Islam in the United States

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Islam is perhaps the fastest growing religion in the United States due to both immigration and conversion. It is estimated that there are between 1 and 6 million Muslims in the United States. [1] The vast majority of American Muslims are of South Asian, Arabic, or African descent; about one-quarter are African-Americans. There are, as of 2010, 2106 mosques in the United States, up 74% in 10 years.[2]

As with every other religion, there is no set theology, political view, or level of religious conservatism of Islam in the United States. The trend is to be more progressive than European and Middle Eastern Islam; this may be attributable to the fact that many American Muslims, particularly the African-American segment, do not come from a culturally Muslim background and many converted for political reasons. However, that is by no means true of all American Muslims.

Muslim women in the US are often offered more access to the religion in the United States than in Europe, the Middle East or Far East. Women are taking active roles in redesigning the mosques they attend, teaching classes for both men and women, and even pressing to be Imams.[3]

[edit] Famous American Muslims

  • Ahmed H. Zewail - chemist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Art Blakey (aka Abdullah Ibn Buhaina) - jazz drummer
  • Busta Rhymes - rap artist
  • Dawud Salahuddin - assassin and film actor
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - basketball player (prev. Lew Alcindor)
  • Keith Ellison - first Muslim elected to congress in 2006
  • Kool & the Gang - Ronald and Robert "Kool" Bell
  • Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, he also used the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) - human rights leader. Was a member of the Nation of Islam, but converted to orthodox Islam in the last year of his life, when he .
  • Muhammad Ali - boxer (born Cassius Clay)
  • Nidal Malik Hasan - spree killer (Fort Hood shooting)
  • Stephen Schwartz - journalist
  • Warith Deen Mohammed - religious leader (converted most of the membership of the Nation of Islam to orthodox Sunni Islam)
  • Yusef Lateef - Grammy-winning jazz musician
  • Zalmay Khalilzad - US Ambassador to the United Nations.
  • Barack Obama

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Because the US does not track religion in the census, exact numbers are very hard to come by.
  2. USA Today: Number of U.S. mosques up 74% since 2000
  3. see: Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak ISBN ; also Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today by Yvonne Yazbeck
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