Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Paul M. Barrett has written a rich book full of insights into a religion many Americans don't know enough about."--Chicago Tribune
"A thoughtful exploration that is both comforting and alarming . . . American Islam reveals the variety of Muslim experience in the U.S., as well as profound aspects of Islam that are underappreciated in this country."--The Wall Street Journal
"These seven lives, and all the others they represent, heighten my sense that we should be practicing a more complicated patriotism, one with a pluralistic gaze."--Los Angeles Times
"Well wrought and engaging . . . A welcome antidote to the wide spread Islamophobia that has infected so many Americans over the last five years . . . The book makes a compelling argument that the greatest tool in America's arsenal in the 'war on terror' may be its own thriving and thoroughly assimilated Muslim community."--The Washington Post Book World
"Timely and engaging."--The New York Times
"This is a smart, careful look at America in the post-9/11 world. It is definitely worth the time of anyone wondering where the country is going."--Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
"[American Islam] fills a real need and does so remarkably well. . . . It delivers a set of powerful insights about Muslim life in the United States and the tensions that are shaping the community . . . Barrett's carefully crafted approach is a smart one."--Slate.com
Synopsis
Captures the world of American Muslims in a post-9/11 world to describe the struggle they confront to reconcile the tenets of their faith with a permissive American society, in a collection of dramatic portraits of Muslims from across the country who reflect a variety of ideologies and cultures.
Synopsis
There are as many as six million Muslims living in the United States, and in American Islam, Paul M. Barrett takes us into their homes, mosques, and private gatherings, from West Virginia to Los Angeles, depicting a population of striking variety. In vivid, subtle, artful prose, Barrett tells seven stories of American Muslims in all their stereotype-defying complexity. Theirs is a dramatic new chapter in the American story, and American Islam is an intimate and vibrant group portrait of American Muslims today.
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 BusinessWeek. He is the author of The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America.