Edward E. Curtis

Since the colonial period, when an estimated 20,000 African Muslims were transported to America as slaves, to the early 20th century, when Muslim immigrants came to the United States from the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, to the present day, Islam has been an integral part of the American experience. Including nearly 300 articles, this two-volume reference set covers all the historical and contemporary issues, events, people, court cases, themes, and activism relating to Muslim Americans. --from publisher description.

"For more than a millennium, Islam has been a vital part of Western civilization. Today, however, it is sometimes assumed that Islam is a foreign element inside the West, and even that Islam and the West are doomed to be in perpetual conflict. The need for accurate, reliable scholarship on this topic has never been more urgent. The Bloomsbury Reader on Islam in the West brings together some of the most important, up-to-date scholarly writings published on this subject. The Reader explores not only the presence of Muslim religious practitioners in Europe and the Americas but also the impact of Islamic ideas and Muslims on Western politics, societies, and cultures. It is ideal for use in the university classroom, with an extensive introduction by Edward E. Curtis IV and a timeline of key events in the history of Islam in the West. A brief introduction to the author and the topic is provided at the start of each excerpt. Part 1, on the history of Islam in the West, probes the role of Muslims and the significance of Islam in medieval, early modern, and modern settings such as Islamic Spain, colonial-era Latin America, sixteenth-century France, nineteenth-century Crimea, interwar Albania, the post-World War II United States, and late twentieth-century Germany. Part 2 focuses on the contemporary West, examining debates over Muslim citizenship, the war on terrorism, anti-Muslim prejudice, and Islam and gender, while also providing readers with a concrete sense of how Muslims practise and live out Islamic ideals in their private and public lives"--

From the Publisher: Since September 11, 2001, Muslims in the United States have become the subject of genuine curiosity and compassion as well as increased government surveillance and harassment. Who are these Muslims? What is their history, and where do they come from? Do they share a common culture? Do they vary in their beliefs? Bringing together an unusually personal collection of essays and documents from an incredibly diverse group of Americans who call themselves Muslims, Edward E. Curtis "finds Islam" in the American experience from colonial times to the present. Sampling from speeches, interviews, editorials, stories, song lyrics, articles, autobiographies, blogs, and other sources, Curtis presents a patchwork narrative of Muslims from different ethnic and class backgrounds, religious orientations, and political affiliations. He begins with a history of Muslims in the United States, featuring the voices of an enslaved African Muslim, a Syrian Muslim sodbuster, and a South Asian mystic-musician, along with the words of such well-known Muslims as Malcolm X. Then he follows with an examination of such contemporary issues as Islam and gender, the involvement of Muslims in American politics, and emerging forms of Islamic spirituality. In constructing his history, Curtis draws on the work of Muslim feminists, social conservatives, interfaith activists, missionaries, and politicians, as well as Muslim rappers and legal experts. He also includes records from the large-scale migrations of the 1880s; racial, ethnic, and religious trends of the 1960s; writings from second-generation and African American Muslims; and discussions of Islam in the public square. With this highly informed, real-life portrait, Curtis provides a crucial corrective to the rhetoric of suspicion and fear surrounding current discussions of Muslims in the United States and emphasizes Muslims' continuing impact on American society and culture.