On June 10, Americans honoured Muhammad Ali as a model of athletic prowess, dignity in the face of adversity, and patriotic dissent.
His fellow American Muslims, on the other hand, are frequently portrayed as a "problem" for American religious pluralism and a threat to American security. They are the latest in a long line of religious groups to face discrimination and public suspicion because of their faith. Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and many other groups have all been labelled as dangerous outsiders at some point.
In response to this scrutiny and to affirm Islam as an American religion, some American Muslims are turning to emerging institutions known as "third spaces" because they are neither home nor mosque.
These communities include convert support groups, virtual communities on social media and blogs, devotional communities, book clubs, artist and writer collectives, and study circles. The size of third spaces varies. Some have been in place for decades, while others are only in place for a short period of time. In the Chicago area alone, I encountered at least 30 such spaces during my fieldwork.
Based on four years of ethnography in one such third space, my forthcoming book demonstrates how these institutions provide an essential look into the myriad of local expressions of American Islam.
Islam is frequently portrayed as an immutable monolith. The American Muslim community, on the other hand, exemplifies the racial, theological, geographical, political, and religious diversity of American society as a whole.
Away from the Mosque:
Why have these third spaces received so little public attention?
One explanation is that we too often regard mosques as representative of all American Muslims. There are compelling reasons to do so. With nearly 2,000 mosques in the United States, mosques are among the most important and common American Muslim institutions.
Masjid, the Arabic word for mosque, meaning "place of prostration," and refers to the physical postures of the five daily prayers (salat).
Although salat can be conducted anywhere, Muslims worldwide assemble at mosques on Friday afternoons for community prayers and to hear a sermon. Mosques in the United States also act as classrooms and community centres. They offer social services as well as host weddings and burials.
Mosques, on the other hand, offer a limited glimpse into the colourful dynamics of American Muslim religious and social life.
Just as church attendance fails to portray the dynamic religiosity of contemporary American Christians, the idea that mosques represent American Muslims provides an imperfect image.
According to the 2011 Pew Research Center report Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation and Support for Extremism, approximately 47 percent of American Muslims attend mosques weekly, 34 percent visit monthly or yearly, and 19 percent are "unmosqued," or never attend mosques. These data roughly represent Christian church attendance.
Muslims in the United States, like other American practitioners, practise their faith in a variety of ways.
Third-space creative piety:
Another reason third spaces receive less attention is that they are typically local. Third spaces use their emergent and adaptable nature to create communities that are more closely aligned with their members' theologies and social preferences.
The Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb Foundation, for example, is a family-centered institution in the western Chicago suburbs that serves as the key case study in my book.
The organisation, which was founded in 2004, caters to families with spouses of various ethnic and racial backgrounds, including first- and second-generation Arab and South Asian immigrants, African-Americans, and white and Latino converts, all of whom have struggled to find a religious community that supports this familial variety.
Webb's weekly Sunday school has approximately 150 students, both adults and children. Like many third spaces, Webb has no permanent building. Its events are held in a number of locations, including schools, hotels, parks, and community centres.
To promote a "indigenous" American Islam, the Webb Foundation organises events such as football games, nature walks, and ski excursions. These routines complement other rituals like as the mawlid, a feast celebrating the Prophet Muhammad, as well as discussions about the Qur'an and ordinary parental concerns such as college savings.
Members' devotion to aiding less poor, mostly non-Muslim neighbours is demonstrated by their participation in one of the city's largest Thanksgiving turkey drives.
Together, the Webb Foundation creates an American Islam that promotes religious pluralism, empowers women - who are equally represented on the foundation's board - celebrates the "best of American culture," and envisions the United States as the ideal location for practising Islam.
American Islam's past, present, and future:
Third spaces, such as the Webb Foundation, challenge the widely held belief that Islam is a "foreign" or "Arab" religion.
Its members, who are proud of their American background, pay tribute to the great tradition of American Muslims who have served the country via military, public, and community service.
Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb, born in Hudson, New York, in 1846 and raised as a Presbyterian, converted to Islam in the 1880s while serving as consul to the Philippines under President Grover Cleveland. He later became the Muslim representative at the World's Fair in Chicago's World's Parliament of Religions in 1893. There, he defended his religion as the most global and reasonable faith, opposing exhibits that portrayed Muslims as exotic and romantic, but ultimately inferior to Protestant Christians.
The vast majority of American Muslims are citizens of the United States. Some of the third spaces they are creating offer various opportunities for participants to explore more fully what it means to be an American Muslim, fulfil religious obligations, and challenge overwhelmingly negative representations of Islam and Muslims through rituals, outreach, and service initiatives.
It's easy to fall back on ahistorical generalisations in this climate of fear and xenophobia. We would be wise to remember that no single institution, let alone Islam, represents all American Muslims.
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