“I Am An AmerIcAn WIth A muslIm soul” ........... 2
photo eSSay
BuIldIng A lIfe In AmerIcA ........... 4
The young women pictured on our cover
are both Muslim. They live near Detroit,
Michigan, in a community with many Arab-
profileS
American residents. Each expresses her faith in
her own way, with a combination of traditional
Young muslIms mAke theIr mArk ........... 30
and modern dress. Here, they compete fiercely
on the basketball court in a sport that blends
reSoUrceS
individual skills and team effort. They — along
A stAtIstIcAl PortrAIt ........... 48
with the other men, women, and children in this
neIghBorhood mosques ........... 52
publication — demonstrate every day what it is
like to be Muslim in America.
tImelIne of keY events ........... 56
BIBlIogrAPhY ........... 63
SUpplement
dId You knoW?/Performers mInI-Poster
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of Hindu temples. In fact, there are now more
Ages, my soul spread to the East and West,
Muslims in America than Episcopalians, the
praying in the mosques and studying in the
faith professed by many of America’s Found-
libraries of the great medieval Muslim cities
ing Fathers.
of Cairo, Baghdad, and Cordoba. My soul
whirled with Rumi, read Aristotle with Aver-
One hundred years ago, the great African-
roes, traveled through Central Asia with Nasir
American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois warned
Khusrow. In the colonial era, my Muslim soul
that the problem of the centur y would be the
was stirred to justice. It marched with Abdul
color line. The 21st centur y might well be
Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars in
dominated by a different line — the faith line.
their satyagraha to free India. It stood with
The most pressing questions for my countr y
Farid Esack, Ebrahim Moosa, Rahid Omar,
(America), my religion (Islam), and all God’s
and the Muslim Youth Movement in their strug-
people may well be these: How will people
gle for a multicultural South Africa.
who may have different ideas of heaven in-
teract together on Earth? Will the steeple, the
In one eye I carr y this ancient Muslim vi-
minaret, the synagogue, the temple, and the
sion on pluralism; in the other eye I carr y the
sanga learn to share space in a new city on
American promise. And in my heart, I pray
a hill?
that we make real this possibility: a city on a
“I Am An AmerIcAn WIth A muslIm soul”
hill where different religious communities re-
I think the American ethos — mixing tolerance
spectfully share space and collectively ser ve
I love America not be-
in Winthrop’s Christian
and reverence — may have something special
the common good; a world where diverse na-
cause I am under the
faith, and no doubt he
to contribute to this issue.
tions and peoples come to know one another
illusion that it is per-
imagined his city on a
in a spirit of brotherhood and righteousness;
fect, but because it allows
hill with a steeple in the
America is a grand gathering of souls, the
a centur y in which we achieve a common life
me — the child of Muslim
center. Throughout the
vast majority from elsewhere. The American
together.
immigrants from India —
centuries, America has re-
genius lies in allowing these souls to contrib-
Author Eboo Patel is executive director of the In-
to participate in its prog-
mained a deeply religious
ute their texture to the American tradition, to
terfaith Youth Core in Chicago, Illinois. He is a
ress, to car ve a place in its
countr y, while becoming
add new notes to the American song.
leader in the interfaith movement.
promise, to play a role in Eboo Patel
a remarkably plural one.
its possibility.
Indeed, we are the most religiously devout
I am an American with a Muslim soul. My soul
nation in the West and the most religiously
carries a long histor y of heroes, movements,
John Winthrop, one of the earliest European
diverse countr y in the world. The steeple at
and civilizations that sought to submit to the
settlers in America, gave voice to this sense
the center of the city on a hill is now sur-
will of God. My soul listened as the Prophet
of possibility. He told his compatriots that
rounded by the minaret of Muslim mosques,
Muhammad preached the central messages of
their society would be like a city upon a hill,
the Hebrew script of Jewish synagogues, the
Islam, tazaaqa and tawhid, compassionate
a beacon for the world. It was a hope rooted
chanting of Buddhist sangas, and the statues
justice and the oneness of God. In the Middle
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