A developing profession: Muslim chaplains in American public life

Abstract

The developing field of Islamic chaplaincy consists of an emergent group of religious authorities in the American Muslim community engaging in a dynamic, sometimes ambiguous, professional field. We demonstrate how prison chaplains provide religious accommodation, advocacy for civil rights, and potentially rehabilitative services to incarcerated Muslims; Muslim hospital chaplains provide service to hospitalized patients regardless of faith tradition, though the lack of adequately Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)-trained Muslims inhibits expansion; Muslim military chaplains struggle with suspicion from homeland security agencies, while their endorsing bodies are inadequately developed for training and support; and Muslim college chaplains nurture students in a variety of settings, though often without adequate funding models. This research brings disparate streams of scholarship together to provide a benchmark for the future development of Islamic chaplaincy in the USA.