Booming Muslim population eager to join mainstream

Islam in America is wider, deeper and more ethnically diverse thanever in its history, and Muslims are poised to bring their faith,politics and culture into the mainstream of national life, accordingto a comprehensive new study, "The Mosque in America: A NationalPortrait."

The study was based on a scientific sampling of all 1,209 U.S.mosques-from lavish new suburban complexes to storefront anduniversity student centers-and lengthy interviews with mosqueleadership. It was conducted by a consortium of academic and Islamicgroups and coordinated by Hartford Seminary Institute for ReligiousResearch.

Researchers compared the new portrait of mosques with a similarstudy in 1994. The study says that:

The number of mosques has increased 25 percent, from 962 in 1994to 1,209 in 2000.

Average mosque attendance at Friday prayers has nearly doubled, up94 percent, from 150 to 292.

Most mosques have an ethnic diversity unmatched in Christian andJewish congregations, with 90 percent of them reporting a mix ofSouth Asian, African-American, Arab and other groups born in theUnited States and abroad worshipping together.

There could be more than 6 million Muslims in America today, theresearchers calculated, based on 2 million people who are formallyaffiliated with mosques, up from 500,000. They attribute the growthprimarily to immigration.

But perhaps the most significant finding is the determination ofMuslims to make mosques "the platform for full participation inAmerican life," said Ihsan Bagby of Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C.,co-chairman of the research committee. "We found that 90 percent ofmosque leaders said yes, Muslims should become involved in Americansociety and in the political process. I thought they would be morereticent. Because mosque leadership is still primarily based onimmigrants, I thought they would be more socially and politicallyconservative."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations was another of the studysponsors.

"Mosques today are not only centers for spirituality, they arealso bases for political and social mobilization, focal points forMuslim life in a way they may not have been in more traditionalIslamic societies," said Nihad Awad, executive director of thecouncil. "Muslims believe that by involvement with the largersociety, they can do service to America."

Awad cited last year, when mosques conducted their biggest andmost visible voter registration drive.

"Increasingly, they are going to be claiming a place in the publicsquare," said David Roozen of Hartford Seminary. "They still seethemselves as an `out' group rather than a `core' group in Americanlife right now, but that is going to change as they move intopositions where they can assert their heritage," said Roozen.

It's a familiar pattern in American history, as each immigrantgroup has developed a congregational, organizational life differentfrom their home countries, Roozen said. Their houses of worship are"more than just houses of prayer, but centers for a whole range offellowship and community programs, just as the German Lutherans, theIrish and Italian Catholics and the Dutch Reformed did in centuriesbefore."