Daily Times

Every journey carries in it the seeds of drama. My trip to the small city of Knoxville in Tennessee in February 2018 provided a glimpse into the controversy and heat around Islam in the US through a public showdown. The showdown was not with pistols in a dusty shanty town in the Old West but on the campus of a leading American university in the halls of a renowned academic centre.

On one level, the trip could be read as ideally organised and implemented; the visiting speaker’s dream. I had been invited to deliver the prestigious Ashe Lecture at the University of Tennessee and would become the first Muslim to do so. Every event of the several leading up to the climax at the main public lecture was coloured with the famous Southern hospitality and charm. Harrison Akins, my former assistant at American University, who had initiated and organised the invitation, picked and dropped me at the airport. Harrison, who was completing his PhD degree, had developed into a passionate and articulate champion of building bridges between Muslims and the West. His parents were on hand to show support.

The Ashe Lecture series, held by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Centre for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, was endowed by the distinguished Ambassador Victor Ashe, a popular local figure who served as the former US Ambassador to Poland and as Mayor of Knoxville for 16 years. He graciously presided over lunch, introduced my talk, and concluded the day by hosting dinner at one of the top restaurants in the city.

Over 100,000 Americans are shot annually by fellow Americans, killing some 40,000 of them. Even school children are not immune. This year alone, there has been an average of three shootings per week on school grounds

The title of my Ashe Lecture was, “Being Muslim today: Building bridges in an age of uncertainty.” The audience in the Baker Center overflowed the auditorium and there was excitement in the air as the elite of the city took their seats — ambassadors, mayors, commissioners, scholars, students, and members of the Muslim community. At the end, the audience rose to give me a standing ovation. Dr Matthew Murray, the Director of the Baker Centre, said no speaker in the Ashe series had ever received a standing ovation.

As I awaited my return flight to DC, I received the following message from Murray: “We had a wonderful turnout and one of the largest ever for this lecture series. The standing ovation you received from the crowd signifies the support you received from the university and broader community. Your remarks touched the hearts of many in the room and created lasting memories…. best of luck to you as you continue to carry this important message forward.”

So by all metrics the occasion was a success.

But the event could also be read through a different lens and provides us a case-study of America’s relationship with Islam today.

This part of Tennessee is overwhelmingly white, Christian, and of Scots-Irish background. The region’s struggling economy, best symbolised by the much-cited laying off of coal miners, has created a sense of anger and resentment among people here. They are seen as the Americans who propelled President Donald Trump to the White House.

There was violence in the air. Only that morning, a news item described a local sheriff who had ordered the shooting of a man he was pursuing in a car chase when the victim had driven away from a traffic stop. He was recorded on a deputy’s body camera saying, “I love this shit.”

The sheriff reflects the larger gun culture in America: over 100,000 Americans are shot annually by fellow Americans, killing some 40,000. Even school children are not immune. This year alone, there has been an average of three shootings per week on school grounds. Just a few days after my talk, a young sympathiser of white supremacists killed 17 people at a school in Florida.

Muslims have become a favourite target in the last few years. Attacks on mosques and women have reached an all time high and Islamophobia is rampant. President Trump came into office determined to impose a Muslim travel ban and recently boasted of extending the life of Guantanamo Bay prison. There was even talk of deportation and the erection of prison camps such as those built to intern Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.

It was not surprising therefore that a small group in Knoxville, associated with prominent local figures, had been lobbying against the idea of inviting a Muslim speaker. It had sent out emails explaining why I should not be invited. Though the university had decided to go ahead with the lecture, it had taken the precaution of ensuring there were several large policemen on duty at the event.

The showdown came after my talk and at the start of the question and answer session. A questioner, who had led the campaign against Muslims, stood up and aggressively went through a list of what the Guardian called the ‘The new playbook of the right’ in ‘How to stop a mosque,’ coincidentally published the following day.

He left out the accusation that President Obama was a secret Muslim who had inserted himself into the political system to destroy America from inside (some forty percent of Republicans still believe that Obama is Muslim), otherwise the familiar accusations Islamophobes use across America were all there.

Calculating that he had the backing of the local audience, he aimed to derail my talk and put paid to the idea of ever inviting Muslims again.

The questioner claimed I had co-authored an article with Tariq Ramadan, implying that I was associated with him and his way of thinking which he said was unfairly critical of the US. He also accused me and other Muslim scholars of ignoring female genital mutilation and stoning, implicitly endorsing the campaign to introduce Sharia into America, and supporting the cruel and brutal treatment of women in Islam. Underlying this tirade was the sub-text that Muslims hate Christians and have launched a jihad against them.

(To be continued)

The writer is an author, poet, filmmaker, playwright, and is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington, DC. He formerly served as the Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland. He tweets @AskAkbar

Published in Daily Times, February 24^th 2018.