RAWALPINDI, Aug 10: American Muslims are facing new challenges at various levels in the post-9/11 era in the American society and struggling hard to portray the positive image of Islam, said a scholar here on Thursday.

Delivering a lecture on “Islam in the West” at Fatima Jinnah Women University, Dr Zahid Bukhari, the director of American Muslim Studies Programme, highlighted the different stages of Muslim community development in the US and discussed the social and political dynamics of American Muslims in the post-9/11 scenario.

He said American Muslims had come from different regions of the globe such as the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. Dr Bukhari, who is also a fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, said the present Muslims in America mirrored neither exclusively their original culture nor that of America. Instead, he said, their culture was a mix of both.

Dr Bukhari said American Muslims were facing serious problems as a minority in the pluralistic society and struggling hard to create a new cultural zone of Islam in that part of the globe. Today’s America, he said, was a nightmare as well as a land of opportunities for the Muslims as there was anti-Muslim sentiment in the American society. In his view, the Muslim community abroad can play the role of a bridge between Islam and the West.

He said the modern-day immigrant Muslims continued to face challenges as residents of the United States, and they were addressing these in a variety of ways. Questions of identity, occupation, dress and ways of living are particularly significant for many American Muslims. Other major issues, he said, included the relationships among different racial and ethnic Muslim groups as well as with other American Muslims; how and where to provide an Islamic education for one’s children; and appropriate roles and opportunities for women. Many are moving from a phase of dissociation from mainstream American life to much more active participation in political and social arenas.