Islamic Values in the United States A Comparative Study By Yvonne Yazbek Haddad and Adair T. Lummis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987, 196 pp.

Abstract

In this book, Haddad and Lurrunis present a scientific analysis of the
social and religious values of the Muslim community in North America.
The book probes into this community's psyche in an effort to detennine
how its members, as a religious minority, cope or fail to cope with particular
tenets of their religion while living in a non-Islamic environment.
A number of problems and issues are encountered by this minority: marriage,
divorce, interest, diet, pets, American holidays, and the roles of the
masque and the imam. The authors attempt to determine the existence of
correlations between such variables as length of time in the United States,
the extent of dining with non-Muslims, gender, country of origin, and the
subject's response to different values. The data was collected ftom numerous
interviews and over three hundred questionnaires at Islamic tenters
on the east coast, upstate New York, and the midwest.'
Despite acknowledging the controversy surrounding the term "American
Islam," the authors conclude that this phenomenon does exist in more
than one form, depending on nationality, ethnic affiliation, level of
education, economic status, and other factors. The findings also show that
there are two dynamic, but opposing, scenarios occurring among Muslims
in the United States ...