Profiling American Muslims
Review the surveys about American Muslims and in about two paragraphs sketch a profile of the American Muslim Community.
Maps Project Survey
MPAC Survey of Muslim Youth
The Remarkable Moderation of Detroit Muslims
Daniel Pipes' Article on the ISPU Survey
ISPU Study of Detroit Mosques
11 Comments:
'Bismillah'. The readings in “Profiling American Muslims” provide insightful statistical information on the population of American Muslims and their attitudes and opinions on adherence to Islam and politics. My comments are as follows:
1. The Project Maps survey (2004) gauges American Muslim opinion in the “public square” (I guess the authors meant public sphere, whatever). I concur in general with the executive summary, so I won’t reiterate. However, I have made my own observations, some of which are hereunder.
i) It is interesting to note that half of respondents (51 %) say they don’t pray the five ritual prayers (as-salawat al-khams) daily and that the majority that does are Afro-American Muslims (63%)—and 68 % of who are converts/reverts to Islam (p.48). I interpret this commitment to mean that indigenous Muslims (those who embraced Islam or raised as Muslims) represent a trend of moving away from assimilation in dominant American culture towards spiritual fulfillment and reconstruction of identity in Islam, whereas for immigrant Muslims the trend (29% of South Asians say they only pray some of the 'as-salawat al-khams', while 13% of Arabs say they never pray) appears to be in the opposite direction. This lack of full adherence to the second pillar of Islam can be explained by the fact that the majority of them came to America—not for religious reasons—but because the grass was greener here, and so the priority of achieving the materialistic American Dream overcame their religious commitment. But it is an encouraging trend that “ the younger the respondent, the more likely they are to say they pray all five 'salah'” (p.46).
ii) It is also interesting to note that as a Muslim’s identity shifts to the right, their religiosity (by that I mean commitment to the pillars of Islam) gets stronger, which is reflected in their saying they are more likely to pray all five 'salah' (43 % for ‘progressive’ Muslims and 53 % for ‘conservative’ Muslims, p.46) and the consideration of both religion/spirituality and Islam as important in their lives. This reality reflects an increasing paradox in political terms and a dilemma in moral terms, for neither of the dominant parties—Democrat and Republican—cater adequately for the political and moral needs of the American Muslim population. Hence the vacillation en masse between support for Republican and Democratic president-elects, as the 2001 and 2004 American Muslim Polls indicate. It raises another political question here as regards the appropriate form of democracy for American Muslims, but I will debate it in the seminar and confine my remarks here to the poll data.
iii) My reservations about the Project MAP survey is that I fail to understand the rationale behind not deconstructing the Arab Muslim population into ethnicities and nationalities (p.6), as was done with South Asian ethnicity into Pakistanis, Bengalis, Indians, and Afghans. Are we conclude that Iranian, Kurdish, Turkish, Coptic, Berber Muslims of the Middle East are Arabs? Or that Iraqis, Saudis, Sudanese, Libyans, Lebanese, Yemenis, etc, are nationalities and not ethnicities?! The same classification is found in the American Muslim Poll (2001), which suggests (please correct me if I am wrong) the Arab ethno-centrism of its authors.
iv) My other criticism is that I don’t think using the variable ‘attendance to mosque’ is useful in measuring the qualitative value of Muslim religiosity. That is because it—attendance to mosque—is confounded by many contributing factors, to use statistical jargon, which affect totals, averages, and frequencies related to the class of Muslims under study.
2. As regards the second reading, having done several courses in Statistics and Social Science Methods Research, I think I can safely ignore commenting on MPAC Survey on Muslim Youth (the second reading on ‘Profiling American Muslims’) because it is unscientific, since it is not based on a random sample (where every member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample) and is therefore biased and unreliable for making generalizations on the American Muslim population as a whole. Good luck to MPAC!
3. As for Dr. Muqtedar Khan’s much touted article entitled “The Remarkable Moderation of Detroit Muslims”, I think his central thesis—that the vast percentage of American Muslims are liberal—is flawed because the data is a sample of only metropolitan Detroit Muslim community and is therefore not statistically representative of the entire American Muslim population. In other words, and I am forced to use statistical jargon again, it is improper and illogical to draw generalizations on the religiosity of American Muslims nationwide and their political attitudes and opinions based on an unrepresentative sample somewhere in Detroit that precluded other members of the population from randomly being included in it. I am surprised the many editors that published this article did not pick up this error—so much for copy-editing!
Furthermore, data from the Project MAPS survey indicate that only 19% of American Muslims say that they are liberal, whereas 40% say they are moderate! How can we reconcile Dr. Khan’s claim “the vast percentage of American Muslims are liberal” (first paragraph) with the statistical evidence from American Muslim Poll 2004 that states only 19% of American Muslims are liberal? We have no choice but to reject Dr. Khan’s claim as erroneous for the earlier reasons I cited here. I will return to this point before I conclude my remarks.
4. Still on Dr. Khan’s article, am I seeing double or is there not a redundant repetition of the same paragraph (i.e. para 3) also repeated towards the end of paragraph 1?
5. Lastly, the author of the ISPU study of Detroit Mosques never intended that the locally based questionnaire be used as a basis for gauging nationwide American Muslim attitudes and opinions on the public sphere and religious life. The director of ISPU Director of Research, Farid Senzai, seems unsure of the statistical generalization of the study, but Dr. Ihsan Bagby, on the other hand, is definitely clear as to the aim of his study, as he wrote in the Executive Summary (p.6, last para): “This report represents the findings of the Detroit Mosque Study, a comprehensive survey of Detroit mosques and their participants. The purpose of the Detroit Mosque Study is to generate a detailed statistical overview of Detroit mosques and their attendees.” This statement supports my critique of Dr. Khan’s hasty generalization of the data of the ISPU study made in comment no.3 above.
Was-salam.
Fiaz, you make very interesting observations on the Project Maps survey, eprhaps, we might get to invite Dr. Bukhari to our class and talk about it.
While I agree with your assessment of MPAC' survey that it was not random selection, I am surprised as to why you dismissed it. There are many scholars who teach research methods at Ph.d. level who work wth MPAC and surely they too understand this.
When I saw this survey I was pleased because of the sampling bias. Lately many people in the country have accused Muslims who are active as being more anti-Aemrican bla bla you know the rest.
To policy makers in Washington it sends a message that young Muslims who go to ISNA are as follows. So the survey does not represent all American Muslim youth, but has a policy value to it.
I am also surprised at your take on my article.
You claim that my "central thesis" in the article is that vast percentage of American Muslims are liberal. Pray tell me where I claim that. All I argue and I quote:
"This survey now provides some scientific basis for the claim that most American Muslims are liberal — pro-democracy, comfortable with their American identity and willing to be critical of themselves — and their presence in America is economically, politically and culturally beneficial. Allegations that American Muslims may constitute a fifth column are beginning to look more and more shallow."
I claim that this survey provides some scientific basis -- some scientiifc basis -- for the claim, until now there was none. I do not say that it proves that all .....
As far as your comparison with Project MAPS survey is concerned, read the context of my arguments.
I am arguing with people like Pipes -- the other guy who was writing about the Detroit Survey in American newspapers -- who claim the 80% of American Muslims are extremists.
I am trying to show that a majority -- a vast majority -- of American Muslims are liberal, moderate, progressive,[whatever] BUT NOT EXTREMISTS.
BTW, Do raise this issue in seminar.
You think I am wrong!
The context of discourses are also important. Here is a link to Pipes' take on the same survey:
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1713
The results of the MAPS and ISPU surveys are nice to know, but not surprising. I am also not sure that much can be said from them for the Muslim population of the US as a whole. A couple of surprising (at least for me) findings.
(i) 88% of Muslims likely to vote! Intuitively that seems too high.
(ii) the survey results appear contradictory--either that or I am not understanding it. It says Muslims are politically active, but then again they are not as they are not involved in their political parties
(iii) from the Muslim youth survey, I conclude that, since the youth are keen to participate in the political process (a good thing), our leaders should find a way to galvanize them
(iv) the Detroit survey is interesting for what it is, but I would hesitate to draw too many conclusions nation wide. The sample is too small, too concentrated in one part of the country (and perhaps, one or two communities). In any case, the results are not surprising for many of us Muslims i.e. that most of us are liberals, that believe in pluralism and a live-and-let-live philosophy. It is nevertheless important as many in the political arena and the Xian right, don't see us that way. They would however, not accept the results of this survey (witness Daniel Pipes).
Farid Dossani from SISS
That was a very interesting poll, must at admit, it was long!
They covered all grounds I could think off except two that I thought might need some attention.
1) Marriages between the various Muslim racial groups.
2) Domestic violence within the Muslim community and in comparison to the American non-Muslim community.
And last I was very surprised at the following poll numbers.
1) Support for Bush/Cheney is strongest among very conservative Muslims, at 27% versus 52% for Kerry/Edwards, and drops as voters move to the left politically.
Very surprised that the ‘very conservatives Muslims’ would support Bush/Cheney!
2) Domestic policy resonates more heavily with immigrants who arrived during the
1980s (45%) and less-so the longer an immigrant has been in-country. Conversely,
foreign policy resonates more heavily with those immigrants who arrived before 1970, and generally is of less concern to more-recent immigrants, although those who have immigrated since 1990 defy both trends, and split fairly evenly on the choice (35% say domestic policy and 39% say foreign policy)
In this case I expected the opposite, where immigrants who came before 1970 to be more concerned with domestic policy.
3) Progressives and conservatives say the U.S. is fighting a war on Islam (46% and
40%, respectively), while moderates and liberals split evenly.
I expected a higher percentage than 46% from Progressives and Conservatives.
4) Did not see the answer to the following question.
500. If you were not raised a Muslim, what year did you convert?
comment on MPAC Survey of Muslim Youth:
68% said they believed that jurisprudence developed in the Unites States
by Muslim scholars is as legitimate as the jurisprudence developed in the
Muslim world.
I am not sure I agree with this concept. You can’t compare the jurisprudence of the 30-40 years with over 1400 years of jurisprudence history in the Islamic world. The contrast is too big. Second, analyzing scholars work in the US in comparison to some of the historical work of Muslim world, it seems their ideas are more progressive, liberal, and less conservative.
94% said Muslims should be involved in the American political process
.even though they may disagree with the governments foreign policy.
11% said .such disagreement makes you less American than others.
Are the 11% saying that if Muslims don’t agree with the foreign policy they are LESS AMERICAN. Say what! What happened to free thinking? What about the millions of white Americans who also don’t agree with the government foreign policy? So are they less American too?
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Comments: The Remarkable Moderation of Detroit Muslims and Daniel Pipe’s comments
Interesting article. I do question a few points. (1) Based on the number of people attending mosques, how did the institute come up with 125K – 200K Muslims living in Detroit? (2) How can you estimate a population and give a min limit and max limit so far apart estimate (75K) when the population is not even in the millions. (3) What is meant by ‘fifth column’?
“38 percent of Detroit Muslims adopt a flexible approach to understanding Islam” I expected a higher percentage. If the average Muslim in Detroit is well educated (in the US), is either progressive or traditional and politically conscious; I would of expected the percentage to be around 60%.
“According to the study, only 8 percent of mosque participants who filled out a questionnaire identified themselves as Salafi.” I am also surprised at this percentage being so low. I guess I have come a cross a greater number of Salafi’s, most, I must admit, are not well educated.
“Finally, I am glad to report that Muslims who have advocated participating in American mainstream society and politics have finally achieved a decisive victory (with some help from the Patriot Act, which restricts civil liberties).” I don’t understand what you meant with the help of the Patriot Act?
As for Daniel Pipes comments, it seems that he had already had a biased opinion before studying the survey. Only thing I would suggest is that more of these surveys should be taken in most populated Muslim cities in America. This would falsify Pipes criticism as well as show the moderation of Muslims around the country.
Because muslims are under microscope since Sept. 11th 2001, it is necessary to put our best foot forward. Muslims are putting themselves under scrutiny. If this were not so, much of those studies would not have been done. The muslims themselves are gaining much insights of the muslim community in the U.S.
Another benefit is that the american sector of the ummah is taking the leading role and producing more scholars and students are encouraged to do advance studies in Islam and related fields. I agree that the mosques are the cornerstones and symbol of our presence. These edifices should be a showcase if we want to attract others into the faith.
It was not indicated why the Detroit mosques were chosen as a springboard. I support the idea of the majority, that the Imam should not be the leader of the community because of the potential of corruption. (Two offices held by one person in Islam is illegal)
The participants in the mosques agree in most issues is a sign in the right direction-global unity and therefore strength. Improvements are needed in (a) conversion rates (Drawali). (b)motivation on the part of the africian american muslims since their attendance rate on Friday is small. Although the majority supports flexiblity to the understanding of Islam, we should be more aware of having too much of a good thing.
No suggestions were given why the bulk of comversions took place in the 1960's.1970's and the 1990's.
The Shi'ite mosques have larger attendees associated with the mosques than the Sunnis. Is it because the smaller the group the closer they are netted together?
Since women have no presence in the mosque it is like neglecting half your body. This does not sit well with the majority of non-muslims.
I am pleased that studies like this brings out the weakness of the muslims to the surface. I suggest a yearly conference of all Imams and leaders of all the Mosques in North America to correct weakness and coordinate goals and objectives and publish a bullitin available to each and every muslim household.
I agree that the mosque is not the place foe radicalism. I think the mosque is sacred and such things could and should be done in some other structure and/or setting.
I do not think muslim individuals or institutions or orginazation should exploit one another. I think moderation is the way of the future of islam in America.
I do belive in some lineancy but not outright affirmative action because it stifles intellectual deligence.
The survey is informative and stimulating to the mind. It encourages further research and awareness.
I admire and encourage the effort. I agree with the principle of the survey. Since it is unscientific we cannot draw concrete conclusions and hence cannot be used as a parameter for any conclusions. It is unholy to criticize a well meaning and well intentioned efforts.
I accept the recommendations. I knew them, but we muslims need to do something impressive that can be seen and respected. Without this respect, there will always be anti-muslim rhetoric.
I think the statistical information is very beneficial and sheds alot of light on the situation of the political involvement of American Muslims or lack of.....I noticed that around 88 percent of American Muslims said they were very likely to vote but I guess that was taken from a select minority of Muslims that happen to be politically active....because there is still some debate among Muslims between traditionalists, progressives and moderates over how Muslims should be politically active and many traditionalists do not support voting all together....
Another interesting point that was made with the statistical information was that a large portion of that select population is moderate and that brings me to the conclusion as a whole that Muslims have a very promising future in terms of promoting religious understanding and tolerance...wasalaam
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