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Taking as its starting point the
fact that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States, a religion
that will soon replace Judaism, the second largest religion of the country, this
volume examines such issues as Islamic identity, anti-discrimination laws,
African-American Islam, Islam in the American press, mosque design, economic
security, Islamic legal views on Muslims minorities, and female conversion.
These issues are all part, as John L. Esposito notes in his ‘introduction’, of a
central question faced by Muslims in the United States: ‘Will they remain
Muslims in America or become American Muslims? ’ (p. 3); in other words, to what
extent will Muslims become integrated into American society, and what are the
potential costs of such integration?
The first section of the book
addresses what the editors term the ‘American path option’. YvonneYazbeck Haddad
examines the diversity within the American Muslim community, arguing that the
stereotypes of Islam and hostility to Islam and Muslims in the United States
creates a climate where Muslims in the US often feel powerless and alienated.
Various solutions have been formulated by different Muslim communities to remedy
this situation. Some immigrant leaders urge Muslim immigrants to return to their
countries of origin and establish Islamic governments there; some religious
leaders urge the establishment of stronger Islamic communities within the US
that can take constructive action to address stereotypes of Muslims; and many
African American Muslim communities have become active in promoting programmes
to address the problems of the inner cities. Haddad also touches on an issue
that is addressed in several other articles in the collection – the diversity of
Islamic thought and practice in the US and, in particular, the differences
between the African-American Muslim communities and immigrant Muslim
communities.
Khaled Abu al-Fadl continues the
discussion of Muslim minorities in the US by examining how the Islamic law
treats Muslim minorities. The author points out that while traditional legal
scholarship urges Muslims to reside in Muslim majority areas, it also concedes
that Muslims may live in non-Muslim majority lands so long as they are able to
fulfill their religious obligations. Muslim minority communities often find
themselves facing difficult issues regarding how they should live. Questions
such as the advisability of voting, whether state or religious law is binding,
whether or not a Muslim should fight to defend non-Muslim states/societies, and
whether and to what extent Muslims should participate in the community life of a
non-Muslim community are all issues that Muslim minorities have had to deal
with. Abu al-Fadl notes that while reformers have been calling for a
reinterpretation of Islamic law that would enable the Muslims to deal with such
issues, the majority of the ‘ulamā’ continue to emphasize the traditional view
and argue that Muslims are required to abide by the teaching of classical Islam.
Yusuf Talal De Lorenzo expands on
this issue in the next article. De Lorenzo takes the Fiqh Council of North
America as an example of the reformist trend mentioned by Abu al-Fadl. Some
North American Muslims have argued that only religious scholars living in North
America are qualified to interpret Islamic law for the Muslim minority
communities there (because they know and understand the issues Muslim minorities
face); the Council was formed in order to respond to the legal question of
Muslims in North America.
The final article in this section,
written by Mohammad A. Muqtedar Khan, addresses the related issue of identity
politics in the United States. Picking up on the theme of diversity within the
American Muslim community, Khan argues that division within the Muslim community
is often a stumbling block to interaction and cooperation among those of the
same faith. Khan’s study concludes that divisions are most evident among Muslim
immigrants, who tend to become more involved in political issues in the US than
they had been at home; in contrast, Khan sees US-born Muslims as being more open
and tolerant and less sectarian. While Khan points out that such divisions have
detrimental effects on the Muslim community in the US (lack of large
contributions to Muslim organizations, failure to elucidate unified goals and
strategies, etc.), he also notes that despite such diversity and conflict, there
are several issues on which Muslims in the US have common or similar views, for
example, international Muslim politics, the hypocrisy of US foreign policy, and
negative media portrayals of Muslims.
The next section takes up the
question of the veil and female conversion to Islam. Kathleen Moore’s article on
religious discrimination and employment law in the US begins this section. Moore
argues that contrary to the commonly held notion that constitutional law has
been developed to ensure that minority religious communities are more accepted
and tolerated in American society, recent appellate rulings show a disturbing
trend towards conservative interpretations of religious freedom. These recent
decisions emphasize state interest, often at the expense of religious liberty.
Discussing at length a Pennsylvania case involving a school teacher who wore the
Hijāb, Moore concludes: ‘American constitutional law as presently constructed is
incapable of solving the problem of the observant Muslim who wears the veil in a
secular state.’ (p. 9). Esmail Shakeri continues the discussion in the next
chapter. Shakeri examines the Canadian debate on the Hijāb, using as a case
study a Montreal school board decision to ban the wearing of the Hijāb in
schools. For Shakeri, the disturbing issue in the Canadian context went deeper
than a conservative interpretation of religious liberty; instead, the crux of
the problem was that the debate on the legality of the school board decision was
not framed in terms of religious liberty at all. Rather, the discussion was
centred on what the Hijāb represented to its opponents.
Carol Amway’s article addresses
the broader issue of female conversion to Islam in North America. The author
studied American and Canadian female converts and examined their reasons for
conversion, their family backgrounds, and the impact of their conversions on
themselves and their families. Amway concludes that as a group, these converts
do not see a contradiction between Islam and American values; on the contrary,
they tend to see similarities in the types of values emphasized by their
religion, Islam, and their American culture, for example, family, community,
education, and discipline.
The third section addresses the
diversity of the African-American Muslim experience. Ernest Allen’s work
compares the formative views of the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of
Islam. While concluding that the two have theological differences, Allen argues
that the organizing principles of both were similar. Both sought to address the
question of why African-Americans suffered and both sought to formulate a system
of belief and practice that emphasized dual spiritual and material progress,
family life, individual responsibility, hard work, and frugality in order to
provide mechanisms for ending that suffering. Yusuf Nuruddin continues to
address the question of African-American Muslim identity, arguing that this
three-fold heritage (African, American, and Muslim) can be both a force for
conflict. Replete with extensive endnotes, Nuruddin’s article is an impressive
examination of the progression of the African-American and African American
Islamic movements (from black nationalism and black separatism to radical
Islamic separatism, to assimilation movements, to Farrakhan’s reassertion of the
separatist legacy of the Nation of Islam and movement towards more traditional
Islam). The author concludes that the tension between racial identity and
Islamic universalism must be addressed through organization, combining
resources, and pooling talents. Robert Dannin’s piece on the multi-ethnic
dilemma of American Muslims complete this section of the work. Taking as his
starting point the diversity in local mosques and the diversity in the
African-American Muslim reaction to the Gulf War, Dannin, like Nuruddin,
concludes that there is considerable conflict between race/ethnicity and Islam
within local communities. Dannin points to ‘endless crises of identity’ among
African-American Muslims (p. 266) and concludes by arguing that transcending the
barriers of race and ethnicity is ‘the greatest challenge facing American
Muslims in the next century’ (p. 279).
The final section of the book
discusses the difficulties of preserving cultural heritage and adapting to
American life. Greg Noakes addresses the persistent problem of negative coverage
of Islam and anti-Muslim stereotypes in the American media. Identifying the
reasons for such unfavourable press coverage (e.g. sensationalism, advertising
revenue, domestic lobbies, ideological bias of the ‘experts’), Noakes agrees
that while some problems are difficult to be solved, based as they are in
centuries of cultural and political mistrust, others can be effectively
remedied. Noakes urges American Muslims both to take constructive action and to
recognize that negative coverage of Islam may continue so long as violent acts
are carried out in the name of the religion. Elise Goldwasser’s article on the
Muslims community in Durham, North Carolina, is a fascinating case study of the
relationship between economic position and cultural identity. Goldwasser
contrasts the Eritrean community with a broader, more prosperous Muslim
community and argues that because Eritrean immigrants in Durham are
characterized by low economic status, little marketable skill, and limited
English language proficiency, they tend to assimilate more to American culture.
In contrast, the more prosperous Muslim community tends to assimilate less to
American culture, preserving instead its Islamic identity. Goldwasser contends
that in this case, preservation of an Islamic identity is a luxury affordable
only to the prosperous. In the final chapter of the book, Omar Khalidi examines
the history of immigrant mosque building in the United States. Complete with
numerous photographs of different mosque styles, Khalidi’s article wrestles with
the issue of the feasibility of applying traditional Middle Eastern/Islamic
architectural patterns in American neighbourhoods. After discussing mosque
design in several states, Khalidi concludes that traditional architectural
designs reinforce a view of Islam as a static, unchangeable religion; he urges
mosque designers to build centre of worship that not only fulfill Islamic
requirements but also reinterpret traditions to meet the requirement of a new
environment.
This volume thus provides the
reader with a smorgasbord of food for thought. While a final chapter, typing
these issues together and offering concluding remarks, would have been most
welcome, the work nonetheless is extremely valuable to those interested in the
tensions between religious and cultural identity. The recurring themes of the
word (diversity within the Muslim community, intra-faith religious and political
tensions, and adaptation to North American societies and vice versa) allow the
reader to make connections between articles. While one might not initially see a
link between a Canadian school board decision, for instance, and mosque
architecture, the authors are able to use case studies such as these effectively
to illustrate the broader themes of the volume as a whole.
Courtesy: Islamic Studies, Spring 2001
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