued by the leading Muslim clerics condemning the incident [ie. the attacks]. The statement explained Islam’s stance and principles, and its sublime precepts. Afterwards, I read Qur’ānic verses translated into English…
One said to me: ‘I do not understand the Arabic language, but there is no doubt that the things you said are the words of Allah.’
On Sunday, September 16, the Islamic Society of Boston issued an open invitation to the Islamic Center in Cambridge, located between Harvard and MIT. We did not expect more than 100 people, but to our surprise more than 1,000 people came, among them the neighbours, the university lecturers, members of the clergy, and even the leaders of the priests from the nearby churches, who invited us to speak on Islam. All expressed solidarity with Muslims. Many questions flowed to us. Everyone wanted to know about Islam and to understand its precepts.
...That same day, I was invited again to participate in a meeting in the church, and again I saw the same things. On Thursday, a delegation of 300 students and lecturers from Harvard visited the center of the Islamic Society of Boston, accompanied by the American Ambassador to Vienna. They sat on the floor of the mosque, which was filled to capacity. We explained to them the precepts of Islam, and defended it from any suspicions [promulgated in the media]. I again read to them from the verses of Allah, and [their] eyes filled with tears. The audience was moved, and many asked to participate in the weekly lessons for non-Muslims held by the Islamic Center…"
On Friday, September 21, the Muslims participated in a closed meeting with the governor of Massachusetts. In the meeting, a discussion was held on introducing Islam into the school curriculum, to inform the [American] people and to fight racism against Muslims arising from the American people’s ignorance regarding the religion. …
These are only some of the examples of what happened and is happening in the city of Boston, and in many other American cities, during these days. Proselytizing in the name of Allah has not been undermined, and has not been set back 50 years, as we thought in the first days after September 11. On the contrary, the 11 days that have passed are like 11 years in the history of proselytizing in the name of Allah. I write to you today with the absolute confidence that over the next few years, Islam will spread in America and in the entire world, Allah willing, much more quickly than it has spread in the past, because the entire world is asking: ‘What is Islam!’2
On a television program broadcast one week after the September 11 attack, Prof. Dianne Eck related what September 11 had changed:
… And yet most of us don’t really see it (positive changes). I think one of the real gifts, if we could call it that, of the last week has been the recognition that we are religiously diverse in ways we had never imagined. To see President Bush, for example, standing at the mosque on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington D.C. with a group of Muslims, some of whom I’ve known for some time, Muslim law professor whom I’m sure you’ve interviewed as well, standing there in the heart of the nation’s capital and speaking about Muslim-Americans…3
The growth of interest in Islam after September 11 caught the attention of the American press and the issue became a topic on television news programs. One newspaper that took up this issue was The Los Angeles Times. In an article entitled ‘Expressions of Support Surprising to Muslims’, it was reported that one of the most unexpected results was that Americans had begun to study and investigate Islam, and this interest was so intense that it even surprised Muslims:
Many Americans also are investigating, some for the first time, one of the world’s great faiths and oldest civilizations. Bookstores are selling out of copies of the Koran. University classes and teach-ins on the Middle East and Islam are filled to capacity. Middle East scholars are being invited on television news shows repeatedly and being spotted on the street like celebrities. And many everyday Middle Easterners, Muslim or not, are fielding a daily barrage of questions about Islam from neighbors, co-workers and strangers. ‘We are overwhelmed’, said Mahmoud Abdel-Baset, religious director of the Islamic Center of Southern California. Since the attacks, the Los Angeles-based center has hosted a steady stream of dignitaries, including Gov. Gray Davis, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn...Richard Hrair Dekmejian, a USC professor on Middle Eastern politics, said this thirst for knowledge about Islam is a result of the powerful impact of the Sept. 11 attacks and the general lack of religious knowledge in America.4
In America today, the interest begun with the events of September 11 has continued to intensify and become more widespread. The responsibility that falls to believers is to realize the value of this period, to offer to those who have recently begun to turn to religion the best and most accurate information, to answer their queries in the most satisfactory way and to be zealous representatives of Islam. As the Qur’ānic verse below says, this is an important charge given by God to believers:
Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair admonition, and argue with them in the kindest way. Your Lord knows best who is misguided from His way. And He knows best who are guided. (16: 125)
1. Terror in America, Muslim American Leaders: A Wave of Conversion to Islam in the U.S. Following September 11, MERIM Special Dispatch, November 16, 2001
2. Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, October 20, 2001
3. Moyers in Conversation, PBS TV, September 19, 2001
4. The Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2001