Circular Calculus and Elliptical Realities: The Standardization of the Islamic Lunar Calendar in the United States, 1966–2006

Abstract

Looking at the most recent episode in the history of time standardization, this paper focuses on the immigrant American Muslim community's historically intricate transition from the phenomena-based Islamic lunar calendar formally instituted in 1976 toward a standardized calculation-based approach taken in 2006. Using the roles assumed by the Muslim community's two premier organizations during this period, the Muslim Students' Association and the Islamic Society of North America, I attempt to analyze the multiplicity of issues dealing with technology and modernity, cultural unity and diversity, and assimilation. While this paper tracks the community building efforts of America's most diverse religious cohort through an integrated exposition of technology, politics, religion and society, it fundamentally reveals a distinct shift to a modernist epistemology of railroad time based on uniformity and science.