Muslim Families in North America

Abstract

The writers contributing their researaches to this book deal with anare8 that has not yet been adequately studied. Most of the litemhue onMuslims is historically or politically oriented and views immigrant Muslimsin North America as extensions of their homelands, in particular theMiddle East. This book discusses Muslim families as part of the pluralsticand ever-changjng social fabric of the United States and Canada. Thefamilies of African-American Muslims and Muslim converts are notstudied. We are going to present our critique chapter by chapter.Muslim Normative 'I).aditions and the North American Environment(Sharon Mclrvin Abu-Laban).The clear and workable typology of Muslim immigrant families presentedhere points out major social patterns and links to Islam. They aredivided into three cohorts based on "the dynamic interaction between socialconditions and group characteristics" @. 7): pioneer (nineteenth centuryto WWII); transitional (post-WWII to 1967); and differential (1968to ptesent). Different generations within each cohort are exarnined.African-American Muslims are excluded, as their case is unique.The fitst cohort lived in an era of total conformity to a socioculturalmilieu dominated by the English language and Christianity. This cohort'ssecond generation assumed a more conformist role due to its disadvantagedsocial status, distance from its original home and culture, and lackof financial resou~easn d ethnic institutions. Intermarriagew ith the widersociety was high. Ironically, all of this "generated the particular disdainof the newest Muslim immigrants," who arrived after 1976 @. 18).The transitional cohort consists mainly of foreign students from wellestablishedindigenous elite families who had been Europeanized beforetheir arrival. As a postcolonial generation, they saw nationalism, not religion,as a valuable means for development and social change. They intermarriedwith North Americans at a higher rate than their predecessors.The second generation of this cohort, along with the third generation ofthe pioneers, experienced the most discrimination and media stereotyping ...