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The American Muslim Identity

The post-9/11 American Muslim is a population that cannot be represented by any single ideology or concept. Islam itself is a religion that encourages cohesiveness, but does not attribute power or superiority to any human being over another. This aspect of the faith creates an impossible dilemma that has built up tension among Muslim groups around the country. Since there is no single authority in Islam, there is a lack of unity that causes youth to question themselves and their faith without clear resolve. As an American Muslim with activist parents, I have witnessed the battle of ideas among Muslim leaders throughout my childhood and onward. Without a single governing Muslim entity, there is no consensus on what it means to be Muslim, especially in a society where Islam is not practiced by the majority.

Kamala Khan is the product of this confusion. Her participation in a faith that puts a barrier between men and women in the mosque can and should be questioned by Muslim women throughout the world. Modesty and humility are key values of the religion, but there should be better ways of expressing such traits than physically disconnecting people and increasing the gap between genders. These barriers emphasize the disunity of the American Muslim population. This contradiction is the essence of Kamala's confusion. Its something that she wants to be a part of, but doesn't know how to reconcile along with her identiy as a teenage American girl.

America is a place of pluralism, and a country that was founded on the celebration of diversity. Muslims in this country today, however, are not familiar with this feature of the American mosaic. They live in paranioa, thinking that the rest of the country is unaccepting of their desire to be a part of American society. Kamala represents the majority of American Muslim youth who want to abandon their cultures and faith in order to avoid the pressure of their paranoid parents and communities.


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