Promoting allyship among South Asian and Arab Muslims toward Black and Latino/a Muslims in American Islamic centers

Increased social justice awareness in the United States and shifting demographics are giving birth to a more diverse and egalitarian generation. Improving relations across social categories has been a key topic in di-versity, equity, and inclusion work, but less emphasis has been placed on cross-racial allyship within mi-nority populations. While allyship in racial contexts is often perceived as a White versus non-White issue, this binary position erases the diversity that exists within communities of color. A dichotomous approach to allyship that positions White heterosexual males as the primary holders of privilege does not address the disparities that exist within and across minoritized communities. While Arabs and South Asians are minori-ties in the US on a macrolevel, they often hold privileged positions in Islamic centers and other Muslim spaces—even though Black Americans make up a larger percentage of the Muslim population. Additional-ly, there is an increasing number of Latino/a Muslims in the US, but they are often invisible in larger con-versations about Islam in America as well as in discourse among Muslim Americans. In this chapter, we explore the concept of allyship and how South Asian and Arab Muslims can support and advocate for Black and Latino/a Muslims in American Islamic centers. We also discuss Islamophobia in the US as well as the anti-Blackness and racism that exists within Muslim communities and provide suggestions on how Islamic centers can serve as spaces of allyship and cross-racial dialogue.

Perfecting Good Character Through the Approach of Prophet Muhammed in American Islamic Schools

Islamic theory of moral is in congruent with the Universal theory of moral. Noble characters and morals are the most essential path of Prophet Muhammed as he said “I was not sent except to perfect moral characters”. This work will examine the effects of Islamic morals in propagating Islam in America to the level of winning the souls of American leaders including their presidents, that are canvassing for Islam as an acceptable peaceful religion in the West. The article will be supported through the research methodology of qualitative and the review of series of literatures that secured the credibility and the integrities that benefited Islam in the West. Moreover, moral character encourages the appreciation that is consider as a motivation for better performance, which American Muslims enjoy.

Some Factors which Promote and Restrict Islamization in America

Let me begin with a brief explicatory statement about the word‘Islamization.’ I use this term here in reference to a two-stage process.The first stage is conversion to Islam,’ and the second is thereinforcement, strengthening or deepening of Islam in the individual. Ofcourse, most Muslims in the world are born into a Muslim family, andthus they do not pass through the first stage, or so it would seem. Butmany of them do have social, intellectual and spiritual experienceswhich are the essence of the second stage of Islamization. An example ofthis would be the effects of the international phenomenon called “theresurgence of Islam”.In America, the situation is somewhat different. Recent immigrantsfrom Muslim societies-say during the last eighty years-and theiroffspring generally do not pass through the first stage per se. However,American Muslims, who are descendants of people who arrived herefrom Europe (European-Americans or “white Americans”) and Africa(African-Americans or “black Americans”) several centuries ago,passed through, in varying degrees, both stages. Now let us considersome factors which promote and restrict Islamization in America ...

American Muslims’ Da’wah Work and Islamic Conversion

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.

Before isis: What Early America Thought of Islam

Early America engaged with Islam through multiple channels. As American missionaries traveled abroad in search of converts, and lived among Muslims, they often viewed the religion and its adherents through the lens of Christianity. For some, Islam’s prophet was a false hero, “an impostor,” and the message of the religion was an unfortunate pastiche of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Simultaneously, American scholars of religion and the ancient Near East in the nineteenth century approached the Islamic world out of an academic desire to understand Middle Eastern antiquity. Through this process of intellectual inquiry, the American academy eventually developed an interest in the study of Islam itself. Thus, two dominant strands of thought emerged that led to divergent discourses about Islam in the United States. These two discourses—an academic one versus a popular one rooted in missionary experiences—have endured and shaped the contemporary understanding of Islam in America.

A Wayfarer in a Land of the Free: American Sufism in the Age of DIY Religiosity

This paper observes theological shift towards a personalized spirituality of Muslim religiosity in America. In the face of global resurgence of Islamic movement and its ambitious call towards purification, personalized form of Islam is strongly criticized to be deviant and a mere practice of heresy. Islamic mysticism or commonly known as Sufism gained more popularity in modern America for its stress on God’s mercy over exclusive legalism in understanding cosmic law and the divine consequences. Over the year, it has proven its catalytic role for a more peaceful interreligious understanding on account to reflexivity and cosmopolitan consciousness. Drawing from a recent scholarship by Ulrich Beck on individualized religion, this paper explores; process of individualization of religion in forming modern American religious experience and the socio-cultural relevance of Sufism in shaping contemporary religious relation of Islam in America. Data utilized in this research draws upon interviews and observational fieldworks in the East Coast America.

Islamic Philanthropy as a “Discursive Tradition”

By examining philanthropy towards Zaytuna College, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S. and ISNA, and contextualizing it in the discourses of giving among American Muslims, this paper seeks to offer a theoretical framework for contextualizing Islamic philanthropy during ‘crisis'. I argue that philanthropy in this context should be seen as a gradually evolving ‘discursive tradition,' and not an unchanging one. Given the discourse of Islam in America being one framed in the rubric of ‘crisis,' and the attempts by American Muslim organizations to garner philanthropic support using this framework; it is important to understand how certain crisis situations impacted discourses of philanthropy towards this sector. This paper attempts a Foucaldian analysis of how American Muslims negotiate this discursive tension in the realm of giving. I build on the work of various scholars and offer a framework that treats philanthropy towards Islamic schools, cultural and educational institutions as a ‘discursive tradition' to understand how the dynamics of philanthropy are changing in this sector. I propose that a discursive approach could also offer us new insights into how philanthropy is being transformed, under certain institutional constraints and relations of power.