Islam in America: History, Culture & Influence - Explore Muslim Life in the U.S. | Perfect for Religious Studies & Cultural Research

Not a book I "love" but a very good, informative account of Islam in America, worth the five stars. I'm puzzled at the lack of reviews, perhaps the publisher is not well known. The topic is important, and with the recent rise (at the time this is being written) in concern about radical Islamic jihad, this rather objective account is a good one to read for information. One important aspect is that many American Muslims are nor Arab and many American Arabs are not Muslims (for example, many Lebanese Arab Christians migrated to the US early in the 1900s). American Muslims come from more than 60 countries, but particularly Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Lebanon. Curiel estimates 30,000 Americans each year convert to Islam, and many of those are African American (prisons are a major site of conversions, which the book discusses in fascinating detail).We do not know how many Muslims live in the US. Estimates range from 1 to 9 million. What is clear is that the American Islamic community in total is very diverse, and Curiel says it is the most diverse in the world. The book discusses the Americanization of Islam, an important topic--recall that American Judaism has been thoroughly Americanized, with intermarriage frequent and the religion reduced to a cultural heritage for a sizable portion of American Jews. Curiel interviewed a number of American Muslims and found a wide range of views, from very traditional to quite relaxed. He also found concern about the rising tide of Islamiphobia. He cites surveys that found that 18% of American Muslims never attend mosque services and 16% rarely attend. He also found a fairly strong current of Islamic feminism.One point usually forgotten about is that a substantial fraction of slaves were in origin Muslims. It is not clear how many remained Muslim, because they would have been under heavy pressure to become Christian, but it is clear that aspects of Islamic culture persisted in such things as foodways and folk tales. Curiel notes a moderate interest in Islam in the 1800s by people such as Emerson, and an interest by African Americans in Islam that goes back almost a century--one of the best discussions in the book concerns groups such as the Nation of Islam and people like Mohammed X.