An issue infectious to the life of every member in my discourse community at my Mosque’s youth program is an issue completely alien to the greater majority of Non-Muslims Americans. To explain the issue briefly and to the best of my ability I must first lay out some foundational information to invite clarity in my explanation of the problem facing our youth group. I should start by mentioning that all of the members in the aforementioned discourse community are muslim males in their adolescence. The group is all-male because the comingling of both sexes are restricted after the age that one begins to hit puberty and because I am a male, naturally I can only speak of the issues that face the members of our all-male muslim American youth group but I imagine the broader extent of the issue does not discriminate on the basis of gender.

With all that said, let me start by mentioning that all members are sons to immigrant parents but they themselves were either born or raised within the states. And so that means at every corner of life we have been met with a crossroads between upholding the religious and cultural values taught by our parents or adopting new ones in favor of acceptance from our peers. We established the youth program to help one another navigate these “crossroads” together by creating an environment in which one can be vulnerable enough to let another know when they feel conflicted. Our philosophy on life in relation to religion is that, life is like a maze and religion is like the map that keeps you from getting lost so long as you make all the right turns. But this “maze” is configured in a way so that making the right turns is much harder and scarier than making the wrong turns. In other words, it is extremely easy and likely to get lost.

When we were younger, when met with a crossroads of sorts, we were faced with a lot of unhealthy external pressure to choose a certain path. This made many of us feel as though the decision was being made for us instead of being left to our own devices to make a decision for ourselves. Naturally the frustration of not being in control caused many of us to act out in retaliation. Noura Badawi, an educator at Teachers College Columbia University, perfectly pinpoints the internal dilemma we all have had to face at one point in our lives in the following quote, “Muslim teenagers are very conflicted; they have a need to assimilate, but they also have a strong desire to please their parents and their community,” she said. “Sometimes the pressure is so great that the teenagers go the complete opposite direction or break free by moving away as soon as an opportunity comes up.”