The rise and fall of the ’salafi dawah’ in the US (Final, Co

[American-Suufi]

good read how salafism is on its deathbed in america. read all the other articles. eye opening. it is the story of a salafi convert now complaining that the migrant salafi brotherhood left them in the cold.

The rise and fall of the ’salafi dawah’ in the US (Final, Comments Open)
January 31, 2007 · 496 Comments

Previously:

Part One: The Beginning

Part Two: The Competition for Converts

Part Three: The Brotherhood

Part Four: E.O. and its satellites

Part Five: Northern Virginia/DC area

Part Six: The Decline

Part Seven: Boycotting and Excommunication

Part Eight: Social Breakdown

Part Nine: Post 9/11

COMMENTS ARE NOW OPEN

Final Thoughts…

When IANA and other such organizations dissolved after 9/11, the remaining reasonable and moderate American brothers had no place to go and for all purposes – especially with all the fitnah of brothers being arrested – and basically went into hiding and are quietly going on with their lives observing the social anarchy from afar. I have found brothers that were formerly active in the salafi movement – brothers that at the time had big untrimmed beards and exclusively wore thobes – with small trimmed beards, a suit and tie on and wanting nothing to do with the movement. Some were even very anti-salafi.

It also did not help matters when some groups that were opposed to the salafi movement as a whole took the opportunity to scapegoat them after 9/11.

As to the TROID side, they continued to shrink in influence, and have become sort of a punch line. They are the ones associated with ‘salafiyah’ when other Muslims think of salafis. Mention the word ‘Salafi’ to a Muslim what often comes to mind is a criminal who marries several times. They thought it to be “unbeneficial” to address social issues and those very issues ate away at them like acid. They thought it better to “leave these issues” but it never left them.

TROID began to lose influence as the tabloid style emails ceased and they ran out of people to character assassinate. Plus people just got tired. They can’t put together any conferences outside of Philly and Newark, where – even in those places – they are also waning in influence. There is no real solid “movement” in place. Even if one visits a lot of the old salafi websites, one will find that they haven’t been updated in months or sometimes, years. This has contributed to the end of the “cut and paste” era. And Salafis are almost nowhere to be found in the post 9/11 intellectual debate.

As to the remnants of the IANA side of things, some have retooled, run away from the old salafi movement, and have an entirely different focus. These groups do not concentrate on converts anymore and disown the title ‘salafi’ for themselves because they do not want to be associated with the legacy of TROID – for good reason.

Texas Dawah and the Al Maghrib Institute are two examples of such organizations that are pretty balanced and have run away from the salafi label like the plague. I hear that Texas Dawah puts on a pretty good program, but they – along with Al Maghrib – target the college aged (18-25) middle class, children of immigrants. We converts are largely an afterthought in their programs. Converts are welcome to come, but they are not considered in the programs. Some converts that have been around this crowd have even gotten the feeling that they are a “pet convert” and shy away.

Texas Dawah – for example – had over 3,000 attendees at their last conference, but I would be surprised if even 1% of that number were converts. Again, this is not to say that they reject converts, but it is clear that they don’t speak to our issues in their conferences. This is in contrast to the old days when you had large numbers of converts at the old salafi conferences. A crowd of 3,000 would have close to 1,000 converts and several speakers that were themselves converts. Gatherings in East Orange could draw 2,000 people in which 95% were converts. That is just not the case now. No one considers us anymore.

I attended an Al Maghrib class in New Jersey and immediately felt out of place as a convert, because I knew that this program – though very good for its audience – was not for people like me. The crowd was overwhelmingly first or second generation immigrants and middle to upper class young individuals that were either in college or just graduated. Again, nothing wrong with that, but we are left in the cold. Double weekend classes or a once a year conference does not compare to an everyday movement that was a way of life.

I spoke to Muhammad Al Shareef, and I could tell that he just couldn’t relate with a person like me. This is not a criticism of him, as I enjoyed his class – in an abstract way – but I could tell that there was not only a convert/non-convert divide, but a class and social divide. The problems of people like me are not even conceptualized much less thought about, thus many are still in the streets with no place to go. (Another issue is that you can’t rule out the barrier that the fees for the Al Maghrib)

This is why I feel that these new organizations are too limited in their scope to be anywhere near the old days. They are concentrating on the second generation youth – nothing wrong with that – but there are many others out there.

There is little to no talk of community building, raising children, dealing with non-Muslim family and non-Muslim in-laws, cleaning up and reviving neighborhoods, or things of that sort that are of importance to converts. The converts are left with a choice of being left in the cold to observe from the outside as forgetten about relics from a past era or to assimilate completely into the immigrant world and resolve to leave their American identity behind.

If organizations such as Texas Dawah or Almaghrib ever decide that they want to deal with converts, then they will have to take on social problems in order to be affective and not declare them to be “of no benefit”

At one time, things were great, and seemed to be on the move. Then things fell apart as the over zealous element was never put into check and ultimately destroyed everything. There are still brothers floating around that seem to think that it is still 1996, but they are isolated. I feel sorry for brothers like this when I see them, because usually they were not around during the good times and do not know that what they are doing is a dead end, especially without the social support that was around in the 90’s.

As it stands, the movement is a shell of what is used to be. The Islamic Center of America in East Orange seems abandoned compared to how it used to be. In the DC area, there is no fervor amongst the handful of Salafis that are remaining. There are some who remember those days, go to the masjid and pray and do good deeds and in their homes still enjoy the knowledge. Jamatul Al Qawee was taken over by the TROID element and is barely functional via a handful of isolated, triumphalist brothers. There are a few remnants at the Dar as Salaam masjid in Maryland, who have also run away from the salafi movement. Everything else is a faded memory.

Across the country, the salafi masjids folded one by one, until they are nothing more than a handful of sad isolated brothers in a few cities that even now do not realize that the world has moved on without them. They are in for a rude awakening.

The brothers and sisters across the country are left alone… left to pick up the devastating pieces and try to carry on their lives… left to try to fill the huge void in their chests…. left try to live instead of simply exist… left to wait to wander with no place to go.

Isolationism was such a big mistake and that is why I am opposed to it. Even though I look upon those days with fondness – I am left feeling very cynical, jaded and scarred.

http://umarlee.com/2007/01/31/the-rise- ... -us-final/

[Warsan_Star_Muslimah]

I agree, very eye opening. I saw this mar hore, but couldn't find it because he deleted it, but now he has summarised it all, with a prequel from a sister. http://umarlee.com/rise-and-fall-of-the ... -complete/

Subahnallah it is very shocking. I will finish reading it tommorow insha-allah. Prehaps even save it!

During my studies, I was also made privy to the kind of life-style these pre-salafis were leading. They were all, with the exception of one, married to black women and on the prowl for a second or third wife—preferably a white one. Their families lived on welfare because it was “haram to work for the kuffar”. The kuffar would not allow you to wear a turban and jalabayih to work, so you couldn’t work for them, as “Islamic” clothing for men was wajib. It was not haram however to take charity from the kuffar. So these families existed on full welfare, which back in those days—before Clinton’s welfare reform—was a bundle. You could very easily raise a family on cash allotments—which by the way increased with the birth of each new child, food stamps—again increased with each new birth, medical care, WIC and free housing or ridiculously low monthly payments via a section 8 housing allowance. Most of these brothers lived better than others who had jibs for a living. They weren’t getting all that help, and struggled to make ends meet.

It was suggested to me that I might like to become the wife of one of these fine brothers. I politely declined, not just because I was uninterested in living on welfare, but because I couldn’t get with the polygamy aspect, being that not only was it illegal, but I would have to lie and pretend I wasn’t married to my husband. This is how the welfare department in our city came to call the Muslim women on the welfare role “the Holy Whores” – because they were often dressed in all black and niqaab and having children (as far as the state was concerned) out of wedlock. The second and subsequent wives could not be legally married to their spouse, and the government didn’t give a damn about or recognize a so-called Islamic marriage. And so the “Holy Whores” were born and I wasn’t eager to join their ranks.

My polite refusal was met with scorn. I was refusing a life with a decent Muslim man just because I thought myself above welfare and being known as a “whore”. Well, truth to tell, I was. I think there’s no shame in that.

[Warsan_Star_Muslimah]

What is worse is Somalis do this as well, every year she is pregnant but is still separated from her husband, but they manage to have a quickie & get pregnant even thought their separated.

Walle waa yaab.

Just like the above Muslima, I'm better than that!

[DR-YALAXOOW]

What is worse is Somalis do this as well, every year she is pregnant but is still separated from her husband, but they manage to have a quickie & get pregnant even thought their separated.

Walle waa yaab.

Just like the above Muslima, I'm better than that!

subxaana allah walaahi its every where, here in sweden couple years ago i use to work as TARJUBAAN. i use meet daily somali women whit hijaab and NIQAAB kuwaaso dhahaya exactly what you just said

i have a quickie & get pregnant

islaamkii waa la ceebeeyey walaahi. nimanka naagahaas qabana JIHAAAAAD xamar ha la aado ayey meelaha ka taagan yihiin. walaahi waa Hypocrites munaafiqiin. salafis aka wahabis

[Twisted_Logic]

Social scums who have no place in our society

[FAH1223]

There are a few remnants at the Dar as Salaam masjid in Maryland, who have also run away from the salafi movement. Everything else is a faded memory.

a few? i'd say there are plenty

but the gist of the article rings true

[Voltage]

The problem with this movement is that it has always catered to the former criminals, sinners, unstable, and just confused young men who were looking for something GREATER. They are not educated properly and with the harsheness and rigidity of the movement along with the GUILT the young men carry for living the lives they did, it is a powerful precursor for extremity in thinking and action. That extremism is not backed up by knowledge of the religion or a conscious measurement of the qualities which should lie at the heart of the Muslim and which the prophet preached such us mercy, moderation, understanding, patience. You can't apply Islamic tenets without sound personal qualities that are at the heart of the Muslim leader and sadly these followers neither learned nor applied those qualities and neither gained the strong fundamental knowledge to understand what they are working for or how to apply it.

As a result, they fall out as fast as they had joined this movement.

[American-Suufi]

The problem with this movement is that it has always catered to the former criminals, sinners, unstable, and just confused young men who were looking for something GREATER. They are not educated properly and with the harsheness and rigidity of the movement along with the GUILT the young men carry for living the lives they did, it is a powerful precursor for extremity in thinking and action. That extremism is not backed up by knowledge of the religion or a conscious measurement of the qualities which should lie at the heart of the Muslim and which the prophet preached such us mercy, moderation, understanding, patience. You can't apply Islamic tenets without sound personal qualities that are at the heart of the Muslim leader and sadly these followers neither learned nor applied those qualities and neither gained the strong fundamental knowledge to understand what they are working for or how to apply it.

As a result, they fall out as fast as they had joined this movement.

[FAH1223]

musika man, you have another motive for posting this

[AbdiWahab252]

American Suufi's war against Salafis continues Jazallah

[AR1223]

musika man, you have another motive for posting this

Good observation.

[FAH1223]

musika man, you have another motive for posting this

Good observation.

what do you think of the downfall of the salafi dawah movement?

[AR1223]

what do you think of the downfall of the salafi dawah movement?

It means little, as the movement was never relevant. Some of its founders or leaders were government-paid informants. The fact is, the US government will not allow a strong presence of Islamic activity or representation (real Dawah, local & federal governments presence, presence in the judicial & law enforcement systems, etc) in America; it would only allow a controlled and weak form of Islam (think of Sufism, progressive, moderate Islam, etc).

[FAH1223]

what do you think of the downfall of the salafi dawah movement?

It means little, as the movement was never relevant. Some of its founders or leaders were government-paid informants. The fact is, the US government will not allow a strong presence of Islamic activity or representation (real Dawah, local & federal governments presence, presence in the judicial & law enforcement systems, etc) in America; it would only allow a controlled and weak form of Islam (think of Sufism, progressive, moderate Islam, etc).

how was it not relevant? it helped the former prison dudes and attracted people at the bottom of the barrel to Islam

and how do you know they were spies? Warya, if anyone is a spy I'd say you are

[AR1223]

how was it not relevant? it helped the former prison dudes and attracted people at the bottom of the barrel to Islam

and how do you know they were spies? Warya, if anyone is a spy I'd say you are

The movement helping the former prison dudes was a cost-effective measure for US authorities, as it helped stem violence, criminal activities, gang-related activities, and drop in crime rates. You could even imply the government created or encouraged the creation of that movement because it was spending a lot, incarcerating many, and previous prisoner rehabilitation projects/means failed. The movement's activities were confined to reforming those dudes so that the government wouldn't spend more incarcerating them and maintain overcrowded penitentiaries. You don't have to be repetitive about my spyness; you have noted it far more than enough.