At the annual Conference of Imams organized by Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) in New York, Professor Zahid Bukhari, ICNA president and director of Muslim Studies Program at Georgetown University, stated that American Muslims feel pressured to integrate into the American society following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bukhari compared Muslim integration to the seeking U.S. citizenship by other communities in the past two centuries, but pointed out that special circumstances demand that Muslims fully integrate in the next few decades.
A large number Imams from New York-area mosques as well as prominent figures of the Muslim and Pakistani community attended the one-day conference.
Professor Bukhari said Muslims must get away from the tendency of simply focusing on the internal workings of their own community and must become socially more inclusive to better serve the society. He said the ICNA leadership would work closely with all other communities for the common good of the citizens in America. He said ICNA was willing to collaborate with all communities everywhere to achieve this goal.
Commenting that the first Jewish family center in the United States opened in 1864, while ICNA opened the first Muslim family center in 1994, Professor Bukhari drew attention to the 200-year gap that Muslims must make up in the next few decades. He believed American Muslims might require another three decades to fully integrate and play a more proactive role in mainstream society.
Muslims were not psychologically and financially ready to fulfill their social obligations right after 9/11, according to Professor Bukhari, "but now they have no option. The sooner Muslims integrate the better it is." He believes this transition can be made smoothly by taking an institutional approach, and the Islamic Circle of North America –Muslim American Society (ICNA-MAS) Convention provided an excellent platform for it.
Also addressing the conference, ICNA New York's Amir [President] Dr. Yousufuddin said Muslims could make progress in joining the American mainstream by promoting more interaction with other communities and developing a unified strategy. He admonished all ICNA members to participate in the ICNA-MAS Convention in order to support these efforts, and expected thousands of Muslims to attend this year's convention. The Imams were formally invited to the 35th annual ICNA-MAS convention, "Save family, save society," to be held in Hartford, Connecticut, from May 29th to the 31st.
Other speakers who addressed the conference touched on different issues confronting the Muslim community. Some speakers believed that the Muslim community was not paying enough attention to the Islamic schools and urged support to hire good teachers and improve the standard of their instruction. They also noted that the monthly tuition fee of $300 per student charged by most of the Islamic schools was exorbitant and that many parents could not afford it.
