Islamic Values in the United States

Abstract

In this book, Haddad and Lurrunis present a scientific analysis of thesocial and religious values of the Muslim community in North America.The book probes into this community's psyche in an effort to detenninehow its members, as a religious minority, cope or fail to cope with particulartenets of their religion while living in a non-Islamic environment.A number of problems and issues are encountered by this minority: marriage,divorce, interest, diet, pets, American holidays, and the roles of themasque and the imam. The authors attempt to determine the existence ofcorrelations between such variables as length of time in the United States,the extent of dining with non-Muslims, gender, country of origin, and thesubject's response to different values. The data was collected ftom numerousinterviews and over three hundred questionnaires at Islamic tenterson the east coast, upstate New York, and the midwest.'Despite acknowledging the controversy surrounding the term "AmericanIslam," the authors conclude that this phenomenon does exist in morethan one form, depending on nationality, ethnic affiliation, level ofeducation, economic status, and other factors. The findings also show thatthere are two dynamic, but opposing, scenarios occurring among Muslimsin the United States ...