Asma T. Uddin, When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom

Abstract

American Religion 2, no. 1 (Fall 2020), pp. 211–213 Copyright © 2020, The Trustees of Indiana University • doi: 10.2979/amerreli.2.1.25 Book Review Asma T. Uddin, When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019) Tazeen M. Ali Washington University, St. Louis, USA In When Islam is Not a Religion, Asma T. Uddin advocates for the protection of religious freedom for all Americans across political affiliations and faith backgrounds . Specifically, Uddin argues that when American Muslims’ religious freedoms are curtailed, the case for religious liberty is weakened for everyone. A key theme of the book is that religious freedom for all groups, as protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, is inextricably bound together. Written for a public audience, When Islam is Not a Religion is notable in its appeal to Christian conservatives who argue against Muslims’ religious freedom. For the sake of simplicity, Uddin uses “the Right” and “conservatives,” and “the Left” and “liberals” interchangeably throughout the text, a pattern I replicate in this review (27). The title of the book is a nod to Islamophobic rhetoric advanced by lawmakers , policy advisors, and media personalities who argue that, “Islam is not a religion, but rather a geopolitical system bent on instituting jihadist and sharia law in America” (35). These critics insist that the freedom of religion protected by the First Amendment does not apply to Muslims, reflecting the Islamophobia increasingly mainstream in US public discourse. As a religious liberty lawyer, Uddin has worked extensively defending diverse religious claimants in the US American Religion 2:1 212 and is a frequent media commentator on Islam (323). In the book, Uddin presents evidence from high profile court cases, legal briefs, and news media. She also analyzes survey data, scholarly texts, and diverse media produced by American Muslims. An appendix detailing major Supreme Court cases on religious liberty also serves as a helpful resource for readers. While Uddin primarily draws on her legal expertise, she also writes as a Muslim with a personal stake in the contentious debates over religious freedom in the US. Throughout the book, she inserts personal anecdotes about her own relationship to Islam and its central role in her life and also shares reflections on raising children amidst rampant Islamophobia. In the first part of the book, “Stop the Islamization of America,” Uddin enumerates several harrowing instances of Islamophobia: Anti-Sharia legislation, employment discrimination, and violence against Muslims and those mistaken for Muslim. She begins with a vivid description of the August 2010 case of arson in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at the site where the local mosque board had plans to build a new Islamic Center. Indicating that arson was just one of multiple attacks on this site, she describes how a group of Murfreesboro residents filed a lawsuit that claimed Islam was inherently threatening to American values. Following a countersuit that claimed “the unequal treatment of Muslims violated religious liberty,” the Islamic Center was eventually built, but the community backlash posed ongoing barriers to its construction (37). Notably, Uddin draws historical parallels between American Muslims’ experiences and the significant challenges faced by Catholics, Jews, and Mormons in their religious expression. In so doing, she situates Islamophobia within a broader US history that has limited other religious minorities’ rights, rather than presenting these hurdles as unique. Whereas the first part of the book analyzes explicit attacks on Islam orchestrated by conservatives, the second part, “‘Good’ versus ‘Bad’ Muslims,” focuses on how liberals undermine American Muslim identity in more subtle ways. Here, Uddin persuasively argues that the fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries reify the binary between acceptable and unacceptable Islam by producing images of Muslim women that are palatable to an American liberal mainstream. Uddin asserts that the selective liberal embrace of Muslims secularizes Islam and robs it of “its religiousness, its spiritual character, maybe even its authenticity” (281). To her, Muslims are rendered totems in the culture wars between conservatives and liberals, thereby limiting their expressions of faith in the public sphere (280). Uddin calls attention to the hypocrisy of conservative Christian groups who discriminate against Muslims’ religious freedom while feeling attacked for their...