Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11 [Hardcover]

Geneive Abdo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 2006

Islam is America's fastest growing religion, with more than six million Muslims in the United States, all living in the shadow of 9/11. Who are our Muslim neighbors? What are their beliefs and desires? How are they coping with life under the War on Terror?
In Mecca and Main Street, noted author and journalist Geneive Abdo offers illuminating answers to these questions. Gaining unprecedented access to Muslim communities in America, she traveled across the country, visiting schools, mosques, Islamic centers, radio stations, and homes. She reveals a community tired of being judged by Americans' perceptions of Muslims overseas and eager to tell their own stories. Abdo brings these stories vividly to life, allowing us to hear their own voices and inviting us to understand their hopes and their fears.
The younger generation of Muslims in particular is charting a different way of life. They are following new imams and placing their Muslim identity before their American one. And unlike their parents, they do not define themselves by their ethnic background, as Pakistani, Palestinian, or Yemeni. Instead they see themselves as belonging to a universal faith. Through their new organizations and websites, they exchange ideas about how to create a more Islamic lifestyle.
Inspiring, insightful, tough-minded, and even-handed, this book will appeal to those curious (or fearful) about the Muslim presence in America. It will also be warmly welcomed by the Muslim community that it depicts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Geneive Abdo's work captures in great detail the immense hardships Muslim face in the post-September-11th world and offers hope for their success and co-existence in America. Her book shatters stereotypes about Muslims and teaches us that more understanding of Islam is needed for global peace." --Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

"Given rising anxiety about the possible alienation of American Muslims, a readable book offering a responsible yet sympathetic profile of that community should be welcomed. Five years after 9/11, Geneive Abdo, who has reported skillfully on Islamism in Egypt and Iran, has produced just such a book. Abdo's description of the neo-traditionalism of this community is fascinating. She depicts a typical 'enclave culture,' a religious community that sees itself as beleaguered and is therefore preoccupied by boundaries--between us and them, male and female, real Muslim and impostor."--The Washington Post

"There is no better time and no better book to understand the American Muslim experience today than Mecca and Main Street. Abdo has written an important, insightful and provocative book. 'Must reading' for anyone who wishes to engage American Muslims in their faith and rich diversity." --John L. Esposito, University Professor and Founding Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, and author of What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam

"Honest, perceptive, and nuanced.... Introduces a Muslim community that is both an American immigration success story and a population struggling to define itself under unprecedented circumstances." --Christian Science Monitor

"Abdo has written a book that succeeds in striking a very difficult balance; it is simultaneously honest, highly informative, critical, thought provoking, entertaining, and very readable--in fact once picked up, the reader will have a hard time putting the book down. This is one of the few studies on the subject that is firmly grounded in the realities and dreams of American Muslims. The author insightfully elucidates both the internal and external strife and challenges that plague Muslims living in the United States in particular, but also more generally, those living in the West. Muslims and non-Muslims alike will benefit greatly from reading Mecca and Main Street." --Khaled Abou El Fadl, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, and author of The Search for Beauty in Islam and The Great Theft

"Going beyond abstract debates about what Islam does or doesn't say, Geneive Abdo vividly describes the many concrete ways in which American Muslims practice their religion. Shunning the clichéd opposition of 'good' liberal Muslims to 'bad' fundamentalist or conservative Muslims, Abdo shows how the new generation is shaping a truly Western, yet still orthodox, Islam. Contradictions, compromises, and tensions between U.S-born and immigrant Muslims accompany an ongoing shift from diverse ethnic communities to a common faith community--a faith community that is definitively Western. Mecca and Main Street fills a vacuum in the study of American Muslims." --Olivier Roy, author of Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

"Islam is the fastest growing religion in America, yet for most Americans the lives of their Muslim neighbors remain shrouded in mystery. In this rich and probing book Geneive Abdo provides an intimate account of American Islam; its roots, beliefs and the challenges that confront it today. With an eye for detail and nuance, sharpened during years of reporting from Egypt and Iran, Abdo lays bare the diversity of this community of migrants and converts as it balances faith with modernity in post-9/11 America. Well-written, engaging and sophisticated, this is a must read for all Americans and Muslims." --Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future

About the Author

Geneive Abdo is the Liaison for the Alliance of Civilizations at the United Nations. A recognized authority on Islamic political movements and the author of well-received books on Islam in Egypt and Iran, she is also a respected journalist. During nearly a decade as a correspondent in the Islamic world, her work was featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, The Economist, and The International Herald Tribune. She has been a commentator on numerous news programs, including the BBC, NPR, CNN and PBS.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition (1 in number line) edition (September 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019531171X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195311716
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,394,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Misrepresented her interview subjects November 9, 2006

By C. Abdalla

Format:Hardcover

I was utterly dumbfounded to read Abdo's book this morning. I was, along with many close friends, one of her interviewee's. She completely misrepresented our conversation and that of others I know. I am completely disgusted by her purposeful and inaccurate fabrications about Islam such as her assertions that men "buy" women for marriage and this is seen by Muslim women as akin to slavery. How ridiculous and outrageous a lie and such a backwards explanation of the concept of mahr which is NOT a brideprice!! How anyone who has spent this many years around Muslims and cannot even get some of the very basics correct leaves me to conclude that her veracity as a writer and academic is in question. I am disgusted that she is making money and her fame on this ignorance.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, but some reservations.... August 29, 2006

By Y. Mian

Format:Hardcover

This book does a very good job of showing how more religious Muslims practice their faith in America, the issues they face, what activities they are involved in, and just their life experiences in general. The people she interviews and discusses in this book are good examples of the views held widely by many Muslims in the United States, especially those involved in mosques, MSA's, and ISNA.

However, I do have some reservations of the portrayal of so called "progressive Muslims" (a term with different meaning depending on who you ask) such as Amina Wadud. Whether or not one agrees with Ms. Wadud's decision to break with certain past traditions upheld by traditional Muslim scholars and theologians , it would be disingenuous to assume that a good portion of Muslims (theologians and scholars among them) who disagree with some ideas of past act out of media-conciousness and conceit. Abdo herself does a great job of showing the diversity in Islamic interpretation and how it faces Muslim Americans when mentioning how music is seen as OK by some people but forbidden by others, regardless of certain scholars' opinions. But then she casts "progressive Muslims" as being in the same line as wolves in sheepskin like Irshad Manji even though they follow a similar manner of addressing how Islam should manifest itself in a positive manner in our lives. In any event, progressive and traditional are very relative things. Some people would probably lump 'Music is OK in Islam' under the same progressive banner Abdo deems sensationalist.

Nevertheless, I would still highly this book because it documents the voice of the often unheard Muslim activists, community members, and scholars whose views are reflective of Muslims who are more active in their mosques and communities. Keep in mind, though, Muslims are like any other religious group with all shades of religiosity (or lack thereof) present in America. I would suggest reading supplemental books, however, if you wish to gain a better prespective on the intricacies of the Islamic religion itself and the discussions that continue today, whether real or self-imagined by certain Muslims. Leila Ahmad's "Women and Gender in Islam" is a great read and very informative, as is Khaled Abou El Fadl's "The Great Theft". Also, if you're interested, just pick up "Progressive Muslims" (ed. Omid Safi) or Amina Wadud's "Gender Jihad" and examine their views for yourself.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Serious Piece of Scholarship January 23, 2007

By Shadaab Rahemtulla

Format:Hardcover

"Mecca and Mainstreet" is must reading for Americans casually curious about Muslims (those who follow the religion of Islam) in America, researchers formally studying the topic, and especially Muslim Americans - a burgeoning community of six million - seeking to discover and learn about their own complex but understudied history in the United States. Geneive Abdo has undertaken an impressive amount of primary source research: the book is the culmination of three years of extensive mixing and interviews with members of the Muslim community primarily in Chicago and to a lesser extent in other major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and LA. Moreover, her writing style is smooth and highly accessible - a key quality that is desperately lacking in most serious academic scholarship. Indeed, the presentation of "Mecca and Mainstreet" is as solid as the content.

Abdo has separate chapters on the Muslim Students' Associations within various universities, new and rising imams (religious guides) - including interviews with some of the most well known spiritual figures within the Muslim American community such as Imam Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir - and Muslims taking Islam to the streets by providing social services. This latter section zooms in on the creative activities of Rami Nashashibi of IMAN (the Inner-City Muslim Action Network) in inner-city Chicago. There are also chapters on the experiences of Muslim Latino converts, culturally conservative Muslims in certain parts of Michigan, the changing and contested role of women in the mosque, and a concise and informative history that carefully traces the evolution of Islam in America.

The work also has problems. It is ISNA-centric. (ISNA, an acronym for the Islamic Society of North America, is the largest Muslim organization in the United States with immigrant Islam constituting the brunt of its economic base). For example, Arabs and South Asians are the Movers and Shakers of "Mecca and Mainstreet"; the Afro-American Muslim community is portrayed as somewhat stagnant and passive. Although Abdo, commendably, exposes the tension and thus distance that exists between immigrant and Afro-American Muslims - an important issue that is rarely discussed among Muslims - she fails to elaborate upon the significant wealth disparity that clearly exists between both communities. It seems pretty obvious to me that, generally at least, the Arab and South Asian Muslim community is highly-educated and saturated with professionals (doctors, engineers) that in turn give them greater resources to establish themselves - through the creation of mosques, Islamic schools, and other institutions - as the authoritative and representative voice of Muslims in America. The most impressive aspect of Abdo's narrative is that she has a firm grasp of how Muslim American society is transforming as second generation Muslims struggle to create an Islamic identity that transcends race, ethnicity, and petty nationalism - a core theme in her work. I must admit, however, that at times she over-romanticizes this Islamic universalism; there are also a fair share of Muslim youth who still uphold the tradition of their parents by rigidly identifying with their national and especially racial and ethnic baggage.

I highly recommend this book. As a history student of the Islamic revival - that has swept through the Muslim world since the 1970s - I had already been exposed to Abdo's work through her rigorously researched and vigorously written account of political Islamic activism in contemporary Egypt, "No God But God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam" (Oxford University Press, 2004). "Mecca and Mainstreet" is just as solid, and in its oral research, path breaking. At a time when mainstream journalists consistently manipulate images of Islam and Muslims to concur with, reinforce, and recreate racist assumptions about the religion's alleged "backwardness" and "barbarity", Abdo - as a journalist and a non-Muslim (she is of Lebanese Christian descent) writing for such major papers as the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune - is to be commended and applauded by both the Muslim and the academic community for her objectivity, and the sheer courage and integrity that must come with that.

Shadaab H. Rahemtulla

M.A. Candidate

Department of History

Simon Fraser University

Vancouver, Canada