American Islam: the struggle for the soul of a religion

by Paul Barrett

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

297.0973/090511

Tags

nonfiction, religion, islam, usa

Genres

Collection

Main

Publication

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Description

"There are as many as six million Muslims in the United States today. Islam (together with Christianity and Judaism) is now an American faith, and the challenges Muslims face as they reconcile their intense and demanding faith with our chaotic and permissive society are recognizable to all of us. This book takes readers into Muslim homes, mosques, and private gatherings to introduce a population of striking variety. An intricate mixture of ideologies and cultures, American Muslims include immigrants and native born, black and white converts, those who are well integrated into the larger society and those who are alienated and extreme in their political views. Even as many American Muslims succeed in material terms and enrich our society, Islam is enmeshed in controversy in the United States, as thousands of American Muslims have been investigated and interrogated in the wake of 9/11.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress Includes information on Khaled Abou El Fadl, Afghanistan, African-Americans, al Qaeda, anti-Semitism, Arab-Americans, Arabs, Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, Chechnya, Christians, Democratic Party, Egypt, Egyptian Americans, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), fundamentalism, Hamas, Hinduism, Sami Omar al Hussayen, University of Idaho, immigrant Arabs and Muslims, India, Indian Americans, Iran, Iraq, Islamic Assembly of North America, Israel, Jusus, Jews, Mohammad Hisham Kabbani, Abdul Kabir Krambo, Lebanon, Lebanese Americans, Kim Lindquist, Mecca, Medina, Prophet Muhammad, New York City, Asra Nomani, Pakistan Pakistani-Americans, Palestinians, Quran, Saudi Arabia, September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Shiites, Osama Siblani, Sufism, terrorism, Turkey, Wahhabism, Siraj Wahhaj, etc.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Essa
A fascinating and, in my opinion, quite balanced examination of several people's experience in the U.S. as Americans and as Muslims. It's an informative and very interesting book that provides a third-person perspective and informatin (from Barrett) while also allowing the Muslims ample space to
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 speak for themselves. It's also refreshingly free of the sound of grinding axes.
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2 more
LibraryThing member addict
Vivid, dramatic portraits of Muslims in America in the years after 9/11, as they define themselves in a religious subculture torn between moderation and extremism

There are as many as six million Muslims in the United States today. Islam (together with Christianity and Judaism) is now an American
Show More
 faith, and the challenges Muslims face as they reconcile their intense and demanding faith with our chaotic and permissive society are recognizable to all of us.

From West Virginia to northern Idaho, American Islam takes readers into Muslim homes, mosques, and private gatherings to introduce a population of striking variety. The central characters range from a charismatic black imam schooled in the militancy of the Nation of Islam to the daughter of an Indian immigrant family whose feminist views divided her father’s mosque in West Virginia. Here are lives in conflict, reflecting in different ways the turmoil affecting the religion worldwide. An intricate mixture of ideologies and cultures, American Muslims include immigrants and native born, black and white converts, those who are well integrated into the larger society and those who are alienated and extreme in their political views. Even as many American Muslims succeed in material terms and enrich our society, Islam is enmeshed in controversy in the United States, as thousands of American Muslims have been investigated and interrogated in the wake of 9/11.

American Islam is an intimate and vivid group portrait of American Muslims in a time of turmoil and promise
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LibraryThing member Karlus
American Islam is a broad overview of Muslim life in America told through the eyes and experiences of a number of Muslims who have gained prominence or been influential in various ways in their local or national communities. Through detailed interviews, the author highlights their beliefs and
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 attitudes toward America, toward Islam and toward the divisive issues that provoke discussions in response to today's headlines. Systematically conducting interviews across America, the author presents the course of their lives that have brought them to Islam and describes their families, friends and daily lives in depth, to present rounded pictures of people who can easily be described as typical among the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic diversity that is America. In this book one will find conversations with a newspaper publisher, a liberal reformist scholar, an Imam, a feminist, a Sufi mystic, a webmaster, and a one-time activist, all Muslims. The author's 18 years of experience as a reporter and editor show through in the calm narrative and unpolemical tone of the book, and in allowing the numerous people interviewed to tell their own stories in their own words. Only occasionally does the author intrude with a mildly critical or brief editorial observation of his own. Of particular interest for this Internet audience might be the detailed discussion, covering many pages, of the background, courtroom drama and testimony regarding the trial of the webmaster, who was accused under the Patriot Act of supporting terrorism through his Internet activities. Separately, I found the background discussion of Sufi mysticism to be also much more informative than in most other books discussing Islam. This is a thoughtful book that I would strongly recommend both for its general overview and its depth of background information describing Muslim life, in a context that I will gladly call a true and accurate panorama of America. It seems to me that this is the way it is.
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Subjects

Islam United States
Muslim families United States
Muslims United States
Muslims United States Social conditions
United States Ethnic Relations

Awards

Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Religion — 2007)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Nonfiction — 2007)

Language

English

Original publication date

2007

Physical description

304 p.; 24 cm

ISBN

9780312427450

More

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