美国国家公共电台 NPR Sept. 11 Marked Turning Point For Muslims In Increasingly Diverse America

Sept. 11 Marked Turning Point For Muslims In Increasingly Diverse America 

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Every year this happens - at least to me. The anniversary of 9/11 approaches. You think it's finally been long enough that the day won't affect you that much. And then the day arrives, and it does. The country has changed as we approach the 15th anniversary, and that includes a change in our national religious identity. Here's NPR's Tom Gjelten.

TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE²: The United States was changing before 9/11 with immigrants already arriving from distant lands in record numbers. At the Harvard Divinity School, Diana Eck had just published a book titled "A New Religious America: How A Christian³ Country Has Become The World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation." The changes she highlighted then have continued.

DIANA ECK: Culturally, we are a country of Bollywood and bhangra and tai chi and yoga and salsas and burritos and halal and kosher.

GJELTEN: Growing diversity presents a challenge for our country. America's motto is e pluribus unum - out of many, one. But when there's so much pluribus, what's the unum? Professor Eck says it's a commitment to common principles.

ECK: Then we have those common principles in the United States. They're constitutional principles. They're principles that have more to do with a sort of ethos, a cultural ethos of neighborliness, for example.

GJELTEN: But 9/11 challenged that ethos. The attacks were carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam, and their image has suffered. When the Pew Research Center asked Americans two years ago to rank eight major religious groups, Muslims came in at the very bottom. And Muslim Americans feel it. A majority have said after 9/11 it became harder to be a Muslim in this country. But the lesson that immigrant Muslims in particular took from that is that they needed to become more engaged in America, socially, politically and mentally.

ZAHID BUKHARI: Before September 11, Muslims were - the majority of them, they were living here physically⁴. Mentally, spiritually, they were living back home.

GJELTEN: Zahid Bukhari came from Pakistan in the '80s. He now lives in Frederick, Md. He's held high office in several Muslim organizations and always urges his fellow Muslims, including the most devout⁵, to keep their focus here, like he now does.

BUKHARI: God will not ask them at the day of judgment⁶ what they have done in Karachi or Lahore or Istanbul. God will ask me what I have done in Frederick with my family, with my neighbors. Did I become a symbol of goodness or a symbol of badness?

GJELTEN: It does seem the more interaction there is between people of different backgrounds the better their relations. Besheer Mohamed directed that Pew study of Americans' attitudes toward religious minorities.

BESHEER MOHAMED: People who said that they knew a Muslim personally rated Muslims significantly higher than people who said they didn't know Muslims.

GJELTEN: Since 9/11, interfaith efforts in America have expanded, but Islam still has an image problem. Pew researchers have found that the number of people who think Islam encourages violence has grown during the last 15 years. Another change - feelings about Muslims and Islam have become much more partisan⁷ in this time. Zahid Bukhari was one of the researchers behind a study of how Muslim Americans voted in the 2000 election.

BUKHARI: Among immigrant Muslims, they supported George Bush because George Bush at that time spoke⁸ very much in favor of Arabs.

GJELTEN: And it wasn't just what Bush said about Arabs. Many Muslim Americans liked conservative Republican positions on social issues. But in the years since 9/11, Muslim Americans have almost entirely⁹ abandoned the Republican Party, driven away in part by what they hear from Republican politicians.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP¹⁰: I think Islam hates us.

GJELTEN: Donald Trump speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper last March.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: There's something there that's a tremendous hatred¹¹.

GJELTEN: Besides Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists¹² here are held in relatively¹³ lower esteem¹⁴ than Christians¹⁵ and Jews. It's these recent immigrant faith traditions that are struggling to gain acceptance. But 15 years after 9/11, Americans know their country is less white and less Christian than it used to be.

ECK: These movements are not things that are going somehow to be stopped and everyone's going to be sent home. This is part of the natural evolution of who we are as America.

GJELTEN: Diana Eck of Harvard where she teaches comparative religion and reminds us that diversity is now our destiny. Tom Gjelten, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

5 devout   

adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness)

参考例句：

• His devout Catholicism appeals to ordinary people.他对天主教的虔诚信仰感染了普通民众。
• The devout man prayed daily.那位虔诚的男士每天都祈祷。

6 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

7 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

10 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

11 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

12 Buddhists   

n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Jesuits in a phase of ascendancy, persecuted and insulted the Buddhists with great acrimony. 处于地位上升阶段的耶稣会修士迫害佛教徒，用尖刻的语言辱骂他们。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The return of Saivite rule to central Java had brought no antagonism between Buddhists and Hindus. 湿婆教在中爪哇恢复统治后，并没有导致佛教徒与印度教徒之间的对立。 来自辞典例句

13 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

14 esteem   

n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• The veteran worker ranks high in public love and esteem.那位老工人深受大伙的爱戴。

15 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。