My roommate recently subscribed to the newspaper, the IndyStar, Indiana's largest paper. I noticed this morning that there is a Bible verse on the masthead. Oh, yes, there is. Mentions "the Lord" and everything. This was a touch shocking, but I thought, all right, I already knew I'm in The Midwest, where Everyone Is Christian and Shouldn't You Be Too.
Then, as I was searching for a story on another topic, I came across a story from last week from the local CBS affiliate: "Daily Prayer Doesn't Make Cut for Star". The newspaper decided to drop the daily prayer from its pages, which has turned out to be an unpopular move. One local pastor interviewed for the story said,
"If five percent of the population is Atheist and non-believers, God bless them. But then, when you add all those people who pray, regardless of who they call God, the representative culture is something 90-95 percent of people who believe in prayer. So not only do I question this at a spiritual level, I question if this is a good business decision for the Star."Um, do Indy's Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, pagans, and everyone else who "pray, regardless of who they call God" actually miss the daily prayer in their newspaper? I don't have an objective answer, since no one who isn't Christian was interviewed for the story.
What truly bothers me about the story, though, is that 93 comments have been left on the online forum about this article. About 80 of these comments were strongly against removing the daily prayer from the paper. About five comments were completely off topic. Leaving perhaps seven or eight comments supportive of or neutral about removing it, most of which were written by one person who responded to the vitriolic comments written about her evilness.
Where am I, again? It sometimes seems like a bad dream I can't wake from.
As'salaamu alaikum wa rahmatuallahi wa barakatuhu, that kinda surprises me that Indy is like that...I figured that the ummah had to be fairly large there and that the people there would be more open minded. I live up in Muncie, and the muslim population is pretty small here.
ReplyDeleteWalaikum salaam,
ReplyDeleteIndeed there's quite a few Muslims in Indy, but my experience is that they are not a unified ummah, but rather prefer to stay in their own congregations and/or with other Muslims of their own ethnic or national background. Which leaves the white revert rather out of place! I have met many very kind, friendly Muslims who are happy to offer me hospitality, but I don't fit in well with any of the established groups. And, the fact that the community is so divided sits badly with me; I came from a very diverse although tiny ummah, where although I was usually the only white female, I always felt firmly established within the community. So my standards are perhaps high.
However, I can only speak for my own experience of the ummah here; I have met many Muslims in Indy who are active in and satisfied with their respective mosque communities.
So, don't judge the whole of Indy's Muslim community on my experience alone; this may simply be part of my personal qadr and a trial from Allah! As they say in commercials, your results may differ.