A Gallup poll, released today provides important information about the experience of American Muslims. The most striking data include the fact that American Muslims report that they are thriving, more than do any other group of Muslims in the world, with the exception of those living in Saudi Arabia and Germany. At the same time however, they score out as the least contented religious group in America, when compared with Jews, Mormons, Catholics, and all Protestant denominations.
Is this a crazy contradiction? I think not.
Any group that reports thriving, but remains discontented, could be charged with an unfair, if not altogether insatiable need for everything from material success to social acceptance, to outright dominance of the ambient culture, in order to be contented. That will be the “take away” for those for whom any new information about Muslims is meant to confirm a set of ugly presumptions about both Islam and those who practice it. And while there is reason for some concern about why it is American Muslim youth amongst whom the discontent is greatest, it’s hardly the obvious conclusion here.

Perhaps what is happening is that as the community achieves the kind of material success which can be defined as “thriving”, there come a widening of horizons and the growing expectation of what can yet be achieved, but hasn’t yet. That would explain the “discontent”.
If that is the case, then this is really about managing expectations and the ethics of success. How does any community feel the fullness of what is has succeeded, keep reaching for more, and not allow the reach for more to undermine the joy at all that has been accomplished? How do any of us do that?
How do we learn to be happy even if we are not satisfied? How do we nurture ambition and expectation, which are the drivers of all great achievement, without becoming cynical or bitter? How American Muslims or any other Americans answer these questions is especially important in these tough times. How any faith or practice helps us to do so, may be one of the most useful measures of their value.