Hey, wait a minute.
That was my delayed reaction this morning after reading an excellent St. Louis Post-Dispatch profile of a young, hip new imam:
Over the last decade or so, Asif Umar has practiced an unusual Ramadan tradition. The 27-year-old St. Charles native, who started last week as the new imam at the largest mosque in the area, celebrates the end of Islam’s holiest month by going to a Blues game with his buddies.
“He’s a sports junkie,” said Umar’s friend Nauman Wadalawala, a third-year law student at St. Louis University. “Whenever we go to a Cards game, he always has to wear his Pujols jersey. It’s interesting to see this religious scholar, sitting in good seats, with his beard and Cardinals jersey.”
Umar, whose parents came to the United States from India in the 1970s, is the first native St. Louisan to lead the Daar-ul-Islam mosque, also known as the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. He also represents the ascendence of a distinctly American brand of Islam, a new generation of Muslim-Americans who were born in the United States and who spent their teenage years in the often uncomfortable glare of the post-Sept. 11 spotlight.
Immigrant parents of American-born Muslims who once insisted that their children become doctors and engineers have begun relaxing those expectations for a new crop of young Muslim-American scholars who feel drawn to be faith leaders, said Yvonne Haddad, a professor of the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Page 1 piece by Godbeat pro Tim Townsend. But after finishing all 1,300-plus words, a strange question occurred to me: Did the story even quote the imam himself?
A quick check revealed that sure enough, it did — but only briefly:
Umar may be utterly familiar to other young American Muslims, but he’s not what most non-Muslims might expect in an imam.
As Umar says, “Not every imam went to a Catholic school in the suburbs.”
For a typical feature introducing a new imam, pastor, priest or rabbi, a reader might expect the reporter to sit down for an interview with the spiritual leader and flip on the digital recorder. The routine story appearing in print would be told mainly from the perspective of the person featured.
Alas, Townsend’s profile of Umar is neither typical nor routine.
Here’s why: The writer does his homework. He interviews friends, experts and Muslim leaders — quoting no less than nine of them. He packs the profile with compelling anecdotes and insights as well as revealing context on the significance of Umar’s selection.
Beyond the commendable sourcing, Townsend struts his stuff as a religion beat specialist. He defines terms such as hafiz, fiqh and Alim. He explains that Islamic law is “the rituals and social contracts that make up the daily life of an observant Muslim” and that memorizing the Quran “is a task Muslims regard as a noble, virtuous endeavor looked upon highly by God.”
I do wish the piece had included just a few more quotes from the imam himself. For example, I’d love to know why he enjoys Blues hockey and what his experience was like attending a Catholic school.
I also wish the piece had avoided its one use of the word “Islamophobic” in favor of a less loaded, more concrete term.
But those are minor qualms with what is a fine piece of daily journalism.
Kudos to Townsend and the Post-Dispatch.
St. Louis photo via Shutterstock
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Comments (15) |
January 13, 2012, at 11:50 am
Was it something (positive) I said?
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January 13, 2012, at 1:31 pm
Bobby -
I’m going to repeat a suggestion that’s been made before. The like/dislike buttons on the comments are fun, but if you want feedback on an article, add the option to the story itself, as is done here. Face it, positive stories, well-written stories aren’t going to elicit commentary, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t read and appreciated.
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January 13, 2012, at 1:43 pm
Passing By,
I agree that a like button on the posts would be nice. But much smarter people than me apparently haven’t figured out how to make that happen yet.
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January 13, 2012, at 2:04 pm
Being from the Post Dispatch region, instead of commenting here I went to read the comments box at the newspaper. Almost 100 comments and 95% are just appalling.
Good for Tim - I don’t think his efforts are appreciated.
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January 13, 2012, at 2:13 pm
Unfortunately, that doesn’t surprise me, Julia.
I almost never read comments on newspaper or other media sites because generally they’re not moderated and generally they’re nasty. I really wish more people in the media would devote resources to moderating comments and making them adhere to certain standards. Not to squash disagreement or debate, but to maintain a more respectful decorum. Otherwise, in my view, the comments are useless.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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January 13, 2012, at 2:18 pm
Newspaper comments are the worst. I just read through a comment thread at the New York Times that was so bigoted — on an article that could arguably be read as anti-bogtry, no less — that it made me just feel horrible.
Our commenters, however, are almost always thoughtful and engaging and nice. Reading a random newspaper article’s comments helps me remember this.
Also, I enjoyed the article, too. Townsend took a break to write a book and it’s great to see him back.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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January 13, 2012, at 2:20 pm
Re: Muslims sending kids to Catholic schools.
Although there is a lot of press coverage of Christians, and in particular Catholics, being attacked in Muslim majority areas around the world, there are a lot of places where they get along well.
This imam’s parents are from Northern India where there are few Christians, but in southern India there are a lot of indigenous Catholics who get along well with their Hindu and Muslim neighbors. One of the newly-announced Catholic Cardinals is the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholics of Kerala in the far South of India, who have been there since the early centuries of Christianity.
http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/siro-maalbaresi-syro-malabar-siro-malabar-india-george-alencherry-11517/
Similarly, many of the Muslims settling in the Detroit area send their children to Catholic schools. Here’s some info on Miss Michigan, a Shia Muslim:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rima_Fakih
The news isn’t all bad.
http://www.themichigancatholic.com/2011/10/abp-vigneron-honored-by-area-muslims/
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January 13, 2012, at 2:35 pm
For some reason there was no Twitter item on your story at least on my feed. And, being out here on the West coast, I tend to get to things a bit later than all you Easterners do.
Anyway, to the story: I liked it and your review but wondered about the capitalization of the musical style known as the blues until I read the article
There’s one extremely important point the story makes that deserves much more attention:
There are hints of what that means in this story, but I was left wanting a lot more about what that means.
It’s also interesting that his parents came from India rather than the middle East. Obviously the Muslim experience in India is worlds apart from Saudi Arabia.
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January 13, 2012, at 2:47 pm
Hmmmmmm. It’s showing up on the GetReligion Twitter page. Not sure what happened on your end. It’s an automatic Twitter feed.
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January 13, 2012, at 3:39 pm
Maybe a twit is operating a gateway between your Twitter page and my browser?
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January 13, 2012, at 11:04 pm
I like to catch up on the local news on my local newspaper’s web site (http://www.azcentral.com), but the comments on the stories almost invariably leave me feeling dumber. I wish there were a way I could turn them off because they have a significantly negative impact on my interaction with the newspaper.
Curiously, azcentral’s “Offbeat” section comments, while snarky, are usually much more cheerful than the rest of the newspaper and far less likely to fall into the predictable templates bashing immigrants, Obama, Gov. Jan Brewer, etc.
-John
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January 14, 2012, at 9:32 am
Bobby R., regarding your wish that the article included more quotes from Mufti Umar, it is obvious that Mr. Townsend had a fun conversation with the Imam. The St Louis Dispatch ran a sidebar with the Imam’s comments on the St. Louis sports franchises: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/an-imam-s-sports-views/article_9f0683a9-a839-5a69-b2ff-8c8fa0021924.html
including this:
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January 14, 2012, at 10:18 am
MJBubba,
Thanks much for the link!
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January 14, 2012, at 12:58 pm
Hope it’s not too far afield, but I want to second Bobby’s notion that well-moderated comments can add immensely to the topic of an article, as (in my opinion) they do on this site. Most of the time.
Professional journalism, like all professions (mine included) suffers from an insularity that can narrow both the range of topics and the way one views any particular topic. The give and take of commentary would - could, I should say - open up a new vista for journalism, if anyone can figure out how to manage it.
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January 14, 2012, at 1:03 pm
I should have noted that broadening is for the consumer like me as much or more so than for the pros. I never knew that reporters don’t write their own headlines. That’s a small thing, but it makes me a better - or at least a more patient - reader. Larger issues come along as well.
It should be noted that comments as a useful tool presumes a good will on the part of journalist and reader. You have to be interested in something besides your own opinions.
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