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American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion

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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.

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.

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.

Paul Barrett takes us inside Islam in a number of places--Dearborn, Michigan, Los Angeles, California, and Knoxville, Tennessee, among others, but, more importantly, he takes us inside Islamists. He takes us where most of us have never been.

Like Bob Woodward, Barrett is a thorough, persistent reporter who earns his interviews, gains the confidence of interviewees by being fair-minded and even-tempered. Barrett's special gift is in personalizing Islam, giving it a face, an American face, that leads us to important discoveries.

Among others, we meet Osama Siblani, a volatile Michigan publisher; the remarkable Grace Song, the ivy-league MBA; Siraj Wahhaj, an Islamic holy man; and my favorite, Osra Nomani, a 21st Century woman in a West Virginia city suffused with an earlier time.

The importance of American Islam should be self-evident. History is studded with the strengths and weaknesses of religious faiths. The ideological spectrum of all faiths is wide, and gaining an understanding of that spectrum is requisite to survival. The 12th Century Crusades wrought widespread misery, but their counterpart in our Century, whether Christian, Islamic or other, invites nuclear winter.

So pick up this book. It's beautifully written, factual, revealing and enlightening. And, obviously, it's topical. Barrett helps us see that--if the Abrahamic faiths are to converge around their common core--they must come to a common understanding. To do less would violate in the deepest way the essential truth of each.

Americans know nothing of Islam in the Middle East and even less about Muslims in America. But, as author Paul Barrett points out in this landmark book, with Sunnis and Shias destroying Baghdad and British Muslims blowing up the London tube, it would be wise for both American Muslims and Christians to better understand each other. Who are these immigrants, and to what extent are they vulnerable to extremist doctrine?

Few Americans would guess that most of the estimated 4-6 million American Muslims (about the same as the Jewish community) are not Arab (only 26%) but from Pakistan, India, Bangledesh or other South Asian countries. Nor could they imagine that most American Arabs are Christians. Twenty percent of the nation's Muslims are black-Americans (mainly due to Malcolm X). Contrary to the popular stereotype of Arabs as taxicab drivers and store keepers, they are on balance white-collar professionals, and both more prosperous and better educated than the average American. Their median family income is $60,000, compared with the average American average of $50,000. Fifty-nine percent of the adults have college degrees, compared with 27% of the American population.

In light of their experiences as immigrants, American Muslims are more concerned than average Americans with economic and educational opportunities, and, as a minority, to constitutional protections of free speech and religious practice. Few Americans would guess that Islam is the fastest growing religion in America (and, for that matter, the world). As Barrett points out, "Muslims are an American immigration success story."

Barrett's odyssey took him beyond Dearborn, MI, the unofficial Muslim capital of America, but to the most surprising outposts in America--Knoxville, Tn and Moscow, Idaho--where Muslims often drifted because of local state colleges. In hundreds of interviews he met people who wear denim jeans and university sports shirts but still pray five times a day to Mecca, and tithe more reliably than Christians. He found totally assimilated women doctors who wear the Hiab head cover and hope to make the "Haj" visit to Mecca. He visited homes where the children were reading Disney's "Little Mermaid" and watching Blue's Clues, but celebrate Halloween, Christmas, and participate in weekly Islamic religious classes. Achieving an appropriate balance in assimilation is a continuing challenge.

Talking to American Muslims is not unlike discussing contemporary America with fundamentalist pastors. Two-thirds of them find American society "immoral." They deplore consumerism, alcohol, sex and worldliness. They oppose homosexuality, abortion and pornography as energetically as any Baptist preacher.

But 9/11 changed the world Muslims in America knew. And things got even worse after the US invasion of Iraq. Smoke was still rising from the Trade Towers as store owners suddenly refused to serve Muslims; they were turned away at gasoline stations. Drivers at stop signs would roll down car windows and shout obscenities. At school and work they encountered angry stares and nasty comments. Most distressing of all, Muslims became the object of government investigators. Great numbers were arrested willy-nilly. Many were deported. At airports and train stations they were subjected to discriminatory search. Many understood why; others felt deep resentments

Barrett's portrays the diversity of American Islam. There are those like Egyptian-born Khaled Abou El Fadl, a tenured professor of Islamic jurisprudence at the University of California, who is appalled at the "Dark Ages" that have come upon Islam. In a torrent of books and magazine articles , El Fadl concedes the hateful side of some Quran passages, but, as Christians justifying the God of the Old Testament, turns to the holy book itself to put these in context.

Then there's Sami Omar al-Hussayen, a PhD candidate in computer science at the University of Idaho, notable for persuading members of his mosque post 9/11 to condemn "vicious acts of terrorism." Yet in 2003 FBI agents charged al-Hussayen with using his computer expertise to set up Arabic-language sites designed to distribute anti-American vitriol. Barrett says al-Hussayen "represents the paradox of Muslim student immigrants: they are eager to take advantage of America's openness and its educational and economic opportunities, but many are intensely hostile to U.S. government policies..." Roughly 85% of American Muslims are Sunnis, about the same as the ratio world-wide.

The outcome of this struggle for the soul of Islam in America poses enormous challenges to America. France, which had no illusions about the failure of Muslim integration, and Britain, which did, both demonstrate what can happen when terrorism gains a foothold among the Muslim population.

Although nobody, including the FBI, knows the full dimension of the threat, Barrett, if anything, seems somewhat too sanguine. Even before 9/11 Islamic radicals had blown up part of the World Trade Center. Many Islamic web sites spout extremists attacks on American culture and society. Excuses by Muslim "moderates" have for too long settled for bland statements that "Islam is a religion of peace" without recognizing the atrocities of those who aren't. Like Protestantism, there is no central Muslim "Pope," so leadership must come from local leaders. Painful (and personally dangerous) though it might be, they must speak out more aggressively.

While maintaining an active effort against Jihadists, American law enforcement must at the same time show tact and understanding. Thoughtless profiling, detention and accusations can only exacerbate relations. The Department of Justice has shown an irresponsible ideological insensitivity to these nuances.

American fundamentalist preachers carry a huge responsibility. The Islamophobia generated by ignorant Christian preachers who not long ago were still referring to Muslims as "Mohammedans" are challenged to avoid incendiary statements. Pat Robertson's assertion that Muhammad was "an absolute wild-eyed fanatic" and Franklin Graham's denunciation of Islam as a "very evil and wicked religion" are self-defeating. And now there's Baptist Preacher John Hagee and his "World War III Has Begun" rabble-rousing sermon on Jerry Falwell's Liberty TV channel claiming great numbers of Islamic Jihadists are already in place and ready to plant nuclear bombs in eight cities. Americans must seek to understand, though not necessarily justify, the Muslim struggle. And the nation's political leadership must take the lead in seeking to ameliorate differences. Based on Barrett's extensive reporting, this is neither easy nor inevitable.

I can't say enough about how much books like this are needed today. It shows us things that we definitly need to know about Muslims. The chapter that showed the majority of Muslims in America are intelligent college level people was refreshing. I learned alot when he talked about the Nation of Islam and how it gave people a negative image of Islam. I recommend people who want to learn more about the Nation and it's twisted ideas to read The autobigraphy of Malcolm X. It is time for books to published that show Islam in a better way than it is currently portrayed. I hope the author comes out with another book like it. Also check out Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.

This book gives profiles of various moderate Muslim figures in the US. This book is long overdue. Being a Muslim myself, I was eager to see moderate Muslims being given as in-depth a look as al-Qaeda has received. Barrett did not disappoint.

This book is extremely well written and accessible. Barrett takes pains to present all the good and bad about each figure. These portraits are not always positive, but they are true. It is much more compelling to see a three dimensional picture than just one side of the argument. This book ends up being a balanced view. It is not sycophantic like the books by most Muslims, nor as unduly harsh as most of the books written by non-Muslims. A great job.

I think books like this one will go a long way towards repairing the image of Islam in America.

This book is an invaluable piece of literature that shows some of the different faces of American Islam - often radical within Islam, whether in the more liberal or more conservative direction. Much of the mistreatment of and disdain for Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent is the result of misunderstanding the religion, the cultures associated with is, and the military and political operations within the countries we connect to Islam. The style of this book is such that any person who desires to learn more about Islam in the Untied States can, through this piece of literature. One doesn't need any particular background other than acceptable skills at reading English - the writing is far from pretentious and assumes nothing about the reader's previous knowledge of the religion, culture, or history. Any and all information that might be critical for the context of the book is included in short sections that give the reader that cultural and historical context. Both informative and fascinating, this book is an easy read that is quickly finished, but imparts a perspective that is invaluable.

Television provides most Americans with what they know about Islam and that only provides the surface details of a complex and diverse group of Americans and of immigrants who live here and working towards citizenship. Paul Barrett has written a very helpful book that gives us very good portraits of seven Americans who are Muslims (Shiite, Sunni, and Sufi) whose views are in agreement in some things and are very different on others.

Because the topic is not simple and many different claims are made by different interest groups who assert that they speak for the Muslim community (as if there were only one), some of the points in the book do seem a bit confused. For example, the number of Muslims in America ranges from a low of about 2 million up to the six million claimed by CAIR. The high number includes an assumption that there are several million poor uncounted Muslims in America (this is on page 8). Yet, on page 9 there is a discussion of some of the educational achievements and incomes that seem to undermine the claim that a third to a half of Muslim adults in America are poor and uncounted. The claims on page 9 say that fifty-nine percent of Muslims have a college degree (this is more than double the U.S. average and seems to cry out for more clarification).

Barrett also quotes income figures that 80% earn more than twenty-five thousand dollars, that more than 50% earn more than fifty-thousand dollars, and that median Muslim household income is sixty-thousand dollars versus fifty-thousand for all Americans. Well, it seems to me this also contradicts the claim of a third to a half of Muslims being uncounted because of their poverty. So, which is it?

The book provides interesting life portraits of Osama Siblani - publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn, Michigan, Abou El Fadl - a professor of Islamic Jurisprudence at UCLA and who advocates less militant views than seem the norm nowadays and has gotten him ostracized, the Brooklyn Imam, African-American Masjid At-Taqwa who is a traditional Muslim rather than from the Nation of Islam and who holds quite militant views and sees conspiracies against Muslims and African-Americans nearly everywhere (he claims that Malcom X and Martin Luther King were murdered by the government), Asra Nomani is a feminist by Muslim standards because she wants to be able to pray on the same floor as the men in her local mosque - as she had prayed on her Hajj to Mecca and because she had a child by her Pakistani fiancé who then abandoned her, we learn about the sufi view of Islam through the life of the Krambos, there is a chapter on the trial of Sami Omar al-Hussayen for supporting terrorism through his webiste that took place in Idaho, and Mustafa Saied who used to be a militant but is now trying to find more moderation and communication between Muslims and non-Muslims.

I think it would be very good for everyone to take a look at this book. It is not a whitewash of these folks. Barrett shows their contradictions. For example, Siblani is a very influential man in politics and whose endorsement is sought even by Presidential candidates. No one thinks he should abandon his Lebanese heritage. Many Americans look back on where they came from with love. And no one denies that he is a full American. He is a citizen and works the American system of politics well. However, when you read some of his words about American policy in the Middle East including the War on Terror, even the author admits his views and loyalties are complicated.

When we read claims by some in the book that America will be burned down and the Constitution replaced with Sharia, well, that is very troubling. I also found the aspersions cast on Jews, on Israel, on non-Muslims to be disturbing. The use of the word moderate will also have a different meaning depending on who is using it. I cannot characterize every view in the book in this short review. However, I did find the views and claims of even some who claim to be moderate to be extreme. Yet, there are a few who say things and are working for things that seem hopeful, but they are not the majority view in this book, which probably over represents the search for moderation.

I think this is very much a book worth reading on a topic that should be important to all Americans.

Barrett's portrayal of Islam in his novel, American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion is all at once frustrating, biting, truthful and eye-opening. At first glance, the novel seemed to be about tackling the fear of Islam by describing seven stereotype-defying Muslim personalities. In actuality, the real message of this book was less about creating common ground between Muslims and other Americans, and more about being a forum for Barrett's distaste for fundamentalism. To his credit, Barrett does bring up some very important and pertinent issues surrounding the spread of fundamentalism worldwide, and how it has affected the perception of Islam as a whole. It is unfortunate that his inflammatory opinions about Islamic Fundamentalism, coupled with his selection and depiction of polarized Muslim views, clouded the more important messages of tolerance in his book that were left to the very end. This would not entirely be a problem if Barrett was more up front about his intentions, as opposed to acting under the guise of exposing the real story of the American Muslims. (The moderate majority of American Muslims are entirely ignored except for the conclusion.) The value in this approach is that the reader may understand that there are many different types of Muslims, and that followers vary greatly in their practice of Islam. In this way, it might foster intellectual dialog and exploration. While quite biased, it is nonetheless a sensational read.