November 20, 2005

By Sara Hooker
Daily Herald, 11/20/05 

Under the still-lingering clouds brought by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more than 100 people met Saturday in Lisle to ask, can a person be both Muslim and American?

As a new generation of Muslim Americans reaches adulthood, members say they often feel pressure to state what they believe.

The pressure, explored in a Saturday afternoon lecture at Benedictine University in Lisle, sometimes is societal in nature and sometimes come from their own parents whose beliefs are often dramatically different.

The question becomes: "Are you like me: your parents who are immigrants? Or are you like them: your neighbors and friends who are American?" said Edina Lekovic, communications director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. "It's an artificial contrast or an artificial separation."

For Muslims born in America, this is the only country they've known, compared to their parents - who immigrated here and often have an allegiance to their homeland, she said.

The challenges are different, Lekovic said, and sometimes Muslim Americans have to decide which one they are at that moment.

For example, she said when she gets on an airplane, whether real or perceived, she feels like all eyes are on her.

"That's when I go into Miss America goodwill mode and I'm like, 'Good afternoon,' or, 'How are you,' wanting to express the fact that I speak English and overcompensating all those things regardless of what I want to do," Lekovic said. "I can do one of two things? I can run from my Islam personality."

Or she can embrace it and unite others to understand that it's possible to be both, she said.