American Muslims: Thriving in America?

Last updated on: March 3, 2009 at 10:16 pm by zahedamanullah

American Muslims: Thriving in America? 2009-03-03T22:16:05-04:00 zahedamanullah

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Nature or nurture?

Six years ago, I left the country where I was born and arrived in Britain with an intent to settle with my new wife. I flew into Heathrow on a one way ticket – with no visa – and yet was allowed into the country with no difficulty, even though I was a Muslim immigrant arriving just over two years after 9/11. I was offered a job within two weeks, paid by a British company directly into a bank account back home while I sorted out my residency. When I did so a few months later, I was told it would take up to four weeks. It took 24 hours.

This would normally be the type of story that drives Daily Mail readers mad, except for the one factor that trumps all others when it comes to personal identity, socio-economics, and religious practice. I’m an American.

This week, a Gallup poll confirmed what many other studies – particularly their own indispensable “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think” – have shown about American Muslims. They are among America’s brightest and well adjusted minorities. Forty three percent of American Muslim women hold a college or post-graduate degree, compared with 29% of American women overall. These women make as much as their male counterparts – with less inequality than any other religious group or America as a whole.

Added to those findings was a greater sense by American Muslims that they were “thriving” (41% vs. 46% for Americans overall), dwarfing – with the exception of Saudi Arabia – the world’s Muslim countries (Morocco’s 24% is the next down the list). For Britain, this figure drops to 7%, well below the 17% and 11% of co-religionists in Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively.

For years, the US government has picked up on findings such as these, touting their well integrated Muslims to the rest of the world. But polls numbers like these, useful and important as they are, cloud issues of culture, class, and immigration that are more relevant. Poll averages hide disparities between working class African-American Muslims and immigrant professionals. And the strong emphasis on immigration in the British debate, with a focus on language, ghettos, and unfamiliar customs, does not translate well in America. If Mexico was a Muslim country, things would sound a lot more familiar.

It’s easy to jump on Britain’s 7% figure and extrapolate many unsavory things about British Muslim life. Yet the sense of tension here, even compared to post-9/11 America, is palpable. At the risk of echoing Barack Obama’s worst campaign gaffe, people may cling to religion, culture, and the proximity of their families in these circumstances. Even then, British Muslims have thrived in demonstrable ways – in literature, music, politics, and business. How one feels about “thriving” (as the figures from Bangladesh show) is relative. I feel I’m thriving here, too.

We must admit that the American model of integration, strong as it is, benefits from a generous helping of good fortune. No ethnic group dominates among American Muslims, who are roughly divided into Arabs, African-Americans, and South Asians in equal numbers. For those that immigrated, the doors were open primarily to the professional and academic (student) classes – essentially pre-Westernized and pre-assimilated. This allowed American Muslims to strip the cultural crust from Islamic practice more effectively than in any other country. Conventional attitudes towards gender roles, ritual practice, and participation in wider society are harder to enforce, allowing an American Muslim identity to form more rapidly. Muslims have found American culture seductive, accessible, and largely compatible with the Islam they now practice, an Islam that still retains a strong scholarly tradition. And much as we want it to be, this is not by design. It just is.

There is a tendency to view Muslim communities only in terms of policy decisions, with little regard to cultures (of both hosts and immigrants), economics, and class. Instead the debate in Britain revolves only around religion. Not all the successes and failures in Britain and America can be tied to religion alone. Blaming clerics is too simplistic. The individuals who thrive in Britain do so, as I see it, outside of the traditional Muslim structures and institutions that have been set up here. That is a very American way of going about things, and the clean slate that American Muslims had in the first place.

When America brought in educated Muslim immigrants (along with Pilipino, Korean, Chinese, and others) in the 50s and 60s to study and work, it was not the result of a policy decision to prevent extremism. It was merely a response to an economic need. Similarly, there was no grand scheme back then to engineer the diversity of American Muslims that now exists – a diversity that, along with the past evolution of America as a haven for immigrants, has largely stripped culture from Americas Islamic debate.

But all of this might still be beside the point. For the past three years, I’ve worked as a project manager of a large development in Bradford’s city centre, where I was the only Asian face among scores of people on the construction site. When my expected Yorkshire accent turned out American, I was often pulled aside by colleagues who extolled the virtues of my culture (that would be the American one, not the Asian one). Similarly, among the Muslims in Bradford I meet, I am rarely asked about Muslim life in America. Instead, I’m asked about American life in general – shopping, sports, cars, and big houses.

American Muslims may indeed be thriving more than their counterparts abroad. But this may say more about a deference to America, its culture, its economy, and just plain luck than about any intentional American policy or program to fashion a better Muslim.

(Photo: Lauri Lyons via flickr under a Creative Commons license. A version of this article previously appeared in the Guardian’s Comment is Free)

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com. He is based in London, England.

Commentary

Zahed Amanullah

Previous Post

March 2, 2009

Foreign Policy: Leaving cards on the counter-terror table

Next Post

March 5, 2009 Podcasts: altmuslim review 031

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am a coat of many colors that sparked jealousy among brothers. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Joseph's coat A royal garment The priests robe Jacob's robe