American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender within the Ummah

Religion, Race, and Ethnicity Series

by Jamillah Karim

African American Muslims and South Asian Muslim immigrants are two of the largest ethnic Muslim groups in the U.S. Yet there are few sites in which African Americans and South Asian immigrants come together, and South Asians are often held up as a “model minority” against African Americans. However, the American ummah, or American Muslim community, stands as a unique site for interethnic solidarity in a time of increased tensions between native-born Americans and immigrants.
This ethnographic study of African American and South Asian immigrant Muslims in Chicago and Atlanta explores how Islamic ideals of racial harmony and equality create hopeful possibilities in an American society that remains challenged by race and class inequalities. The volume focuses on women who, due to gender inequalities, are sometimes more likely to move outside of their ethnic Muslim spaces and interact with other Muslim ethnic groups in search of gender justice.
American Muslim Women explores the relationships and sometimes alliances between African Americans and South Asian immigrants, drawing on interviews with a diverse group of women from these two communities. Karim investigates what it means to negotiate religious sisterhood against America's race and class hierarchies, and how those in the American Muslim community both construct and cross ethnic boundaries.
American Muslim Women reveals the ways in which multiple forms of identity frame the American Muslim experience, in some moments reinforcing ethnic boundaries, and at other times, resisting them.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Religion, Feminism

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Melanie]

incredibly insightful and taught me a lot about a group of people i know too little about.

[Amy]

this book was useful, well written and well planned. The execution was almost flawless, yet i am sure that it would be much more useful to people looking specifically at the experiences of both African American women choosing Islam, and South Asian Immigrant communities. However there were multiple populations that were grossly overlooked in this discussion of race, class and gender. I believe that overlooking Latinas or Caucasian American converts only serves to marginalize these groups and send them into a category of lesser importance.... afterall, we dont investigate issues when it comes to people who are less important, right? (sarcasm)
That isnt to say that i didnt find areas of this book to be useful or beneficial to my research, however not in any area that i had originally thought.

[Brooke]

Ummahfication 101 Required Read. Excellent explanation and analysis--puts names to many of the isms facing the American Ummah. I always enjoy meeting fellow American sisters in text and Karim does a wonderful job at revealing the intricacies of her subjects' lives. She has produced an enjoyable as well as educational text.

[Shahidah Siraaj]

If you want to understand the complexities of the Muslim community, there is no better place to start than with this book. Ms. Karim did a wonderful job of capturing the nuances of race, class and gender in the Muslim community.

[Mills College Library]

305.697 K1839 2009

[Salaeha Shariff]

Wonderful insights especially for the Chicago communities.