Muslim Hoosier - The Basics
Muslim Hoosiers are not new to Indiana. In fact some of the oldest mosques were built in Indiana. As the census does not track religion there are not accurate estimates of the number of Muslims in Indiana. However, studies have estimated the number of Muslim Hoosiers as high as 280,000. However, what we do know is that there are over 50 mosques and 4 full-time Islamic schools in Indiana. Furthermore, we also know that over 400 Muslim Hoosiers are physicians and over 8000 are voters. Finally, Muslim Hoosiers consist of all ethnic backgrounds and national origins. Muslim Hoosiers are physicians, teachers, police officers, veterans, firefighters, entrepreneurs, professors, scientists, nurses, lawyers and many other positions. Muslim Hoosiers are brothers, sisters, children and parents. Muslim Hoosiers have the same goal as all Hoosiers: to raise a family, work hard and retire comfortably while making a positive difference to our community.
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Brightening state's spirit with rainbow of believers - Indianapolis Star Editorial
Our position: Myths must give way to acceptance of Indiana's Muslims.
Doctor. Lawyer. Judge. Firefighter. Student.
Foreign-born. Native.
Conservative. Liberal.
Black. White. Yellow. Brown. Red.
Common denominator: Hoosier Muslim.
That's a pairing that still rings odd to many, if not most, of those who have seen followers of Islam become their neighbors in increasing numbers and degrees of conspicuousness.
As The Star's Robert King elucidated Saturday in his coverage of their first-ever statewide convention, Indiana's Muslims prize their religious identity but have neither the desire nor the realistic possibility of living locally or nationally as a people apart.
From pop music to presidential politics, Muslims are weaving themselves inexorably into an American tapestry that is far from new to their threads. In Indianapolis as in the rest of the country, a practitioner of the world's fastest growing faith is less likely to be a newcomer from Asia or the Middle East than he or she is to be an African-American with centuries of lineage in this land.
In any incarnation, he or she is overwhelmingly likely to be a taxpayer intent on keeping a household in peace and prosperity. That simple fact has taken a battering since Sept. 11, 2001, as government has exercised its broadened anti-subversive powers especially upon Muslims while demagogues in the media and political realm have fomented fears.
Muslim civic and religious associations in America have been as forthright and persistent in denouncing terrorism around the world as they have been in standing up for their own civil rights here. Yet myths persist: that Islam is not a religion of peace, that American mosques harbor evildoers, that Muslims aren't passing the test of citizenship by speaking out against violence committed in the name of a religion with more than a billion adherents across the globe.
Time will erode prejudice, as it has with other minority religions over the past century or so. Already, leaders of the Islamic Society of North America, which chose to locate in salt-of-the-earth Plainfield, Ind., more than two decades ago, have encouraging stories to tell.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, for instance, the organization experienced, not the wrath of its small-town neighbors, but an outpouring of sympathy and support.
Last year, this largest organization of Muslims on the continent elected a new president -- Ingrid Mattson, who is white, female, Canadian-born, raised Catholic . . .
. . . and a Hoosier Muslim.
May the stereotypes, rather than the facts, continue to take a beating.
