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Title: Islam in America by Jane I. Smith ISBN: 0-231-10967-9 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A very basic overview
Comment: Compared to the literature on Muslims in Europe or China (two other regions with significant Muslim minorities) the literature on Muslims in the United States is very flimsy indeed. In addition to lacking the theoretical sophistication of the literature on other regions, the available works on Muslims in the United States tends to be highly polemical. On the one hand are those authors like Daniel Pipes for whom the radical fringe represents the totality of Muslim experience. Smith represents the other side of this polemic, and her work is primarily a defense of Muslim's place in the American fabric.
This is not to say that Smith's work is without merit. For readers with no background in Islam, she gives a fairly readable overview of the basic tenets of Islam and some of the tensions within the Muslim community in the United States. She is particularly good in her coverage of the development of Islam amongst African Americans and the relationship between Islamic practice and American identity politics.
For anyone with more than a passing knowledge of these issues, however, Smith's treatment will seem overly simple and far too defensive. Her work is remarkably uninformed by the study of Islam in other societies and makes no reference to scholarly debates regarding Islam in the United States. Her work shows a strong bias towards what she understands to be Orthodox practice and a corresponding disdain for synchretist movements. She mentions tensions within the Islamic community, but fails to give the reader enough details to understand the relative importance of the positions she mentions. In the end, Smith's work is readable, but not particularly enlightening. It could only be recommended to the reader with the absolute minimum of background on the subject.
I wish I could offer a suggestion for a better monograph on the subject. Unfortunately, I don't know of any. Probably the best direction to take would be to explore the large number of scholarly articles in academic journals and in compiled works, such as Haddad & Smith's Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible & Invisible.
Rating: 1
Summary: Doesn't discuss conflicts with American values
Comment: Islam is a triumphalist theocratic tradition. The American Constitution provides for a secular state where government and religion are separate. The Koran endorses wife beating which is illegal in the United State. The Koran also endorses polygamy, similarly illegal in the United States. Traditional Islam called for the separation of the sexes based on the hadith in which Mohammed states that "when a man and a woman are alone together, the third person present is the Devil"
Question, how can a believing Muslim agree to support the Constitution of the United States when the Islam requires theocracy. Question how can a believing Muslim live among non-believers who are considered unclean?
Food for thought.
Rating: 5
Summary: Surprising insights
Comment: I am half-way through the hardcover edition of Islam in America, and am surprised at the depth of knowledge Smith reveals of Islam and Muslims.
I have read other books by other scholars and have found their perspectives sometimes colored by their political or spiritual beliefs. Too often is there an association of the religion with extremist groups, a subtle attempt to link the faith of the majority with the extremist fervor of a few. To the author's credit, she draws the line that distinguishes one from the other, pointing out that Islam - and those who sincerely practice it - rejects all forms of racism.
With Smith, there is a complete honesty in her analysis. She espouses no cause, but she certainly has revealed a remarkable knowledge of the history of Islam in the United States as well as of Islamic practices. I have no idea of her religion, but from the way she has written she could even be a liberal, analytical and very observant Muslim.
Smith's understanding of Islam and the Muslim community in America is so intimate and impressive that I have been corralling my wife and reading paragraphs and pages out aloud to her! My children are still too young to read the book by themselves, but it is already adding to our dinner-time discussions of what it means to be Muslim in America.
I borrowed the hardcover book from our local library - it was a surprising find in small-town America - and obviously intend to buy one to keep and re-read.
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Title: The Muslims of America (Religion in America) by Yvonne Y. Haddad ISBN: 0195085590 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: August, 1993 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Buddhism in America by Richard Hughes Seager ISBN: 0231108699 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.50 |
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Title: Protestantism in America by Lauren F. Winner, Randall Herbert Balmer ISBN: 0231111304 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $36.50 |
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Title: American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom by M. A. Muqtedar Khan, M.A. Muqtedar Khan ISBN: 1590080122 Publisher: Amana Pubns Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: An Introduction to Islam by David Waines ISBN: 0521429293 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 09 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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