scholarly journals American Muslims’ Da’wah Work and Islamic Conversion

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 383
Author(s):  
Yufeng Chen ◽  
Saroja Dorairajoo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Islam In America ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Negative Images

Prior to the “9/11 attacks”, negative images of Islam in America were prevalent, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks made the situation for, and image of, Islam more sinister than before. Notwithstanding the extreme Islamophobia, one notes that, ironically in America, more people have been embracing Islam since, at least, the beginning of the twentieth century. Conversion to Islam in America seems to be a deviation from the adverse American public opinions towards Islam. An important question that, therefore, arises is: “Why are Americans converting to Islam despite negative public perception of the religion?” Perhaps Americans have been coerced into conversion by Muslim preachers through the latter’s meticulous and hard-hitting missionary work. In this qualitative study, the authors aim to explore how the missionary work, i.e., “Da’wah”, by some American Muslim missionaries influenced the conversion to Islam of those who were in contact with them. The authors argue that, unlike other Abrahamic proselytizing faiths such as Christianity or the Bahai faith, American Muslim proselytizing was not solely based on direct teaching of the tenets of the religion but also one that demonstrated faith by deeds or actions, which then made Islam attractive and influenced conversion of non-Muslims. These findings come from in-depth fieldwork that included interviews with forty-nine Muslim converts across the United States between June 2014 and May 2015.

scholarly journals American Muslims

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-134
Author(s):  
Katherine Bullock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Islam In America ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Relationship

With a picture of a minaret superimposed on the Statue of Liberty, thisbook's cover is a striking introduction to what is inside. Like the Statue ofLiberty that has acted as a beacon of freedom for wave after wave ofrefugees and immigrants, Khan argues that Muslims in America are beaconsfor the Muslim world, calling the ummah to an Islam of moderation, tolerance,and excellence; helping to bring the ummah out of its current malaiseby engaging in itjthad; and, the same time, bringing Islam to an ailing UnitedStates. And as the minaret and the Statue of Liberty also can represent polesof tension for Muslims (the love/hate relationship and the spilt personalitysyndrome that Muslims have toward the United States), Khan's book investigatesthe Muslim experience of living in the United States. He criticizes theUnited States for failing to live up to its promises of liberty for its Muslimcitizens and inhabitants, as well as for Muslims around the globe.American Muslims has eight chapters, each presenting a different angleof the relationship between being Muslim and being American. Khan setsthe scene by discussing "Islam in America" ( chapter l ), moves to "AmericanMuslims and American Politics" (chapter 2), "American Foreign Policy"(chapter 3), and "American Muslims and American Society" (chapter 4). Hethen introduces the notion of an American Muslim perspective (chapter 5)and has a chapter on the compatibility between Islam and democracy ( chai:rter 6). The 9/11 attack and its impact upon Muslims is discussed next (chai:rter 7), and the book ends with his perspective as an American Muslim onpolitics in the Muslim world (chapter 8).Khan presents forceful and consistent arguments that are both thoughtprovokingand often refreshing in their honesty. He is not afraid to say out ...

Refining Religious Arbitration in the United States and Abroad

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Broyde
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
American Muslim

Basic frameworks for successful religious arbitration exist, though religious communities, particularly the growing American Muslim community, still face challenges in implementing their own ADR systems effectively. This chapter describes some of these challenges, as well as the ways in which they may be addressed. It looks to the example set by the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, a U.K.-based Islamic arbitration organization that has successfully adopted and adapted the Beth Din of America approach to religious arbitration, as a likely model for American Muslims to build on in constructing their own ADR processes. This chapter notes that Christian communities in the United States also face challenges in their attempts to implement effective faith-based arbitration, though these challenges somewhat differ from those dealt with by the more law-centered Jewish and Muslim traditions. Christian communities have responded by creating their own religious arbitration models that conform to the technical legal requirements of the FAA.

scholarly journals US Government and American Muslims Engage to Define Islamophobia

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-153
Author(s):  
M. A. Muqtedar Khan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
American Government ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Government

On 4 December 2006, the American Muslims’ national leadership met withkey senior American government officials to discuss Islamophobia in thecountry and American-Muslim relations. The conference, organized by theBridging the Divide Initiative of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution,was co-sponsored by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding(ISPU) and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS).As conference chair, I had to bring together two parties that did not seeeye-to-eye on this issue. While American Muslim leaders and participantsargued that Islamophobia was not only a reality but also a rapidly growingphenomenon in the United States, the government’s position was that whilethere have been increased incidences of anti-Muslim episodes in the country,the word Islamophobia deepens the divide between the two sides. Other government representatives also suggested that the fear to which Muslimswere referring was not that of Islam, but rather that of Muslim terrorism, asmanifested on 11 September 2001.Stephen Grand (director, United States-Islamic World program) welcomedall participants and launched the conference. The government wasrepresented by the Department of State, the Department of HomelandSecurity, and associated agencies. The morning keynote address was deliveredby Alina Romanowski (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State forProfessional and Cultural Affairs). She was introduced by AmbassadorMartin Indyk (director, the Saban Center), who proclaimed the importanceof such dialogues at a time when the gap between the United States and theMuslim world appears to be widening ...

A Different Kind of Brown: Arabs and Middle Easterners as Anti-American Muslims

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley J. Zopf
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Origin ◽  
Racial Classification ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Middle Easterners

The growth of nonwhite/nonblack ethnoracial minority groups, especially Latina/os, Asians, and Arab/Middle Easterners, is redefining the United States racial landscape. These groups, which defy straightforward racial classification and occupy different positions in the racial order, challenge narrow conceptualizations of race based on skin color and phenotype. Interviews with 53 Egyptian and Egyptian Americans reveal the existence of a brown racialization that simultaneously homogenizes, yet differentiates, brown-skinned ethnoracial groups. Their narratives indicate a brown ethnoracial category differentiated by ethnic, national origin, and religious differences. In problematizing the homogenization of this broad brown ethnoracial category, Egyptians emphasize the racialization of Islam as a key differentiating factor distinguishing them as a particular kind of brown. This research demonstrates racialization as a layered process in which race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion combine in unique ways in defining Arabs and Middle Easterners not only as brown and foreign but also more specifically as anti-American Muslim terrorists.

American Muslims and Global Islam

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mandaville
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Muslim Intellectuals

This article explores some of the ways in which the religious lives of American Muslims are shaped by—and, in turn, shape—Islamic ideas, doctrines, organizations, and movements that circulate beyond the United States. It surveys the role of global Islam in the development of several of the most important American Muslim organizations and institutions in the twentieth century. Profiles are offered of leading American Muslim intellectuals who serve as bridges between the American Muslim community and broader religious currents in the Muslim world in order to illustrate various modalities of American Muslim transnationalism. With the rise of the internet and new media, young Muslims in the United States can today be thought of as contributors to a global Muslim public sphere.

Black Muslimness Mobilized

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef J. Carter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
Religious Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Atlantic ◽  
West African ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Sufi Order

The Mustafawi Tariqa is a transnational Sufi Order that was initiated in 1966 by the late Cheikh Mustafa Gueye Haydara (d. 1989) in Thiès, Senegal. Yet, only since 1994 has this specific Sufi network reached westward across the water, bringing American Muslims—many of whom are converts—into the larger network. In the United States, the majority of students who have entered the Tariqa and have declared allegiance (bayah) to Shaykh Arona Rashid Faye Al-Faqir are African-Americans who have inserted themselves religiously, culturally, and pedagogically into a West African Sufi tradition which emphasizes religious study and the practice of dhikr (remembrance of God). Shaykh Arona Faye is a Senegalese religious leader who relocated to the southeastern region of the United States from West Africa to spread the religion of Islam and expose American Muslims to the rich West African tradition of spiritual purification and Islamic piety. At the same time, many of those who are African-American members of this tradition have made it a point to travel to Senegal themselves to strengthen transatlantic ties with West African compatriots and visit sacred burial sites in the small city of Thiès. I examine how two sites of pilgrimage for the Mustafawi—Moncks Corner, South Carolina and Thiès, Senegal—play a part in the infrastructure of Black Atlantic Sufi network. Moncks Corner is the central site in which access to the Tariqa’s most charismatic living shaykh, Shaykh Arona Faye, has worked for the past two decades teaching and mentoring those on the Path. On the other hand, Thiès is the location where the Tariqa’s founder is buried and travelers visit the town in order to pay homage to his memory. I show how these sites catalyze mobility and operate as spaces of spiritual refuge for visitors in both local and regional contexts by looking at how a local zawiyah produces movement in relation to a broader tariqa. By looking at pilgrimage and knowledge transmission, I argue that the manner in which esoteric approaches to spiritual care and the embodiment of higher Islamic ethics via the West African Sufi methodology of the Mustafawi informs the manner in which Muslims of varying African descent inhabit a broader diasporic identification of “Black Muslimness.”

Refuge in the National Security State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Cristina García
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The World ◽  
National Security State

In response to the terrorist attacks of 1993 and 2001, the Clinton and Bush administrations restructured the immigration bureaucracy, placed it within the new Department of Homeland Security, and tried to convey to Americans a greater sense of safety. Refugees, especially those from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, suffered the consequences of the new national security state policies, and found it increasingly difficult to find refuge in the United States. In the post-9/11 era, refugee advocates became even more important to the admission of refugees, reminding Americans of their humanitarian obligations, especially to those refugees who came from areas of the world where US foreign policy had played a role in displacing populations.

Researching American Muslims: A Case Study of Surveillance and Racialized State Control

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Hajer Al-Faham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Control ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Selection Of

How does surveillance shape political science research in the United States? In comparative and international politics, there is a rich literature concerning the conduct of research amid conditions of conflict and state repression. As this literature locates “the field” in distant contexts “over there,” the United States continues to be saturated with various forms of state control. What this portends for American politics research has thus far been examined by a limited selection of scholars. Expanding on their insights, I situate “the field” in the United States and examine surveillance of American Muslims, an understudied case of racialized state control. Drawing on qualitative data from a case study of sixty-nine interviews with Arab and Black American Muslims, I argue that surveillance operated as a two-stage political mechanism that mapped onto research methodologically and substantively. In the first stage, surveillance reconfigured the researcher-researchee dynamic, hindered recruitment and access, and limited data-collection. In the second stage, surveillance colored the self-perceptions, political attitudes, and civic engagement of respondents, thereby indicating a political socialization unfolding among Muslims. The implications of this study suggest that researchers can mitigate against some, but not all, of the challenges presented by surveillance and concomitant forms of state control.

Thinking Outside the Mosque

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 104-108
Author(s):  
Anna Challet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Female Student ◽  
Male Student ◽  
School Community ◽  
The United States ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Islam In America ◽  
The Future

This article discusses how the community at Zaytuna College, the first and only accredited Muslim college in the United States, is charting the future of Islam in America. The college is located in Berkeley, California and admitted its first class in 2010. The article gives an overview of the school and its curriculum, which combines Islamic scholarship with Western teachings. The piece then profiles four members of the school community–a female student who was raised as a Muslim, a male student who converted to Islam, and two faculty members (both of whom are also converts).

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