Why We Need the Islamic Call to Prayer at American Universities

The average college student spends eight to 10 hours a day on a smartphone. Eighty percent of college students report feeling frequently stressed, and one in 10 have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression or other mental disorders. Like the rest of the country, universities are fraught with busyness and competing distractions. Students rush around, faces buried in smart phones and heads cluttered with things to do.

Given this grim reality of college life, it's too bad the Islamic call to prayer won't be proclaimed from Duke University's bell tower. The adhan can be an antidote to some of the challenges college students face.

Since Duke's decision last week to not broadcast the call to prayer from its chapel steeple -- prompted by Islamophobic rhetoric and threats against Duke's Muslim community -- the national discussion around the incident has centered around questions of pluralism and religion in the public space. But what was missed in those debates was the meaning and purpose of the adhan: encouraging deeper mindfulness among those who hear it.

The adhan, like the ringing of church bells, calls us to gratitude, appreciation and attentiveness--things that the modern American university desperately needs. This kind of practice is especially suited to universities with a religious heritage or mission -- like Duke or my alma mater, Georgetown -- where the balance between rigor and reflection is encouraged, but often hard to strike. Religious and non-religious students alike have much to gain from being called from the chaos of their days to remember the greater purpose and meaning of their lives.

Link:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-denari/why-we-need-the-islamic-c_b_6532046.html

Why only an Islamic call to prayer?  Why not have all students take 15 minutes of silence to the God in the Bible also?  Oh, right ... we dare not mention the word "God" because it impinges on others' rights.  America better wake up before Islam is declared the only "true" religion in the US.

On another note:

Muslim Immigration on the Rise in America

The United States could be traveling down the same path as France regarding Muslim immigration — a path that ultimately led to the Islamic terror attack at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.

For several decades France has invited Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa to enter the country, in part to bolster the labor force following World War II. Other European countries have seen large-scale Muslim immigration as well.

"The United States seems increasingly to be turning toward Western Europe's most undesirable demographic trends," writes Ian Tuttle, a William F. Buckley Fellow in political journalism at the National Review Institute.

In 1992, 41 percent of new permanent residents in the United States came from the Middle East and North Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, or sub-Saharan Africa. In 2002, the percentage was up to 53 percent.

Over that period, the number of Muslim immigrants coming to America each year doubled from 50,000 to about 100,000.

The number of Muslims in the United States is uncertain because religious affiliation is not tracked by the Census Bureau, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations claims there are about 7 million Muslims in the country.

"Whatever the exact level, it can hardly be considered surprising that as the Muslim population in the country has expanded, so has the incidence of radicalism," Tuttle states, citing several examples.

Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan entered the country as refugees in 2002 and Tamerlan was radicalized at a mosque in Cambridge, Mass.

That mosque was also attended by Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, who was raised in Yemen and in 2004 was sentenced to 23 years in jail in part due to his role in a plot to assassinate the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

Also attending was Aafia Siddiqui, sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010 for attempting to kill a U.S. Army officer in Afghanistan.

In 2003, six naturalized citizens in Lackawanna, N.Y., were convicted of providing material support to al-Qaida.

In March 2014, Mohammad Hassan Hamdan of Dearborn, a Michigan city where 40 percent of the population is of Arab descent, was arrested in Detroit on his way to join Hezbollah in Syria.

Last October, Mohammed Hamzah Khan of Bolingbrook, Ill., son of Muslim immigrants from India, and two siblings were arrested in Chicago on their way to enlist in the Islamic State.

Nidal Malik Hasan, whose parents came to the U.S. from the West Bank, fatally shot 13 people at Ford Hood in Texas in November 2009.

It should also be noted, of course, that the 9/11 hijackers were allowed to enter the country with visas.

"Whatever the percentage of Muslims who support or would ever consider supporting jihadism, the raw number obviously increases along with the total number of Muslims," Tuttle points out. "One percent of 10 million is much larger than 1 percent of 1 million."

The most obvious remedy for the increased threat of Islamic militancy in the United States would be to reduce the numbers of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, he suggests — noting, however, that the move would meet with "fierce opposition from some quarters."

Or, the United States could shift immigration priorities toward English-speaking nations and liberal democracies.

"The potential problems associated with massive Muslim immigration, and potential solutions, must be addressed now," he concludes.

"The attack on Charlie Hebdo was not inevitable, but years of permissive immigration policy made it more and more likely. If we want to reduce the probability of a similar attack inside America's borders, we should recognize France's mistake, and reform immigration policies that simply do not add up."

Link:  http://www.newsmax.com/InsiderReport/Muslims-Flocking-to-US/2015/01/25/id/620597/