THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD: AN AMERICAN HERO

     In America, and in the West generally, there is a phenomena called Islamophobia. While I can understand how a misinformed person could be afraid of Islam, (and how Muslims often do things that make Islamophobia worse) those are problems that can be solved through dialogue and setting a good example. What I cannot understand and simply forgive, however, are people who slander Islam and knowingly misrepresent the religion. I am especially unhappy with people who slander the person and character of the Messenger of God, but here I would like to make an educated guess as to why they are so desperate to make him look bad.

     This is not to say that all or even most westerners are what we might call "Islamophobes". Most westerners simply don't know much if anything about Islam, much less about its Prophet. Informed Westerners seem to hold mostly positive views of him, but the average person would probably have to admit that they know basically nothing about him. They call Muhammad only the ugliest things they possibly can, their accusations are never mild. Part of that is the theatrical age we live in, with everyone trying to compete for attention, but part of it is desperation. Nobody accuses Muhammad of small crimes; they accuse him of genocide, pedophilia, murder, warmongering. Nobody accuses him of petty theft or gossip. Perhaps the real, unspoken reason for this incredible ugliness is this: these Islamophobes know, at least at some level, that the Prophet Muhammad's story would resonate very well with Americans. In other words, they know that he would become an American Hero.

     My being an American led me to instantly love and admire Muhammad, even before I accepted Islam. I identified with him, I admired him. Muhammad's story is, if I may be so bold, as American as apple pie, baseball and Fourth of July barbecues. His story was like a Western set in the Wild West of 7th-century Mecca and Medina. Before cowboys and outlaws fought big train companies, Muhammad fought the idolatry industry, he risked his life fighting against its greed and oppression, its indifference to the poor, its sexism and injustice. He was, by the standards of his time, what we might call a feminist, in that he allowed women unprecedented rights, such as the right to inherit propertry and initiate divorce. He was not telling people to worship one thing among many but to completely abandon material idols, both the ones in their shrines and altars as well as the idols in their purses and pockets. Americans admire people who, despite being at a disadvantage, have a goal. They admire people who, even though they are in a difficult or even seemingly impossible position, persist and eventually overcome their difficulties. They especially admire people who do so for a good cause and who maintain humility in victory- and nobody fits that description better than the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

    Americans also love ordinary people who become heroes by doing extraordinary things, who "beat the odds" as we say. Americans "root for the underdog"- this expression shows a general cultural mindset in which we usually sympathize with the disadvantaged side in a conflict, provided that they are fighting for a just cause. These are the types of people we feel we can relate to and identify with. "David and Goliath" has become more or less proverbial in our language at this point; in all three major Abrahamic religions David is the disadvantaged hero fighting against a much more powerful enemy, and yet he wins through his faith and conviction.

     We see this in Americans' perception of their history. Abraham Lincoln is generally considered the most popular US president for a number of reasons, but a large part of his popularity is that he was from a relatively poor family, a humble, simple man who had gone out and gotten himself a good education, became a good lawyer and eventually worked his way up to the presidency. The artistocratic and privileged Founding Fathers, while they command respect from the American people, do not command affection. We respect George Washington and John Adams, but we do not feel much affection towards them. We cannot relate to them the way we can relate to Abraham Lincoln. I would make one exception, and that is Benjamin Franklin, who was a simple book printer and worked his way up through talent and hard work. He is the one founding father that seems to command both respect and affection, again because he is someone ordinary people feel they can relate to at some level. He is one of a very few non-presidents to appear on the US dollar. Martin Luther King Jr.is another American Hero; he is one of two non-Presidents whose birthday is a national holiday. (The other is Christopher Columbus, but he receives much less fanfare.) He again fits the profile perfectly: a man who overcame adversity and kept his dignity the entire time.
   
     This admiration of disadvantaged but persistent heroes also appears in American stories and can be seen in our cinema. Our romantic comedies are often about nerdy, socially awkward men winning the hearts of beautiful women by taking risks and eventually beating the odds, and we have plenty of sports movies about disadvantaged athletes winning matches against all odds. Think of our movie icons: Rocky Balboa may be a fictional character, but that does not make him any less iconic. The Shawshank Redemption, now the top-rated film on the Internet Movie Database, is also one of our favorite classics because it is about a persistent, determined character overcoming a seemingly impossible disadvantage when he is unjustly imprisoned.

     The Prophet Muhammad's life, at the risk of sounding disrespectful, reads almost like an American novel or movie script. His is a story about a young orphan from a relatively poor family, an ordinary man with a family who had a goal and fought for it no matter what. He fought for a good cause, he fought and risked everything to make the world a better place, he had the courage to do what he believed was right even though he was at a huge disadvantage. He cheated death plenty of times; like an American movie, his life had moments when it appeared he had lost and been defeated. Members of his family rejected him and cut off ties with him. Former friends, people who used to call him "the Trustworthy", accused him of fabricating his story. He was mocked by the Meccans when his infant sons died- how could a man who had received a message from God experience such a misfortune? Later, he was stoned by the people of a city called Ta'if as he tried to bring the message of Islam to them. The early Muslims were ostracized from Meccan society for years, barely surviving the ordeal, and eventually the Prophet was forced to flee Mecca to save his life from an assassination attempt. He fled to Yathrib, now known as Medina, but even then his enemies sent army after army to destroy Islam. His life was extremely difficult indeed, but Muhammad and his followers never gave up. In spite of all this hardship, his story does indeed have an unexpected happy ending. In his sixties, after some two decades of persecution, attempts on his life, battle after battle and struggle after struggle, this old man, who had seen so many around him die, who had risked death himself so many times, finally returned home to Mecca, this time as a triumphant conqueror. He managed to take the city without even fighting an actual battle- his enemies were too terrified of the now-enormous Muslim army to even bother trying to repel them. Yet this triumphant conqueror showed humility in his victory- Muhammad rode into the city with his head bowed in reverence. They expected that, as was standard practice at the time, he would simply massacre them, but they were wrong. In a move that Americans, a people influenced by Christian ideals for so long, would admire, he forgave them. He even forgave Hind, a woman who had savagely killed his uncle Hamza years earlier. Americans always admire a hero who stays humble when he finally reaches his goal and acheives victory. Nobody fits that description better than the Messenger of God. He maintained this humility until the end of his life. He was buried in a simple grave in his house, returning to the earth from which we are all created and to which we all return eventually. Still, fourteen centuries later, Muslims still recite the book he revealed, still try to live by his example and still pray, "Oh Allah, peace and blessings be upon Muhammad, and his family and companions".
   
     There was no reason, from a worldly perspective, to think such a thing would ever happen, that such an ordinary man would become a Prophet or that an exiled man would return to his city and become its ruler, but he did. There was no reason to think that centuries later people would still follow him, but they do. His incredible persistence, his devotion to a just cause, this overcoming of seemingly impossible odds; all this heroism combined with humility would resonate powerfully with Americans if they heard this story. Even if they did not go as far as accepting Islam, they would at least view the Prophet positively and respect him. Muhammad is a figure ordinary people can relate to, a man who suffered the pain of being an orphan; of losing a spouse, a friend, even a child; a man who knew the joys and difficulties of marriage and fatherhood; a man who struggled to earn an honest living. He was the most ordinary man, but he did the most extraordinary thing. He was the ultimate American hero- perhaps Americans are about to find their next hero where they least expect it.