Religious Literacy Resource Guide: Muslim Communities in America
Resources for teaching religion in the schools.
Textual Resources
Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States by ISBN: 9780313336256Publication Date: 2007-09-30This A-to-Z encyclopedia will help students and other readers get a fast grip on pertinent holidays, terms, beliefs, practices, notables, and sects of the Islamic faith and Muslim practitioners in the United States. The accompanying primary documents volume provides 93 crucial articles, speeches, essays, poems, songs, and more to flesh out the encyclopedia entries. The primary focus is contemporary but the entries are historically contextualized, so the fuller picture of origins outside the country and practice now in the United States is clear. Further reading suggestions accompany each entry. The primary documents volume enhances the encyclopedic entries with annotated selections such as an article from an entry on a leading Muslim American magazine or an essay by a Muslim American scholar to illuminate an entry on her.
Islam and America by ISBN: 0805424784Publication Date: 2005-09-01September 11, 2001, was a tragic introduction for many Americans to Muslims and the religion of Islam. Americans have many questions about Islam but most have not studied the issue in depth. Today, Lions and Rotary clubs invite speakers on Islam, university campuses sponsor lectures on Islam and churches across the nation hold workshops.Is Islam a peaceful nation? Americans are puzzled. George Braswell is a recognized expert on the religion of Islam and on the Muslim beliefs and practices that Americans need to understand. This book will give readers the information they want and answer the questions they are asking. Beyond the media portrayals, Islam & America accurately reports the truth about this religion and its adherents.
Muslims in the U.S by ISBN: 0871545306Publication Date: 2003-06-19Leonard describes how Islam, never a monolithic religion, has inevitably been shaped by its experience on American soil. American Muslims are a religious minority, and arbiters of Islamic cultural values and jurisprudence must operate within the framework of America's secular social and legal codes, while coping with the ethnic differences among Muslim groups that have long divided their communities. African American Muslims remain the most isolated group--a minority within a minority. Leonard highlights the need to expand our knowledge of African American Muslim movements, which are often not regarded as legitimate by immigrant Muslims. Leonard explores the construction of contemporary American Muslim identities, examining such factors as gender, sexuality, race, class, and generational differences within the many smaller national origin and sectarian Muslim communities, including secular Muslims, Sufis, and fundamentalists. Muslims in the United States provides a thorough account of the impact of September 11th on the Muslim community.
Islamic Faith in America by ISBN: 0816049831Publication Date: 2002-11-01Almost one-fifth of the world's population belongs to the Muslim faith, making Islam the second largest world religion. Islam, however, is also one of the fastest growing religions in the United States. Since the events of September 11, 2001, there has been an increased interest in Islam and a desire for Americans to understand this faith. This book will help students comprehend the basic history and beliefs of this intricate religion. Islamic Faith in America explores the impact of Muslims on American culture, social issues, and politics and offers a glimpse into the lives of the most important and influential Muslims in this country. Readers will be introduced to the daily lifestyle of Muslims in America, their connections to other Muslims around the world, the influence of Islamic nations on the shape of Muslim life in the United States, and Islam's role in American history.
The North American Muslim Resource Guide by ISBN: 0415937280Publication Date: 2002-09-20This useful resource provides basic information about Islamic life in the United States. Coverage includes population statistics and analysis, as well as immigration information that tracks the settlement of Islamic people in the America. The guide contains contact information for mosques, community organizations, schools, women's groups, media, and student groups. Recent Islamic-American events over the past five years are also reviewed. To see the Introduction, the table of contents, a generous selection of sample pages, and more, visit the The North American Muslim Resource Guide website.
The Contemporary Islamic Revival by ISBN: 0313247196Publication Date: 1991-08-30This partially annotated bibliography lists available literature on the Islamic revival published in English between 1970 and 1988. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and her colleagues also provide background information and a special bibliography on women, Islamic banking, and Muslims in Europe and the United States. The bibliography includes academic and primary sources, many of which have been annotated. Some pre-1970 entries are included since they are the only available sources on particular subjects. Many entries are classified according to geographical areas and subdivided by specific country when appropriate. For comparative studies of international scope, entries on activities in China, the Soviet Union, parts of Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are included, as well as entries on Muslims in Europe and North America, and Islamic institutions in the West. This work is an important reference tool for students and scholars of Islam and the Middle East.
Who Speaks for Islam? by ISBN: 9781595620170Publication Date: 2008-02-25The horrific events of 9/11 dramatically intensified what many saw as an ongoing conflict between the U.S. and parts of the Muslim world. Extremism has grown exponentially as Muslims and non-Muslims alike continue to be victims of global terrorism. Who Speaks for Islam? Listening to the Voices of a Billion Muslims is the product of a mammoth Gallup research study over the last six years. After collecting vast amounts of data representing the views of the world's Muslims, we asked the questions everyone wants answers to: What is at the root of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists? Is democracy a desired construct among Muslims, and if so, what might it look like? What do Muslim women really want? With questions in hand, we let the empirical evidence -- the voices of a billion Muslims, not individual "experts" or "extremists," dictate the answer.
Homeland Insecurity by ISBN: 9780871540485Publication Date: 2009-07-02Homeland Insecurity provides an intimate view of what it means to be an Arab or a Muslim in a country set on edge by the worst terrorist attack in its history. In this, the most comprehensive ethnographic study of the post-9/11 period for American Arabs and Muslims, native-born and immigrant Palestinians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Yemenis, Sudanese, Jordanians, and others speak candidly about their lives as well as their experiences with government, public mistrust, discrimination, and harassment after 9/11.
A History of Islam in America by ISBN: 9780521849647Publication Date: 2010-04-19Kambiz GhaneaBassiri's fascinating book traces the history of Muslims in the United States and their different waves of immigration and conversion across five centuries, through colonial and antebellum America, through world wars and civil rights struggles, to the contemporary era. The book tells the often deeply moving stories of individual Muslims and their lives as immigrants and citizens within the broad context of the American religious experience, showing how that experience has been integral to the evolution of American Muslim institutions and practices. This is a unique and intelligent portrayal of a diverse religious community and its relationship with America.
Islam by ISBN: 9780231176804Publication Date: 2017-04-04Islam: An American Religion demonstrates how Islam as formed in the United States has become an American religion in a double sense--first through the strategies of recognition adopted by Muslims and second through the performance of Islam as a faith. Nadia Marzouki investigates how Islam has become so contentious in American politics. Focusing on the period from 2008 to 2013, she revisits the uproar over the construction of mosques, legal disputes around the prohibition of Islamic law, and the overseas promotion of religious freedom. She argues that public controversies over Islam in the United States primarily reflect the American public's profound divisions and ambivalence toward freedom of speech and the legitimacy of liberal secular democracy.
Islam in the United States of America by ISBN: 1871031699Publication Date: 1999-01-01This book is a collection of essays written over several years. Professor Sulayman S. Nyang has collected them to share with the reading public his insights and research findings on the emerging Muslim community in the United States of America. Working on the assumption that American Muslims are still unknown to most Americans, the author addresses several issues which are relevant to the whole discussion of religious plurality and multiculturalism in American society. Its contents range from Islam and the American Dream to the birth and development of the Muslim press in the United States.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by ISBN: 0345376714Publication Date: 1992-01-15Originally published in 1964, Malcolm X tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.
- Muslim American Experience Bibliography
Intended as a resource for academics, advocates, journalists, students and others, this bibliography of over 250 books published between 1966 and 2016 focuses on Muslims and Islam in the United States. Categories include anthropology, biography, health, history, law, political science, reference, and sociology.
Documentary Resources
- Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert. Directed by Andrea Kalin. Washington: Unity Productions Foundation, 2008. DVD.
Playing to sold-out venues across America, the Allah Made Me Funny tour bridges cultural gaps through stand-up by some of the funniest Muslim comics working today. This performance program captures the groundbreaking tour's best moments.
- New Muslim Cool. Directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. Specific Pictures, 2009. DVD.
Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, a former drug dealer who converted to Islam, became a grassroots activist and moved to inner-city Pittsburgh to establish a religious community. While Pérez raises his children and settles into a new marriage, the FBI raids his mosque. Now he must delve even deeper into his faith to forge connections with other communities in a post-9/11 world.
- On A Wing and A Prayer: An American Muslim Learns to Fly. Directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. Potomac Falls, VA: Unity Productions Foundation, 2008. DVD.
This documentary follows Monem Salam, an American Muslim, on his quest to obtain a private pilot's license. But, in the face of post-9/11 heightened domestic security, will the "land of opportunity" deny Monem his dream? This cinema vérité-style documentary reveals a funny and lovable American Muslim who, with his hilarious family in tow, pursues his dream against tides of negative public perception.
- Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam. Directed by Omar Majeed. New York, NY: Lorber Films, 2010. DVD.
This raucous documentary profiles the nascent Muslim punk-rock subculture. Director Omar Majeed hits the road with various groups for a problem-plagued tour across the U.S. and to Lahore, Pakistan, where the musicians continue their mission to thrash and shot, and both skewer and celebrate their deeply felt religion.
More Textual Resources
- Arab American Bibliography
A collection of textual references compiled by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Islam in the African-American Experience by ISBN: 0253343232Publication Date: 2003-11-20The involvement of black Americans with Islam reaches back to the earliest days of the African presence in North America. Part I of the book explores these roots in the Middle East, West Africa, and antebellum America. Part II tells the story of the "Prophets of the City"--the leaders of the new urban-based African American Muslim movements in the 20th century. Turner places the study of Islam in the context of the racial, ethical, and political relations that influenced the reception of successive presentations of Islam, including the West African Islam of slaves, the Ahmadiyya Movement from India, the orthodox Sunni practice of later immigrants, and the Nation of Islam. This second edition features a new introduction, which discusses developments since the earlier edition, including Islam in a post-9/11 America.
Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975 by ISBN: 0807830542Publication Date: 2006-10-30Edward E. Curtis IV offers the first comprehensive examination of the rituals, ethics, theologies, and religious narratives of the Nation of Islam, showing how the movement combined elements of Afro-Eurasian Islamic traditions with African American traditions to create a new form of Islamic faith. Considering everything from bean pies to religious cartoons, clothing styles to prayer rituals, Curtis explains how the practice of Islam in the movement included the disciplining and purifying of the black body, the reorientation of African American historical consciousness toward the Muslim world, an engagement with both mainstream Islamic texts and the prophecies of Elijah Muhammad, and the development of a holistic approach to political, religious, and social liberation. Curtis's analysis pushes beyond essentialist ideas about what it means to be Muslim and offers a view of the importance of local processes in identity formation and the appropriation of Islamic traditions.
The Bloomsbury Reader on Islam in the West by ISBN: 9781474245364Publication Date: 2015-12-03The Reader explores not only the presence of Muslim religious practitioners in Europe and the Americas but also the impact of Islamic ideas and Muslims on Western politics, societies, and cultures. It is ideal for use in the university classroom, with an extensive introduction by Edward E. Curtis IV and a timeline of key events in the history of Islam in the West. Part 1, on the history of Islam in the West, probes the role of Muslims and the significance of Islam in medieval, early modern, and modern settings. Part 2 focuses on the contemporary West, examining debates over Muslim citizenship, the war on terrorism, anti-Muslim prejudice, and Islam and gender, while also providing readers with a concrete sense of how Muslims practice and live out Islamic ideals in their private and public lives.
The Oxford Handbook of American Islam by ISBN: 9780199862634Publication Date: 2014-12-01American Islam is practiced by a unique blend of immigrants and American-born Muslims. The immigrants have come from all corners of the world; they include rich and poor, well-educated and illiterate, those from upper and lower classes as well as economic and political refugees. The community's diversity has been enhanced by the conversion of African Americans, Latina/os, and others, making it the mostheterogeneous Muslim community in the world. This handbook covers the growth of Islam in America from the earliest Muslims to set foot on American soil to the current wave of Islamophobia. Topics covered include the development of African American Islam; pre- andpost-WWII immigrants; Sunni, Shi`ite, sectarian and Sufi movements in America; the role and status of women, marriage, and family; and the Americanization of Islamic culture.
The Cambridge Companion to American Islam by ISBN: 9781107002418Publication Date: 2013-08-12The Cambridge Companion to American Islam offers a scholarly overview of the state of research on American Muslims and American Islam. The book presents the reader with a comprehensive discussion of the debates, challenges and opportunities that American Muslims have faced through centuries of American history. This volume also covers the creative ways in which American Muslims have responded to the myriad serious challenges that they have faced and continue to face in constructing a religious praxis and complex identities that are grounded in both a universal tradition and the particularities of their local contexts. The book introduces the reader to some of the many facets of the lives of American Muslims that can only be understood in their interactions with Islam's entanglement in the American experiment.
The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States by ISBN: 9780231139564Publication Date: 2007-11-28Since September 11, 2001, Muslims in the United States have become the subject of genuine curiosity and compassion as well as increased government surveillance and harassment. Who are these Muslims? What is their history, and where do they come from? Do they share a common culture? Do they vary in their beliefs? Bringing together an unusually personal collection of essays and documents from an incredibly diverse group of Americans who call themselves Muslims, Edward E. Curtis "finds Islam" in the American experience from colonial times to the present. Curtis presents a patchwork narrative of Muslims from different ethnic and class backgrounds, religious orientations, and political affiliations. With this highly informed, real-life portrait, Curtis provides a crucial corrective to the rhetoric of suspicion and fear surrounding current discussions of Muslims in the United States and emphasizes Muslims' continuing impact on American society and culture.
Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History by ISBN: 9780816075751Publication Date: 2010-06-01Muslims have long played a central role in American history. Since the colonial period, when an estimated 20,000 African Muslims were transported to America as slaves, to the early 20th century, when Muslim immigrants came to the United States from the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, to the present day, Islam has been an integral part of the American experience. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 produced a heavy backlash against Muslim Americans, contributing to their being stereotyped, maligned, and marginalized in American society. Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History places Muslim Americans squarely in the center of American history and culture. Written in clear and jargon-free prose, this authoritative reference provides a new and broader, more inclusive approach to American history.
Muslims in America by ISBN: 9780195367560Publication Date: 2009-10-01Muslims in America is the first single-authored book to treat the history of Muslims in America from the colonial era to the present day, a surprising gap in the literature. It describes the racial and religious strands of American Islam and describes Muslims' presence and practice in Americasince they first came to the United States, setting American Islam in the context of larger events such as slavery, the Cold War, and feminism. Curtis argues that American Islam is a transnational phenomenon, and explains how anti-Muslim prejudice, domestic racism, and U.S. foreign policy in Africa and Asia have encouraged the rise of a political Islam in the United States. Curtis also shows how most Muslims in the U.S. are overwhelminglyinvested in ideas of democracy and peaceful social change. Even more, this work highlights Muslims who want nothing to do with politics, choosing to focus on spiritual enlightenment, their family's financial success, and other goals. In so doing, the book also reveals the richness of Sunni, Shi'i,Sufi and other forms of Islamic theology, ethics, and rituals in the United States.
Islam in America by ISBN: 0231109660Publication Date: 1999-06-04Most Americans are only vaguely aware of the Muslim community in the United States and know little about the religion itself, despite Islam's increasing importance in international affairs and the rapid growth in the number of Americans who call themselves Muslims. This text introduces the basic tenets of the Muslim faith, surveys the history of Islam in America and profiles the lifestyles, religious practices, and worldviews of American Muslims.
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