Throwing it all away

Is all of what we are and what we know and what we’ve learned before the shahada to be discarded. Must we start from such a clean slate that it will make it impossible for anything new to take hold permanently? Slippery indeed is the path of a new shahada (new Muslim). So many new voices speaking, and too little time for self-reflection. Everything is swept in a desire to be correct in every action; but the hazard is becoming overwhelmed. Not all of what our grandmother’s taught us need be discarded and forgotten. We need not have to read the book of adab before we admit the truth of our mother and her teaching of good manners.

And yet this is what American Muslims face. Perhaps this is because American Muslims do not have a ‘national identity’ that is identifiably American. What do I mean by American Identity. Americans have Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July for example, but we have adopted our culture from all of the cultures that have come here. We do not have that which sparks a universal love of country. And because we do not have this anchor of national cultural norms, we have the cultural norms of our communities. But how is this negotiated once a person becomes Muslim? Does this mean they must forfeit their cultural identity for someone else that comes here with their culture in tact?