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This chapter examines the so-called Third Resurrection and the transition from Black Religion to historical Islam as the basis of religious authority in American Islam. It suggests that while the basis of religious authority shifted, African American Muslims remained objects rather than subjects in this development. It compares this situation with Edward Wilmot Blyden's 19th century argument that if White European and American missionaries in Africa did not transfer religious authority to African Christians in a timely fashion, the latter would ultimately regurgitate Christianity.

This chapter examines the history of Black Orientalism and its relation to African American Muslims and American Islam. It describes and criticizes three typologies of Black Orientalism, including National Black Orientalism, Academic Black Orientalism and Religious Black Orientalism. It discusses the manifestations of Black Orientalism as seeking to cast the Arab/Muslim world as a precursor and then imitator of the West in the latter's history of anti-blackness, and as rendering the Muslim world not only as the source of anti-black racism, but also of the of the most toxic reactions to this which continued to infect the otherwise civil approach of non-Muslim Black Americans long after the propriety and usefulness of black radicalism in America had passed.

Chapter one explores the principal historical and sociological characteristics of Muslims in America, and show that from a legal point of view, what they seek is no different from what other religious minorities request.

This chapter describes the nationalism and spirituality of African American Islam. It explores the religious incentives for African American protest and resistance, with specific reference to the challenge this poses to religion in general and to African American Islam in particular. It discusses the spirituality of African American Muslims and explores the influence of Sufism on the development of personal piety, spirituality, and God-consciousness among African American Muslims.

This chapter deals with the public leadership roles being adopted by Muslim women which are vital in the process of defining, and redefining, the meaning of American Islam. It also discusses Azizah, a magazine written by and for Muslim women presenting a broader set of images than do many of the other Islamic journals.

This chapter explores the idea of American Islam, a unique expression of Islam articulated by a range of American Muslim thinkers. Special attention is given to the ways in which constructions of American Islam intersect with notions of U.S. exceptionalism to imagine the U.S. as a setting in which Muslims can recover and revive the “true” and “original” Islam. The claim that American Islam would thus be the most authentic and universal Islam, informed by the racial history of the U.S. and white privilege, has been employed to diverse ends by a variety of actors that includes conservative neo-traditionalists, progressive and feminist Muslims, and Muslim supporters of George W. Bush. This chapter investigates the development of these discourses to argue that notions of American Islam ultimately privilege white convert men as the ideal embodiments of universal Islam.

This chapter examines how the Webb community imagines itself as an alternative to practices of ethnic particularism in Chicago’s mosques. In particular, the community offers a third space for participants to challenge extant visions of American Islam as practiced in mosques. Webb members reimagine the United States as an ideal site of religious practice, carrying the hope of its participants that American Islam could someday be “seamless.” The United States, they believe, holds the promise of an Islam free of racial and ethnic divisions, if only they can disencumber American Islam of its immigrant ethos and show other Muslims the value of embracing cultural norms of American society. Focusing on the accounts of seven Webb participants, this chapter demonstrates how American Muslim identity is an ongoing, dynamic process of talk and practice, which are enmeshed in complex racial, gendered, and classed dynamics.

The conclusion draws parallels between the early 1980s and the post-9/11 period, when the possibility of reimaging Muslim American history has become urgent and necessary once more. It suggests that popular attitudes about old Islam (and lack of reliable knowledge about it) are constantly feeding into the discourses about American Islam that are prevalent among non-Muslims, a synergy driven by deeply held assumptions about the supposed incompatibilities between America and Islam as ideas, lifeworlds, and contexts of political belonging. The ability to historicize these assumptions and describe how they shift and repeat themselves over time has the potential to help Muslims and non-Muslims realize the extent to which their identities are connected and mutually reinforced within a complex array of Americanizing projects.

This chapter explores the suburban religious landscape, educational networks, and narratives of the American Muslim past out of which the Webb community emerged. It demonstrates how the suburbs are a vital site to study broader dynamics in the American Muslim community. At its heart, the Webb Foundation is built on the idea that the Chicago suburbs can be the ideal place to practice Islam. Its core membership consists of young parents who are very committed to upper-middle-class norms of intensive parenting, such as supervising homework, shuttling kids between after-school activities, and maintaining an active presence in their social lives. The American Islam they seek to create fits into these constructions of family life, enabling children and adults alike to become American Muslims in ways they believe earlier generations were either unable or unwilling to be.

This chapter demonstrates the dynamic and improvisational character of ritual performance in third spaces, focusing on the performance of mawlids in the Webb community in 2011 and 2014. These rituals highlight Webb’s appeal to a broader network of Chicago’s Muslims across multiple generations. Webb mawlids build on traditions of female authority in domestic performance to elevate women’s participation and leadership in a public space. Within the framework of Webb as a third space, the mawlid is among the most important rituals for the construction of female religious authority. Shifts in ritual elements, namely music, language, and texts, reflect the conscious efforts of Webb members to cultivate American Muslim “spirituality” and produce an authentic American Muslim culture. This chapter also explains the limits of such ritual experimentations, showing how debates over the mawlid are part of broader contemporary Muslim concerns over authority, authenticity, and the boundaries of the Islamic tradition.

The conclusion examines the significance of third-space religious communities for religious studies, American religions, and the study of American Islam. It argues that scholars should be more attentive to these marginal communities to more adequately account for the contingency and unpredictability of lived religious practices. Looking beyond more visible institutions and dense urban neighborhoods enables researchers to track the ways in which communities are formed, how they seek to create a space of belonging for their members to inhabit, and how these attempts to create community simultaneously reinforce discourses of exclusion and marginalization. The chapter concludes with reflections on the possibilities and constraints of American Muslim selfhood and identity as Barack Obama’s presidency came to a close.

This chapter explains on how the FBI’s relationship with various American religious groups complicates the typical category of religion-and-state issues. It begins with the post-9/11 era then relates the long history of the FBI engaging with religion. The chapter explains how the bureau has practiced skepticism toward religion at times while also seeking an alliance with religion at other times. The chapter argues for the importance of situating the post-9/11 era within a longer history of the FBI’s interaction with America’s religious communities.

This chapter explains how the FBI’s interaction with Muslims predates 9/11 by many decades, going back to the early history of the FBI. It examines the FBI's efforts to surveil and infiltrate the Moorish Science Temple of America, from the 1930s until 1960. Racial assumptions shaped the FBI’s response to this group, particularly following their refusal to conform to the Selective Service Act during the Second World War. The chapter demonstrates how the FBI’s attitudes to race and religion intersected to produce a clear pattern of hostility toward this religious group despite the FBI’s repeated findings that the group was not a threat to national security.