South Asian and Arab Muslims dominate the national leadership of Muslim organisations like ISNA and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Islam has no centralised clergy, mosques operate independently of each other and mosque attenders may be only 10 to 20 per cent of American Muslims.18 Therefore, religious developments should not be equated with mosque activities. Yet mosques are the most prominent sites of religious activity, and Arabic speakers, who often also are more proficient in sharTa and fiqh (Islamic law and jurisprudence), dominate many mosque functions and in teaching the young. Muslims from South Asia, however, have stimulated the building of local mosques and the mobilisation of Muslims on religious and political issues. African American Muslims remain largely separate and dis tinctive in many practices, including patterns of leadership and gender partic ipation in mosques.19
While earlier Muslim immigrants had adopted congregational practices and ritual accommodations associated with Christianity and Judaism in America,
16 Karen Isaksen Leonard, 'South Asian leadership of American Muslims', in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (ed.), Muslims in the West: From sojourners to citizens (New York, 2002), pp. 233 49.
17 Edward Said, Covering Islam (New York, 1981; 2nd edn, New York, 1997).
18 Haddad and Lummis, Islamic values, p. 8; the outdated estimate has no accepted replacement.
19 Bagby, Perl and Froehle, 'The mosque in America'.
World History
