Muslims in the West: North America

Karen Leonard

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521844437.010

9 - Muslims in the West: North America

from PART I - SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2011

Karen Leonard

Edited by

Robert W. Hefner

Show author details

Robert W. Hefner: Affiliation:
Boston University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The North American contexts

In North America, unlike Central and South America where Islam remains an insignificant force, Muslims are overtaking Jews as the principal non-Christian minority group. Canada and the United States have certain similarities: both are predominantly Christian nations with relatively high levels of religious belief and practice and neither country has an establishment church. The twentieth century saw important changes in the religious landscape of the two countries. The mainline Christian denominations so important in the Anglo-Saxon Protestant world have been weakened, in the US by rising educational levels, intermarriage and movement to new localities, and in Canada by growing numbers of people disassociating from organised religion. A second trend is the growing importance of women in religious arenas traditionally dominated by men. Women in America arguably participate more in Christian religious activities and institutions and exercise greater moral authority in religious and civic institutions. Third, particularly in the US, special purpose religious groups have increasingly organised along conservative and liberal lines, mobilising political coalitions on issues like homosexuality and abortion. Fourth, the public dimensions of religious culture in both countries have expanded.

Type: Chapter
Information: The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 238 - 253

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521844437.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abou El Fadl, Khaled, Speaking in God’s name: Islamic law, authority, and women, Oxford, 2001.Google Scholar

Abou El Fadl, Khaled, And God knows the soldiers: The authoritative and the authoritarian in Islamic discourses, New York, 2001.Google Scholar

Abraham, Nabeel, and Shryock, Andrew (eds.), Arab Detroit: From margin to mainstream, Detroit, 2000.Google Scholar

Kecia, Ali, Sexual ethics and Islam, Oxford, 2006.Google Scholar

Allen, Ernest, Jr, ‘Identity and destiny: The formative views of the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam’, in Esposito, John L. and Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization path? Atlanta, 1998.Google Scholar

Aswad, Barbara C., and Bilge, Barbara, Family and gender among American Muslims: Issues facing Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants, Philadelphia, 1996.Google Scholar

Azmi, Shaheen, ‘Canadian social service provision and the Muslim community in metropolitan Toronto’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 17, 1 (1997).CrossRef Google Scholar

Ba-Yunus, Ilyas, and Moin Siddiqui, M., A report on the Muslim population in the United States, New York, 1999.Google Scholar

Bagby, Ihsan A., ‘A profile of African-American masjids: A report from the National Masjid Study 2000’, Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, 29, 1–2 (2001–2).Google Scholar

Bagby, Ihsan A., Perl, Paul M. and Froehle, Bryan T., ‘The mosque in America: A national portrait’, 26 April 2001, released through the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Washington, DC.Google Scholar

Barboza, Stephen, American Jihad: Islam after Malcolm X, New York, 1994.Google Scholar

Bozorgmehr, Mehdi, and Feldman, Alison (eds.), Middle Eastern diaspora communities in America, New York, 1996.Google Scholar

Braude, Ann, ‘Women’s history is American religious history’, in Tweed, Thomas A. (ed.), Retelling US religious history, Berkeley, 1997, pp. 87–107.Google Scholar

Curtis, Edward E., IV, Black Muslim religion in the Nation of Islam, Chapel Hill, 2006.Google Scholar

Dannin, Robert, Black pilgrimage to Islam, New York, 2002.Google Scholar

Eickelman, Dale F., and Anderson, Jon W. (eds.), New media in the Muslim world: The emerging public sphere, Bloomington, 1999.Google Scholar

Elkholy, Abdo A., The Arab Moslems in the United States: Religion and assimilation, New Haven, 1966.Google Scholar

Essien-Udom, E. U., Black nationalism: A search for an identity in America, Chicago, 1962.Google Scholar

Gardell, Mattias, In the name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, Durham, NC, 1996.CrossRef Google Scholar

Grant, Noor, ‘Muslim work in Canada’, The Minaret, July 1995, p. 37.Google Scholar

Grant, Noor, ‘A new Islamic center in Canada’, The Minaret, November 1995, p. 18.Google Scholar

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Esposito, John L. (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path? Atlanta, 1998.Google Scholar

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Lummis, Adair T., Islamic values in the United States: A comparative study, New York, 1987.Google Scholar

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Smith, Jane Idleman (eds.), Muslim communities in North America, Albany, 1994.Google Scholar

Hamdani, Daood Hassan, ‘Canadian Muslims on the eve of the twenty-first century’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 19, 2 (1999).CrossRef Google Scholar

Hermansen, Marcia K., ‘In the garden of American Sufi movements: Hybrids and perennials’, in Clarke, Peter B. (ed.), New trends and developments in the world of Islam, London, 1997, pp. 155–78.Google Scholar

Jackson, Sherman A., Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the third resurrection, Oxford, 2005.CrossRef Google Scholar

Jackson, Sherman A., ‘Islam(s) East and West: Pluralism between no-frills and designer fundamentalism’, in Dudziak, Mary L. (ed.), September 11 in history, Durham, NC, 2003, pp. 112–35.Google Scholar

Johnson, Steve A., ‘Political activity of Muslims in America’, in Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck (ed.), The Muslims of America, New York, 1991, pp. 111–24.Google Scholar

Khan, Shahnaz, Muslim women: Crafting a North American identity, Gainesville, 2000.Google Scholar

Leonard, Karen Isaksen, ‘American Muslims before and after September 11, 2001’, Economic and Political Weekly (Mumbai), 15 June 2002.Google Scholar

Leonard, Karen Isaksen, ‘South Asian leadership of American Muslims’, in Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck (ed.), Muslims in the West: From sojourners to citizens, New York, 2002, pp. 233–49.Google Scholar

Leonard, Karen Isaksen, Muslims in the United States: the State of Research, New York, 2003.Google Scholar

Lincoln, C. Eric, The Black Muslims in America, Boston, 1961.Google Scholar

Malcolm, X., and Haley, Alex, The autobiography of Malcolm X, New York, 1966.Google Scholar

McCloud, Aminah Beverly, African American Islam, New York, 1995.Google Scholar

McGown, Rima Berns, Muslims in the diaspora: The Somali communities of London and Toronto, Toronto, 1999.CrossRef Google Scholar

Moore, Kathleen M., Al-Mughtaribūn: American law and the transformation of Muslim life in the United States, Albany, 1995.Google Scholar

Nimer, Mohamed, The North American Muslim resource guide, New York, 2002.Google Scholar

Numan, Fareed H., The Muslim population in the United States: A brief statement, Washington DC, 1992.Google Scholar

Nuruddin, Yusuf, ‘African-American Muslims and the question of identity: Between traditional Islam, African heritage, and the American way’, in Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and Esposito, John L. (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization path? Atlanta, 1998, pp. 215–62.Google Scholar

Nyang, Sulayman S., ‘Convergence and divergence in an emergent community: A study of challenges facing US Muslims’, in Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck (ed.), The Muslims of America, New York, 1991, pp. 236–49.Google Scholar

Rouse, Carolyn Moxley, Engaged surrender: African American women and IslamBerkeley, 2003.Google Scholar

Rouse, Carolyn, Engaged surrender: African American Women and Islam, Berkeley, 2004.Google Scholar

Safi, Omid (ed.), Progressive Muslims: On justice, gender and pluralism, Oxford, 2003.Google Scholar

Said, Edward, Covering Islam, New York, 1981; 2nd edn, New York, 1997.Google Scholar

Schmidt, Garbi, Islam in urban America: Sunni Muslims in Chicago, Philadelphia, 2004.Google Scholar

Shakir, Evelyn, Bint Arab: Arab and Arab American women in the United States, Westport, 1997.Google Scholar

Simmons, Gwendolyn Zoharah, ‘Striving for Muslim women’s human rights: Before and beyond Beijing’, in Webb, Gisela (ed.), Windows of faith: Muslim women scholar-activists in North America, Syracuse, 2000, pp. 197–225.Google Scholar

Smith, Jane I., Islam in America, New York, 1999.Google Scholar

Wadud, Amina, Inside the gender jihad: Women’s reform in Islam, Oxford, 2006.Google Scholar

Wadud, Amina.Qur’an and woman: Rereading the sacred text from a woman’s perspective, New York, 1999.Google Scholar

Waugh, Earle H., ‘North America and the adaptation of the Muslim tradition: Religion, ethnicity, and the family’, in Waugh, Earle H., Abu-Laban, Sharon McIrvin and Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt (eds.), Muslim families in North America, Edmonton, 1991, pp. 68–96.Google Scholar

Waugh, Earle H., Abu-Laban, Sharon McIrvin and Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt (eds.), Muslim families in North America, Edmonton, 1991.Google Scholar

Webb, Gisela, Windows of faith: Muslim women scholar-activists in North America, Syracuse, 2000.Google Scholar

Wuthnow, Robert, The restructuring of American religion: Society and faith since World War II, Princeton, 1988.Google Scholar

Book contents

9 - Muslims in the West: North America

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive