American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion (Google eBook)

Paul M. Barrett

Macmillan, Dec 26, 2007 - Religion - 320 pages

Vivid, dramatic portraits of Muslims in America in the years after 9/11, as they define themselves in a religious subculture torn between moderation and extremism
There are as many as six million Muslims in the United States today. Islam (together with Christianity and Judaism) is now an American faith, and the challenges Muslims face as they reconcile their intense and demanding faith with our chaotic and permissive society are recognizable to all of us.

From West Virginia to northern Idaho, American Islam takes readers into Muslim homes, mosques, and private gatherings to introduce a population of striking variety. The central characters range from a charismatic black imam schooled in the militancy of the Nation of Islam to the daughter of an Indian immigrant family whose feminist views divided her father's mosque in West Virginia. Here are lives in conflict, reflecting in different ways the turmoil affecting the religion worldwide. An intricate mixture of ideologies and cultures, American Muslims include immigrants and native born, black and white converts, those who are well integrated into the larger society and those who are alienated and extreme in their political views. Even as many American Muslims succeed in material terms and enrich our society, Islam is enmeshed in controversy in the United States, as thousands of American Muslims have been investigated and interrogated in the wake of 9/11.
American Islam is an intimate and vivid group portrait of American Muslims in a time of turmoil and promise.

What people are saying

Review: American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion

User Review  - Readnponder - Goodreads

This book is bit dated (postscript in 2007), but is still probably accurate. The author, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, offers seven profiles on Islamic Americans in various walks of life. He ...

Review: American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion

User Review  - Hin Tung - Goodreads

This book focuses on 7 people who are Muslim and live in America. But the book goes beyond these 7 people and explains the different perspectives of people. When I began the book I probably had views ...

Contents

• INTRODUCTION Muslims in America: 3
• ONE The Publisher: 15
• TWO The Scholar: 62
• THREE The Imam: 100
• FOUR The Feminist: 134
• FIVE The Mystics: 179
• SIX The Webmaster: 216
• SEVEN The Activist: 265
• CONCLUSION The Way Ahead: 277
• AFTERWORD: 285
• Selected Bibliography: 295
• Acknowledgments: 297
• Index: 299

About the author

Paul M. Barrett, for eighteen years a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, where this book originated, currently directs the investigative reporting team at Business Week. He is the author of The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America.

Bibliographic information

• Title: American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion
• Author: Paul M. Barrett
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2007
• ISBN: 0374708304, 9780374708306
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Islam / General; Social Science / Islamic Studies