Real Stories of American Muslims

by John C. Snider © 2008

If there’s one point author Melody Moezzi drives home in her new book War on Error, it’s that American Muslims have their work cut out for them these days.  They are, to coin a phrase, caught between two worlds.  The English name “Melody” combined with the Iranian “Moezzi” is in itself a summary of the situation in which many young American Muslims find themselves.  Those who are first or second generation Americans (what Moezzi humorously labels Children of Fresh-Off-the-Boats, or COFOBs) struggle to find a day-by-day middle ground between mainstream American culture, which is largely and often willfully ignorant of any faith other than Protestant Christianity, and the deep-seated Islamic traditions of their forefathers.  They are often called upon by their non-Muslim fellow citizens to account for the actions of the extremists within their faith (”…this mistaken minority of hate-mongers and power-seekers who fraudulently claim to be acting in the name of Islam.”).  The Western world is very much in conflict with this highly vocal and decidedly violent minority, regardless of how much we might wish it to be otherwise.  Fortunately, the United States has so far been spared the variety of home-grown extremists that have caused so much trouble in Spain, France and the United Kingdom.

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