While the US Muslim community remains on the back foot, across the pond, the UK Muslim community has made significant strides.
The other day, I watched Worcester captained by Moeen Ali lift the Twenty20 Cup before a packed Edgbaston crowd in his hometown in Birmingham. The commentators were effusive in their praise for Moeen's leadership, with former batting star, Robert Key, wishing that he had played under Ali.
4 years after making his England Test debut, his autobiography, Moeen(Allen & Unwin, publishers) is being serialized by the venerable Times of London.To date, his all-round record is drawing favorable comparisons with Sir Ian Botham and Sir Gary Sobers.Post-"Paki-bashing" days, British Muslims have gone through the furnace and emerged taller. Here, US Muslims have been limited by goals with an underlying mercantile content. Moeen grew up in an environment of "my son, the engineer; my son, the doctor," with cricket being seen by the wider family as a waste of time. He mentions that there are two locked doors to open, one, the family, which discourages and goes for the mantra of "study, study, study" and, secondly, the unconscious bias in mainstream society, which is slow to accept that somebody not anchored in the West can be good enough. The relentless determination and sacrifice of his father, Munir, who even sold chickens from a Toyota to support his son's cricketing ambitions, helped Moeen reach the stars. Among his boyhood heroes was the batting genius Saeed Anwar.
In his book, Moeen devotes a special chapter to his English paternal grandmother, Betty Cox, who left everything to live in the village of Dadyal in Azad Kashmir, which then had no electricity or running water.
Moeen's story is a tale of grit and indomitability. July 2017 marked the 100th Test Match played at the Oval. Moeen achieved the unprecedented feat of being the first ever to perform a Test hat-trick there. He is now a household name and widely cheered by English spectators. A thoughtful person, who was toying at a very young age with the meaning of life and seeking a pathway to a purpose-driven life, he met a West Indian convert, Wali, who fortified his faith in the substance and spirituality of Islam, as opposed to ritual and cultural trappings.
An openly observant Muslim, Moeen is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, and triggered criticism by wearing a wristband depicting "Free Palestine and Save Gaza." He cites Mandela repeatedly: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." He is watchful about self-defeating social influences, saying "when you spend a lot of time with people like that, you end up becoming like them." He warns young Muslims about the perils of insularity, not forging human bonds with the larger society, and not understanding the fundamentals of faith.
Moeen has married a Bangladeshi girl, Firuza Hussain, whose family hails from Sylhet.
Moeen's path forward refutes the approach of many US Muslims, who have lapsed into a mindset of timidity. It's a message to Muslim elders to instill a champion spirit in Muslim youth.