American Islam

I have recently finished reading "American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion" by Paul M. Barrett and recommend it most highly. Through a series of sketches of American Muslims he describes the diverse counter-currents of that religion as it is practiced in the United States. For me, this diversity of thought and action was an eye opener. Along the way, the author shows the reactions of non-Muslim Americans to their new or old Muslim neighbors, not always edifying on both sides.

Here is a list of the profiles:

• The Publisher (Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News in Dearborn, MI)
• The Scolar (Kaled Abou El Fadl, a liberal Muslim who seemed interesting enough to drive me to buy several of his books)
• The Imam (Siraj Wahhaj, of a mosque in Brooklyn and much in demand as a preacher in other parts of the country)
• The Feminist (Asra Normani, of Morgantown, WVa)
• The Mystics (focusing on American Sufis)
• The Webmaster (Sami Omar al-Hussayen formerly of Moscow, Idaho, but since deported after being found not guilty of terrorism charges)
• The Activist (Mustafa Saied who has rejected Wahhabism for a much more tolerant Islamic belief).

Read this book. It reads relatively quickly and is well-worth the investment in time. I can recommend the following review in The Washington Post on the book by Reza Aslam (whose book on Islam I recommended some time ago):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021501527.html

An online discussion with the author in The Washington Post also is interesting:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/02/16/DI2007021601412.html