Dialectics of authenticity: Examples of ethnification of Islam among young Muslims in Sweden and the United States

Muslim World

Volumn 92, Issue 1-2, 2002, Pages 1-

  Schmidt, Garbi ^a  

^a VIVE THE DANISH CENTER FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 58149458410     PISSN: 00274909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-1913.2002.tb03729.x     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. The research project is funded by the National Danish Institute of Social Research, the Academy of Migration and Integration in Denmark, and the Danish Research Council for Social Research. Parts of this paper have been presented at the American Anthropological Association's Annual Meeting in San Francisco, 2000, and at the International Studies Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago, 2001.
2. Garbi Schmidt, American Medina: A Study of the Sunni Muslim Immigrant Communities in Chicago (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, forthcoming).
3. Similarities can undoubtedly be found, for example, between young activist Muslims in the United States and other European countries, but such comparison is too extensive for the present article. Also, certain exceptions may appear in those cases where people do not share an important means of communication: the medium of the English language. Most young Muslims in the Scandinavian countries speak and write English well due both to the school system and to extensive exposure to English and particularly American culture on television.
4. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993 [1922]).
5. Perhaps the actors even intensify the appearance of such manifestation in the Western context. In such cases, we can talk about objectification. (See Schmidt, forthcoming).
6. An estimate of Muslims in a given country is based mainly on ethnic/national minority statistics. The percentage of Muslims in a certain country of origin is "translated" into the context of diaspora by assuming that the number of Muslims there equals the number of Muslims in the country left behind.
7. Ake Sander, I vilken utstrackning ar den svenske muslimen religios? Nagra overvaganden kring Problematiken med att ta reda pa bur m anga muslimer som deltar I verksamheten vid de muslimska "forsamlingarna" I Sverige (Goteborg: Centrum for Studier av Kulturkontakt och Internationell Migration, 1993).
8. John Dart, "Study Counts Fewer Practicing Muslims: Adherents in North America total about 500,000, a Survey Finds. But It Remains a Fast-Growing Religion," Los Angeles Times (December 17, 1994).
9. Farad Besharet, "Sverige gor oss tili muslimer," I Ny I Sverige (Nor. 2, 1991);
10. Ingvar Svangerg & Mattias Tyden, Tusen are av invandring. En svensk kulturhistorie (Stockholm: Grilunds Bokforlag, 1992);
11. Pa Karlsson Pia & Ingvar Svanberg, Moskeer I Sverige: En religionsetnologisk studie I intolerans och administrative vanmakt (Uppsala: Svenska Krykans Forskiningsrad, 1995).
12. Svanberg & Tyden, 1992.
13. Nadine Nabor, "Ambiguous insiders: An Investigation of Arab American Invisibility," in Ethnic and Racial' Studies 23/1 (January 2000): 37-67.
14. Interview, February 13, 2001.
15. All names in this text are pseudonyms.
16. The mosque, which was originally a power plant, was rebuilt to suit the purposes of a mosque and opened its doors in the spring of 2000.
17. Interview, October 14, 2000 (conducted in Swedish).
18. See Westerlund & Svanberg, 1999;
19. John Esposito, "Introduction: Muslim Americans or American Muslims?" in Muslims on the Americanization Path?, eds. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad &John Esposito (Tampa: University of South Florida Press, 2000);
20. Ulf Ibrahim Karlsson, "Islam iSverige," internet http://www.algonet.se/-ulwur/sverige/ downloaded February 15, 2001);
21. Internet anonymous: American Muslims Active in Political Process as Election Nears. http://www. usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/press/society / archive/august/bkl8-27.htm. Downloaded February 15, 2001.
22. Karlsson and Svanberg, 1995.
23. See Larry Poston, Islamic Da'wab in tbe West. Muslim Missionary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islami (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992);
24. Adele L. Younis, The Coming of the Arabic-Speaking People of the United States (New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1995).
25. Lisen Jobs and Mona Beckman, Det finns granser (Trelleborg: Sveriges Utbildningsradio AB, 1999).
26. Thomas Thomas, Migration and Cultures: A World View (New York: Basic Books, 1996).
27. Interview, February 2, 2001.
28. Interview, February 5, 2001.
29. Muslim Student Union, UCI, Program for Anti-Oppression Week (February 20-22, 2001).
30. Mary Rourke, "Caring in Name of Community: From Ashes of L.A. Riots Emerged a Free Clinic, Founded by 4 Muslims," Los Angeles Times (August 18, 1998).
31. Interview, February 14, 2001.
32. Schmidt, forthcoming.
33. Around 42% of the Muslims in the United States are estimated to be African ' American. See e.g. Ilyas Ba-Yunus, "Muslim Population of Illinois Estimation 1994" (photocopy), distributed at the Annual Meeting of the American Muslim Association of Social Scientists (November, 1995).
34. Aminah Beverly McCloud, African American Islam (New York: Routledge, 1995).
35. Most of the discussion among Muslims on the Internet takes place between people who live in the West where access to computers and Internet is easy and fairly cheap. Further, all participants in transnational debates (because national Muslim discussion lists exist too; in Sweden e.g. The list SFCM, see Garbi Schmidt, "Sceriges Forenade CyberMuslimer-Bla-gul islam pa Internet," (The United States CyberMuslim Community of Sweden-Blue and Yellow Islam on the Internet) in Blagul Islam?, eds. David Westerlund og Ingvar Svanberg (Nora: Nye Doxa, 1999), 107-22; understand and speak/write the lingua franca of the Internet: English. Such preconditions for participation make it difficult to talk about a truly global community. See Schmidt, forthcoming.
36. Interviews, February 2 and 14, 2001.
37. Peter Beyer, Religion and Globalization ( London: Sage Publications, 1994).