The song that will not stop haunting me

I recently came across a song by Muslim singer Dawud Wharnsby Ali entitled, "Ya Ummati (O My Nation)." It has not stopped haunting me since. The song is about the cries of Muslim children to the deaf ears of their brothers and sisters. The verses that gripped me the most were these: "Come listen to her story with me/In a world of opportunity/A little girl has lots to say/But everyone's so far away...Her tiny life and tiny hands shake/Ashamed of her unknown mistake/A child's hopes and tears in vain/She believes she is to blame...Ya Ummati (O my nation) answer me/ Why am I suffering this way?/Ummati (My nation) I am so afraid/Don't I have the right to learn and play?"

Why has this song haunted me so? Because Islam places a very heavy emphasis on unity, brotherhood, and sisterhood. The Qur'an states: "Verily the believers are but a single Brotherhood" (49:10) and "Hold fast onto the rope of God and be not divided" (3:103). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said, "The Muslim nation is like one body; if one part is injured, the whole body is in pain." Whenever I see or read about the suffering of Muslims, whether it is in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir, or Afghanistan, my heart aches with pain and guilt. I feel pain at their suffering; I feel guilt for the putrid failure of my brotherhood.

Whenever I hear that song, I envision countless little eyes glaring at me and burning a hole into my being. I can almost hear them say to me, "My nation I am so afraid. Don't I have the right to learn and play?" I answer back, "Yes, you do," and feel totally ashamed. I have been blessed with being an American, being born and raised in the best country in the world. Here, I don't have to dodge bullets on my way to work. I do not fear for my life when I go to buy groceries. I do not have to worry about my children starving to death or dying from malnutrition. I have been blessed, and thus I am ashamed at my failure to help my little brothers and sisters live better lives.

That failure, alas, rests solely upon the shoulders of Muslims. It is easy to blame others for our predicaments. After all, it is the United States who supports and maintains the economic sanctions that are starving the children of Iraq. It is the United States who undyingly supports Israel and her brutal occupation of Palestinian land. It is the United States, I constantly hear, who supports many of the brutal dictatorships of the Muslim world. Thus, the story goes, the United States is to blame. Hogwash.

The United States, like any other country on earth, is only after what it perceives to be its national interest. The onus falls upon American Muslims to become politically active and work toward a more just and equitable foreign policy. This is the least American Muslims must do. In the Day of Judgment, God will ask us about how we used our time and wealth to help alleviate the suffering of Muslims throughout the world. Sure, Muslims can donate to international relief agencies; there are many to choose from. That is neither enough nor a permanent solution, however. Even if Muslims could donate $1 billion per day to relief organizations, a better approach would be to work towards ending the conflicts that generate the hardship, suffering, and misery of the millions of Muslims worldwide.

Yet, Muslims cannot stop there. In spike Lee's film, Malcolm X, there was a scene in which Malcolm X was taunted by being told, "Muslims talk a good game, but they never do anything...unless somebody bothers Muslims." Unfortunately, this is true of Muslims today. We now, rightfully so, decry and bemoan the profiling of Muslim Americans. Yet, I did not remember our condemnation of the racial profiling of African-Americans and Hispanics by police to be as loud or as forceful. This is wrong.

The Qur'an demands that Muslims fight against injustice perpetrated against anyone, Muslim or not: "O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor" (4:135) The Prophet Muhammad, prior to his ministry, was a party to the Fudul Alliance, in which every member agreed to fight injustice perpetrated against anyone, regardless of tribe or social station. He mentioned that had a similar alliance been formed after his becoming Prophet, he would join it. There are millions of people around the world, who are not Muslim, that are suffering as well, and it should be American Muslims' duty, through their political activism, to help them also. Just as we forcefully spoke out against the genocide that was perpetrated in the Balkans, we should have spoken out with as much vigor, force, and enthusiasm against the genocide that took place in Rwanda or against the war in the Congo. What's more, we do not have to look far at all to find little children calling out, "My nation, I am so afraid." There are thousands, if not millions, of battered, abused, hungry, and homeless children right here in the United States. They also have the right to learn and play, and we should be fighting for them as well.

I would be delighted to see a Muslim relief agency (call it, Crescent Relief-USA) formed that would concentrate on providing disaster relief within the United States. I have lost count of the number of Muslim international relief organizations currently in operation, which is great. Yet, there are thousands of victims here in the United States who urgently need help. What better way to be neighborly than to provide food, medicine, and shelter to victims of a flood in Texas, or a tornado in Oklahoma, or a hurricane in Florida. There would be no strings attached, no lectures or pamphlets about Islam; just a helping hand, warm bread, and a hot bowl of soup. It is such a Muslim thing to do, and frankly, the time has come for American Muslims to take up this work, for the betterment of the land they call home.

Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago physician and columnist for Beliefnet.com. He is author of "Why I love the Ten Commandments," which will appear in the forthcoming book Taking Back Islam, due to be released by Rodale in October 2002.