Islam: An American Religion (Religion, Culture, and Public Life, 27)

Islam: An American Religion demonstrates how Islam as formed in the United States has become an American religion in a double sense{u2014}first through the strategies of recognition adopted by Muslims and second through the performance of Islam as a faith.Nadia Marzouki investigates how Islam has become so contentious in American politics. Focusing on the period from 2008 to 2013, she revisits the uproar over the construction of mosques, legal disputes around the prohibition of Islamic law, and the overseas promotion of religious freedom. She argues that public controversies over Islam in the United States primarily reflect the American public's profound divisions and ambivalence toward freedom of speech and the legitimacy of liberal secular democracy The Practice Of Islam In The United States, Spanning More Than A Century, Has A Contentious History That Has Escalated Over The Past Decade. Debates Have Raged Over Islam’s Articles Of Faith, Especially Within An American Context, And Its Practitioners’ Intent. Some Characterize These Arguments As A Clash Between A White, Evangelical Majority And A Muslim Minority, Or They See It As Evidence Of The Divide Between Tolerant Liberals And Close-minded Conservatives. Casting This Conflict As A Generic Struggle Between Us And Them, Nadia Marzouki Argues, Is A Gross Oversimplification Of Islam’s Development In America. In Islam: An American Religion, Marzouki Investigates How Islam Is Lived, How It Has Changed, And How Its Identity Has Overlapped With American Foreign Policy Toward The Muslim World. Revisiting The Uproar Over The Construction Of Mosques, The Perceived Threat Of Encroaching Shar’ia Law, And The Overseas Promotion Of America’s Secular Democratic Traditions, Marzouki Finds That Public Tensions Over Islam In The United States Reflect More Of The West’s Ambivalence Toward Freedom Of Speech And Political Culture Than The Religion’s Purported Agenda. Her Unbiased Portrait Highlights American Islam’s Open Outlook, Which Embodies And Advances The Core Principles Of The American Political Project. -- Provided By Publisher. Foreword / Olivier Roy -- Introduction To The American Edition: A Euro-american Debate Over Islam -- Muslim Americans : A Religious Minority Like Any Other ? -- The Mosque Controversies : Moral Offense And Religious Liberty -- The Anti-sharia Movement -- The Face Of Anti-muslim Populism -- Forcing The First Amendment : American Exporting Of Religious Freedom. Nadia Marzouki ; Translated By C. Jon Delogu. Translated From The French. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. An American Religion demonstrates how Islam as formed in the United States has become an American religion in a double sensefirst through the strategies of recognition adopted by Muslims and second through the performance of Islam as a faith. Nadia Marzouki investigates how Islam has become so contentious in American politics. Focusing on the period from 2008 to 2013, she revisits the uproar over the construction of mosques, legal disputes around the prohibition of Islamic law, and the overseas promotion of religious freedom. She argues that public controversies over Islam in the United States primarily reflect the American public's profound divisions and ambivalence toward freedom of speech and the legitimacy of liberal secular democracy. Nadia Marzouki is a research fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. She is the coeditor, with Olivier Roy, of Religious Conversions in the Mediterranean World (2013) and, with Duncan McDonnell and Olivier Roy, of Saving the People: How Populist Parties Hijack Religion (2016). POL007000,Political Science/Political Ideologies/Democracy,REL037000,Religion/Islam/General