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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 31, 2025

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Immigration and the Forging of an American Islam

Haydar, Maysan
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5562-9688
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1595279435195722

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
In the second half of the twentieth century, millions of Muslims left their countries of origins across Asia and Africa and permanently settled in Europe, Australia, and the Americas. In the United States, a large percentage of the Muslim migrants were in white-collar professions and used the time and resources that status afforded them to build thousands of institutions and organizations that facilitated the continued practice of their religion. This dissertation traces the process by which immigrants from at least eighty countries and hundreds more sects, cultural practices, and degrees of adherence coalesced into a distinct variety of “American” Islam. This structure was built from competing impulses regarding earlier Muslim presence: There was American lineage and legitimacy offered through the threads of antebellum enslaved Muslims, heterodox black American Muslim movements, and earlier Muslim immigrant groups. Yet the community that was wellestablished by the turn of the 21st century grew in part because of a desire to identify itself as a distinct and authentic practice of Islam, setting itself opposite the earlier and heterodox movements. Using organizational records, immigration and census data, oral histories, and intracommunity publications, this work traces the organic development of what is now a robust, modern, and singular practice of an ancient religion. American Islam has distinct, identifying hallmarks shared across the country and also reflects the hundreds of diversities in practice and identity. Threading this across Islamic history, the growth of American Islam is a cogent example of the strong correlation between the success of a Muslim civilization and its local culture and independence.
Peter Mansoor (Advisor)
David Steigerwald (Advisor)
Paula Baker (Committee Member)
Judy Wu (Committee Member)
Deborah Dash Moore (Committee Member)
Patrice Hamel (Committee Member)
246 p.
American History; American Studies; Ethnic Studies; History; Islamic Studies; Religion; Spirituality
American immigration; Islam; Muslims; North America; Assimilation; Acculturation; Organizations; Religion in America; Migration; Institutions; Islamic history; 20th century;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Haydar, M. (2020). Immigration and the Forging of an American Islam [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1595279435195722

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Haydar, Maysan. Immigration and the Forging of an American Islam . 2020. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1595279435195722.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Haydar, Maysan. "Immigration and the Forging of an American Islam ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1595279435195722

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1595279435195722
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.