The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Emerging Islamic Infrastructure
Since the late 1960s, the American Muslim community has experienced exponential growth and incredible diversification and integration. The number of mosques (masajid) more than doubled, from 230 in 1960 to over 600 by 1980. The 1970s were a time of increased immigration of Muslims from all parts of the world, as well as a period marked by a transition to orthodox Islam among African Americans and the embracing of Islam by as many as 80,000 Euro-Americans.
By the early 1980s, the changing demographics of the American Muslim community required the creation of national organizations beyond the Muslim Students Association (MSA). The most significant of these was the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was established by the MSA in 1982 to serve as an umbrella organization for Sunni Muslim groups across the country. ISNA was one of many outgrowths of the MSA; others include the Islamic Medical Association, founded in 1967, the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers, founded in 1969, and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, founded in 1972. ISNA publishes the magazine Islamic Horizons and sponsors both national and regional conferences.
ISNA also participates in the Islamic Shura Council of North America, which coordinates among four of the most important national Muslim organizations: ISNA, Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, the community under the leadership of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). The formation of this council is a potent signifier of the merging of indigenous and immigrant streams of Islam in the American context. On a practical level, this council founded the Bosnia Task Force and facilitated the first joint observance of Ramadan in America. In 1993, all of these national organizations coordinated the sightings of the moon which begin and end this observance.
The North American Shi'a Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities (NASIMCO) and the national council of the Ismaili community, His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for the U.S.A., are examples of American Shi'i organizations, although ISNA and ICNA do not exclude Shi'i participation. U.S. Muslim organizations today include over fifteen Islamic financial services organizations which adhere to shari'ah, a score of political action committees, and social service organizations ranging from New York's Islamic Family Services to Illinois' Islamic Food Council and California's Islamic Marriage Bureau. Media organizations include Muslim book publishers and sellers, audio/video productions, Islamic graphic design groups, and a multitude of magazines and newspapers.
Social activism and charitable organizations are a key contribution of the American Muslim community. Many of these groups have an international focus, providing aid to Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Bangladesh; organizations such as ICNA Relief and Islamic Relief also provide aid to the needy in the United States. Other Muslim communities reach out directly into their neighborhoods and to their non-Muslim neighbors: members of New York's Masjid al-Taqwa worked with police and community organizations to close down some fifteen crack houses; leaders of Masjid al-Rasul in Los Angeles helped to arrange a truce between rival gangs.
Muslims in America have been building a community from the ground up: most American Muslims have not had the option simply to go to the local masjid; they had to establish one. Muslim parents cannot simply send their children to the local Sunday school, they have to create one. This community has, therefore, created an elaborate Islamic infrastructure in America, with over 400 Islamic schools, over 1,200 Islamic centers and mosques, and a myriad of other organizations. Through these efforts, over 5,000,000 American Muslims are educating their children, gathering to pray, working to educate their neighbors and their government, fighting against poverty and crime, and building a stronger, more diverse ummah in America. The American Muslim community strives to carry faithfully the message of Islam in a challenging environment.
In America, Muslims from all parts of the world are claiming a common identity based on religious, not ethnic grounds. As one prominent Muslim educator put it, "Enabling Muslims to explore the roots of their faith more freely is, in my mind, America's gift to Muslims."
Glossary: Muslim; mosques; Muslim Students Association (MSA); Sunni;Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed; Imam Jamil Al-Amin; Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA); Ramadan; Ismaili; Shi'i; shari'ah; Islamic centers; ummah
Reprinted by permission from our CD-ROM On Common Ground: World Religions in America, published by Columbia University Press (1-800-944-8648).