Imam Momodou Ceesay: "We can be American and Muslim, too"

The experience of Ramadan varies in different countries around the world, especially in countries such as Indonesia or Morocco where the majority of the population is Muslim. Imam Momodou Ceesay immigrated to the United States from Gambia in 1989 at the age of 25. He eventually settled in the Detroit area where, in 1995, he helped found the Gambian Michigan Organization, a group preserving West African Muslim traditions in the U.S. Imam Ceesay still serves as the group’s spiritual leader. Here are his reflections on Ramadan:

   Know that Islam is a peaceful religion. We have love and we were commanded in the Quran to have love for everybody, every human being, regardless of what they believe, and what they do. As long as they are human beings, they deserve all good things, and to work together. That’s what I want to tell you.
   One difference between American Muslims and African Muslims is that most of the people over there were born Muslim, so they find most everything natural in African culture, and here most of the people were Christian before they were converted to Islam. Like the Night of Power, here, they observe it regularly, but over there, it is a very, very important night everywhere. It’s not only mosques, but on street corners. You can find crowds there, reciting Quran, listening to scholars. Here it is an isolated event, but there it’s accepted as the general culture.
   There is another difference between Islam in America and Islam in Africa, I can say. Largest difference is understanding. Here, for most people it’s hard to recite the Quran, because the nature of the language barrier. Of course for most Africans, Arabic is not our language and the Quran is in Arabic. But to be born Muslim—your parents, your grandparents, your great grand parents were Muslim—the Quran is recited in your ear day and night.

   Most of the people here in America think that when you are Muslim you have to have an association with Arabs and Arabic culture in order to be Muslim and be happy as a Muslim. That’s not the case in Africa. In Africa, we understood that we are Muslim, and we believe in God and the Quran, but at the same time, we have our own culture with no relations to Arab culture. I just try to teach my students here what Islam’s about, and that everybody can believe in their culture, also.
   You still can maintain your culture, or you can maintain your clothes or whatever else from your culture. In Africa, we wear African clothes, and here we wear Western clothes, which are a little bit different. Our ladies wear African clothes when they are praying in Senegal. You don’t see anyone there who looks like an Arab woman.
   I try to teach the real Islam. We can be an American … and a Muslim, too.

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