American Islam: Growing Up Muslim in America [Hardcover]

Richard Wormser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

With a clear and evenhanded approach, Wormser offers an eye-opening investigation of what may be America's most misunderstood and maligned religious group. The author draws on extensive interviews with young American Muslims, the teachings of the Quran, and the history of Islam to provide a book that goes a long way toward debunking current myths and controversies about Muslims in America. 35 photos.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Punctuating his writing with short quotes drawn from interviews with young people, Wormser (Hoboes) discusses issues faced by Muslims in America. First he outlines basic tenets of the religion, then focuses on two quite different groups, immigrants from the Middle East and African Americans. He emphasizes matters relevant to teens, such as navigating the strict codes of Islamic dating, dealing with peer pressure, and adapting ancient customs to modern life. On the whole, his account tends to idealize his subjects. For example, after introducing the popularly held belief that "Muslim men rule the household," the author quotes a Muslim (male): "It doesn't make sense to try and dominate your wife.... Islam teaches that the man has the final decision in the family, but you should always discuss things with your wife and try to reach a joint decision." Elsewhere Wormser resorts to generalizations: "Most Muslim students are comfortable with their religion." And while a chapter on the Nation of Islam perceptively suggests reasons for the increasing popularity of Islam among African Americans, the racist and anti-Semitic comments by leaders of the Nation are tacitly presented as reactions to years of oppression. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-A portrait of Muslim American youth and their faith. Wormser describes the cultural, literary, and scientific heritage of Islamic civilization; their traditional tolerance of unbelievers; and the history of Muslim settlement in the Christian West. He also offers a concise summary of the religion's origins, its Sunni and Shia branches, and its basic beliefs. In the first part, interviews with American-born children of immigrants from North Africa and Asia reveal conflicts among the generations and the insensitivity, discrimination, and harassment the young people are subjected to in public schools. Most of the interviewees express positive feelings about the traditional family, and all reject terrorism. Most, including young women, interpret Islamic restrictions of women as protections against temptation and danger. The second half of the book is devoted to the religious and political history of Islam within the African American community. The author tries hard to see things from a Muslim perspective-a laudable and desirable intent-but his evenhanded descriptions of some of the key personalities are bound to be controversial. He examines some of the inflammatory rhetoric associated with the Nation of Islam and discusses various responses to it. There is a great need for information on our growing Muslim population, and the first half of the book serves that need well.
Libby K. White, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 130 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802783430
• ISBN-13: 978-0802783431
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,142,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Teens > Religion & Spirituality > Islam

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Wormser, Excellent Job!, September 30, 2002

By 

Cyrus Goram (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Islam: Growing up Muslim in America (Paperback)

Richard Wormser's American Islam does an excellent job in explaining just what this important world religion is all about. He does it in an easy to understand manner without boring the reader with unimportant details. Wormser explains the early history of Islam in the Arabian peninsula and the USA, how Americans Muslims have adjusted in Post-9-11 America, and presents Islam from a Muslim teenager's perspective, bringing Islam into a today's context-something that his contemporaries have failed to pull off.

In the second part of American Islam, Wormser discusses issues and problems concerning African-American Muslims, who make up the largest number of converts in America, and in an unprecedented heroic step, in Chapter 5 he narrates an issue that no Imam in America will tackle-discrimination against African-American Muslim males in love & marriage by other Muslims.

For that alone, Wormser and American Islam deserves a Pulitzer. Five stars Richard Wormser on a job well done!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A little too much, December 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: American Islam: Growing Up Muslim in America (Hardcover)

This books starts out with lots of excellent information on Islam and various problems that Muslims in this country go through. An excellent easy reading for a new Mulsim convert such as myself.

However the second half of the book gets into topics such as racism, black history, ideals of Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan and the idea of white people being the devil. The author does't present these topics as something members of the Nation of Islam would have to put up with since these ideas are all not of the Quran. Rather the author provides way too much history and various ideals of Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan and in my opinion went way too far on this topic and it made the book an overall negative for me.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars this book is very informative and intresting!!, December 30, 2002

By 

Katie Ann (San Fran. Cal.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Islam: Growing up Muslim in America (Paperback)

The book is really good when it came to discussing the Muslims and their views. There are a lot of interviews with Muslims on where they stand with parts of there religion. It is really intresting and enlightening. Except for when it comes to the Nation of Islam group, a little less then half the book then focuses on this African-American-Muslim religion. But doesn't give facts as the book did when it came to your ordinary Muslims. It then becomes more of a biografy of Malcome x and a few other gentle men. Excluding that part, because it really did not answer any of my questions, it just went on to explain this Nation of Islam group, the book was informative and an easy reading with intering facts and first hand stories!!!