Journey into America

Following up on his 2007 work, Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, in which he traveled the Islamic world with a team of researchers to investigate the diversity of Muslim societies abroad, Ahmed (Islamic studies, American U. in Washington, D. C.) here reports on a similar project in which he traveled through Muslim communities across the United States administering questionnaires and conducting interviews in order to explore social patterns and attitudes of American Muslims in the context of the broader history of American racial and religious relations. He begins with an ethnographic discussion of American identity in general before turning to an examination of the ethnography of Islam in America, within which he offers separate discussions of African American Muslims, Muslim immigrants, and white and Latino Muslim converts. He also includes chapters comparing the American experiences of Muslims to that of Jews and Mormons. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)