Imam In America Research Paper

An Imam in America

An imam is an Islamic religious leader of the Muslim community who is in charge with various roles, namely: leading Islamic worship services on Friday at the mosque and providing religious guidance. He poses exemplary knowledge of the Islamic laws and teachings that strongly govern the way of life of Islamists; thus, serves as their divine leader, who presides over the day to day disputes that faces his congregation. He is expected to judge as per the Islamic laws. He should bear knowledge of the Koran and the language in which it was publicized which is Arabic and be wise in his decision making. With the increasingly significant rise of the Muslim population in the United States over the last half century from all over the world, Islam has turned into one of the nation’s fastest growing religions with an establishment of an estimated 1,200 mosques spreading across the nation from Boston to Los Angeles. Based on Andrea's (2006) estimate, “as many as six million Muslims now live in America” (para. 11).
Islam being a different entity from Christianity, such a huge flock needs a leader. That is where the Imams come in. With Islam being a legalistic faith (Andrea 2006) whose divine law as observed by Andrea (2006), governs their daily lives on what to eat, wear and laws governing marriage (para. 13), the imams in America are faced with the task of reconciling Muslim tradition with American life. This possesses a great challenge to the imams where Andrea (2006) points out that, in the west, what Islamic law prohibits is everywhere. From alcohol fills, chocolates, to women who jog in sports bras to pornography, to divorce that is characterized by the American way of marriage (para. 13). As Andrea (2006) points out, it is clear that for many Muslims in America, their day to day life is a clash between their Islamic morals and material temptation that the cultures of the west have to offer. And at the center of this clash stands the imam whose role Andrea (2006) identifies as unifying diverse congregations with often clashing Islamic traditions (para. 12). A typical day of an American imam starts at Dawn.
Clad in their long robe, he heads to the mosque where he says his morning prayers. Thereafter, he heads to his office at the mosque where he sits and awaits to solve disputes that arise from his congregation with an array of the endless questions to come. To his congregants, the Imam serves far more than their leader of the daily prayers and giver of the Friday sermon. With many of these Islam immigrants living in a land far away without their families, Andrea (2006) points out that the Imam serves a far much greater role in the lives of his congregants other than their leader of the daily prayers and giver of the Friday sermon. He assists in finding spouses, he resolves personal disputes and issues ruling on ethical questions (para. 6), acts as an Islamic judge, a matchmaker, a nursery school principal, marriage counselor and, a 24-hour hot line on all Islamic issues (para.
7). As noted by Andrea (2006), he gives an example of a mosque in the Islamic society of Bay Ridge, which is one of the city’s spirited Muslim centers that offer more than just a praying ground for Muslims within the vicinity and new immigrants as well. It has four floors that house a nursery school, an Islamic book store, Koran classes and daily lectures, a vast side walk where some 1,500 Muslims worship at the mosque on Fridays. Such a congregation houses an Imam whose above stated role comes in handy while governing over such a population (para. 43). As Andrea (2006) observes, Imams in the United States serve in an estimated 1,200 mosques (para. 7). Like many of their congregants, most imams in the United States come from abroad. The criteria used to recruit them is basically their knowledge of the Koran, the language in which it was revealed, Arabic (para. 30) and on the recommendation of other imams or trusted scholars abroad. They are offered an annual contract with health and subsidized housing benefits. The pay can range from $20,000 to $50,000. As Andrea (2006) explains, very few Imams who come into the country are prepared for the tests that await them since they are called to lead a community on the precincts of American civic life. They are channels and intermediaries of a hostile world filled with promise and danger. To have an idea of the challenges an Imam faces in their day to day governance, Andrea (2006), gives us a feel of some of the cases and questions that Mr. Shata, 37, an Imam at Brooklyn’s Islamic society at Bay Ridge mosque. His office can hardly contain the dramas that unfold inside. With cases ranging from rebellious teenagers to marital conflicts and accusations of theft. Husbands storm off. Women cry. Friendships end. Every day brings soap opera plots and pitch (para. 43). Andrea (2006) provides us with an instance, on theft accusations, of a case of two hot dog vendors who shared a stand for some time but after a while, they could not stand each other. Amidst all that, they could not come into a consensus on how to divide their business when the time came for them to part ways. So, they approached the imam, with one vendor accused of stealing several thousands of dollars in donations meant for the deceased best friend. But there was a major setback to the allegations; the donations were in cash and thus no proof (para. 72). So the imam had the accused swear oath on the Koran, citing that "Whoever lies while taking an oath on the Koran goes blind afterward,” having used such a strategy in similar cases. Upon hearing this, the accused confessed of stealing $11,400 of which he later returned in full. After such deliberations and a verdict is finally agreed upon, like in this case, the accused agreed to pay back the money, his admission and that of similar offenders are recorded in a waraqa, which is an Islamic document that is penned and signed by four witness to attest to the Imams ruling (para. 73). With the American Imams deliberating on such cases that would carry very heavy sentences on the offender if taken to court, the imams have earned their respect not only in the Islamic community but also by the other religions. For the imam at Bay Ridge mosque, the police at the 68th precinct are forever thankful for the imam’s efforts in deliberating cases and are even using the imam’s influence to their advantage issuing a stern warning to disorderly teenagers that they will be taken to the mosque rather than to the station. Many times, the teenage response to such warnings is, 'No, not the imam! He'll tell my parents. But not all questions and cases that the imam handles are a walk in the park. Matters like pornography that was rampant within its congregants, raising the question, is oral sex lawful? An aspect that the Koran hardly sheds light on. The question as to whether the Muslims could sell beer or bacon since pork and alcohol is forbidden in Islam. Muslim women lamented relentlessly at the stares that were thrown their way in the subways and streets and so they wanted to know if they could remove their head scarves. Such trying questions that prompt a wise answer from the imam makes them indulge in extensive consultations from sheiks in Egypt requests them for fatwas. These are nonbinding legal rulings. But the views offered by these sheiks carried little relevance to life in America. Some issues, like oral sex, he dared not raise. On such delicate maters, the imams deliberate upon using the nonbinding legal rulings stating that “Islam is supposed to make a person's life easier, not harder.” In conclusion, Andrea (2006) evidently points out that the life of an imam is not an easy one, leading this flock calls for improvisation. In their quest of unify, diverse congregations with clashing Islamic traditions is faced with the threat of terrorism, they face life threatening situations like answering to law enforcement agents without losing the trust of their fellow Muslims. At times, it calls for the setting aside of conservative beliefs that prevail in the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam (para. 73).