Deculturation requires speaking in the believers language instead of a foreign language. Hamza Yusuf, the president of Zaytuna College, a Muslim college in Berkley California, explains that Islam has always adapted itself to include the indigenous people much like water takes on the color of its container.
“Islam is pure, but it takes on the color of the vessel, so in Senegal it has a certain color in Indonesia it has a certain color and that’s why it’s different in Afghanistan. In every place Islam goes it’s the same water that has nourished the people, but it takes on its own coloring. That is part of its universality.
“If we were all meant to become Arabs, then that would be a disaster. That is nothing against Arabs, but it’s just not what Allah wanted for human beings, all to become Arabs. People ask me, ‘Why don’t you speak Arabic to your children?’ I say because it’s not my mother tongue. Their tongue is English that’s where we grew up.”
American Democratic Islam believes that if one’s tongue is English, Arabic is a barrier to the believer’s prayer life. One’s liturgical language should also be one’s native language. Why? First, because Allah speaks all languages, secondly the Qur’an does not say that prayers must be given in Arabic, and third, trying to pray in words you do not understand is a barrier to communion with God. In other words, prayer loses its spiritual essence when said from the head (cerebral recall of memorized words) instead spoken from the heart (spiritual inspiration).