Discourse, Identity, and Community: Problems and Prospects in the Study of Islam in America

Abbas Barzegar
Georgia State University 1

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Introduction

he politicization of Islamic identity in the United States has a long and complex history and has taken an especially strident tone after the attacks of September 11, 2001. While the social and cultural effects of this politicization may be obvious, its reverberations can also be felt in the scholarly research on American Muslim communities. Before 9/11, research on American Muslims often carried a tone that aimed to demonstrate the dynamics of a complex religious community in an environment presumably at odds with itself. Such assumptions proved unfounded, however, in light of the breadth of African American Muslim experiences, which are a critical part of American history itself, in addition to the plethora of immigrant Muslim encounters with American society which go back to origins of the country itself. In fact the very richness of African American and immigrant Muslim experiences in the United States is the cause for perhaps the most enduring problem facing the study of Islam in America: managing the vast diversity of American Muslim communities and their multiple layers of being. Beyond the ethnic and national distinctions, the categories of gender, class, generation, and ideology have complicated the ability to maintain a coherent and consistent research program across various scholarly disciplines. For example, African American experiences with Islam are as much a part of the history of American ethnic relations and civil rights history as they are of the history of Islam in America more specically. Likewise, individuals, either nominally or self-identifying Muslims, emigrating from their various countries along with their stories of assimilation, confrontation, and adaptation throughout successive generations, might well be studied both as a history of immigration in American history more generally or

I would like to thank number of individuals who have offered much needed commentary and feedback on this article throughout various phases of its development: most recently Julliana Hammer and Timur Yuskaev for breathing new life into the project, Omid Sa and Edward Curtis for their feedback at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the AAR where this was paper was rst presented in its current form, and Richard Martin, Joyce Fluckeiger, and Lee Ann Bambach for cultivating a productive intellectual community at Emory that helped give rise to this piece.

2011 Hartford Seminary. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148 USA. DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-1913.2011.01394.x

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of American Muslim history more narrowly. Coupled with the increasingly hostile political context of Muslim identity in a post-9/11 United States, these ambiguities of what actually constitutes the object and context of research on Islam in America have produced a difcult terrain of inquiry, to say the least. The way in which this subeld (of American history, immigrant history, Islamic history?) has developed is also heavily related to its interdisciplinary nature. While this has undoubtedly beneted the eld and accounts positively for the breadth of material covered, it has simultaneously been the largest impediment towards the subjects maturation at the conceptual and methodological levels, precisely because what constitutes the eld is the data Muslims and not the method of inquiry. The result has been the accumulation of fragmented, and often overlapping, case studies, narratives, ethnographies, and analyses. The situation has been further complicated by the entrance of the subject into mainstream political discourse. This has led to the proliferation of a range of popular oriented publications designed either to assuage or to exacerbate the myth American Muslims and their religious devotion constituting a potential fth column in American society. Representative Peter Kings senate hearings in the radicalization of the American Muslim community along with the anti-Shari ah legislation movements in various states were just two examples in 2010 and 2011 of the political institutionalization of this myth. This acute politicization of the eld has undoubtedly led to new opportunities and challenges for scholars both in and outside of the connes of the university. I would argue however that this imposed politicization and the unarticulated, yet ever-present, demand placed upon scholars to answer a public concern, has further blurred the conceptual and methodological parameters surrounding research on Islam and Muslims in America. The aim of this essay, therefore, is to propose one methodological framework that offers the possibility to manage the conceptual and substantive obstacles facing the study of Muslim diversity in America and its corresponding Islamic traditions. To do so, I begin with the rudimentary relationship between Islam and Muslim identity in order to investigate the ways in which Islamic hermeneutics, whether formal or informal, shape the articulation of American Muslim identity. The primary methodological and theoretical contribution of this essay is, therefore, to prioritize Islamic discourses over the various sociological categories of Muslim groups as a way to better understand the complex dynamics of Islam in the United States. Ultimately, this essay argues that the ways in which Muslims articulate matters Islamic or American are more determinative of community activity and behavior than presumed sociological or demographic categories, which are often dangerously equated with behavioral determinants. This paper proceeds in three main sections. The rst accounts for what I consider to be prominent conceptual and methodological trends currently used in the study of Muslims in the United States. After reviewing why I consider ethnic or other sociological categories limiting, specic attention is placed on the unproductive ambiguity surrounding the concept of identity as a heuristic. The paper then draws upon a range of

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anthropological works on Islam and Muslims, which employ the concepts of discourse and community formation, as an example through which to better articulate the methodological obstacles in the study of Islam in America. The last section presents six dominant discursive themes in Muslim American communities, arguing that through them, instead of sociological determinants, new ways of understanding community dynamics are enabled.

Sociological Categories and the Question of Identity

On May 22, 2007, the Pew Research Center released the report, Muslims in America: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream. It was self-championed as the rst ever nationwide survey to attempt to measure rigorously the demographics, attitudes and experiences of Muslim Americans.2 Like other surveys conducted by Pew, sociological categories such as age, national origin, and ethnic distinction were employed as categories through which to better understand patterns in participants responses. The results were nuanced and informative even if the majority of the press coverage proved myopic and alarmist.3 By prioritizing sociological categories this study offered a broad overview of Muslim attitudes and opinions on a range of topics. However, by emphasizing sociological distinctions the study necessarily neglects the question of Muslim hermeneutics. That is, what is the relationship, if any, between the interpretation, denition, and articulation of Islam by participants in the study and the attitudes and opinions expressed in their responses to the poll? For example, one learns that, Large majorities of Muslim American liberals (77%), moderates (66%) and conservatives (70%) express support for a bigger government that delivers more services.4 However, we know little about the ways in which the respondents understanding of Islam informed such an opinion. As the title suggests, we learn that Muslim attitudes and values are fairly consistent with American values more generally, but we are left wondering about the place of Islam in the formation of such values. I would argue that the prioritization of sociological categories in the Pews study mirrors many academic surveys of Muslim American communities. Kambiz GhaneaBassiris formidable survey of Muslims in Los Angeles, Competing Visions of Islam in America, may be regarded as one such example (although his most recent work markedly moves away from sociological methods and sets a new standard in the
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http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans, last accessed May 18, 2011. For the purposes of full disclosure, I was commissioned by the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding, which partnered with PEW on the preparation of this report, in 2006 to coordinate a focus group of African American Muslim participants in Atlanta, GA. 3 For example, Fox News headlined (a day after the report was released): Poll: 1 in 4 U.S. Young Muslims OK With Homicide Bombings Against Civilians, from http://www.foxnews.com/story/ 0,2933,274934,00.html, last accessed on July 7, 2008. 4 The report is available at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans, p. 44.
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eld).5 While the study illuminates the diversity of American Muslim attitudes and opinions, it does not provide a metric that accounts for the ways in which Islam as interpreted and practiced by participants affects the substance of that diversity. Another common methodological problem of sociological surveys is the issue of participant access. For example, GhaneaBassiri notes that access to an Iranian Su order and Muh ammads Mosque No. 27 of the Nation of Islam was not provided; therefore these communities were not represented in the study.6 In my own studies, I have faced similar issues of restricted access, which at times may be based on simple problems of communication. However, on other occasions I have had to endure a long series of interrogations over the nature and purpose of the inquiry I was pursuing.7 On one occasion my community sources, in addition to establishing my professional credentials, were deciding whether their participation in my research conformed to their Islamic obligations and duties. In the end, the group did not want to participate which may be telling of a larger methodological issue. The refusal by particular communities to participate in our studies does more than simply render a void in our research; namely, such non-participation may in fact be an expression of a particular religious sensibility that is simply elided in our research. That expression, in itself, is as much a part of the story of Islam in America as is the story of the engaged community citizen or willing research subject. In a post-9/11 environment, it is increasingly the case that studies of Islam and Muslims in America rely largely upon the amount of access given to researchers by community members. Those willing to provide access to scholars and journalists may in fact make such decisions based upon a particular interpretation of Islam. The inverse is also a possibility. A methodological approach that does not account for such nuance runs the risk of eliding a very important dimension of the American Muslim experience. One of the few studies that attempt to integrate Muslim opinions and attitudes with participants perceptions of Islam is the report prepared by Ihsan Bagby for the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding entitled, A Portrait of Detroit Mosques: Muslim Views on Policy, Politics, and Religion.8 In order to gauge the Islamic Approach of participants, the study asked respondents to identify themselves according to their understanding of how the Qura n and Sunnah should be practiced. That is, with one particular madhhab, the salaf school, in accordance with great scholars of the past, in

Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Competing Visions of Islam in the United States: A Study of Los Angeles (London: Greenwood Press, 1997); idem, A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 6 Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Competing Visions of Islam in the United States: A Study of Los Angeles (London: Greenwood Press, 1997) p. 14. 7 This particular exchange occurred in my research for the article Atlanta in the Encyclopedia of American Muslim History. 8 Ihsan Bagby, A Portrait of Detroit Mosques: Muslim Views on Policy, Politics, and Religion (Clinton Township, Michigan: Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 2005). For the purposes of full disclosure, as of January 2011, I became a Fellow at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding.

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a exible fashion, in light of modern circumstances and the opinions of modern scholars or should be accepted but not necessarily practiced.9 The study then proceeds to correlate respondents answers to this question with their answers to a range of issues. While, the ambiguous demarcation and denition of these categories deserves note, the primary limitation of the categorical taxonomy is that it relies upon informants self-perception of their religiosity instead of an analysis of already present Islamic discourses vis--vis pre-existent issues. Here the question of how Islamic interpretive strategies affect opinions and behaviors remains opaque. For example, we learn that those who identied as Salaf are least likely to agree that Sunni-Shiite cooperation is a priority, but we dont know what kind of Islamic discourse affects that position, or how exactly such positions are constituted vis--vis an understanding of the Qura n and Sunnah. Instead, we are left to understand that something about being Salaf (whatever that may be) informs the position that Sunni-Shiite reconciliation is a low religious priority. Another severe limitation of mosque oriented surveys is that they presume an already reied demographic: mosque attendees. In so doing, such studies by denition do not account for the wide range of Muslim American activity that takes place outside of the mosque or its immediate environs. It is not surprising therefore that the ISPU report nds that virtually all mosque participants accept the sacred texts of Islam as obligatory and as the word of God.10 Wouldnt one expect as much from Muslims attending Friday prayers where they were handed questionnaires about their religious commitment? The dominant mode, however, through which the scholarly literature has approached the subject of diversity and difference among American Muslims, is through the use of identity as a category of analysis. Unfortunately, there is little to no clarity, much less consensus, on what exactly constitutes the notion of identity in the rst instance throughout this literature. This is the case despite the fact that the concept of identity is subject to rigorous theoretical discussion in the related elds of sociology and anthropology. Studies on Muslims in the American context have largely chosen not to enter into a theoretical interrogation of the concept of identity itself. A standing exception, however, is the recent work on American Muslim identity formation conducted by Lori Peek, who acknowledges a similar theoretical void in the scholarship.11 It is not my aim here however to offer an alternative understanding of identity for use in the study of Islam in America. Rather, I simply hope to highlight the various ways identity is used in the literature as a heuristic of Muslim diversity in order to offer the

Bagby, A Portrait of Detroit Mosques, p. 34. Bagby, A Portrait of Detroit Mosques, p. 35. 11 Lori Peek, Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity in Sociology of Religion, vol. 66, no. 3 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 219221. See also idem, Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010).
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notion of discourse as an alternate mode of analysis. To do so, I review the exemplary work of Yvonne Haddad and Edward Curtis, two scholars who have heavily inuenced the direction and tone of scholarship on Islam in America. Without their contributions, the methodological critique offered in this essay would not even be possible, which makes this article indebted to their contributions. To borrow from the words of Talal Asad, Criticism . . . is most useful when it aims at reformulating the questions underlying a work, not at demolishing it.12 Therefore, I hope that the points raised here are received in the same spirit of collegiality with which they were written. Yvonne Haddad describes the notion of identity and its relevance to American Muslims in her article, The Dynamics of Islamic Identity in America in the volume Muslims on the Americanization Path? co-edited with John Esposito.13 Although Haddads use of the term identity does not represent every usage of the concept across the literature, her inuential role in shaping the study of Islam in America needs little elaboration and provides an opportunity through which to gauge the ubiquitous category. Although she does not offer a working use of the concept, Haddad begins by stating that identity formation and denition are amongst the most important mechanisms by which nation-states have organized themselves in a post-colonial world. She posits that an emergent pan-Islamic ideology, in the place of socialism and nationalism, has swept the Muslim world and continues to be a powerful ideological force in the development and maintenance of Muslim communities even in the western world.14 Noticing that many national Islamic organizations have hosted conferences and forums dedicated to the question of identity, she states that it may even be the mother of all issues15 That is, how will they develop an identity relevant for their lives as both Muslims and Americans? Like many observers, she notes that American universities and college campuses have been centers where immigrant students have experimented with Islamic worldviews. She comments that in such environments, they have sought to forge links of friendship and common purpose, providing a nucleus for an international network of leaders committed to the creation of an Islamic state or Islamic world order.16 Whether or not this is, or ever was, an adequate description of immigrant Muslim experiences, identity emerges as something to be developed and produced. It is a programmatic and conscious social phenomenon; a strategy of being tethered to the notion of Islamic revival and enacted by immigrants.

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Talal Asad, Reading a Modern Classic: W.C. Smiths The Meaning and End of Religion in History of Religions, vol. 40, no. 3 (Feb. 2001), pp. 205222; p. 206. 13 Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and John L Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). 14 Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path, p. 20. 15 Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path?, 22. 16 Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path?, 21.

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Turning to African American Muslims she curiously cites correctional facilities as a comparable American institution of Muslim reection and identity.17 She then goes on to state that prison alumni focus their efforts at home and that they seek the redemption of African-American society through the teaching of responsibility, family values, and accountability, hoping eventually to save their children from a future of violence and the drug-infested ghettos of America.18 Such invocations recall the familiar trope of African American Islam being a strategy of resistance and liberation as a strategy, identity is also presented here as formulaic and functionalist. Haddad then introduces three pioneering American Muslim intellectuals, Fazlur Rahman, Ismail al-Faruqi, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In particular she spends time on Ismail al-Faruqi and his advocacy of an adoption of Islamic ideology or vision19 that can help dene and give meaning to a Muslims experience and identity in the United States; being beyond that of a economic sojourner to that of a contributor to an American society that can benet, if not be saved20 from the contributions of Islam. In sum, for Haddad, identity is related in some way to the ideas of function, purpose, or mission. Implicitly then, Islamic identity is a strategy or course of action. Explicitly, it is tantamount to the notion of ideology. Fundamentally then, if what is being described is the concept of orientation or ideology, with identity simply used as a synonym, then the term may only be useful in a verbal sense. That is, how does an American Muslim or Muslim American institution identify with a particular strategy or ideology of being Muslim and expressing Islam in the United States in the current moment? Moreover, how are American Muslim developing their strategies of being? While the conceptual reduction of identity to ideology is concerning, what may be more limiting in Haddads formulation is the priority to which she gives sociological categories in the determination of such ideologies (read identities). For Haddad, the prex African-American determines the type of Islamic identity Black American Muslims assume. Likewise, Muslim Student Associations (MSA) around the country, by virtue of being lled with immigrant Muslims from around the world, are necessarily equated with hubs for Islamist political visions. Whether immigrant or MSA is the operative prex in this scenario, what is clear is that the discourse of Islamic identity is a product of a sociological category or organizational afliation. At best, such assumptions elide the multiplicity of ways of being Muslim and American. At worst, such assumptions over determine that diversity through demographic distinctions like ethnicity or national origin a logic which if followed to its end seems rather dangerous. That the concept of identity in the study of Islam in America is constituted in terms of strategy or method can also be seen in various studies of African American Islam where such notions are attached to the theme of liberation. Edward Curtiss text Islam in
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Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path?, 21. Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path?, 21. Emphasis mine. 19 Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path?, 30. 20 Haddad and Esposito (eds.), Muslims on the Americanization Path?, 31.
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Black America: Identity, Liberation and Difference in African American Islamic Thought has been applauded in recent years for its theoretical contributions and historiographical nuance.21 It also seems set to replace earlier studies as a preferred textbook in courses on Islam in America. Curtis discusses how African American thinkers, prophets and activists, such as Edward Wilmont Blyden and Noble Drew Ali discussed Islam as a vehicle through which black identity was articulated and contested. In the same moment, the political agendas of liberation, self-determination, and social reconstruction were expressed in various ways vis--vis shifting notions of Islam. Albeit proffering different conceptions of Islam these hermeneutical strategies, according to Curtis, all engage with the tension between the particularism of African-American Islamic identity or black identity more generally and the universalistic claims of the Islamic tradition. By demonstrating this tension Curtis highlights the profound range of difference in the Black American Muslim historical tradition at the same time as he makes the case for this tradition to be understood within the framework of Islamic history more generally. Another one of Curtiss laudable accomplishments is to resist the trend endemic in the study of African American Islam that characterizes early movements as inauthentic, heterodox, or simply nationalistic and political. Such assumptions depend upon a normative denition of what Islam is and is not a practice, he argues, scholars of religion should avoid. Echoing Wilfred Cantwell Smiths well-known approach to the denition of religion, Curtis argues that wherever and whenever a person calls himself or herself a Muslim, scholars should include this person voice in their understanding of what constitutes Islam.22 Despite radical distinctions within a singular tradition, managing difference in Islamic hermeneutics can be done by examining the historical interpretations of Muslims themselves.23 The result is to recognize the many Islams of the African American Muslim experience and accept that they are authentically Islamic (that is, by virtue of being claimed as such). While the incorporation of African American Muslim history into Islamic history more generally is a valuable contribution to the literature, the result of such an approach nonetheless illuminates (and reies) more the sociological category that Curtis begins with African American Muslim than it does demonstrate the Islamic dimensions involved in the continuity and change of the tradition he examines. If the great differences within the variety of black American Muslim Islams can all be subsumed under the sociological category of African American, then it follows that there should be something distinct and denominative about being African American a conclusion Curtis actively resists given that that is in fact one of the objects of his study.
Edward Curtis, Islam in Black America: Identity, Difference, and Liberation in African American Islamic Thought (New York: State University of New York Press, 2002). 22 Curtis, Islam in Black America, p. 6. 23 Curtis, Islam in Black America, p. 4.
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Nonetheless, in historical works that begin with the notion of African-American Muslim experiences, thought, and so forth, the profound range of Islamic hermeneutical differences practiced by black American Muslims are often subsumed under the category of African American Islam (by which it is often meant islams) without a thorough description of how they are Islamic in the rst instance. Instead, such differences are often treated as putatively Islamic and as examples of shifting sensibilities of oppression and liberation in the Black Muslim community. For example, Curtis says,
All of the gures covered in this study . . . have sought to liberate themselves and their fellows from some form of oppression. But their understandings of oppression and their strategies for liberation from it have been incredibly diverse and complex.24

Here, Curtiss description of African American Muslim experiences and identities as a strategy for social liberation parallels Haddads use of the term identity. If the theme of liberation is meant to counter the essentialism inherent in a category like African-American Islam, it seems to dissolve immediately when scrutinized by the same divergence it was meant to capture. That is, how meaningful of a descriptor does the idea of liberation remain if its diverse articulations by various African American Muslims are in contradiction with one another? For example, consider the differences between the Honorable Elijah Muh nic verse, ammads understanding of the Qura . . . we have made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another25 as a historical reference to the scientist Yakubs creation of the white devil race some 6,600 years ago and Wallace Deen Muh ammads employment of the same verse to suggest 26 divine approval for diversity as a platform for pragmatic pluralism in the United States. This difference, remember, taking place between father and son in the evolution of one institution. Furthermore, in what sense does liberation remain a viable category of African American Muslim experience if for example, a Wahhabi interpretation of Islam practiced by black Americans advocates an abandonment of any element of ethnic afliation while at the same time a Five Percenter interpretation assumes, in Islamic terms, the divinity of the Black Man. I am not arguing that such examples disprove that the social reality of African American subjugation in American history has been a prominent feature of the various ways in which Islam has been interpreted and practiced in the United States by black Americans. Rather, I am pointing out that the construction of historical narratives are always prone to essentialism and often elide otherwise illuminating points of difference in the process. This is especially the case when self-representations are taken as prima facie descriptions of the subject. How differently, then, would a study of African

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Curtis, Islam in Black America, p. 15; emphasis mine. Curtis, Islam in Black America, p. 75. 26 Curtis, Islam in Black America, p. 125.
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American Islam proceed if the object of inquiry were not a reied sociological category but, more immediately, the distinct discursive practices and rhetoric engaged by members of that purported group? Two problems have been raised in this review of the use of the concept of identity in the study of Islam in America thus far: rst, is the equation of identity with a strategy or an ideology; second, is the dominance of sociological categories used to describe the articulation of that strategy. Like the surveys conducted by Pew, ISPU, on GhaneaBassiri, reviewed above, representations of Muslim identity formation, attitudes, or values predicated upon sociological distinctions elide or restrict the dynamic processes of Islamic hermeneutical practices, leaving an important question unanswered: how are the different articulations of American Muslim identity constituted in terms of Islamic discourse. That is, how are they rendered Islamic? More importantly, how do these different discursive practices interact with one another in the dynamic social worlds inhabited by American Muslims today? To answer this question, I suggest bracketing the notion of identity as a static category, presumed and xed, in favor of an approach that approaches the study of Muslim identity in America in terms of competing Islamic discourses in constant articulation and contest with one another. Before turning to a description of a discourse centered approach to the study of Islam in America, a nal comment on the scholars position vis--vis the denition of Islam is in order. It is worth noting that Muslim American experiences, thought, identities, and so forth, are often investigated through an analysis of prominent community leaders statements, interviews, and writings intended for reception by various audiences. Such an approach risks eliding everyday practices of Muslim American activity that are certainly related to, but not identical with, the views of such leaders. In the same way that we should be aware of the ways in which community accessibility textures our ndings, we should also be mindful of the ways in which Muslim self-representations are in themselves performative acts informed by a range of preexisting discourses. In this way, it is imperative to understand the ways in which Islam in America is constituted through discursive practices a notion that is not synonymous with describing the ways it is articulated by its adherents, participants, and leaders themselves. In fact, Muslim self-representations may often not be congruous with an ethnographic description of Muslim discourse in America. While it is rightly the case that scholars ought not become the arbiters of what counts as genuinely Islamic, they ought equally not to forgo the question how the very notion of the Islamic is constituted in a Muslim community by simply accepting the inverse of the original problem. Accepting the position that wherever and whenever a person calls himself or herself a Muslim is enough to identify them and their practices as Islamic elides the profound differences and multiple ways of being involved in the creative social practices of American Muslims. This is a potentially dangerous oversight in the study of Muslims in America an amorphous group often internally divided over the very issues of difference in Islamic interpretation.

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In an effort to overcome some of the conceptual and methodological problems raised thus far, this essay hopes to provide a preliminary framework through which to better understand and analytically manage the diversity of Americas Islams a goal that the concept of identity and sociological surveys seem unable to fully capture. It does so by offering a discourse-centered approach as a supplement to the sociological-centered approach common to most current research programs.

A Discourse Centered Approach

The problems raised in the preceding discussion are not new to the study of Islam. The question of how to conceptualize Islam as an analytic category has been an ongoing discussion in cultural anthropology for decades. One of the more enduring positions was articulated by Talal Asad in his brief but insightful article, The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, in which he suggests understanding Islam as a discursive tradition.27 While Asads contributions have inuenced scholars of the Islamic tradition in various elds since its publication in 1986, only recently have students of Islam in the United States embarked upon a study of American Muslim discourse. By adopting a discourse-centered approach to the variegated and multi-faceted dynamics of the Muslim population residing in the United States, the Islamic practices of various communities and the relationships between them may be seen in different dimensions. A discourse-centered framework focuses on the use of language and its performance in everyday events and within ordinary community settings in order to understand how certain discourses by engaging and interacting with the primary discourses of Islam, such ad as the Qura n, H th, S ra (Life of Muh a, or other aspects of an Islamic ammad), Shar worldview, authorize,28 a practice, community norm, or act to actually become and be understood by community members as Islamic. For Asad, the authorization of such discourse is an informal, but distinctly social and pedagogical affair; it can be constituted by the teaching of an a lim, a kha t shaykh, or an untutored parent.29 What ib, a Su remains critical then to a discourse-centered framework is the pedagogical dimension; that is, the performative context of Muslim discursive practices, which may be seen in community organizations, Friday khut bas (sermons), hip-hop concerts, online forums or any other social setting. Islamic discursive traditions can be understood as discourses that seek to instruct practitioners regarding the correct form and purpose of a given practice.30
A useful review of Talal Asads impact on the discussion is Ovamir Anjum, Islam as a Discursive Tradition: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors, in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Volume 27, Number 3, 2007, pp. 656672. 28 Talal Asad, The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Washington D.C., 1986, 1415. 29 Asad, The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, p. 15. 30 Asad, The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, ibid, p. 14.
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Grounding the source of religious meaning and authority, that is the way Islam is constituted as authentic, within the patterns, traditions and speech acts of Muslim practices complicates the frail unity of sociological categories, not to mention the generalizing assumptions they produce. Instead, it focuses attention on how various expressions of Islam are achieved in the rst instance. Such an approach also relieves the anthropologist of the awkward and troublesome burden of having to dene what Islam and Muslims are prior to the onset of the investigation, but at the same time does not simply surrender to the boundless approach of dening an innite variety of Islamic articulations as equally Islamic. The understanding of Islam as a discursive tradition has been employed by anthropologists of Muslim societies around the world. John Bowens well-known text, Muslims through Discourse, an ethnographic account of a village community in the Gayo highlands of Sumatra, traces these articulations regionally and historically, identifying traditional and modern pedagogical traditions.31 He argues that these traditions constitute the boundaries of a Muslim public sphere in the village because they authorize and authenticate, or delegitimize and reform, existing practice through their continuous deployment in everyday settings. A considerable achievement of Bowens study is that it demonstrates the connections between the local performance of Islam and the allegedly non-local greater historical tradition of Islam (a goal similar to Curtiss above) by tracing the networks and institutions of Islamic discourses to their international and historical intellectual traditions. The theme of social network as a site to better understand knowledge production is the central focus of the recent and celebrated work, Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip Hop edited by miriam cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence. The editors dene networks as phenomena that are similar to institutionalized social relations, such as tribal afliations and political dynasties, but also distinct from them, because to be networked entails making a choice to be connected across recognized boundaries. They argue that both the networked nature of Islam and the impact of Muslim networks on world history are pivotal. Yet neither has received its due from scholars.32 The volumes chapters proceed to illuminate the discursive relationships between Muslim scholars, activists, women, students, rulers and other sociological categories in various parts of the world, throughout history. In an important essay analyzing the cosmopolitanism of pre-modern religious scholars (ulama ), Qasim Zamans contribution to the volume focuses on the way in which the discourse of Islamic scholarship forges and facilitates relationships and afliations amongst the ulema and political rulers in the pre-modern and modern
31 John R. Bowen, Muslims through Discourse: Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993); see also idem, Pluralism and Normativity in French Islamic Reasoning, in Hefner, Robert W., editor, Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. I thank Timur Yuskaev for this reference. 32 Miriam Cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence (eds.), Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip Hop (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), p. 1.

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contexts.33 In doing so Zaman also highlights the simultaneous limits and obstacles that discourse engenders in order to suggest that the networks and relationships between different actors are the products of the discourse that constitute them. In this way one can begin to approach the subtle but important distinction between sociological categories and discursive formations that has been central to this essay thus far: sociological sites, be they demographic categories or institutional distinctions, should be seen as the products of the discourses that unite them. In this way, Muslim networks offer a more precise site through which to understand Muslim societies, but they equally run the risk of becoming a presumed sociological site (and subject to similar problems reviewed above) if not coupled with an equally precise analysis of the antecedent Islamic discourse that binds them. There are other discourse-centered approaches to the study of Muslim communities which have made formidable interventions in their respective arenas and are worthy of note. Saba Mahmoods highly acclaimed The Politics of Piety makes use of such an approach to unpack the complicated processes involved in the various constructions of subjectivity in play in Muslim womens mosque activities in Egypt.34 Likewise, Brinkley Messicks The Calligraphic State is an anthropological history of religious authority in Yemen that relies upon similar methodological and conceptual foundations to demonstrate the connections between the literary processes behind the constitution of authority in texts and the social and political processes involved in articulating the authority of texts.35 As such, it is an invaluable anthropological an account of Islamic tradition as it encounters colonial modernity. Charles Hirschkinds study The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics examines the ways in which the popular practice of listening to khut bas recorded on cassettes has impacted the political geography of the Middle East.36 These studies all focus on the production of the Islamic as seen in the interplay between Muslim practices, social networks and Islamic discursive traditions. How might a similar approach be employed in the study of Islam in America and what kind of new research avenues might this engender?

33 Qasim Zaman, The Scope and Limites of Islamic Cosmopolitanism & the Discursive Language of the Ulema in miriam cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence (eds.), Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip Hop (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), pp. 84104. 34 Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005). This text was the winner of the 2005 Victoria Schuck Award, American Political Science Association and Honorable Mention, 2005 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association. 35 Brinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in Muslim Society (Los Angeles: University of California Press: 1993), p. 1. Messicks text was awarded the Albert Hourani Book Award by the Middle East Studies Association. 36 Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006). This text was awarded the 20072008 Sharon Stephens First Book Prize from the American Ethnological Society and a Clifford Geertz Prize Honorable Mention from the Society for the Anthropology of Religion.

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Discursive Themes
The aim of this essay has been to problematize the way in which the subject of Muslim diversity in America has been managed analytically and to congure a provisional framework wherein the diversity of the Muslim practices in the United States can be organized under a coherent methodological and conceptual umbrella. Such a paradigm hopes to supplement, if not challenge, existing approaches such as the immigrant/indigenous bifurcation, class analyses, sectarian demarcations and ethnic distinctions. Instead, a discourse-centered approach focuses upon patterns of language, rhetoric and practice that underlie the many ways in which Islam is constituted in the United States. Ongoing ethnographic research has shown that there exist dominant patterns and themes of discourse across various Muslim communities in the United States and that these patterns are not conned to the sociological distinctions mentioned above. Through these dominant discursive themes a number of questions and concerns are negotiated and it is also through these themes that larger orientations, ideologies and identities are formed. Often, these themes function as discursive nexuses upon which various articulations of Islam are built. It is important to stress the diffuse, permeable, overlapping and uctuating nature of discourse before we present this taxonomy. Discourse is the product and function of language, it is constantly shifting because it is produced, debated, and transformed in social settings of human interaction. It should be expected then that any attempt to circumscribe a body of discourse and pigeonhole it into a contrived category will forever remain a tenuous project. Rather the following discursive themes simply organize and make note of what I consider to be discrete and salient patterns in the language used in the United States to articulate Islam, America, and so forth. These themes are often uid and mutually embedded in various social settings, but at times, they are also antagonistically opposed to one another. The following descriptions are based upon on-going ethnographic research throughout the United States, most especially Atlanta, as well as data made available through other studies.37 I have given provisional titles to what I consider to be some dominant discursive themes in the American Muslim community. I have no particular commitment to these labels, but imagine that they represent the thrust of each discursive theme. They are 1) the Abrahamic-American, 2) the Social Activist, 3) the Salaf -Sunn , 4) the neo-traditionalist, 5) the Progressive Reformist and, 6) the Homeland Homesick. Each of these themes maintains distinct uses of language and emphasis but may often overlap with one another in various community settings. As will be seen, many of these themes

Abbas Barzegar, Atlanta in Encyclopedia of Muslim American History, edited by Edward Curtis (New York: Facts on File, 2010); and idem, Dominant Themes in Muslim Communities of the United States: A Survey of Five Organizations in Denver, Colorado, Masters Thesis, Department of Religion (Boulder: University of Colorado at Boulder, 2004).

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are discursively connected to transnational Islamic institutions and their respective networks.

Abrahamic Americanism
Abrahamic-Americanism fuses Islamic concepts and American civic discourses of citizenship, constitutionalism, and pluralism. It advocates the inclusion of Islam in the Judeo-Christian foundation myth of the United States. Such discourse is regularly encountered in the communities and institutions afliated with the leadership of Warith Deen Muh ammad. Large umbrella organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) also deploy such rhetoric in their public relations and community development campaigns. Ismaili communities under the leadership of the Agha Khan advance similar messages in their public engagements. This theme often speaks of the American constitution as an embodiment of Islamic tenets and cites (that is creates) a number of shared beliefs and principles between the American and Islamic civilizational projects. Abrahamic-Americanism is ecumenical towards both Muslims and non-Muslims and constitutes the discourse of inter-faith dialogue. Abrahamic-American discourse can be seen and heard in a variety of settings and institutions not exclusive to ethnic or sectarian distinctions. The Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam is one of the more common sites in Atlanta where Abrahamic-American Islamic discourse has become an integral part of the communitys self-understanding and dominant mode of Islamic interpretation. Afliated with the leadership of Imam W.D. Muh ammad, the Atlanta Masjid has been one of the nation-wide communitys most prominent examples of his work and vision. The mosque was headed by Imam Plemon El-Amin from 1985 to 2010. He has integrated his community into the inter-religious landscape of dialogue and cross-confessional community building. Imam Plemon served as the head of the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta (FAMA) from 2004 to 2007. He has also been a lead coordinator and participant of the World Pilgrims, a project of FAMA and outgrowth of President Jimmy Carters Friendship Force, which is an Atlanta based network of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interfaith leaders and lay practitioners that organizes tours twice a year to historic locations of inter-religious encounter such as Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Spain, and Yemen. In one Friday khut ba (sermon) upon returning from a World Pilgrims tour Imam Plemon set out to describe the event to the audience. He began the sermon by quoting the Qura nic verse: Travel the earth and see how Alla h did originate creation . . .38 Grounding his interfaith activity in an Islamic context he said,
As Muslims we really are blessed, as Muslims we should be at the forefront of the inter-faith movement in all places because in the Qura n is speaks of the Jews, and speaks of the Christians, and even speaks of other faiths . . . Interfaith is natural to us as Muslims really . . . all the other people are connected as well, not only by [that] we believe in the previous scriptures, the Gospels and the Torah, but really
38

Q. 29:2022.

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it calls those that submit to the Prophet Moses, submit to the Christ, Jesus, and those that submit to the leadership of the other Prophets. He [God] calls those people Muslims, following or surrendering themselves to the will of God. See, Muslim is really not this narrow term. God said he created everyone Muslim. Everyone is surrendering, submitting to the will of God.39

Such an ecumenical posture towards Jews and Christians has long been part of W.D. Muh ammads larger vision for an authentic Muslim contribution to American society, a message Imam Plemon readily assimilates into his various engagements both in and outside the Muslim community. The same set of messages can now be heard in the sermons, teachings, and public statements made by the new younger leadership of the community. It is often also the case that Abrahamic-American discourse is espoused by various immigrant communities, individuals, and institutions as well. In these settings, the rhetorical emphasis of the discourse shifts away from religion exclusively and towards American civic values more generally. Statements equating Islamic ethical principles with American social and political values are commonplace for example, that the practice of shu ra (consultation) by the Prophet and his companions is essentially similar to democratic political processes. Such discourse is regularly seen in the ofcial orientation of leading Muslim American institutions such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or the writings of prominent immigrant Imams and scholars such as Feisal Abdul Rauf and Muqtader Khan.40 One Palestinian community leader from Denvers largest Islamic center, Masjid Abu Bakr explained,
If you study the Constitution of the United States, if you really study it, and take out a few words here or there, it is 99% an Islamic constitution. You know, the freedom of religion . . . this is Islam la ikra ha f l-d n [there is no compulsion in religion], this is Islam. All social programs [social security, welfare] are essentially Islamic.41

Such statements are reections of a common sentiment amongst a number of Muslims that nd equivalence between Islam and American political ideals. For example, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf argues,
Democracy and liberty, in a peculiarly American way, provide a manifestation of the Abrahmic ethic. Politically, the American creed expresses itself in the values and rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and the

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The Earth is a Masjid recorded Friday khut ba, April 7, 2006. See the work of Muqtedar Khan in general, but especially his two main texts, American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana Publications, 2002); and Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates, and Philosophical Perspectives (Lexington Books, 2006). 41 Abbas Barzegar, Dominant Themes in Muslim Communities of the United States: A Survey of Five Organizations in Denver, Colorado, Masters Thesis, Department of Religion (Boulder: University of Colorado at Boulder, 2004), p. 41.

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Constitution . . . Socially it means an egalitarianism and a concern for vulnerable members of society . . . Although some see in this American horizontal dimension of religion a kind of secularized Puritanism . . . we can equally assert that at its core this expresses the Abrahamic, and equally the Islamic, ethic.

Abdul Rauf then goes on to argue that because of this parity, America can actually be conceived of as a Shariah compliant state.42 In fact, Imam W.D. Muh also ammad 43 considered the U.S. Constitution a document compatible with Islamic values. Similar sentiments can be found in the writings of Eboo Patel, Dr. Umar Abdullah, and at times, Hamza Yusuf. Other immigrant communities in the Atlanta area that can be seen sharing similar outlooks are the Istanbul Center for Culture and Dialogue, a center that regularly promotes the teachings of the Turkish doyen and leading global intellectual gure, Fethullah Glen. The Shiite Agha Khan Ismaili community also regularly hosts conferences promoting the cultural dialogue and exchange along with formidable fundraising activities for humanitarian work which is consistent with the general platform of the Agha Khans much larger global orientation and ecumenical vision. The Atlanta Branch of the Islamic Speakers Bureau (ISB) under the exemplary leadership of Somouya Khalifa is another institution where Abrahamic American Muslim discourse can be regularly encountered.44 In fact, the Istanbul Center, the Ismaili community, members of Atlantas ISB, and members of W.D. Muh ammads community are regularly seen in attendance and mutual participation in Atlantas wider inter-faith landscape.

Rehabilitative Social Activism

Rehabilitative Social Activism is born out of historical African American Muslim experiences with Islam, though it is no longer conned to that community exclusively. It focuses on community building and employing Islam as a social and religious force of collective empowerment which seeks the holistic betterment of the African American community in particular, the redressing of socio-historical inequalities, and thereby, the healing of American society in general. In the words of Sherman Jackson it might be best described as functionally pragmatic and virulently anti-assimilationist.45 It maintains an ever-present and often explicit critique of American society for failing to live up to its promise of justice and equality. Focusing on the body, family and community as the sites
Feisal Abdul Rauf, Whats Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2004), pp. 856. 43 Bruce Lawrence, The Qura n: A Biography (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), p. 165: The Constitution of America is inuenced by Qura nic teachings . . . The idea of human dignity that the Constitution expresses is more in accord with the concept of man in the Qura n than it is with the concept of man in the Bible. 44 For more on the organization see Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta, www.isbatlanta.org, last accessed May 21, 2011. 45 Jackson, Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the third resurrection (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 157.
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of Islamic empowerment, this discourse emphasizes local grass-roots activism as a means to better the ummah as a whole while concentrating efforts on local projects. It seeks to establish and develop local communities, programs and services which may serve the needs of underserved populations be they Muslim or otherwise. While this discourse has its historical roots in groups like the Moorish Temple Scientists, the Nation of Islam, and the Dar al-Islam, in the last thirty years, it has been increasingly incorporated as a dominant mode of understanding by activist immigrant Muslims, second generation immigrants, and other American ethnic Muslim groups. The focus on mental and physical health in this type of American Islamic discourse can be seen perhaps most explicitly in Elijah Muh ammads text, How to Eat to Live. Even before that, it has been a constant feature of an African-American subculture in the United States to promote the use of herbal medicines, organic foods, and natural products as part of a holistic approach to socio-political liberation. In this way, such discourse can be seen as part of a much wider African-American cultural phenomenon. It is no surprise then that Imam Jamil Al-Amins Community Masjid in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta, which is a revival of the Dar al-Islam, is just a few blocks from the centers of Shrine of the Black Madonna and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Although the discourse of natural medicine, food consumption consciousness, and general physical wellness are part of a larger cultural phenomenon of African American alterity, its performance in community practice is understood as an entirely natural component of Islam itself. For example, Imam Jamil writes in the chapter Gods Diet in his Revolution by the Book,
In the physical sense, fasting allows you to gain health. It helps you promote health. Fasting produces a spiritual state which, in turn, generates a mental state, the proper conduct, the guidance and understanding that leads one to think, act and eat correctly. . . . When [C. Everett] Koop was Surgeon General [19821989] in this country, he did a report that may have been his undoing. For the summation of his report brought out that the greatest cause of disease in this country is gluttony, is overeating. To repeat, the greatest cause of disease in this country is gluttony, overeating . . . The Prophet (PBUH) pointed out that the Muslim eats in one intestine; an unbeliever, an atheist, eats in seven.46

On Fridays, after Juma prayers at the West End Community Mosque and the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam, local Muslim farmers sell their organic and naturally grown produce to mosque attendees or others in the neighborhood. Psychological health is also part of this Islamic discourse, leading many individuals and groups towards calibrating Islamic principles in this direction. The current Imam of the West End community, Nadim Ali, is a licensed and practicing counselor. He encourages patients to reect on the spiritual aspects of drug rehabilitation programs by
46 Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Revolution by the Book: The Rap is Live (Beltsville, MD: Writers Inc.International, 1994), p. 44.

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thinking about Qura nic verses or sayings of the Prophet Muh ammad although some patients may not know that such phrases and principles are actually religious texts.47 Imam Nadim is but one of many Muslims in the Atlanta area that are professional mental health workers.48 Sisters United in Human Service Inc., is another Atlanta based Muslim social service program.49 Individual psychological well-being is considered a fundamental necessity for the overall goals of creating a strong Muslim community which depends upon having stable and successful marriages. It is no surprise then that the Center of Islamic Guidance and Counseling of Jonesborough, GA announces on the yer of its Sixth Annual Strengthening the Muslim Family Conference, Strong Family Equals Strong Ummah. The 2006 conferences opening morning program, for example, began with Qura nic recitation, followed by panels on, Conict Management/Counseling and Arbitration, Etiquettes of Communication, and Community Responsibility in Islam.50 The 2007 First Annual Conference of the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA) represents a nation-wide manifestation of Rehabilitative Social Activism. It describes itself as
a national network of masjids, Muslim organizations and individuals committed to work together to address certain urgent needs within the Muslim community. These needs include the great social and economic problems that are challenging Muslim communities especially in the inner city; the need for the involvement of masjids and Muslims in community service projects which are aimed at improving society as a whole . . .51

While it is the case that most of the lead organizers of MANA are senior gures in the African-American Muslim community, it is important to point out that MANA has integrated cooperation from other prominent Muslim American gures and organizations from various backgrounds as well. For example, Dr. Altaf Husain, the former president of the Muslim Student Association National, whose parents are from Hyderabad, India is on the executive board of MANA. Earning his Ph.D. from Howard University in Social Work, his long activist tenure of social service in America Muslim communities readily integrates his leadership skills in MANA. Likewise, second generation Palestinian-American Rami Nashashibi serves on the MANA Shura Council. Nashashibis IMAN (Inner-City Muslim Action Network) strives to make activism and the plight of Americas poor a natural concern of American Muslims.52
Steven Barbozo, American Jihad: Islam after Malcom X (New York: Doubleday, 1994), pp. 1834. For Nadim S. Ali see: www.nadimali.com. Dr. Sakinah Rashid is another Atlanta area mental health worker who fuses Islamic discourse with the professional therapeutic practices; see for example her article, Muslims seeking help and personal growth available at http://www.mana-net.org/ pages.php?ID=activism&ID2=&NUM=216, last accessed on May 21, 2011. 49 http://www.sistersunited.org/About.htm, accessed July 29, 2008. 50 http://www.islamiccounseling.org/home2.php. accessed July 29, 2008. 51 http://www.mana-net.org/subpage.php?ID=about, last accessed July 27, 2011. 52 Islamica Magazine, 2007.
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In many ways, the work of IMAN and MANA represent a growing trajectory of Muslim American activity that transcends ethnic barriers. In this way they are reective of a particular interpretation and understanding of Islam. Sherman Jackson notes,
The plight of poor people in America, even poor Muslims in America, has not been on the radar screen of the immigrant Muslim community. They have been much more interested in monument-building . . . With Rami, hes trying to recongure our thinking, particularly as Muslims, so that these needs appear more obvious to us.53

Although such activity is now reaching the new levels of organization and nationwide coordination, it has long been part of the American Muslim experience and has been a primary vehicle through which many converts have been attracted to Islam. Increasing conversion rates among Latinos in the United States in inner city environments are often linked to this phenomenon. Alianza Islamica, a center originally established in Spanish Harlem over 30 years ago is composed primarily of Puerto Rican converts and has directed its activities towards social service activities. Similar Latino Muslim organizations can be found in nearly every major metropolitan center in the United States. That is not to say however, that all Latino Muslim activity in the United States can be subsumed under Rehabilitative Social Activist discourse. In fact the emergent Latino Muslim community is more multifaceted than one might imagine.54

Salaf -Sunn
Salaf -Sunn discourse emphasizes everyday acts of religious obligation and piety as interpreted through a close reading of primary Islamic textual materials, namely the Qura n itself and the canonical h th. The theme concentrates on the moral and ethical ad teachings of Islam as embodied in the teachings and actions of the Prophet Muh ammad, his early companions and their followers, collectively taken as the al-Salaf al-s lih a , the pious predecessors. This themes most salient dimension rejects the conventional madhhab system of Islamic jurisprudence and focuses instead on a direct, literal, and under-mediated reading of Islamic texts. Another noticeable characteristic of this discourse is its ardent attempt to remove what is seen as innovation (bid a) or deviation from the true teachings of the Qura n and Sunna from contemporary religious practice. While the subject of what actually constitutes salasm is the topic of a wide area of scholarship, in the American context it is best to understand this discourse in non-institutional terms. Nonetheless, one can still nd the intellectual genealogy of such
http://living-tradition.blogspot.com/2006/05/activist-muslim-prole-rami.html, accessed July 28, 2008. 54 For a cursory introduction see Abbas Barzegar, Latino Muslims in the United States: An Introduction in the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology, vol. 23, no. 2, Fall, 2003; 125130. A more thorough treatment of the subject is now available in Hjamil A. Martinez-Vazquez, Latina/o Y Musulman: The Construction of Latina/o Identity among Latina/o Muslims in the United States (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications: 2010).
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discourse to be grounded in the reformist movement began by Muh ammad Ibn Abd al-Wahha b (d. 1792) in the eastern provinces of what is now present day Saudi Arabia. The emphasis on primary textual sources and the purge of innovations, especially those associated with Su and Shiite pedagogical and ritual systems, creates an afnity to other modern reformist movements such as that inaugurated by Sha h Wal Alla h in the Indian sub-continent (d. 1762). The dovetailing of these two movements is a well-known historical phenomenon in the modern Muslim world, which in many ways is replicated in the U.S. context. Despite advocating an overhaul, if not outright abandonment, of the madhhab system, such discourse presents itself as orthodox and the true expression of the Sunni community, ahl al-Sunna wa l-Jama a. A recurring topos in this discourse, then, is the ummah, or global Muslim community. The ummahs stagnation, struggle, and decline, for example, are attributed to the lack of piety and religious obedience of the Muslims themselves. Largely apolitical, the discourse subverts social activism and shuns political involvement in order to concentrate upon the revival of proper practice in ritual and social transactions. Salaf -Sunn discourse is widespread in the United States and easily crosses ethnic boundaries. In Atlanta there are South Asian, African-American, African, and a small minority of Arab salaf centers of activity. One of the most concentrated centers is Masjid Aboo Bakr as-Siddeeq located just a few miles from the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam. The pre-dominantly African American community organizes tele-link conferences with scholars from Kuwait who are deemed authoritative gures of the salaf manhaj (program, methodology) in order to seek clarications on various matters.55 The conferences are recorded and made available either in audio format or as transcripts on their website and are part of a global phenomenon of Salaf digital communication.56 Another center is Masjid Ibad-ur-Rahman, located in Marietta, a suburb located northwest of Atlanta. This masjid also makes extensive use of digital technologies: primary texts of Ibn Taymiyya, Muh b, and the late Saudi ammad Ibn Abd al-Wahha Shaykh Bin Ba zz can be found alongside contemporary supplements on their website.57 Less strident Salaf -Sunn discourses however can be found in a number of other Atlanta area mosques. Masjid Al-Farooq, Atlantas largest mosque is centrally located in downtown and is example of the ways in which the dynamic and multifaceted dimensions of Salaf -Sunn discourse manifest themselves in a large American Muslim institution. For example the current Imams of al-Farooq are graduates of Deoband University, which is described to visitors as the Harvard of the Muslim world. The former Imam was a graduate of the University of Madinah.

Such scholars include Shaykh Abu Uthmaan Muh ammad Al-Anjaree and Shaykh Uthman bin William Beecher, both residents of Kuwait. 56 http://www.assala.com/ accessed July 29, 2008. 57 http://ibad-ur-rahman.org/index.html, accessed July 29, 2008.
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Al-Farooq regularly hosts the Al-Maghrib Institute whose innovative programs have drawn a considerable following around the country particularly amongst the youth.58 In many ways Al-Maghrib epitomizes Salaf -Sunn discourse in the American contexts. Its programs travel across the United States and take place over the course of two full weekends. The modules are designed to be comparable to semester courses which will eventually be able to provide students with a Bachelors degree. The institute does not explicitly teach any particular madhhab, however, a review of many of the instructors biographical information shows a predominant trend towards institutions of learning located in Saudi Arabia, which would indicate a Wahha b leaning.59

Neo-Traditionalism
Neo-Traditionalism is also a conservatively religious mode, but stands in direct contradistinction to the Salaf -Sunn project in that it seeks to revive participation in the traditional Islamic sciences inclusive of the madhhab system and Su institutions of pedagogy and ritual as a means to improve the condition of the ummah as a whole. In doing so, it emphasizes acquiring Islamic knowledge in a more formalized manner such as through reliance upon a particular set of teachers and conventional systems of knowledge transmission. Embedded in this process is the certication system of the ija za, wherein students are authorized to teach particular texts by scholars who have themselves been authorized by a chain of historical authorities. A clear and recent example of this renewed emphasis on ija za can be seen in Hamza Yusuf Hansons recent edited translation of the classic theological treatise, al-Aq da al-T wiyya.60 aha Written by Abu Jafar al-T w al-H (d. 935), the text has long been used by ah a anaf various Sunni scholars from different intellectual traditions as a primary text in Islamic theology. The distinct feature of Yusufs edition is the chapter heading, License to Translate and Transmit (ija za) written by Shaykh Muh h m al-Yaqu b , of ammad b. Ibra Damascus (b. 1962) who himself provides documented authorization to teach the text extending back to Ima m al-T wi himself.61 The discursive practice of ija za ah a
58 http://www.almaghrib.org/index.php, last accessed May 15, 2011. Little by way of academic work has been done on al-Maghrib, but one of its founders and most prominent public faces, Dr. Yasir Qadhi, was featured in a recent New York Times article: Andrea Elliot, Why Yasir Qadhi want to talk about Jihad in New York Times Magazine, March 17, 2011. Dr. Qadhi holds a M.A. from the Islamic University of al-Madinah and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University. 59 For example: Founder Shaykh Muh ammad Alshareef, University of al-Madina, Islamic Law 1999; Vice President, Shaykh Waleed Baysooni, Ph.D. Imam Muh ammad University, studied with Ibn Baz and Abdul Razzaq al-Afy; Yaser Birjas, University of al-Madinah, student of Shaykh al-Uthaimeen; Hakim Quick, University of al-Madinah. For a full list see http://almaghrib.org/instructors, last accessed on May 21, 2011. 60 Hamza Yusuf (ed.), The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi: al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya (Berkeley: Zaytuna Institute: 2008). 61 For more on Shaykh Muh b see www.sacredknowledge.co.uk, last accessed May 23, ammad al-Yaqu 2011. Sacred Knowledge is a UK based organization that translates Islamic pedagogical materials and

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transmission is one of most distinct features of neo-traditionalist discourse in the United States. Moreover, it is one of the many conduits through which American Muslim pedagogical practices are linked to transnational centers of teaching. A tremendous focus is placed in neo-traditionalism on the presumed grandeur of medieval Islamic civilization and the repute of medieval scholars. In fact, the former and latter are presumed to be mutually exclusive; that is, the historical accomplishments of Islamic Civilization be they in Timbuktu, Grenada, Baghdad, or Istanbul are assumed to be the by-product of the inextricable relationship between the classic religious sciences, pious devotion, and cultural achievement. As such, the contemporary heirs to the medieval Islamic pedagogical tradition are seen as embodying an aura of that grandeur. Wedded to the classical institutions and traditions of the pre-modern Islamic world, it is not surprising to nd neo-traditionalist discourses accompany various Su practices, which is one of the primary causes for schisms between it and Salaf -Sunn discourse. In terms of pedagogical structure, neo-traditionalist discourse will often accompany the t qa system of classic Susm, inclusive of the shaykh/disciple relationship, which is ar often concretized by an oath of allegiance (bay a). Even when such formal institutions are not explicitly made part of neo-traditionalist practices, curriculum, or events, a clear aura of heightened reverence is afforded to religious leaders. Ritualistically, neo-traditionalist discourse will often incorporate practices from the classic tas awwuf traditions such as group dhikr and recitation of nash ds. Like the Salaf -Sunn movement, this theme concentrates more upon personal and collective piety than on local or international politics. Hamza Yusuf Hanson and Zaid Shakirs Zaytuna Institute is one of the best examples of an institution that deploys neo-traditionalist rhetoric (although Zaytuna has increasingly become an outlet for Abrahamic American sentiments as well). The Dar al-Islam Center in Abique, New Mexico, is an even older institute where such discourses prevailed. One of the common ways in which neo-traditionalism has taken root in the United States is through Deen Intensives, which are designed to immerse students in the traditional study of Islam for short durations of time. The more elaborate deen intensives, often also called rih la, function as coordinated travel retreats either in international or domestic locations. The Deen Intensive Foundation for example sponsors summer and winter Deen intensives. The organizations website proclaims:
The sound and systematic transmission of the knowledge that was embodied by the Islamic civilization remains one of humanitys greatest achievements. It was through a rigorous process of transmission and scholarship that Islam was able to inspire generations of people to produce creative and beautiful societies where learning and faith were celebrated and lived. . . . Our programs seek to connect

hosts regular events for teaching and worship, which was founded under the guidance of Shayh al-Yaqu b .
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participants to the rich intellectual heritage that we have inherited from our scholars. Following the educational model outlined by our Noble Messenger.62

Their summer program takes place in Mecca and Medina and is taught by worldrenowned scholars such as Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir, Abd al-Hakim Murad, and university professor of religion at the University of Georgia, Abdel Hadi Honerkamp. There has been a proliferation of educational institutions both on-line and housed in physical campuses that materialize neo-traditionalist discourse in their pedagogical forums. In Atlanta, the Risala Institute, often hosts courses on theology, law, and classic Arabic taught by instructors with documented ija zas. Comparable programs that take place in various locations around the world are sponsored by the al-Madinah Institute of Baltimore. One of al-Madinas leading scholars is Shaykh Muh ammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy, who until the fall of 2010 was a resident and local Imam in Atlanta. While he was in Atlanta, Shaykh Ninowy emerged as one the premier resources in Atlanta for students seeking training in the traditional Islamic methods of knowledge transmission. He led regular study circles for interested students and covered the major areas of the Islamic sciences, including theology, law, h th, and ad t asawwuf . Other study circles afliated with traditional scholars and Su t ar qas exist throughout the city and often meet in private homes or through internet forums.

Progressive Reformism
The Progressive Reformist theme is perhaps the most diverse of all of the themes and most difcult to delimit. In distinction to a revival of conventional Islamic sciences or a simple return to foundational texts, which both might be considered as acts of reform, progressive reformism calls into question not only the conventional interpretation of primary texts but the epistemological context in which those interpretations took place as well. It thereby calls for a radical reformulation of Islamic practice and belief based upon a rigorous reengagement with the primary sources themselves. Secular-humanist, environmentalist, feminist, post-colonial and post-modernist intellectual traditions are braided within the discourse of progressive reformism. More prominent examples of this type of discourse are likely familiar to students of modern Islamic history. The Sudani reformer, Mah d Muh ha s call for an mu ammad T a inversion of the principle of Qura nic abrogation (naskh) whereby Medinan verses would be overruled by Meccan revelations is one such example of the radical approach to reform taken by progressive reformists.63 A distinguishing characteristic of such discourse is its alienation from conventional structures, networks, and institutions in the American Muslim community. That is, such discourse is typically generated and maintained not in mosques, Islamic centers, or conventional Muslim American organizations, but in recently formed community
http://www.deen-intensive.com/about.htm, accessed July 29, 2008. Emphasis mine. Mahmud Mohamad Taha, The Second Message of Islam translated by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1987).
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organizations, non-prots, advocacy groups, and cyberspace networks. A not so unpredictable development over the last forty years has been that the strongest institutional centers of progressive reformism have been housed and nurtured in North American and European universities. Although this discourse has received tremendous attention in recent years largely due to the public politicization of Islamic discourse, its efforts stem from decades of work of Muslim reformers throughout the Islamic world. At the core of the movement is the belief that Muslims should be able to read Islamic texts individually, unbound by conventional interpretations of the traditions authoritative gures, and that individuals have the authority to transform the tradition to meet the various demands of its constituents. Gender equality and sexual ethics are common features of the theme. The 2005 mixed gender Friday prayer led by the American Muslim scholar, Dr. Amina Wadud brought such discourse into international headlines. Saleema Abdul Ghafur, also a senior sponsor and organizer of the women-led prayer movement is a resident and activist in the Atlanta area. She recently toured the city promoting her edited volume Living Islam Outloud: American Muslim Women Speak Out, which is a provocative discussion of issues of gender and sexuality in Islam. Progressive Reformist discourse is not exclusively related to gender however. It involves a critical debate about the boundaries of Islamic hermeneutics and authority. One of the most senior gures of this international movement is Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim, student of Mah d T ha (featured above) and current professor at Emory Law mu a School.64 An-Naim presides over a number of projects that involve scholars and activists from around the world. An-Naim also helped sponsor the Muslim Heretics Conference in Atlanta in March 2008. In many ways the conference functioned as a reunion for many former afliates of the movement started by the Egyptian Su reformist Rasha d Khal fa, who claimed that the Qura n contained a divine signature in the form of a mathematic code based on the number nineteen. His reformist teachings, which were decidedly radical in terms of conventional hermeneutics, are believed to have led to his assassination by members of another American Muslim organization, Jamaat al-Fuqra.65 Amina Wadud and Irshad Manji were also featured speakers and attendees along with An-Naim at the conference.

64 For the purposes of disclosure, I worked closely with Dr.An-Naim while a graduate student at Emorys Graduate Division of Religion and especially so towards the production of his Islam and the Secular State (Harvard, 2009). 65 For background on the assassination of Khalifa see Yvonne Haddad and Jane Smiths account in Mission to America: Five Islamic Sectarian Communities (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida: 1993), pp. 137168. Major developments in the prosecution and conviction of perpetrators of crime have been made in recent years; most recently Glen Cusford Francis, a former student of Khalifas, who had been living in hiding in Calgary, Canada lost his appeal on May 12, 2011 not to be extradited to the United States.

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The Muslim Heretics conference is one of many examples in which various strands of Progressive Reformist discourse can be seen to merge with one another.

Homeland Homesick
The last theme, homeland homesick, is meant not as a specic discourse but as a loose label to describe the innumerable Muslim communities around the United States that serve primarily as cultural enclaves of specic ethnic immigrant communities. In these centers one often nds a community that aims to replicate as much as possible the traditions and habits as experienced in the country of origin. It is often the case that religious instruction and community programming in such centers takes place in a homeland language and that language instruction for children is typically a top priority for the group. These communities are often isolated from the dynamics of the larger Muslim American community in terms of local coalition building or national organization. Careful attention to the dynamics of these localized communities, especially as they cater to their growing youth populations that is when questions about Islamic and American identity often intensify yields considerable insight into the intra-community politics of American Muslim discourse. In the Atlanta area it is interesting to note that most Shiite communities of all brands exemplify this description. For example, Iranian, Pakistani, and Indian Twelver Shiiite communities all have different centers, though they may be in relative proximity to one another. This may be due in part to the more ritualistic nature of Twelver Shiite religious practices that involve the recitation of prayers in local languages. Although the leadership and public face of the community is Abrahamic American, Ismaili communities, nonetheless, display such tendencies practices in their internal dynamics, that is, as much as one can discern given that access to ritual spaces is prohibited for non-Ismailis. Atlantas large refugee population of Muslims from Bosnia and East Africa also readily conform to this type of community formation.

Conclusion: Narrative and Normativity after 9/11

At the time of writing this essay, the eld of Islamic studies was undergoing a series of critical reections in a number of different venues. In 2010, the American Academy of Religions Study of Islam section hosted a special pre-conference workshop entitled, Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism, which coincided with the release of Richard Martin and Carl Ernsts edited volume with the same title.66 Both the volume and the workshop asked scholars to critically reect upon the methodological and conceptual parameters associated with the contemporary study of Islam. In the same year, Richard Martins article Islamic Studies in the American Academy: A Personal Reection in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion offered a unique insight
66 Richard Martin and Carl Ernst (eds.), Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism (University of South Carolina Press, 2010).

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into the major personalities that helped shape the tone and scope of Islamic studies in the United States.67 Then in 2011, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion published a special edition on the study of Islam, which also tackled the subject of the conceptual parameters of the eld through an engagement with an accusatory intervention made by Aaron Hughes and a rejoinder by Richard Martin.68 A central theme in each of these publications and public forums was the question of normativity; specically, the issue of intellectual and political proximity between scholars of Islam and Muslim communities themselves. For example, has the overt politicization of Islam in American society today forced scholars of the tradition into the position of unlikely spokespersons speaking on behalf of a community? If so, have scholars become enmeshed in the very identity politics that are shaping the communities they write about? Moreover, has the tone of scholarship been equally shaped by these political dynamics? It is clear that such questions not only present sensitive problems for the eld of Islamic studies, but also that they likely will never be fully resolved. In a post-September 11th United States, where the very loyalty of the American Muslim citizen is the subject of federal inquiry and public scrutiny, scholarship on American Muslims is bound to be engulfed in the politics of the contemporary moment. It is no surprise therefore that there has been a recent stream of publications on the history of the American Muslim community. This essay has expressly attempted to subvert the notion of an American Muslim community altogether by focusing of the discursive preconditions of social formation which in many ways determine the dynamics of American Muslim practices and institutions. It has also implicitly thereby subverted the notion of community history as well. I anticipate that many of my colleagues will question the appropriateness of these methodological suggestions during this time in American history, but the reasons I offer them remain clear. In an unrelated article, I have discussed the relationship between narrative history and community identity as a direct application of the historiographical interventions offered by Hayden White.69 Whites basic argument in his various writings has been that the narrative form of historical writing is inevitably bound to function as a moralizing and ethical discourse because of its conformity to conventional literary structures identiable in the novel. That is, narrative history always tells a story and those stories always speak for and about characters; they are meant to offer lessons and are typically guided through an engagement with plot. As such, certain characters will inevitably come into greater relief than others and tell a particular story for a particular ethical end. Whether intentional or otherwise, the history of Islam in America being written today is likewise teleologically linked to a particular moralizing impetus that is determined by

67 Richard Martin, Islamic Studies in the American Academy: A Personal Reection in Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2010) vol.78, iss. 4, pp. 896920. 68 The edition was set to be published in the August/September Issue of 2011. 69 See Abbas Barzegar, The Persistence of Heresy: Paul of Tarsus, Ibn Saba in Sunni Identity Formation in Numen vol. 58, num. 23, 2011, pp. 20723.

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the strident politicization of Islamic discourse in U.S. domestic and international spheres. I feel strongly that a critical distance between scholarly praxis and community politics is necessary for the health of any academic discipline, but especially those associated with the study of Islam today. Likewise, I nd community praxis best served by arms length academic input. This essay has intended therefore to offer an approach to the study of Islam in America without telling a story of a, or any, community. Instead it has attempted to demarcate the basic counters of discourse that institutions, groups, and individuals already inhabit in their routine and mundane practices of simply being Muslim. It is my hope that such an approach may yield robust ndings that can supplement the many excellent histories and studies currently underway.

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