American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion (Hardcover)

~ Paul M. Barrett (Author) "When Arabs arrived in Dearborn, Michigan, in the 1920s and 1930s, they encountered a complex cloud of bigotry mingling with the smoke and soot of..." (more)
Key Phrases: extreme jihad, mosque leaders, secret evidence, Abou El Fadl, United States, Middle East (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Near the end of this fascinating and carefully researched portrait of Islam in contemporary America, a California mosque experiences a surprisingly heated internal debate about whether to host a fireworks celebration on the Fourth of July. Somehow, the "canopies of red, white, and blue that for a moment illuminated the minaret and dome" of the mosque crystallize many of the tensions that Barrett describes, particularly how so many individuals struggle to be faithful Muslims and patriotic citizens during troubled times. One great contribution of the book is the diverse portrait it offers of Islam in America today, but as Barrett shows, such ideological and racial diversity haven't been easy: Pakistani immigrants are sometimes at odds with African-American converts and (mostly white) Sufi spiritualists; feminists draw angry fire as they strive for greater equality; and self-proclaimed progressive Muslims feel at odds as American mosques become increasingly conservative and strident. Barrett is an engaging writer who puts a human face on all of these issues. The book is remarkably evenhanded, but Barrett can also be critical at times, whether analyzing the shortcomings of the Patriot Act or pointing to the inconsistency of a self-starting New York imam who works for justice but also praises Muslim extremists. Balanced and insightful, this grassroots journalistic account mines the complexity and depth of American Islam. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Reza Aslan

By most estimates, Islam is now the largest non-Christian religion in the United States. And yet some 60 percent of Americans claim never to have met a Muslim. No wonder, then, that so many wild misconceptions about Muslims endure in the United States. Indeed, a third of Americans told Gallup pollsters in July 2006 that they thought America's Muslims are sympathetic to al-Qaeda.

Paul M. Barrett's well wrought and engaging new book, American Islam, seeks to change perceptions by providing an intimate group portrait of Muslim Americans as they struggle to combat the threats, prejudices and stereotypes that have dogged them since 9/11. Barrett, a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter who's now at BusinessWeek, uses his journalistic skills to insinuate himself into the lives of his subjects -- no easy task in a time of heightened suspicions. The book traces the lives of seven American Muslims, from the wily Dearborn, Mich., publisher and political activist Osama Siblani to the energetic journalist and Islamic feminist Asra Nomani, whose crusade to tear down the wall of separation between men and women in her Morgantown, W.Va., mosque made her a media superstar in the United States and, to her surprise, a scourge in her own community.

Barrett's profiles paint the American Muslim community -- more than 6 million strong and almost infinitely diverse -- as a microcosm of the larger worldwide community of Muslims. Muslims in the United States face the same religious, ethnic and sectarian divides that one finds throughout the Muslim world -- Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Iranians, Muslims and Christians. Yet American Muslims have, for the most part, avoided the conflicts of identity and integration that plague so many of their far more marginalized co-religionists in Europe. This partly has to do with economics: While most European Muslims are descended from impoverished immigrant families who flooded into Europe as guest workers at the end of World War II, most Muslims in the United States are, like the protagonists of Barrett's book, either middle-class converts or well-heeled and often highly educated immigrants from a wide array of ethnic backgrounds.

While Barrett maintains a sense of narrative cohesion throughout, the individual profiles are, alas, a bit uneven. His otherwise absorbing chapter on Khaled Abou El Fadl, the renowned theologian and law professor at UCLA, lacks an in-depth discussion of why his theories about Islamic law, or sharia, are so controversial among traditionalist Muslims. And one wishes that Barrett's profile of the charismatic Siraj Wahhaj, the imam of a Brooklyn mosque, had more fully mined the complex history of African American Islam, its troubling roots in the Nation of Islam and its continuing animosity toward Muslims from the Middle East and South Asia.

Despite these shortcomings, American Islam provides a welcome antidote to the widespread Islamophobia that has infected so many Americans over the last five years. Indeed, at a time when global perceptions of the United States are hideously unfavorable, the book makes a compelling argument that the greatest tool in America's arsenal in the "war on terror" may be its own thriving and thoroughly assimilated Muslim community.

Still, it is hard not to be disheartened by Barrett's account of the case of Sami Omar al-Hussayen, a University of Idaho graduate student caught in the wide net thrown upon America's Muslim community after 9/11. Charged in February 2003 with violating the USA Patriot Act for providing "material support" to terrorists by running Arabic-language Web sites that encouraged suicide bombings, Hussayen suffered the same fate as the thousands of other Muslim and Arab Americans who were rounded up and held without due process, often on flimsy immigration charges. Throughout his ordeal, Hussayen insisted that he shunned terrorism and never lost confidence in the American legal system, which he relied upon to find him innocent and allow him to return to his family and his studies. He believed this to be true even after his wife and children were deported to Saudi Arabia in a blatant attempt to force him to "confess" to being a terrorist. He continued to believe it right up to the moment in July 2004 when, having been found innocent of all the terrorism charges, he was nevertheless deported for the most inconsequential visa violations.

While it is dispiriting to read about the bungling overzealousness of a government that has more often treated American Muslims as part of the problem of Islamic extremism than as part of the solution, there is nevertheless something oddly hopeful in Hussayen's unflinching faith that the rights and freedoms for which the United States has for centuries been admired throughout the world would ultimately protect him from harm. Perhaps generations from now, when the war on terror has become little more than a somber footnote in our nation's great history, that may once again be true.

As Muslims say, "Inshallah." God willing.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374104239
• ISBN-13: 978-0374104238
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #603,794 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Honest and Insightful Look at American Muslims, January 23, 2007

By	Hasan Z. Rahim "Peace&Goodwill" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As an American Muslim, I have found books published on Islam and Muslims, particularly since 9/11, unsatisfying. Those writing from outside the faith are prone to generalizations, distortions and condescension. Muslims authors, in contrast, are often either apologetic or strident or too beholden to the past to make their narrative compelling.

It is not easy to tread a path between these two perspectives, which is why I am very happy to recommend Paul Barrett's book to the general reader and specialist alike.

By focusing on American Muslims from diverse backgrounds (Publisher, Scholar, Imam, Feminist, Mystics, Webmaster, Activist), Barrett conveys the idea, more than any other writer I have come across, that Muslims are not a monolith, that like adherents of other faiths, they too can sustain conflicts and contradictions within and between themselves and yet are able to lead pious and caring lives.

It takes insight and a feel for truth and humanity beneath the façade to write a book like this. Mr. Barrett does not gloss over the difficulties he encounters in trying to understand his subjects but neither is he quick to judgment or generalizations. He is after facts, not abstractions, and he never overstates his case. By subtly creating a context in which the Muslims are free to express their innermost thoughts, a remarkable feat by any definition, he draws out their stories in all their nuances and complexities. What these Muslims say about extreme jihadists and misguided clerics and how to defeat them are alone worth the price of the book. This is an engaging book on a difficult topic written in lucid language that I can honestly say I found deeply satisfying.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vital Education, Perfectly Articulated, February 20, 2007

By	Mel Powell (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Since 9/11, but surely long before as well, I have understood as much as I suppose most Americans understand about Islam in America: very little. I have, of course, been inundated by the constant message of generalization about Muslims. The current administration's profiling of Muslims has only added to the distressingly large chance of misunderstanding.

Paul Barrett's book is an amazing and powerful view of American Islam. By introducing us to real, individual people, of different backgrounds and experiences, Mr. Barrett helps break down some of these walls of generalization. As in any "category" of people, some espouse opinions most people might not like, some come across well and some do not, some show the courage of freedom and some show the cowardice of hate. But we are able to learn that we are people, and even in the words of the Quran it seems we are here to get to know each other better.

"American Islam" should be required reading in current American civics classes--not to mention all levels and branches of government right now, today. American Muslims live in America, obviously; and this book gives us all a chance to stop seeing a category called "them" and start forging an understanding that will finally let us be an "us," regardless of religion or nation of origin.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating insights about the diverse American Muslim community, January 6, 2007

By	Gaetan Lion - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a very interesting and well written book about an almost mysterious subject: American Muslims. During this time of "clash of civilizations" and "War on terror" what are the several millions of Muslims that live among ourselves like? Not so unexpectedly, they are incredibly diverse. Their faith, behavior, and profile are very fragmented as underlined in the subtitle of the book "The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion." The author has interviewed and profiled many of them. They make for fascinating subjects. As can be expected, they are not supportive of the White House Administration foreign policy since 9/11. However, on the whole they seem surprisingly Americanized. As a group, they are very well educated as 59% of them have college degrees vs only 28% for the average American. Also, their average income is significantly higher than average. In other words, Muslims are very well integrated and successful American citizen unlike their counterparts in Europe.

The author analyzes well why American Muslims are well integrated while European ones are not. U.S. unemployment benefits are modest and short in duration. On the other hand, job and business opportunities for anyone with smarts and entrepreneurship are relatively plentiful. Outright discrimination against Muslims, even if prevalent, is not an insurmountable obstacle towards success. Just the reverse is true in Europe. Unemployment benefits are extremely generous and permanent. Meanwhile, tacit discrimination in the workplace is rampant and makes it nearly impossible for Muslims to get descent jobs in Europe. As a result, European Muslims are marginalized , frustrated, and unsuccessful. They in turn more readily join radical local groups.

The author covers the many different Muslims subcultures within the U.S. The Iranians in Southern California are very different from the Arabs in Michigan. Also, the black Muslim community has a unique cultural flavor of its own with one of the longest lineage. Undeniably some pockets are associated with a certain level of threatening religious fundamentalism. But, on the whole you sense that the Muslim community is certainly much less beligerent towards America within our borders than without.

Paul Barrett does a good job of educating us on what the Muslims who live among ourselves are like. This should moderate the level of prejudice one may have vs this community. If you are interested in this subject I also recommend the book "While Europe Slept" and the movie "The Hamburg Cell." Both show a much dire picture of the lack of integration of the Muslim community within the European continent. After reading these different books and seeing the mentioned movie, it makes you glad to live in the U.S. maybe even if you are a Muslim.