American Mosques

We are visiting American mosque sites—gathering historical, ethnographic, and visual data— to learn more about how American civil society has shaped, and been shaped by, mosque communities in the United States.

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Links for “’Siri is Alligator Halal?‘: Mobile Apps, Food Practices and Religious Authority among American Muslims”

This post is an online section of my book chapter,“’Siri is Alligator Halal?‘: Mobile Apps, Food Practices and Religious Authority among American Muslims”, which will shortly appear in my edited volume titled Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps (scheduled for publishing later 2019 with Palgrave MacMillan press). 

In the chapter I talk about the use of several mobile apps by Muslim Americans for different purposes, and their relationship to more traditional modes of religious authority and knowledge dissemination. 

Due to the publishing constraints of print books I was unable to include the links to apps that I wanted my readers to see, so I have provided a QR code in the book to take readers to this site.  It is fitting to house the images at this site as the chapter has developed from work on the American Mosques Project.

The relevant links include:

https://scanhalal.org/

(Screenshot of the Scan Halal listing at the Apple App Store)

and 

https://www.zabihah.com/

(Screenshot of the Zabihah app listing from the Apple App Store)

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Masjid An-Noor: Interview with the Imam (Part 2 of 2)

In this second part of the interview (see earlier post for first part), Imam Khalil speaks further about the interfaith outreach work that he engages in in his local neighborhood as described in the first post.  He emphasizes the importance of connecting with neighbors, and describes how serving others, even in small ways, can make a difference for a community.

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Masjid An-Noor: Interview with the Imam (Part 1 of 2)

Imam Khalil briefly describes the community outreach that he engages in at the Masjid An-Noor in Buffalo, and interfaith programs.

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Touring Masjid An-Noor (Part 3 of 3): Exterior Community Spaces

The gracious and green outside spaces of Masjid An-Noor painted an attractive picture of community life, featuring comfortable spaces for picnics and barbecuing, with basketball and volleyball areas as well as a children’s playground.  Even in the midst of these leisurely activities one can observe key community values, expressed through signs alluding to interfaith outreach and charity collection bins.

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Touring Masjid An-Noor (Part 2 of 3):  Signs and Symbols of Faith

The mosque is decorated throughout with beautiful Arabic calligraphy, including on and around important features such as the mihrab and minbar at the front of the room, the zakat (charity) box located at the main doors, and in the hallways.

For more on the role of calligraphy as decoration see this article on “Calligraphy in Islamic Art” from the Victoria and Albert Museum or this article on Arts in the Islamic world from the Smithsonian.

Learn more about the mihrab and minbar features of a mosque from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s educator’s guide to the mosque here.

Read about zakat and charity in Islam in this essay on zakat from Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs.

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Touring Masjid An-Noor (Part 1 of 3): The Mosque

The wide open rooms and hallways of the Masjid An-Noor building provide inviting and inspiring spaces for prayer, congregation, and socializing.  The mosque is organized around a large prayer room that oriented towards the quibla wall, with a mihrab and minbar in the front the room.  The left side has an area for men’s prayer, and the right has an area for women’s prayer. 

The central hallway runs the length of the building, providing an area for gathering outside of the prayer, the posting of announcements, storage of shoes (before entering the main area of prayer), and other activities.  The masjid prayer room is to the left; to the right is a large room that can be used for educational gatherings, community meetings, social events, or over-flow prayer congregations.

Overall the building has been designed with many windows, high ceilings, and light colors, making it feel open and full of light. 

Learn more about mosque spaces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s site on “The Mosque”

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During a research trip to Buffalo, New York, we were fortunate to speak with the imam of Masjid An-Noor, Imam Khalil.  Imam Khalil spoke about the community outreach efforts and interfaith programs that he believes are a central part of his work as a community leader and his role as an Imam.

In the overall interview he spoke about a the importance of knowing your neighbors, and a local gift-giving event his mosque and students of the University of Buffalo put together every year as a celebration of Eid. The imam put a great deal of emphasis on community engagement and outreach. His message of community engagement and the need for fostering positive interactions is especially valuable in the context of rising Islamophobia in the United States.

In the next few posts, there will be more photographs of the mosque and some video clips of our interview with Imam Kahlil, focusing on the community’s interfaith outreach experiences.

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What can we learn from previous studies of American mosques?

A survey of American mosque leaders by  the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America and the Islamic Circle of America indicates that both the number of American mosques and the number of Muslims attending American mosques have grown considerably since 2000.

Mosque community based studies suggest that the number of Muslims in the United States may be significantly higher than than that reported by other (respondent based) surveys, such as the 2010 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which estimated that there are approximately 2.6 Muslims in the United States. 

For example, according to Dr. Ihsan Bagby, a University of Kentucky professor of Islamic studies, who conducted a study in partnership with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, “if there are 2.6 million [American] Muslims who pray the Eid prayer [in American mosques], then the total Muslim population should be closer to estimates of up to 7 million.”

Read more about the results of these studies at:  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/mosques-in-united-states-study_n_1307851.html

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There are many diverse spaces within the Islamic Center associated with distinct and significant activities.  Here are shown (from top to bottom, left to right) the mosque, for prayer; the mihrab (niche in the wall) that indicates quibla (the direction towards Mecca) and contains the minbar (a pulpit or raised platform for sermons); a large open room for classes, dinners, and parties; the library for studying and reading; and the wudu (ablution, a ritual washing for cleanliness) room.

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Visit to the Islamic Center of Savannah in June, 2015.

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Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  ”Mother Mosque” research trip, August 2010.

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Another “blast from the past” repost from earlier research trips.

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Questions

What histories do we have of early mosque communities in the US?  What were the circumstances under which the first American mosques were built?  What were and are the relationships between physical space and social practice?  And what does the history of Muslims in the United States mean to American Muslims today?

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Willis Hakim Jones spoke of the strength of being a convert in Islam, with the emphasis on the role of learning concepts and ideas rather than memorizing texts.  He observed, “Because the religion is new to us and we had to learn Islamic concepts in English, we have a much better understanding of some of the concepts, some of the history of Islam”.   He went on to give an example of how he speaks out against those who claim women should not have an equal voice in the mosque, saying such a claim is cultural, not religious.  “This isn’t the way… I know, because of the fact that I have read– not repeated what I heard– that the Prophet gave women the right to make complaints and suggestions. So as I said, it’s been a slow process. I’m in every class, trying to learn the Arabic, because it’s necessary, to really understand the Quran you have to read it in Arabic to understand it.  But, there has been an advantage because I can at least read it in English and understand it.  And my father, I wasn’t in a situation where my father told me all you got to do is remember and you’re all right.”

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Repost from a visit to the Masjid Jihad (Savannah, GA) in June 2015.

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Magnolia Islamic Center of Madison, Mississippi. 

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Getting ready for our June 2018 research trip, we’re reposting a few classic pictures from past research trips.  Here’s some views of the lovely Magnolia Islamic Center in Mississippi from 2015.

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"In collaboration with the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, this digital archive collects and preserves documents related to Muslim American history from the colonial era to the present. It includes memoirs, newspapers, books, reports, speeches and other documents that reveal the place of Muslims in American social, political, religious, cultural, and economic life. This digital archive is the first effort to collect and preserve the documents that chart Muslim American contributions to the thirteen colonies and the United States. It includes the primary sources necessary to understanding the vital place of Muslims in the United States during each period of U.S. history. Presently the collection contains a limited amount of content but will focus its growth on collecting material that documents the presence of Muslim slaves, who represented the first major Muslim population in British North America and the United States. Thousands of Muslim slaves, some of whom were among the most educated Americans of the nineteenth century, contributed to their labor, knowledge, and in some cases, their military service to the creation of the American republic and its development in the nineteenth century."

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Omar Ibn Said Documents in the UNC Chapel Hill Library Collections

Omar Ibn Said (1770-1864) was born in Senegal.  He had spent the early part of his life as an Islamic scholar, but was was captured in a war, and was forced into slavery in the United States in his 30s.  He left behind a series of written documents which include handwritten copies of surah (chapters) of the Quran.  Although it is claimed he converted to Christianity later in life the written documents he left behind tell a more complex tale.

Text from the UNC “Documenting the American South Website” on Omar Ibn Said:

Two surviving artifacts of Said's Arabic writing provide insights into the complicated interplay between Christianity and Islam during his life as an American slave. The first is a transcription of the 23rd Psalm, which Said recorded in Arabic and which was later translated back into English by Professor R.D. Wilson of the Princeton Theological Seminary. The re-translation reveals that the psalm is prefaced with the statement, "In the name of God, the merciful and gracious. May God have mercy on the prophet Mohammed." In this document, Said had appended a traditional Muslim invocation to a holy text of the Judeo-Christian tradition—in a language which his master(s) could not understand. The second artifact is a card bearing Said's Arabic script. Inscribed on the back is the following explanation in English: "The Lord's Prayer written in Arabic by Uncle Moreau (Omar) a native African, now owned by General Owen of Wilmington, N.C. He is 88 years of age & a devoted Christian." The Arabic text, however, is not the Lord's Prayer, but actually Surat 110 from the Koran (entitled "The Help"), predicting a mass conversion of unbelievers to Islam in which men will "[enter] the religion of Allah in companies." It is unclear how the writer of the English inscription—a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina—came to believe that this Arabic script represented the Christian "Lord's Prayer," but this mistranslation of Said's words should serve as a caveat to his statement in the Autobiography that "now I pray 'Our Father,' etc" (p. 794).

Photographs: Taken at UNC Chapel Hill library, with permission.

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What happens in a mosque?

One of the most common themes in American questions about the importance of mosques in the USA are a frequent lack of understanding about what actually happens in a mosque.  

In this short clip of an interview with leaders of a Southern mosque, hear a description of the types of activities that take place in an American mosque.  After prayer, the mosque leaders note, an emphasis on both education and charity guide most mosque activities.

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An excerpt from an interview with Maryam Rashid, education coordinator at the The International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, MS, interviewed by one of our students, Hannah.

The International Museum of Muslim Cultures provides a great example of how third spaces can offer education about Islam and Muslim Americans, as many people may not feel comfortable visiting their local mosque but would be interested in learning more at an educational center.