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This richly textured, critically acclaimed portrait of American Muslims introduces the basic tenets of the Muslim faith, surveys the history of Islam in North America, and profiles the lifestyles, religious practices, and worldviews of Muslims in the United States. The volume focuses specifically on the difficulty of living faithfully and adhering to tradition while adapting to an American way of life and addresses the role of women in Muslim culture, the raising and education of children, appropriate dress and behavior, and incidences of prejudice and unfair treatment.The second edition of Islam in Americafeatures a new chapter on post-9/11 realities, which covers infringements on civil rights and profiling, participation in politics, transformations in Islamic law, pluralism and identity issues, foreign influences, anti-Islamic sentiment, intra-Islamic tensions, and the quest for a moderate Islam. Source notes, glossary, and additional resources also reflect recent developments and scholarship.

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Jane I. Smith is senior lecturer in divinity and associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of Muslims, Christians, and the Challenge of Interfaith Dialogue and Visible and Invisible: Muslim Communities in the West. She is also the coeditor of Educating the Muslims of America and coauthor of Muslim Women in America.

Introduction	p. ix
Muslim Faith and Practice	p. 1
Contributors to the Development of Islam	p. 23
Islam Comes to America	p. 51
Islam in the African American Community	p. 78
The Public Practice of Islam	p. 104
Women and the Muslim American Family	p. 129
Living a Muslim Life in American Society	p. 155
Islam in America Post-9/11	p. 185
Chronology	p. 205
Notes	p. 209
Glossary	p. 215
Resources for the Study of Islam in America	p. 219
Index	p. 225
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Chapter 8: Islam in America Post-9/11

Nothing prepared the Muslim community in America for September 11, 2001. The violence perpetrated on that day shocked and horrified Americans in general, and it is now clear that the event has had devastating consequences not only for the United States but for the world. Americans, Iraqis, Afghans, and many others continue to be killed in the resulting wars. The economy of the Western world has staggered while deficits rise as quickly as oil prices. It is difficult to characterize the consequences of the violent acts of a tiny number of Muslim extremists on that September morning. But none have been affected more directly than the Muslim men and women who live in America and who have had to answer again and again for the decisions of terrorists that they don't even recognize as coreligionists.

Imams and others have been asked countless times since 9/11 why Islam fosters violence, and why no Muslims speak out against acts of terror, and why Muslims hate the West. Answers about the essentially peaceful nature of Islam never seem to suffice, or never seem to be heard, as the American public fixates on each new piece of news at home or abroad that might be viewed as justifying a growing fear of the presence of Muslims in America. Some non-Muslims, of course, have gone out of their way to help Muslims present their case honestly and reasonably, and have spearheaded efforts at better interfaith relations. In the meantime, polls indicate that many Americans still do not understand Islam, still worry that cells teaching and planning for violence against the United States are growing, and still assume at heart that the country would be better off if most of its Muslim population were simply to "go home." African American and other American-born Muslims are in the terrible position of having to defend not only their religion but their rightful identity as Americans who are, in fact, already home.

Some Muslim leaders are now recognizing that to keep responding with the platitude that "Islam means peace" simply will no longer suffice, if it ever did. They are asking themselves, as non-Muslims are asking, whether in fact there might be something within their faith that really does allow for violent action, and whether new interpretations of classical texts are essential for Islam to be a viable faith in the twenty-first century. They are looking again at each other, wondering where are the common bonds that render Islam a single faith, albeit with a wide range of possible interpretations and understandings, within the whole complex of multi-faith America. And they are looking at Islam in relation to other religions, analyzing the Qur'an and Sunna for an understanding of how Islam views Judaism, Christianity, and other religions and rethinking that understanding in light of a new world and new mandates to live together harmoniously as fellow citizens.

The reality of a post-9/11 America in which government sanctions still weigh heavily and American public opinion still registers caution and even fear of Muslims frames the context in which both private and public discussion about the future of American Islam must take place. Muslims on a daily basis have to deal with what actually has happened to them since the 2001 invasions.

The U.S. Government and Muslim Civil Rights

Some observers, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have likened the treatment of Muslims and Arabs by the U.S. government since 9/11 to that of Germans during World War I and of Japanese Americans during World War II. Legal protections and civil rights have been taken from many Muslim and Arab American citizens for the reason that they are seen as a direct threat to America and its freedoms. It is ironic that the very president to win the first (and only) Muslim bloc vote because of his promise to protect Muslim civil rights, George W. Bush, should have been the one to preside over the abandonment of those rights and the subjection of Muslims and Arabs to humiliation, deportation, and in some cases forms of torture.

It is an often repeated assumption that when the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. government needed a new enemy, and Islam was just right for the job. Such an association, of course, was strongly supported by the Israeli lobby and by American Jewish intellectuals such as Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson. A series of measures were taken to "protect" American citizens that have resulted in great difficulty for Muslims and Arabs who also hold citizenship in this country:

1. The USA PATRIOT (Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act of October 2001 effectively took away all legal protection of the liberty of American Muslims and Arabs. Numerous civil rights agencies have protested this act and worked to have it lifted, as yet to no avail.

2. The U.S. government has been vigilant in monitoring NGOs, civic, charitable, and religious organizations that might be suspected in some way of harboring terrorism. The assets of some have been frozen. This has served to deprive U.S. Muslims of one of the most important ways in which they can fulfill the obligation of paying zakat, through support of charities that give to the poor, widows, and orphans.

3. Government raids on the homes and offices of Muslims in positions of national leadership were carried out shortly after 9/11, particularly in northern Virginia. The raids have been interpreted as part of the government's effort to remove former Islamic leaders and encourage a new kind of leadership that will fit its own definition of "moderate Islam."