Bakalian, Anny.  Backlash 9/11: Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans respond, by Anny Bakalian and Mehdi Bozorgmehr.  California, 2009.  348p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780520257344, $55.00; ISBN 9780520257351 pbk, $21.95. Reviewed in 2009sep CHOICE.
47-0544  HV6431  2008-13570 CIP  

Bakalian and Bozorgmehr (both, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at Graduate Center, CUNY) focus on Middle Eastern and Muslim populations who were a part of the events of 9/11. Their concern is that these people’s stories have been ignored in the rush to indict state and national failures. The authors assert that social movement scholars have ignored and discounted religion and ethnicity as critical elements of mobilization studies. Their model connects backlash and mobilization as two interrelated and critical elements of the study of social movements. They change the focus to pan-ethnicity and pan-mobilization. Those Middle Eastern individuals who committed the terrorist activity in New York City were Arab and Muslim. The US government took this small group of Middle Eastern Muslims, made them a distinct category, and put all American Muslims and all American Arabs into this category. All Muslims and all Arabs in the US became potential terrorists. One major conclusion from this study is that stereotyping, scapegoating, hate crimes, and government intrusion create a backlash that brings together and then mobilizes groups that may not have been previously connected. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, all undergraduates, and graduates. — P. Kriese, Indiana University East 

Barrett, Paul M.  American Islam: the struggle for the soul of a religion.  Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007.  304p bibl index afp ISBN 0-374-10423-9, $25.00; ISBN 9780374104238, $25.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1742  BP67  2006-11404 CIP  

Barrett (Business Week) makes his view of Islam in the US clear in his book’s subtitle. Six years after September 11, he investigates “what, for Muslims, is a normal American life?” Seeking answers and exposing the diversity of US Islam along the way, Barrett traveled from coast to coast, interviewed hundreds, and selected seven individuals to represent different answers to the question. In true journalistic style, he faithfully records his respondents but also interrogates those responses. While the answer to the question is the same–life in the US is full of challenges–Barrett actually pays more attention to other questions. Standing in as the average American, he steers his reportage to issues such as, can or will Muslims assimilate? Where are the moderate Muslims, if any? Are there terrorists among US Muslims? Are Muslim women oppressed? His seven profiles are largely of newsworthy US Muslims whose opinions are already well known, but Barrett’s savvy comes in his interrogations and engaging style. In the spectrum of texts, this one is worth reading, valuable because of the insight it provides on a complex topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — A. B. McCloud, DePaul University 

Cainkar, Louise A.  Homeland insecurity: the Arab American and Muslim American experience after 9/11.  Russell Sage Foundation, 2009.  325p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780871540485, $35.00. Reviewed in 2010jun CHOICE.
47-5960  E184  2009-3523 CIP  

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have been perceived as a unifying moment for the US, one that brought people together regardless of political ideology or any other potentially divisive feature. Such a view ignores the experiences of Arab and Muslim Americans who found themselves the targets of much of this unity. Sociologist Cainkar (Marquette Univ.) provides a summary of these experiences, mixing general trends of persecution and prejudice with specific examples of those who lived it. Her aim is not to sensationalize Arab and Muslim American treatment in this era but rather to provide, as closely as possible, descriptions of authentic and everyday experiences. Central to this portrayal is the process of “de-Americanization,” in which persons who are citizens have that status stripped away in the court of public opinion because of negative perceptions. Cainkar embeds this process in the larger historical context of how Arabs and Muslims have been perceived in the US. In doing so, she encapsulates previous work on the topic in a contemporary application, making this book an important contribution not only to Arab American studies but also to US history collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — G. C. David, Bentley University

Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2003oct CHOICE.
41-0871
http://cmcu.georgetown.edu/ 

The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU) strives to improve cultural relationships between the West and the Muslim world. Based at Georgetown University, the program has become internationally recognized in the field of Islamic studies through its training programs, international exchanges, and academic classes. CMCU’s Web site outlines the Center’s mission, provides contact information, and gives background about affiliated scholars and staff. It lists upcoming events, academic programs, CMCU publications, and current conferences and workshops. Of special interest is the Islamic resources link, which pulls together Web sites of major Muslim publications, organizations, and academic programs around the world. Included are home pages of journals, some of which have full text articles; and Muslim newspapers in various languages. The site, which has a straightforward layout, loads well and is easy to navigate. Information was up-to-date, with only one dead link. This site will be of particular interest to scholars looking for background on the center or prospective students considering Georgetown University. Researchers will find the Islamic resources section useful, e.g., its links to Middle Eastern publications.  Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty. — C. A. Sproles, University of Louisville 
 
Cesari, Jocelyne.  When Islam and democracy meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States.  Palgrave, 2004.  267p bibl index ISBN 0-312-29401-8, $65.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005sep CHOICE.
43-0388  D1056  2004-44763 CIP  

Cesari (research associate, Harvard) examines the highly complicated issue of Muslim minority integration and acculturation to mainstream culture and secularization in western European countries and the US. The author explains that “it has been necessary to examine those dimensions of Muslim life that are crucial to the formation of both identities and religious practices. These dimensions are the meta-narrative currently circulating on Islam, the influence of the cultural and political structures of the host countries, the complex interaction between religion and ethnicity, and the influence of global Islam.” This is a challenge, particularly because the makeup of most western Muslim communities has not been uniform. For example, Muslims include Turks in Germany, Algerians and Moroccans in France, Albanians in Italy, Muslims from the Indian subcontinent in the UK, the Nation of Islam in the US, etc. Cesari’s research is very impressive and her presentation lucid and objective. The bibliography is extensive and the appendixes offer very useful statistical data and comprehensive lists of Muslim organizations and societies in the West. This book is absolutely necessary for understanding the growing tension between the majority of Europeans and Americans and their Muslim neighbors, and offers some guidelines on how to deal with it. Summing Up: Essential. All public/academic levels/libraries. — N. Rassekh, Lewis and Clark College 

The Columbia sourcebook of Muslims in the United States, ed. by Edward E. Curtis IV.  Columbia, 2008.  452p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780231139564, $75.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008dec CHOICE.
46-2273  E184  2007-189689 CIP  

From a leading expert on Muslims in the US comes the first edited collection of primary sources written by American Muslims. Spanning almost 200 years of US Muslim history, the sourcebook offers carefully selected excerpts, chapters, and documents, many written in the first person, some available for the first time, that paint a picture of the diversity of backgrounds, lifestyles, interpretations, and perspectives of American Muslims. The book’s first half introduces readers to many facets of the history of Muslims in the US, while the second half addresses contemporary issues such as women and gender, Muslim politics and 9/11, and religious practice and spirituality. Each document is accompanied by a useful, reader-friendly introduction that helps contextualize the author and text. Editor Curtis gracefully navigates two challenges for such a collection: how to choose representative, meaningful examples from the vast body of available materials; and how to address the contemporary as part of history. He pledges to recognize the multitude of stories and voices of American Muslims (even though many in this book are prominent voices), and rejects artificial distinctions between African American or indigenous and immigrant Muslims. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries. — J. Hammer, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 

Curiel, Jonathan.  Al’ America: travels through America’s Arab and Islamic roots.  New Press, 2008.  246p index; ISBN 9781595583529, $25.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2009may CHOICE. 
46-4809  E169  2008-24217 CIP

Esteemed journalist Jonathan Curiel takes the reader on a marvelously constructed sightseeing tour of the US’s relationships with Islam and Arab culture. He uncovers numerous interactions: in literature, through the writings of the famous (e.g., Ralph Waldo Emerson); in architecture, through design borrowings (he cites the Alamo, the World Trade Center, New Orleans’ French Quarter). The author begins by revisiting the history of Columbus and the roots of the slave blues songs. Readers will wonder why they never learned any of this in school, and Curiel explains the deliberate masking of this history. He points out that “clash of civilizations” theorist Samuel Huntington did not always see violence in the US’s relationship with the Arab world. Speaking on a 1974 panel at American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Huntington discussed this relationship with fellow panelist Edward Said. At that time, Huntington lamented the US’s ignorance and saw the need to “eliminate from American thinking many stereotypes of Arabs.” Curiel argues that had this peaceful goal been pursued, the US’s diplomatic approach to the Arab world in the decades since might have differed. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. — A. B. McCloud, DePaul University 

Curtis, Edward E., IV.  Muslims in America: a short history.  Oxford, 2009.  144p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780195367560  pbk, $12.95. Reviewed in 2010jan CHOICE.
47-2760  E184  2008-47566 CIP 

Countless works concerning various aspects of Islam in the US are currently in publication. Most of these books cover discrete topics or time periods in great depth, such as the African American or immigrant Muslim experience, and thus do not endeavor to cover the entire history of the faith in the US. Curtis (religious studies, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ. Indianapolis), however, ably presents all of the major periods in US Muslim history: slavery, first conversions, early Muslim immigration, later immigration and founding of institutions, and post-9111. By doing so, he is able to show the continuity of a Muslim presence throughout US history. This concise account of US Muslims is cohesive and approachable for readers unfamiliar with the subject, does not bog down in protracted explanations of beliefs, practices, and complex historical or political events, yet remains scholarly. The author’s use of intimate profiles of individuals and families to illustrate common experiences of the larger group also draws readers in and increases the power of his descriptions. One drawback of the “short history” approach is that readers are often intrigued by a subject or story, but left unfulfilled as the topics quickly change. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. — B. D. Singleton, California State University–San Bernardino 
 
Educating the Muslims of America, ed. by Yvonne Y. Haddad, Farid Senzai, and Jane I. Smith.  Oxford, 2009.  277p index afp; ISBN 9780195375206, $29.95. Reviewed in 2009sep CHOICE.
47-0411  LC913  2008-26397 CIP 

This edited collection on American Muslims joins several earlier volumes edited by Haddad (history, Georgetown Univ.) and Smith (Harvard Divinity School.), here joined by Senzai (political science, Santa Clara Univ.). However, this one is focused on a more specific topic, namely the various dimensions of Islamic education in North America, a rather new topic in the expanding field of American Muslim studies. The book is premised on the intent to challenge negative perceptions of Muslims in the US and Canada as alien and other to North American cultures, politics, and societies by offering insight into the ways Muslims have approached the creation and maintenance of Islamic schools for children, the representation of Islam and Muslims in public school curricula, the growing number of Muslim homeschoolers, and the experiences of Muslim students in public schools and on university campuses. Contributors include scholars, graduate students, and practitioners, which accounts for the impressive breadth of perspectives, methodologies, and topics covered, but also for some unevenness in quality and content. The volume offers academic insight, policy recommendations, and suggestions for those in Islamic education, and should be of use to a wide range of readers. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. — J. Hammer, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 

Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States, ed. by Jocelyne Cesari.  Greenwood, 2007.  2v bibl index afp; ISBN 9780313336256, $199.95. Reviewed in 2008apr CHOICE.
45-4118  BP67  2007-16142 CIP 

Researchers will find no shortage of books concerning Islam in the US; however, reference materials on the topic are rare. Published reference works include The North American Muslim Resource Guide: Muslim Community Life in the United States and Canada (CH, Mar’03, 40-3752), by M. Nimer; and Islam in North America: A Sourcebook (CH, May’93, 30-4955), by M. A. Koszegi and J. G. Melton. Neither of these is an encyclopedia. The first volume of this new work is an A-Z encyclopedia on American Muslim topics. The second volume offers over 400 pages of primary resources about the social, political, religious, and artistic life of American Muslims. The encyclopedia provides very solid coverage of broad topics and prominent figures from the second half of the 20th century to the present. Its major weakness is that the coverage of Muslims in the US prior to this period is scant and underdeveloped. Despite the wealth of books recently published about enslaved African Muslims, for example, this encyclopedia covers the topic only briefly. The chronology provided is too abbreviated to be of any real value, but the index is well developed and useful. Despite its shortcomings, this is a timely, welcome addition to reference works on Islam in the US. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers. — B. D. Singleton, California State University–San Bernardino
  
Islam and Islamic studies.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2003sup CHOICE.
40Sup-0207 
http://www.uga.edu/islam/ 
(Reprinted from CH, Dec ’02)

Alan Godlas, a specialist in Islamic studies (Univ. of Georgia), has provided an excellent, selective guide to Islamic resources on the Web. Whereas many sites list various resources regardless of their quality, this one limits links to primary sources (such as sacred texts, official documents, and statements; or materials by religious groups) and scholarly secondary sources. Organized around 12 broad categories, it is designed for browsing, exploring, and learning. Most categories feature a balanced and accessible introduction. Links are often accompanied by informative annotations, making the site ideal for students, interdisciplinary scholars, and the general public. Although the site’s scope is clear from its title, the main emphasis is on Islam, Islamic civilization, and their relationship to modernity and the West. The site provides a wealth of information on Islamic populations throughout the world, and it covers current issues, such as the status of women and the events of September 11. Arabic language students will find many useful resources as well. There is no site index. Although there is a Google search engine, it also searches all other Web sites on the server. This simple site employs a minimum of graphics, which ensures fast page loads, even with a dial-up connection. Highly recommended for all levels. — W. Fontaine, Dartmouth College

Nakhleh, Emile A.  A necessary engagement: reinventing America’s relations with the Muslim world.  Princeton, 2009.  162p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691135250, $26.95. Reviewed in 2009nov CHOICE.
47-1678  JZ1480  2008-40378 CIP 

In this slender volume, Nakhleh (ex-CIA analyst) examines the relationship between the US and the Muslim world, presents cogent criticisms of US assumptions and policies, and extends sound advice on how to undo what has been done through mistake, ignorance, or arrogance. While not necessarily flashy with insight, nor indeed a scholarly tome, the book has the great virtue of offering the author’s wealth of experience: his long involvement with the Muslim world, his attentiveness to the Muslim “interlocutors” he meets, and his familiarity with the efforts and resources of the intelligence community. His most strident critique is leveled against the “terrorism prism” through which the US routinely pictures the Muslim world, and he builds a persuasive case in favor of engaging the Islamic countries through “public diplomacy” that must be informed, consistent, and robust. Some of his recommendations are mainstream (e.g., engage in dialog with Islamic parties, appoint an ambassador to the Muslim world, and expand educational and cultural contacts), and some less so (e.g., encourage parliamentary exchange programs, “partner homeland security with local communities,” establish a national Imamate University to produce chaplains for mosques and the military, etc). The book is optimistic, succinct, and timely. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. — A. Ahmad, Black Hills State University 

Roy, Olivier.  Secularism confronts Islam, tr. by George Holoch.  Columbia, 2007.  128p index afp; ISBN 9780231141024, $24.50.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008jan CHOICE.
45-2564  BP65  2007-1748 CIP 

Fear of terrorism, and worries about the compatibility of religion with secular states, marks contemporary discussion of Islam in Western societies, according to Roy (École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris). His analysis dismantles the prejudices that sustain the concerns about political Islam by arguing, and by gathering considerable evidence to show, that the current revival of religion among Jews, Christians, and Muslims–rather than religion in general–is at the source of Western fears. “Islamic terrorism” has made Islam particularly problematic in Western thinking about secularism, but Roy argues that Muslim behavior (rather than dogma) is congruent with Western secularism in its Anglo-American multicultural version, but not in the Gallic   laïcité version, because the former is based on a pluralism of values whereas the latter asserts the role of the state in creating a system of values for all citizens. Roy also argues that the interest of the state is respect for law and the political order rather than moral or theological beliefs, and thus that following “the rules of the game” induces even born-again believers to accept the rules. This superb book is a welcome contribution to political science, sociology, religious studies–and statecraft! Summing Up: Essential. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — L. J. Alderink, emeritus, Concordia College
 
Smith, Jane I.  Islam in America.  2nd ed.  Columbia, 2010.  232p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780231147101, $48.50; ISBN 9780231147118  pbk, $24.50. Reviewed in 2010jun CHOICE.
47-5591  BP67  2008-55374 CIP 

This second edition by Smith (Harvard), a founding mother of the study of American Muslims, updates her 1999 edition. Then and now, the book offers a broad-stroke introduction to the tenets of Islam and to Muslim history, followed by overview chapters of the history of Islam in America, African American Islam, issues of public religious practice, women and family, and the challenges of living as a Muslim in American society. The new edition updates material in several chapters and offers an additional chapter on Islam in the US after 9/11, including a discussion of future prospects. Smith has retained both the assimilation paradigm (Islam is assumed to be alien to American society; thus Muslims need to adjust it in order to integrate) as the theoretical foundation of the volume, and the call for inclusion of Muslims in the American religious landscape. The volume offers annotated suggestions for further reading to each chapter, but no references in the text. Considering recent and important theoretical and empirical developments, this introductory volume now covers much less of the breadth and depth of this growing field than it did in 1999. However, it remains useful entry-level reading. Summing Up: Recommended. Especially for libraries that lack the first edition; lower- and upper-level undergraduates, general readers, and practitioners. — J. Hammer, George Mason University 

Editor’s note: Pertinent titles with reviews forthcoming:

GhaneaBassiri, Kambiz. A history of Islam in America: from the new world to the new world order. Cambridge, 2010. 446p bibl index ISBN 9780521849647, $90.00; ISBN 9780521614870 pbk, $27.99

Hafez, Kai. Radicalism and political reform in the Islamic and Western worlds, tr. by Alex Skinner. Cambridge, 2010. 253p bibl index ISBN 9780521763202, $95.00; ISBN 9780521137119 pbk, $28.99

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