In keeping up with our fascination with all things Taqwacore, I want mention my roundtable with the Kominas and interview with Michael Muhammad Knight are both up are Religion Dispatches.
Latest Updates: islam in america RSS
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islamoyankee
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johnpi
American prejudice against Muslims, Islam higher than bias against other major faiths.
Americans are more than twice as likely to express prejudice against Muslims than they are against Christians, Jews or Buddhists, a new survey found. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they have little or no knowledge of Islam. Still, a majority dislike the faith.
….Personally knowing a Muslim is not linked to a lower level of prejudice, although not knowing a Muslim is related to the greatest level of bias. The authors of the report say this finding underscores the need for better education on what Islam teaches.
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johnpi
American Muslim community in Michigan stages rally against extremism.
During a news conference, Imams reiterated that Islamic teachings are peaceful teachings and that Muslim-Americans are an important weapon in fighting Al-Qaeda.
“Killing innocent people is against our faith and against all faiths. Blowing up a civilian aircraft is not a ticket to paradise, but a ticket to hell,” said one Imam.
Local Islamic leaders call on people of all faiths to join them in a day of prayer for peace and justice.
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abunoor
Imam Suhaib Webb gave a lecture called “Between Cisco and Sujud” in which he tries to address some of the specific concerns and issues related to Muslims working in corporate America. The lecture has been transcribed over at his website. The final part of the series which links to the previous parts is available here.
Number one: As people involved in Cisco and Sun and the MCA (Muslim Community Association), the most important thing is balance. Balance in your life. Allah said, “[Do] not transgress within the balance” (55:8). Especially for young professionals coming out of college; I remember when I came out of college. There is the propensity to get sucked in and lose priorities. The first and foremost priority is to be the servant of Allah. And that job and that money and that profession are used for Allah. If that intention is there you will find Allah will bless it, wallahi. Allah will put a blessing in those things.
I remember when I worked for AT&T there was a brother who worked there with me. Wallahi they loved us Muslims over there. We’re the best workers. We don’t come in with hangovers on Monday. Maybe we watched some cricket over the weekend but other than that we weren’t complaining, “Oh no, it’s Monday.” We were like, “Oh alhamdullilah it’s Monday. I’ve prayed Fajr in the masjid, got my dhikr down and I’m ready to get busy.”
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johnpi
Profile in Al Jazeera of US Muslims.
Similarly, a 2009 Gallup report found that 70 per cent of American Muslims have a job compared with a national average of 64 per cent. Muslim men have one of the highest employment rates of religious groups; Muslim women are as likely as Catholic women to say that they work.
After Jews, Muslims are the most educated religious community in the US. Muslim women (unlike their Jewish counterparts) are as likely as their male counterparts to have a college degree or higher. Forty per cent of American Muslim women have a college degree as compared to 29 per cent of Americans overall.
American Muslims are as concerned about extremism and terrorism as other citizens. Their families and friends in “the old country” have been the primary victims of terrorist attacks. Like other Americans, Muslims were also victims; they too lost loved ones and friends in the 9/11 attacks.
Moreover, they have seen their religion, not just the terrorists, vilified and as a result those in the mainstream majority have been victims of profiling, discrimination and hate crimes.
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johnpi
Different Muslim communities in America may benefit from different approaches. If Umar wants to recommend a live-and-let-live appreciation of diverse paths in the religion, that’s great, but it would be more powerful if he stopped blasting moderates, ‘progressives’, Sufis, the ‘mainstream’ and others who differ in their practice from him, though I do think that in more recent times he has moderated his ‘blasting’ a bit.
And the thinking on this needs to go in the same direction that the American founders did when they wrote the First Amendment (freedom of religion). Earlier drafts suggested that the US would ‘tolerate’ non-Christian religions, but James Madison argued that tolerance presumed a place of superiority for the ‘tolerators’ that would incite prejudice and injustice, so the language was pushed to a full expression of support for freedom of religion.
I would also add my own critique to Umar’s point which is that the communities he describes as ‘urban’ and ’suburban’ are changing their geographical locations in many places in this country. Parts of America now resemble Europe where the wealthy and well-off live in cities, and the poor and desperate live in the suburbs.
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johnpi
Hertz sued over Muslim prayers.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the second-largest U.S. rental car company, was sued by former employees who say its policy of allowing Muslims to take daily prayer breaks discriminates against non-Muslim workers.
Katie Barkley and Shirley Harris, who worked as part-time drivers moving Hertz cars from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to other locations, claim Muslim employees were given as many as three paid, 15-minute prayer breaks each shift while non-Muslim employees were denied equal time off, according to the suit filed Nov. 30 in federal court in Atlanta.
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buzz
The story that simply refuses to die.
Kominas et al in Time Mag.Taqwacore. The Chia Pet of Islamic projects.
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islamoyankee
Over at my blog I have a video regarding Muslim American views on violence against their neighbors. I did not want to embed it here because I was not sure of the etiquette around Flash movies on the front page.
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johnpi
Pew research: 63 percent of US Muslims see no conflict in being devout and living in Modern society. Pew estimates the actual population of Muslims living in the United States at 2.35 million.
The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.
Research findings:
• Overall, Muslim Americans have a generally positive view of the larger society. Most say their communities are excellent or good places to live.
• A large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays off in this society. Fully 71% agree that most people who want to get ahead in the United States can make it if they are willing to work hard.
• The survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. On balance, they believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs, rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society. And by nearly two-to-one (63%-32%) Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society.
• Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.
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aziz
Most days, as a blogger, I feel like I am accomplishing something. I look back on my 6+ years and counting of writing and feel some accomplishment at having perhaps persuaded a few people, changed a few minds, and most importantly educated people about our faith.
Then i read a thread at a blog I am a frequent contributor to, and find that pretty much everything I’ve been saying for all these years has been utterly ignored, even by people who have been reading. It’s depressing. Days like this are the ones that make me wonder whether blogging is worth anything at all.
Of course, the antidote is here, at TI. But still, it doesn’t reduce the feeling of simple failure. Perhaps – as I myself argued some years back – we really do need to turn inwards.
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aziz
I find these homosexual fantasies distasteful:
I saw a discussion over at TalkIslam, you know the site full of Muslims and pseudo-Muslims who wont be happy until their is a gay orgy in front of the kabbah, about a debate I had with Bin Gregory over whiteness and Islam in America.
astaghfirullah. Fear Allah!
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baraka
In the wake of Imam W. Deen Muhammad’s death, Azhar Usman issues an apology to African-American Muslims on behalf of immigrant Muslims and their kids for being less than welcoming & integration-minded.
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Andrea Useem
Emergent Islam? I was wondering yesterday if the spirit of the emerging church — tech-savvy, anti-traditionalist, relationship-based — might have relevance for our generation of Muslims. And: why are mosque websites so bad?
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Andrea Useem
Salaams folks, here’s a story I have wanted to write forever, and Slate finally gave me a chance: It’s about loving and leaving Hijab:
