America is Running Out of Muslim Clerics. That’s Dangerous.
How Trump’s travel ban worsened a shortage of qualified preachers—and why that’s dangerous.
>Abu Marwan’s job has gotten a lot harder since Donald Trump took office. The president of the Masjid Al-Rahma outside San Diego, Marwan has relied on volunteers to serve as imam of the rapidly growing mosque ever since it opened in a strip mall several years ago. But these days, when he turns to those same volunteers, they always have something else to do. Marwan says it’s because they’re afraid of violence against Muslims, which has been on the rise since the 2016 election. As he puts it, “They always say they’re busy, busy. The truth is they just don’t want to do it right now.”
>Bringing in an imam from overseas has been just as difficult. Marwan invited one from Egypt to come for the holy month of Ramadan this past June,but the religious leader was unable to get a visa.And so, these days, instead of a regular imam at Masjid Al-Rahma, there is a changing cast of volunteers, students and borrowed imams—and sometimes no one at all—to read prayers tothe 300 strong congregation. “Every Friday it is a nightmare to fill in the gap,” says Marwan. “Sometimes I have to call hundreds of people and still I can not find someone. It’s very stressful.”
A shortage of imams is not a new challenge for America’s mushrooming Muslim population: More than half of the country’s estimated2,500 mosques lack a full time imam. But the people trying to fill those slots say that Trump’s efforts to impose an immigration ban on Muslim-majority nations together with rising incidents of Islamophobia have worsened the deficit. It’s the kind of problem that members of the Muslim community as well as terrorism experts warn could contribute to a rise in extremism. “A strong leader who provides a sense of structure and what is right and wrong offers certainty,” says Sarah Lyons-Padilla, a researcher at Stanford University who studies terrorists’ motivations. “So when you remove leaders, like an imam, then you’re basically introducing more uncertainty into an already troubled domain.”
The imam shortage was particularly obvious during Ramadan this year. Many American mosques traditionally invite a classically trained imam from overseas to assist U.S. mosque leaders with prayers during the holy month; in the past around 200 foreign imams have traveled to the United States for the holiday. But in 2017, the number was down to just 15, says Omar Shahin, a board member of the North American Imam’s Federation who serves as a matchmaker for mosques looking for imams.
Trump’s travel ban against Muslim majority countries is part of the problem, Shahin says. Although the ban does not impact Egypt and Saudi Arabia,the two countries that have traditionally sent the majority of foreign imams to the U.S.,the order has made imams more reluctant to risk the trip, for fear they might end up detained. There were also cases of imams willing to travel to the U.S. who found it more difficult under the Trump administration to enter the country, according to immigration lawyers and Muslim leaders. Some were denied visas; others who had visas couldn’t make it out of the airport.
Jacob Peterson
And then there’s the Islamophobia—perhaps the biggest reason imams have been reluctant to travel to the United States. In the first half of this year, 85 acts of violence were brought against U.S. mosques, ranging from firebombing to graffiti, compared to 59 such acts during the same period last year, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).In August, an explosive device was tossed into a popular Minnesota mosque shortly after dawn. It’s target? The imam’s office.
“All of this scares people from working as an imam,” says Shahin, who is also a fellow at the Graduate Theological Foundation in Indiana. “Who wants to be in the middle of all of these problems, or if your coming from overseas, turned back home at the airport?”
As second generation Muslims in the U.S. seek to adapt their faith to American culture, many in the Muslim community say it’s more important than ever to have leaders who can not just each the faith—but who can teach it correctly. “If people don’t have knowledge about Islam from the right source they wind up going to an extreme, whether it is to the right or the left,” says Shahin. “That is a dangerous thing for everybody.” That’s pretty much what one Florida imamtoldtheNew York Timesafter Uzbeki trucker Sayfullo Saipov drove into a Manhattan bike path last month, killing eight people. Saipov, said the imam, “did not learn the religion properly. That’s the main disease in the Muslim community.”
Chase Ward
these people have literally been proven time and time again to be preaching jihad and other such genocidal shit. This is excellent news
>others who had visas couldn’t make it out of the airport So they had ties to extremism or were otherwise viewed as unacceptable entrants by immigration? Why do we want those people coming into our countries again? Also the line of argumentation is weak. "We need more muslims because if we don't get them US muslims will radicalize, and you don't want that, so better let more muzz in." It is an implied threat - do what we want or there will be violence. And the same people will turn around and say Islam has nothing to do with terror.
Brandon Cruz
islam is cancer
Dominic Powell
They should convert to Christianity or go back to the islamic world. Problem solved. They wanted to live in America? So why turn it into pakistan or saudi arabia?
Gavin Myers
And what is the purpose of your visit?
To preach Islam.
Hahahahahahahahahaha. No. Stay in your homeland, Saracen.
Christopher Morris
(((Rosenberg))). Every single time. SMDH.
Mason Bennett
Yeah this is nonsense, just have them go to imam school.
Caleb Lewis
>labour shortage >implying the current welfare schemes are sustainable without a ever-growing population
Does this fucker think the Earth is of infinite size or something?
Charles Jenkins
>That's dangerous
Opinion piece, dropped.
Kevin Nguyen
> There are people here who might be dangerous and might become more dangerous in the future > The only solution to this is to bring more of them over here
John Wright
In the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right provided in the religion clauses of the First Amendment.
Sebastian Johnson
Exactly a shortage of Imams is not the business of the government.
William Parker
It isn't really a problem. There's a shortage of priests in Catholic church as well even without any "travel ban", but you don't see politico or anyone else reporting on this as a crisis we have to do something about, why? >It’s the kind of problem that members of the Muslim community as well as terrorism experts warn could contribute to a rise in extremism. “A strong leader who provides a sense of structure and what is right and wrong offers certainty,” says Sarah Lyons-Padilla, a researcher at Stanford University who studies terrorists’ motivations. “So when you remove leaders, like an imam, then you’re basically introducing more uncertainty into an already troubled domain.” Literally saying that if you don't have anti-terror Imams telling Muslims not to be terrorists that they'll become terrorists. How stupid is this shit? We really ought to send all these people back if that's the case. We're not going to import an entire fucking country just to reduce the chance of extremism, when extremism already thrives in that country anyway.
You don't see anyone saying shit like "Oh without more priests these white boys gonna start blowing up more shit!" The lefty writers just look for ANY possible angle from which to criticize EVERYTHING Trump does. It doesn't matter. He really does need a 9/11 moment because then it seems like he could fucking roll back this immigration shit without being second guessed on everything.
Zachary Bailey
tldr
Bentley Hill
we should be killing them all.
Zachary Butler
Islam isn't a religion, it's a political ideology and we can outlaw those. Communist affiliation is still illegal in the US.
Xavier Jenkins
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is a messenger of God.
Grayson Thomas
>“The truth is they just don’t want to do it right now.”
brb burning the constitution.
Josiah Robinson
هذا أمر جيد.
Post twitter butthurt.
Josiah Rodriguez
It is both. Islam is a religion. Islamification is the political ideology of spreading Islam and establishing a Theocracy.
Charles Watson
>money is the most important thing >Rosenberg
Ryan Carter
>As second generation Muslims in the U.S. seek to adapt their faith to American culture,
Not possible.
American rights are dependent on faith in the Christian God.
Muslims believe Christ to be a false prophet.
James Campbell
>In the United States, freedom of religion
The Founders believed rights to be naturally granted by God. So technically there's no Freedom of Irreligion.
Athiests have no rights.
Adrian Anderson
So they're admitting mudslimes need an imam to keep the masses from blowing themselves up?
Landon Brooks
my brain hurts reading these weird names
Joshua Gray
>Islam >Abrahamic
It was founded by a Bedouin, a Saudi Arabian desert nomad.
He preached in Mecca for 12 years and only obtained 80 followers.
The Jews in Medina didn't accept him so he slaughtered them all.
Islam is in no way, shape or form Abrahamic.
Ryan Brown
desu though Christianity was also a "political ideology" before religious leaders submitted to freemasons to run society. Remember back when popes deposed Kings? Remember when religious judges ruled the Hebrews and Israelis? If you believe your religion is right, you should want your society structured around it. If you want to submit your religious tenets to authorities who don't follow your religion then you don't really believe it and it is just a hobby to you.
Parker Moore
Yeah, Christianity and Judaism were originally Theocracies as well before they stopped trying.
Charles Phillips
>Jefferson wrote that "Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God." He called the writers of the New Testament "ignorant, unlettered men" who produced "superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications". He called the Apostle Paul the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus". He dismissed the concept of the Trinity as "mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus". He believed that the clergy used religion as a "mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves" and that "in every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty". And he wrote in a letter to John Adams that "the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter".
Anthony Rivera
>Muslims believe Christ to be a false prophet. Wrong. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet. They just don't think he was literally God, and they also don't think that God just let him die on a cross. They believe that God raised him up to heaven because God is merciful. Don't go around getting basic Islamic tenets wrong while criticizing them or you just look retarded. Muslims are also cultural conspiracy theorists because a tenet of their religion is that ancient holy texts were rewritten and misinterpreted by authorities and Jews to increase their own power over society.
Jacob Clark
>He called the Apostle Paul the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. Jefferson = Nietzsche ! >He dismissed the concept of the Trinity as "mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus" Jehova's Witness! >He believed that the clergy used religion as a "mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves" and that "in every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty" Lol that's funny until the US government started collecting income taxes and property taxes and death taxes. Hmmmm. How often do clergy go around collecting tax at gunpoint these days? And the priests are certainly hostile to degeneracy. But Jefferson I think thought we should be free to be degenerate. Look where we are now with all our liberty.
Zachary Hall
FUCK YES. MAY ISLAM END IN THE WEST, AND EVENTUALLY THE WORLD
Ryan Smith
Source
Bentley Thompson
Reminder that this is a good thing >increase radicalism and hostility to US in mudslime community >cause massive backlash by everyday Americans against newly crazy terrorists >more anti muslim policies enacted At most, only the 'tolerant' cities will still be accepting after this, which really is no big loss seeing as they are lost causes to begin with.
Liam Watson
Both your points can inflate to conflict each other.
If they believe the texts to be corrupted then what's stopping them from believing Christ's story was not fabricated?
If they believe Christ to be a prophet why do they continually oppose his instruction?
After all he was just a Jew, Jews aren't to be trusted.
>Look where we are now with all our liberty. Thing is.... America didn't turn bad until after the government took away our freedom. It grew too large and became an enemy of the populace it was supposed to serve.
Sebastian Thompson
Good, MAGA is working.
Sand Niggers and the Mudslime religion are not welcome in America.
You don't belong here and you have to go back.
And if you think Islam is so great you shouldn't be moving to Western countries in the first place.
