Muslim Faithfulness in Augusta

Annual Meetings Southern Sociological Society

Atlanta, April 2007

Allen ScarboroDepartment of Sociology, Criminal Justice and

Social WorkAugusta State University

Augusta, Georgia

On-going Project

• Three year ethnographic study

• Connected to university classes

• Cooperation of Mosque Community

• Role of Imam

• This report based on semi-structured interviews by student researchers

“Transformative” Character of Immigrant Religions

• Adapting to the congregational form in organizational structure and ritual

• Returning to theological foundations

• Reaching beyond traditional ethnic and religious boundaries to include other people

(Yang and Esbaugh 2001:269-270)

“New Paradigm”

• Religious association often more salient for both individuals and groups after immigration

• American religious organizations are structurally flexible

• Religion in America serves as a refuge of free association and autonomous identity

• Refuge for cultural particularity

• Immigrant religious associations are affected by generational succession

• Congregational patterns emerging among non-Christian religious groups

(Warner 1993:1060-1067)

Muslim Identity Formation in the United States

• Ambiguous identity: encompasses a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, religions, and beliefs

• Highly political: more than culturally aware: to be politically aware.

• Ethnically less determined: straddles the color line.

• Dubious visibility: people tend to become conscious of the religion of Islam through highly politicized and/or negative events.

• Reactive identity: identity self-defense with the defense of the identity becoming the mechanisms through which the identity becomes defined.

• The new attention brought on by the terrorist attacks resulted in a new identity: one framed by Suspicion.

(David 2005:365, 369, 371-373, 380)

The Respondents

7 male, 7 femaleAges from 44-75All college educated

Countries of Origin

Egypt, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, USA

Reasons to immigrate to US

6 higher education4 freedom to practice Islam1 political freedom2 join family members

The Mosque Community

The Islamic Society of Augusta

• Multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multinational• Sunni, Shi’a, Sufi

• 250 families [national median = 125]

• 180 attend Friday prayer (Gama’a) [national median = 135]

• Percent females at Friday Prayer = 30% • All five daily prayers [Salat]

[national mean = 66%][National Comparative

Numbers (Bagby, Perl,

and Freohle, 2001)]

Salience of Islam in Country of Origin

• [Before coming to the US] “to tell the truth, I never really evaluated or thought of my religious life…[now] I have become conscious of who I am, of how I look, and of how people judge me.”

• [Chinese informant, lived in Egypt and Saudi Arabia] “we were brought up Islamic way, so when we were in Saudi Arabia we were closer to Islam, because we go out we have to wear scarf.”

• “It comes so natural, just is natural, because it’s part of our lives, because it’s all Muslims. So there is no pork, no liquor, no anything…So we just follow the Islamic way.”

• [Before immigration] thought “Muslims only existed in the Middle East…before I came here I did not know that there were Muslims of every nation.”

American experience brought them closer to Islam

• “The pressures America imposes on us has actually brought us closer to our faith.”

• “I think it’s more difficult here to practice Islam. But I think with age and maturity I am practicing more religion here than I did over there.”

• “There are many people who become more religious when they come here. My brother was like that. People from my family are not very religious. My two brothers, one who is in Canada and the other is in England, they have become very religious.”

• Being Muslim in US is “added responsibility…[previously, Kuwait, Egypt], there are other people providing me with [Islamic services] and I benefit from it and I don’t have to make an effort but here in the United States, we have to put in the effort to get what we want so this is the main difference. That we have to spend the effort to maintain our ability to practice our religion and to have our children educated in their religion.”

• “Now must make effort.”

• “We are here minority. We attend [mosque] regularly to stay together and to maintain the faith.”

• [When informant came to the US, did not follow the rituals of Islam; when she] “embraced Islam, it was like being a born-again Christian.” “The US was a better place to practice Islam than Afghanistan.”

• An “ambassador for Islam.”

Adaptations to Life in Augusta

Mosque as Community

• “There are Muslims here from all over the world which is very enlightening.”

• “Muslims from various ethnic and racial backgrounds are treating themselves as brothers and sisters and not just friends.”

• “The Muslim community here is much closely knit….The community here is like one big family. If anything happens to anyone we all pitch in to help.”

• “Here mosques are very social: places for worship, weddings, and meetings.”

• “Over there, the mosque does not have that much of a social function as it does here. I’d say it’s like a church because church has social functions. Over there it was mostly a place…here you depend on the mosque to serve as your family”

• “…a community, a way of life”

Adaptations to Life in Augusta

Practice Outside the Mosque

• “We have to make time for our prayers. It was a big change [from Pakistan] and I didn’t like it. Even now, during my lunch break, I pray in my office. At the other office I don’t have a place to pray so I pray in my car. You’re supposed to do your prayers standing up, but if you don’t have a place, it’s okay to do it sitting down.”

• “Explain at business functions that I don’t drink.”

• “When we visit somebody, I have to becareful about food.”

Adaptations to Life in Augusta

Generational Succession

• “America, it’s different, just like today, they give a talk at [the mosque] about youth who lead a double life. They have American school, that is one life, then they go home, they have to listen to parents, ‘Pray, do this, do that.’ Islamic way, or Islamic school, and then when they go back to their friends, they have double life. This is very dangerous. That’s what he [Imam] said, and then one day they are going to choose, and which one are they going to chose?...They choose the easy way, yes, the easy way, the material way.”

• “The relationship in the family in our country and the countries like ours is very strong….The separation here in families is upsetting me.”

• “Whenever we move from place to place our primary concern is the kids. Are they going to have a good school and good friends, good community on the Muslim side. This is the most important concern that we think about our kids and our children being in an environment that is going to be good for them.”

Adaptations to Life in Augusta

Generational Succession, continued

• “If they lose the language they can lose the culture and it might not be a good way to raise our kids. The Muslim community tries the best to teach the kids their language and some have succeeded and some have failed. This is the main thing that upsets me is the kids losing the culture and way of life. That is the tax that everyone pays when you come to western countries, not just the United States. It’s a tax and high price.”

Misunderstandings

• “The Muslim community in general is a misunderstood group of people.”

• “Yes, one lady asked me all about my education and where I got my degree….”

• “Unfortunately, there are people [who think our] religion are terrorists and killing other people. The Qur’an says to kill all the infidels, but that was only in one instance [recounts Medina story]. I had a neighbor and she wouldn’t even look at me. I would say hello, how are you doing, and she would say, fine, just very short and she would walk away quickly.”

• “If I go to Wal-Mart or the grocery store, some people stare at me, but sometimes they smile. It’s understandable with the media against Muslims so much. A while ago I heard someone calling in the morning host on a radio show and he said that we shouldn’t give control of the ports to the Dubai World Ports, a Muslim company, as in their religion they are supposed to kill all non-Muslims and the host agreed with him. People do have gross misconceptions. Sometimes I wonder if they are staring at me wondering of I’m a terrorist.”

“Allies”

• “On the other hand there are some kind people like one of my friend’s neighbor who used to go with her for shopping after Sept. 11, so nobody would bother her.”

• [Describing high school aged daughter and hijab]: “…once she started wearing it, and a kid laughed and another kid said it was for religious reasons. He was kind of protecting her.”

Muslims in Augusta

• Increased salience of Islam

• Increased attention to Muslim teachings and theology [Duwa]

• Congregational

• Mosque as community: refuge, free association, autonomous identity, politically aware

• Ambiguous identity: multi-ethnic, American

• Identities shaped by suspicion, reactive, ‘dubious’

• Generational succession: American or Muslim first?

References

Aslan, Reza. 2005. No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. New York: Random House.

David, Gary C. 2005. “On Being Arab American: The Ongoing Development of Arab American Community and

Identity.” Pp. 363-383 in John Rowan, ed., Minority Voices: Linking Personal Ethnic History with the Sociological Imagination. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Esposito, John L. 1998. Islam: The Straight Path. New York: Oxford University Press.

Faragallah, Mona H., Walter R. Schumm, and Farrell J. Webb. 1997. “Acculturation of Arab-American

Immigrants: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 28:.

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbek. 2002. Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens. New York: Oxford University Press.

Safi, Louay. M. 2007. “The Creative Mission of Muslim Minorities in the West.” Insight [http://lsinsight.org/].

Linsight.org.articles/MuslimMinorities.html. Retrieved 5 April 2007.

_____. 1999. The Transforming Experience of American Muslims: Islamic Education and Political Maturation.”

Insight [http://lsinsight.org/]. Linsight.org.articles/1999.am-muslims.html. Retrieved 5 April 2007.

Warner, R. Stephen. 1993. “Toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States.

American Journal of Sociology 98(5):1044-1093.

Yang, Fenggang and Helen Rose Ebaugh. 2001. “Transformations in New Immigrant Religions and their

Global Implications.” American Sociological Review 66(2):269-288.