United States Department of State / Bureau of International Information Programs
1

Introduction

“I Am an American With a Muslim Soul” ........... 2

Photo Essay

Building a Life in America ........... 4

Profiles

Young Muslims Make Their Mark ........... 30

Resources

A Statistical Portrait ........... 48

Neighborhood Mosques ........... 52

Timeline of Key Events ........... 56

Bibliography ........... 63

Supplement

Did You Know?/Performers Mini-poster

T

he young women pictured on our cover 

are both Muslim. They live near Detroit, 

Michigan, in a community with many ArabAmerican residents. Each expresses her faith in 

her own way, with a combination of traditional 

and modern dress. Here, they compete fiercely 

on the basketball court in a sport that blends 

individual skills and team effort. They — along 

with the other men, women, and children in this 

publication — demonstrate every day what it is 

like to be Muslim in America.

Being Muslim

 inAmerica
I

love America not because I am under the 

illusion that it is perfect, but because it allows 

me — the child of Muslim 

immigrants from India — 

to participate in its progress, to carve a place in its 

promise, to play a role in 

its possibility.

John Winthrop, one of the earliest European 

settlers in America, gave voice to this sense 

of possibility. He told his compatriots that 

their society would be like a city upon a hill, 

a beacon for the world. It was a hope rooted 

3 2

in Winthrop’s Christian 

faith, and no doubt he 

imagined his city on a 

hill with a steeple in the 

center. Throughout the 

centuries, America has remained a deeply religious 

country, while becoming 

a remarkably plural one. 

Indeed, we are the most religiously devout 

nation in the West and the most religiously 

diverse country in the world. The steeple at 

the center of the city on a hill is now surrounded by the minaret of Muslim mosques, 

the Hebrew script of Jewish synagogues, the 

chanting of Buddhist sangas, and the statues 

of Hindu temples. In fact, there are now more 

Muslims in America than Episcopalians, the 

faith professed by many of America’s Founding Fathers.

One hundred years ago, the great AfricanAmerican scholar W.E.B. Du Bois warned 

that the problem of the century would be the 

color line. The 21st century might well be 

dominated by a different line — the faith line. 

The most pressing questions for my country 

(America), my religion (Islam), and all God’s 

people may well be these: How will people 

who may have different ideas of heaven interact together on Earth? Will the steeple, the 

minaret, the synagogue, the temple, and the 

sanga learn to share space in a new city on 

a hill?

I think the American ethos — mixing tolerance 

and reverence — may have something special 

to contribute to this issue.

America is a grand gathering of souls, the 

vast majority from elsewhere. The American 

genius lies in allowing these souls to contribute their texture to the American tradition, to 

add new notes to the American song.

I am an American with a Muslim soul. My soul 

carries a long history of heroes, movements, 

and civilizations that sought to submit to the 

will of God. My soul listened as the Prophet 

Muhammad preached the central messages of 

Islam, tazaaqa and tawhid, compassionate 

justice and the oneness of God. In the Middle 

Ages, my soul spread to the East and West, 

praying in the mosques and studying in the 

libraries of the great medieval Muslim cities 

of Cairo, Baghdad, and Cordoba. My soul 

whirled with Rumi, read Aristotle with Averroes, traveled through Central Asia with Nasir 

Khusrow. In the colonial era, my Muslim soul 

was stirred to justice. It marched with Abdul 

Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars in 

their satyagraha to free India. It stood with 

Farid Esack, Ebrahim Moosa, Rahid Omar, 

and the Muslim Youth Movement in their struggle for a multicultural South Africa.

In one eye I carry this ancient Muslim vision on pluralism; in the other eye I carry the 

American promise. And in my heart, I pray 

that we make real this possibility: a city on a 

hill where different religious communities respectfully share space and collectively serve 

the common good; a world where diverse nations and peoples come to know one another 

in a spirit of brotherhood and righteousness; 

a century in which we achieve a common life 

together.

Author Eboo Patel is executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, Illinois. He is a 

leader in the interfaith movement.

“I Am an American With a Muslim Soul”

Eboo Patel
4 5

Building a Life in America

I

mmigrants have come to America from every 

corner of the globe. The people are diverse but 

their reasons similar: Some sought to escape an 

old way of life, others to find a new one. Some 

were escaping violence, others the shackles of custom, poverty, or simple lack of opportunity. They 

came largely from Europe in the 19th century and 

from the rest of the world — Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America — in the 

20th and 21st.

They arrived with hope, and often little else.

Their initial reception was frequently mixed. 

These new Americans found a vast new land hungry for their labor. But some, unfamiliar with these 

newcomers’ customs and religions, treated the new 

Americans as outsiders and believed they could 

never be real Americans. They were wrong. With 

freedom, faith, and hard work, each successive 

wave of immigrants has added its distinctive contributions to the American story, enriched our society and culture, and shaped the ever-dynamic, 

always-evolving meaning of the single word that 

Abdul and Majida Alsaadi shop at a Wal-Mart in Dearborn, Michigan.
6 7

Any Day

binds us together: American. And today, this story 

is the Muslim-American story too.

I

n 1965, a new immigration law reshaped profoundly the inward flow of new Americans. No 

longer would national-origin quotas determine 

who could come. In their place were categories 

based on family relationships and job skills. With 

this change, immigration numbers soared, bringing 

the first significant numbers of Muslims from South 

Asia and the Middle East to the United States. They 

arrived in a nation very different from the one experienced by 19th-century immigrants, but today’s 

new Americans face the old immigrant challenge of 

defining their place in America’s social, economic, 

and political fabric. 

Consider two sisters, Assia and Iman Boundaoui. Their parents are from Algeria, and the girls 

were raised near Chicago, Illinois, as Muslim 

Americans. As reported by National Public Radio 

(NPR), Assia and Imam grew up watching both the 

Photo Gallery

Opposite page: Top left, Sadaf Butt adjusts her hijab; above left, Muslim congressional staff members take a break from their work on Capitol Hill 

in Washington, D.C. This page: Above, clothing 

designer Brooke Samad compares fabric swatches; 

right, Tahqiq Abbasi at his textile shop in Union 

City, New Jersey.
8

9

Clockwise from left, Abdi Mohamed says evening 

prayers in his Omaha, Nebraska, grocery store; 

at home in Brooklyn, New York, a family searches 

the Internet; Susan Fadlallah prepares the meal to 

break the Ramadan fast. Center, butcher Nehme 

Mansour grinds halal meat in Michigan.

children’s Nickelodeon station and the news chan-

nel Al Jazeera. When they got takeout food, they 

sometimes chose Kentucky Fried Chicken and some-

times their favorite falafel restaurant.

“In America, we would say we’re Muslim first, 

because that’s what makes us different, I guess,” 

Assia, age 20, told NPR. “But in another country, 

like in a Muslim country, we would say we’re Amer-

ican.”

Their story is both remarkable and not so, for 

there is nothing more American than new genera-

tions — from kaleidoscopic combinations of ethnic-

ity and religion — defining themselves as Ameri-

cans.

“America has always been the promised land 

for Muslims and non-Muslims,” observes IranianAmerican Behzad Yaghmaian, author of Embracing 

the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Jour-

ney West. She told the New York Times, “They still 

come here because the United States offers what 

they’re missing at home.”

The tales of Muslim Americans track a familiar 

arc, but individually they add immeasurably to the 

vibrant diversity of a nation founded not on com-

mon ancestry, but on the shared values of freedom, 

opportunity, and equal rights for all.

“In every era of U.S. history, women and men 

from around the world have opted for the American 

experience,” writes historian Hasia Diner. “They ar-

rived as foreigners, bearers of languages, cultures, 

and religions that at times seemed alien to Ameri-

ca’s essential core. Over time, as ideas about U.S. 

culture changed, the immigrants and their descen-

dants simultaneously built ethnic communities and 

participated in American civic life, contributing to 

the nation as a whole.” 
10 11 Careers

Clockwise from left, Dr. Maya Hammoud holds the 

medical handbook in Arabic that she wrote; Samiul 

Haque Noor, winner of New York City’s annual 

Vendy Award for best street vender food; Mohamad 

Atwi’s Wal-Mart name tag is in two languages.

Muslim Americans possess a diversity 

that is extraordinary even by American 

standards. In sharp contrast to other im-

migrant groups, Muslim Americans cannot be de-

fined by race or nationality; in this sense, they more 

closely resemble the Hispanic Americans whose ori-

gins lie in Spain, the many nations of Latin America, 

and the islands of the Caribbean.

Muslim American diversity may be greater still, 

encompassing origins in South Asia, the Middle 

East, Southeast Asia, Europe’s Balkan region, and 

Africa, as well as a small but growing group of 

Hispanic Muslims. 

Because the United States does not track popu-

lation by religion, there is no authoritative count of 

its Muslim population. Estimates range widely, from 

2 million to 7 million or more. Of that number, ap-

proximately 34 percent are of Pakistani or South 

Asian origin and 26 percent are Arab. 

Another 25 percent of Muslim Americans are in-

digenous, largely African American, and this adds 

still more layers to the rich Muslim-American experi-

ence. In other words, the Muslim-American saga 

is not just one of immigration and Americaniza-

tion, but part of one of the most powerful themes in 

American history: the struggle for racial equality.

There are mosques and Muslim social and cul-

tural institutions throughout the country, in urban 

centers and rural communities alike. Want to visit 

the International Museum of Muslim Culture — the 

first Islamic history museum in the United States? 

Forget about traveling to New York or Washing-

ton; instead you must head for the Arts District of 

Jackson, Mississippi. Dearborn, Michigan, is home 

to the nation’s largest Arab-American population. 

Muslims from South Asia and Africa form vibrant 

Photo

Gallery
12 13

and growing communities in the New York-New Jersey area. Somalis have settled in substantial numbers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, and 

Southern California is home to the country’s largest 

Iranian-American population. 

Yet even these ethnic communities are hardly 

monolithic. Many of the Arabs living in Dearborn 

and elsewhere are Christian, not Muslim, and a 

number of Iranian Americans living in Los Angeles 

are Jewish. 

Generalizing about such a diverse a population 

can obscure more than it explains. Better, perhaps, 

to study representative experiences.

Clockwise from left, former director of the National 

Institutes of Health Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni gives a 

presentation; comedian Maysoon Zayid does her 

stand-up routine; Sacramento Kings forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim goes up for a jump shot; Staff 

Sergeant Magda Khalifa in her U.S.Army uniform. 

“We all should know that diversity makes for 

a rich tapestry,” says the noted African-American 

poet Maya Angelou, “and we must understand that 

all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no 

matter their color; equal in importance no matter 

their texture.”

Iman Boundaoui of Chicago, for example, 

found that freedom involved her decision to wear 

a head scarf. She recalls a vivid incident during a 

high school trip to Paris, France, when her group 

talked with girls at a private Muslim school founded 

in response to a French law banning head scarves 

in public schools: “And me and my friends were 

“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, 

and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry 

are equal in value no matter their color; equal in importance 

no matter their texture.” — Maya Angelou
14 15

Service

Clockwise from bottom left, A Somali immigrant casts 

her ballot; young Muslim activists brainstorm ways to 

solve problems in their community; Farooq Aboelzahab 

talks about the diversity at his mosque; religious leaders gather to celebrate peace and tolerance; Sarah 

Eltantawi answers questions at a news conference. 

looking at them,” Boundaoui told NPR, “and at that 

moment we were like, ‘Thank God we live in Amer-

ica,’ that I can walk down the street with my scarf 

on without having to decide to take it off because I 

have to go to school.” 

For Pakistani immigrant Nur Fatima, freedom in-

stead means that after moving to an area of Brook-

lyn, New York, known as Little Pakistan, she could 

choose to remove her head scarf, reveling in the 

fact that Americans generally regard these social 

and religious choices as private matters. “This is a 

land of opportunity, there is equality for everyone,” 

Fatima told the New York Times. “I came to the 

United States because I want to improve myself. 

This is a second birth for me.”

Today, in a thousand different circumstances, 

Americans of Islamic faith embrace their heritage as 

a crucial part of a self-fashioned identity in which 

they choose from among all the possibilities of free-

dom that this land bestows upon all its citizens. 

As they explore the possibilities, they discover that 

they, too, have become Americans.

“We stress the American Muslim identity, that 

home is where my grandchildren are going to be 

raised, not where my grandfather is buried,” Salam 

Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public 

Affairs Council, told California’s Sacramento Bee 

newspaper. With growing numbers, confidence, 

and organization, Muslim Ameri-

cans contribute in every field, from 

business and scholarship to sports and the arts. 

Their stories range from Pakistan-born Samiul 

Haque Noor, whose spicy halal dishes earned 

him the 2006 award for best food street vendor 

Photo

Gallery
17 16

Imam Hashim Raza leads the prayers during a funeral at the al-Fatima Islamic Center in Colonie, 

New York, for Mohsin Naqvi, a U.S. Army officer 

killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. 

in New York City, to Dr. Elias Zerhouni, from Alge-

ria, head of the National Institutes of Health from 

2002 to 2008; from Newsweek commentator and 

editor Fareed Zakaria, to actor and hip-hop artist 

Mos Def; from professional basketball star Dikembe 

Mutombo of the Houston Rockets, to Representative 

Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim member 

of the U.S. Congress. 

A new generation of Muslim Americans enriches 

American medicine, science, and literature. Obste-

trician and gynecologist Nawal Nour, born in Su-

dan and raised in Egypt, pioneers women’s health 

issues as founder of the African Women’s Health 

Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She received an 

esteemed MacArthur Fellowship (nicknamed the 

“genius grant”) in 2003 and Stanford University’s 

Muslim Scholar Award in 2008.

Iranian-American scientist Babak Parviz of the 

University of Washington has made exciting break-

throughs in nanotechnology — ultra-small electronic 

and biological applications at the cellular and mo-

lecular level — including tiny devices that can as-

semble and reassemble themselves independently.

Writer Mohja Kahf, who came from Syria as 

a child, has skewered American culture generally 

and Muslim Americans themselves with gentle irony 

and razor-sharp observations in her poetry (E-mails 

From Scheherazad ) and an autobiographical novel 

set in Indiana (The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf) — 

books that have drawn fervent admirers, especially 

among younger Muslim-American women. 

She also writes a frank online column about re-

lationships and sex for younger Muslims and be-

lieves that with such works as The Autobiography of 

Malcolm X and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner 

Muslim-American literature can now legitimately be 

considered a distinct genre.
18 19

Education

Above, students and advisers paint a mural that recognizes diversity in faith in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Right, Yasmine Asfoor answers a question in 

government class at Mountain Pointe High School 

near Phoenix, Arizona. 

Fady Joudah, born to Palestinian parents in Texas, grew up to become an emergency-room physician, now working in Houston, and has served 

with Doctors Without Borders at refugee camps in 

Zambia and in Darfur, Sudan. He is also a major 

new poet and winner of the prestigious Yale Series 

of Younger Poets competition for his collection The 

Earth in the Attic.

“These are small poems, many of them, but the 

grandeur of conception inescapable,” wrote poet 

and critic Louise Glück in her introduction to Joudah’s book. “Fathers and brothers become prophets, hypothesis becomes dream, simple details of 

landscape transform themselves into emblems and 

predictions. The book is varied, coherent, fierce: 

impossible to put down, impossible to forget.”

Anew, truly American Islam is emerging, 

shaped by American freedoms, but also by 

the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, 

attacks. Even as surveys by the Pew Research Center and others show that Muslim Americans are better educated and more prosperous than the average, the terrorist attacks — planned and executed 

by non-Americans — raised suspicions among other Americans whose immediate responses, racial 

profiling among them, triggered in turn a measure 

of Muslim-American alienation. Sadly, suspicions of 

this kind are not uncommon — in the United States 

or in other nations — during wartime or when outside attack is feared. But 2008 is not 2002, when 

fears and suspicions were at their height. Context 

is also important: Every significant immigrant group 

has in the United States faced, and overcome, a 

degree of discrimination and resentment. 

Nur Fatima, for example, celebrated her newfound freedom in a New York Pakistani communiPhoto Gallery
20 21

This page: Clockwise from left, Sister Hala Hazimi, standing, assists Zeinab Ghanem with a math problem in 

Michigan; Adnan Kasseem bows during a class on prayer etiquette in New Mexico; on a field trip, students 

visit the International Museum of Muslim Culture in Jackson, Mississippi. Opposite page: Clockwise from top, 

high school basketball players prepare for a game in Michigan; in North Carolina, Ruhi Brelvi, at left, and 

Hebah Sedak prepare their basketball uniforms for game day; Laila Alkahlout, front, and Sasha Khaffed battle 

for a basketball during a national youth tournament in Florida.
22 23

Faith

Clockwise from left, Mohamad Hammoud prays at 

the Islamic Center of America mosque in Dearborn, 

Michigan; Mariam Motala, at right, prays at the 

Islamic Center of Hawthorn, California; a young 

boy hopes to join in on prayers in Brunswick, New 

Jersey; the Islamic Center of Cleveland, in Parma, 

Ohio, is home to more than 300 worshippers.

ty where, a few years earlier, fear was high and 

both businesses and schools closed in the wake 

of 9/11, according to the New York Times. By 

the time Fatima arrived, Little Pakistan had recovered under the leadership of local businessman 

Moe Razvi, who helped start English and computer 

classes, opened a community center, and led community leaders to meet and improve relations with 

federal authorities. 

“The annual Pakistan Independence Day parade 

is awash in American flags,” the Times reported. “It 

is a transformation seen in Muslim immigrant comPhoto Gallery

munities around the nation.”

Among the healthy responses to the tensions 

triggered by the terrorist attacks is an expansion of 

the interfaith dialogue in the United States.

“Anytime you share a space with someone of 

another culture, you are bound to grow as an individual and learn to see things from another perspective,” said Kareema Daoud, a doctoral student 

in Arabic language and literature at Georgetown 

University who has served as a volunteer citizen 

ambassador for the Department of State. “There is 

beauty in diversity,” Daoud concludes. 
24 25

Above, top, children attend evening prayers; above, women worship at Masjid Al-Rahman in California. Opposite page: Top, Muslims pray in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.; bottom, men gather 

during the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America in Chicago, Illinois. 

The 9/11 attacks also galvanized the MuslimAmerican community to become more active in civic 

and political activities — to advocate for issues of 

concern, to build alliances with non-Muslim organizations — and to confront intolerance and threats 

of violence.

“Active engagement and involvement in politics 

reflects the fact that American Muslims are part of 

the social fabric of America, and also reflects their 

patriotic concern for this country,” says editor and 

writer Nafees Syed of Harvard University in a commentary on the free-wheeling discussion Web site 

altmuslim.com 

Paraphrasing President John F. Kennedy, Syed 

continues, “The question is not only how taking part 

in the political process will aid American Muslims, 

but how American Muslims can help this country.” 

Like the global population, the majority of American Muslims are Sunni, although there are large 

numbers of Shia and groups who actively follow 

Sufi traditions. Despite this diversity, says Paul Barrett, author of the 2007 book American Islam: The 

Struggle for the Soul of a Religion, “distinctions 

that possibly loomed larger elsewhere are instead 

in America ‘diluted’ in the deep pool of pluralism 

that characterizes American society. ... Many immigrants have taken the ambitious step of crossing 

continents and oceans because they want to escape old-world antagonisms, to pursue education, 

economic betterment, and a more hopeful life for 

their children.”

Progressive forms of belief, a more prominent 

role for women, even the recent evolution of “megamosques” resembling in size the large evangelical 

Christian churches — are among the characteristics 

of a rapidly evolving, uniquely American Islam.
26 27

Clockwise from above, Nawal Daoud holds the 

Quran over the heads of girls as they walk underneath it during a Takleef ceremony; Hafiz Azzubair 

posts a sign urging people to vote; Rutgers University students Lelia Halwani, at left, and Nadia Sheikh 

attend a reception at the interfaith dorm where they 

live in New Brunswick, New Jersey. 

Special Days Photo Gallery

“I have found that Muslims in America are melding their faith, ethnic background, and the folkways 

of their adopted land in many different ways,” Barrett said in an interview on altmuslim.com. “There 

is no one formula, just as there hasn’t been a formula for past immigrant groups. ... I’m confident 

that there won’t be one story about how Muslims 

assimilate. There will be many stories.”
28 29

This page: Clockwise from bottom left, halal turkey is served for Thanksgiving dinner in St. Louis, Missouri; 

girls in Paterson, New Jersey, break the Ramadan fast with dates; Fawad Yacoob speaks during the Blessing 

of the Waves ceremony in California; in Tyler, Texas, men embrace during Eid al-Fitr celebrations. Opposite 

page: Members of the Malaysian Students Association celebrate their graduation from Vanderbilt University 

in Nashville, Tennessee. 

“I have found that Muslims in America are melding their faith, 

ethnic background, and the folkways of their adopted land in 

many different ways. ... I’m confident that there won’t be one 

story about how Muslims assimilate. There will be many stories.”

— Paul Barrett
30 31

Artist

Heba

Amin

The contemporary artist Heba Amin, 28, has 

been drawing for as long 

as she can remember, 

but pursuing art full-time 

did not occur to her until she was a junior in 

college. At the time, Amin, who now lives in 

Minneapolis, was a math major and first envisioned herself as an architect.

 Amin was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. 

Her late father was an interior designer; her 

mother, an administrative worker at the private American school Amin attended from kindergarten through 12th grade.

 After high school, Amin traveled to the 

United States to attend Macalester College, 

a private, liberal arts school in St. Paul, Minnesota. By her third year, Amin realized that 

her heart lay in art, not math, and in 2002 

she earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art, 

with a concentration in oil painting.

 Living in the United States, she told Fayeq 

Oweis, editor of the Encyclopedia of Arab 

American Artists, allowed her “to take the role 

of the outside observer” and opened her eyes 

to the richness of Arab and Egyptian culture 

that she had “previously overlooked or taken 

for granted.”

 For several years, Amin’s work revolved 

around portraits of Bedouin women, who, she 

said, “are known for their embroidered and 

beaded crafts.

“The European Union had a program designed to preserve these crafts, funding the 

work and encouraging older women to teach 

younger ones. I became interested in that and 

stayed with different tribes to see the process 

working. I also apprenticed with a Bedouin 

artist who created sand paintings.”

 As Amin spent time with different Bedouin 

tribes, she realized she was even more interested in their way of life than their craft.

 “I was struck by how attached they were 

to their surroundings and the land, and how 

sad it was that their culture was deteriorating 

due to urban sprawl and modernization,” she 

recalled.

 Amin began painting 

brightly colored portraits 

of Bedouin women juxtaposed with urban geometric patterns. “The patterns 

overwhelm the paintings, 

representing how the city 

is taking over the Bedouin culture,” she said.

Amer ica n

P rof iles

Young Muslims Make Their Mark

Top row, from left, Imam Khalid Latif; filmmaker Lena Kahn; artist Heba Amin. Bottom row, from left, businessman Moose Scheib; fashion designers Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush; singer Kareem Salama; journalist 

Kiran Khalid. Opposite page, far right, Bedouin Girl by Heba Amin. 
32 33

I m a m

Khalid

Latif

At the age of 

25, Imam Khalid 

Latif already has 

achieved important leadership 

responsibilities as chaplain and director of 

the Islamic Center at New York University 

(NYU) and the Muslim chaplain for the New 

York Police Department.

 “The university and police department 

are obviously very different,” Latif said. “But 

they’re also very similar as American institutions with growing Muslim populations who 

are trying to find their way.”

 Latif is deeply committed to interfaith dialogue and community service as integral parts 

of what it means to be Muslim in a modern, 

multicultural world. “Each of these interactions 

can be an opportunity for spiritual growth,” 

he said.

 As head of the rapidly growing Islamic 

Center at New York University, Latif is plan-

 Eventually, Amin’s Bedouin paintings led her 

in a different artistic direction, toward threedimensional installation pieces. “As I did the 

portraits, I found I was really interested in the 

city structure format,” she explained.

 The next time she was in Cairo, Amin said, 

“I noticed how many abandoned structures 

there were — expansive masses of land were 

covered with unfinished buildings. I took photos of these structures, and then started doing 

a series of works about them, investigating 

them. What they were, why they were abandoned, their effect on people.”

 Amin became fascinated with the thought of 

the city as an emotional idea, rather than a structural one, and that led her to a different medium.

 “I found that painting was a little restrictive — I couldn’t really relay the emotion I 

was after,” she said. “I wanted to move into 

something that was more experiential. Instal -

lation art allowed me to create a space that 

expressed the emotional ideas I was after.”

 Amin’s work has been shown at a number 

of galleries in Minneapolis, New York, and 

Washington. 

 “I look at city infrastructure as representation 

of the progression of a society,” she wrote on 

her Web site. “Urban planning is indicative 

of a society’s political situation, and I am interested in investigating Middle Eastern cities 

where the infrastructure is an obstacle and a 

burden to people’s daily lives. I am interested 

in the city’s effect on personal space, where 

city structure begins to take precedence over 

individuality and where buildings and humans 

begin to overlap and layer on top of one another instead of coexisting.

 “These installations are simply intended to 

address the idea that one’s surroundings play 

an immense role in behavior,” she wrote.

 In addition to her installations, Amin recently illustrated a book that profiles Muslim 

women in history called Extraordinary Women 

from the Muslim World.

 In spite of her artistic success, Amin is 

reluctant to depend on her art for her living. 

“I’m not focused on selling my work,” she 

said. “And that frees me from the obligation 

of making work that other people want. I’ve 

been in school now for 10 years, and ultimately, I’d like to stay in academia.”

 As for living in the United States, she 

ning an ambitious fundraising campaign that 

he hopes will allow him to hire a full-time 

staff and appoint a scholar-in-residence within three to five years.

 However, Latif never forgets that he is, 

above all, the spiritual leader of a young 

and varied congregation. Most are students 

seeking to find their spiritual path as Muslims 

while facing the challenges of young collegeage people anywhere.

 In 2007, he was named as only the second Muslim chaplain to the New York Police 

Department. Latif, who serves with Catholic, 

Protestant, and Jewish clergy, already has 

been called to hospitals several times to comfort injured officers and their families, none 

of whom has happened to be Muslim.

 Latif grew up in Edison, New Jersey, the son 

of Pakistan-born parents. He was one of only 

a small number of Muslim students at school. 

But in a pattern that has carried on through 

his life, Latif also sought out wider leadership 

positions, becoming student council president 

and captain of his football and track teams.

Inquiry Into F a ith

 Latif majored in Middle Eastern and Islamic 

studies at New York University and found himself continuing his inquiry into his faith and 

his role as a Muslim American in perhaps the 

most ethnically and religiously diverse metropolitan area in the world. 

 He also began to perceive the extraordinary diversity of Islam itself. “As a freshman, 

I met an Indonesian with a scraggly beard 

— and a surfboard. That was something new. 

said, “I love it. I love being in the academic 

environment, where I have time to explore my 

ideas and how to express them.”

Above, installation piece Root Shock by Heba Amin. 
34 35

But I also met Muslims who were African 

American, African, converted Muslims, and 

the children of converts.”

 Throughout his university years, Latif continued his informal study of Islam, and at age 

18 he was cajoled into giving his first sermon. 

“It seemed to go fairly well, and I was asked 

to give them on a regular basis,” he said.

 In 2005, after graduating from NYU, Latif 

entered the Islamic Chaplaincy Program at 

the nondenominational Hartford Seminary in 

Connecticut, the only accredited program of 

its kind in the country. 

 Around the same time, Latif volunteered as 

the first chaplain of NYU’s Islamic Center. He 

also co-taught courses on conflict resolution 

at Abraham’s Vision, a Muslim-Jewish interfaith organization for young people.

 In 2006, Latif accepted a part-time position as the first Muslim chaplain of Princeton 

University in New Jersey; soon he was commuting between Princeton and NYU. Both schools 

offered him full-time positions, and Latif accepted NYU’s offer to serve as director of its 

Islamic Center.

School Ch a pl a in

 In many respects, Latif is a pioneer at a 

time when the growing Muslim student population, coupled with large numbers of international students, has greatly increased the 

need for Muslim chaplains on campus.

 One of Latif’s most successful undertakings 

was almost an afterthought: podcasts of his 

20-minute Friday sermons. A friend suggested 

they record and post them on the Islamic Center Web site.

 The response far exceeded expectations. 

The podcast Web site averages 15,000 visits 

a month. He has listeners from 40 to 50 different countries, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, although he also receives appreciative 

messages from schoolteachers and followers 

in Europe.

 Latif regards his commitment to interfaith 

activities as central to his mission as an imam 

Filmmaker

Lena

Khan

On a parched 

August afternoon 

in Los Angeles, 

Lena Khan peruses the aisles 

of Hand Prop 

Room, a company that supplies stage props 

for major Hollywood movies such as The Aviator and The Departed. From faux meat carcasses to bronze Thai Buddhas, the shelves 

Above, the cover of Newsweek magazine featured 

American Muslims from all walks of life. Khalid Latif 

is at center left in cap and police uniform.

in today’s multicultural world. “Interfaith work 

can be frustrating at times,” Latif said, and 

requires both time and hard work.

 He cites a trip to New Orleans with members of the Islamic Center and NYU’s Jewish 

Bronfman Center to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

 By working and living together over a 

period of time, he said, they overcame their 

mistrust “and they all learned not to define 

students by religion or background as the 

‘Other.’”

 “This is real, effective change,” Latif said, 

“change that can emanate into the broader 

community.”

are stuffed with gizmos, gadgets, and curiosities that help make the magic of cinema. 

Wearing a pale green head scarf and a demure beige cardigan, Khan discovers and 

unsheathes a two-foot long ninja sword with 

a mischievous look on her round, pale face. 

“This will work,” she says.

Though she defies expectations of what a 

filmmaker should look like — she is young, female, devoutly Muslim, and Indian American 

— the 24-year-old film school graduate writes 

and directs music videos and short films, as 

well as commercials for a restaurant called 

Crave. (In one ad, a ninja throws whirling 

samosas).

 Khan won $5,000 for Bassem is Trying, a 

one-minute short that humorously demonstrates 

how a Muslim-American man tries to fit in — 

for instance, by blasting hip-hop music on 

his car radio. Her three-minute short A Land 

Called Paradise, essentially a music video set 

to a song of the same name by Muslim country singer Kareem Salama, won a $20,000 

grand prize from One Nation, a Muslim advocacy group that sponsored the film competition. Khan directed dozens of men and women 

of diverse backgrounds to hold up handwritten signs that express messages they want the 

world to know about them as Muslim Americans. The statements are as whimsical as “I, 

too, shop at Victoria’s Secret,” and as serious 

as “My sister died on September 11.”

 One of the judges for the 2007 One Nation competition, former professional basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, gave A Land 

Called Paradise high marks for its “beautiful 
36 37

cinematic language,” while journalist Mariane Pearl commended the film “for its freshness and sense of humor while addressing 

vital emotions felt by the Muslim population 

and the rest of us.”

 Pulling off A Land Called Paradise was a 

major effort, Khan recalled. The project started with a question: “If you could say something to everybody in the world who is not 

Muslim, what would you say?” 

 “I sent out e-mails; I went to mosques; I 

used every major Muslim Listserv I could think 

of,” she said.

 The first response Khan received was “Islam inhibits my suicidal thoughts.” “That’s 

when I knew that this was the video I was going to do,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought 

of that. I was trying to fix the representations 

of Muslims, but I don’t think I can speak for 

all of them. And this was my first clue. I got 

2,500 responses, collected them, narrowed 

them down, and made the video.”

 Since the video’s launch, Khan has received hundreds of e-mails from people who 

say the video has made them cry, inspired 

them to open a discussion about Islam with 

their families, or broken down walls built by 

stereotypes. The video also opened professional doors for Khan, such as a meeting with 

the documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. 

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, at a dinner 

in Hollywood, recognized her as a filmmaker 

to watch.

“If I hadn’t entered the contest, I’d be at 

the same place as I was before,” said Khan, 

a graduate of the University of California, 

Los Angeles (UCLA) film school.

 Khan became interested in cinema as a 

form of social activism, which she considers 

an important tenet of her faith. Because she 

is about to get married, she was expected to 

accept a diamond engagement ring. “I didn’t 

want to have anything to do with the diamond 

industry, the blood diamonds. It’s just really 

bad,” Khan said. “My parents are like, ‘Why 

are you being so lame? Just go buy a diamond. It’s not that big a deal.’ But I do think 

it’s a big deal. It’s a test to see if you can 

sacrifice your own things for other people.” 

She chose a big moissanite ring instead.

 And when shooting on location, she insists 

on using caterers who cook only free-range 

chicken. “My brother always makes fun of me 

and calls me Lisa Simpson,” Khan said, referring to the wonky, intellectual younger sister 

from the American cartoon television series 

The Simpsons. 

As an undergraduate majoring in political 

science and history at UCLA, Khan noticed 

that students would become interested in 

genocides such as those in Rwanda and Darfur only if they saw a movie about the topic 

or if an actor publicized the cause. She also 

was tired of seeing Hollywood films such as 

The Siege and Black Hawk Down use images 

to connect terrorism to ritual ablutions and the 

call to prayer.

 “These things ate at me. So I decided that 

instead of complaining about them, I would 

enter the field and do something about it,” 

Khan said. “I wanted to make movies about 

social issues because it seems like movies are 

the best way to tell a story — that’s when people really listen and relate to people who are 

going through those things.” She went on to 

get a master of arts degree in film at UCLA.

 Back at Hand Prop Room, Khan digs into 

a box of ninja stars. Once she has selected 

her props, she hops in her dusty red Toyota 

Prius and drives over the Hollywood Hills to 

Western Costume Company in search of ninja 

masks and suits.

 In addition to her ninja commercials, her 

future projects include a set of commercials 

about the presidential election and another 

music video for Salama.

 But when it comes to a 40-minute personal 

film that she is making, she said only, “They 

expect something big and popular. So yeah, 

I have a little bit of pressure there.” It’s up to 

Khan to make it look like magic.

 Lena Khan’s videos Bassem is Trying and 

A Land Called Paradise can be seen on YouTube.com. Top, still frame from Bassem is Trying. Below, three 

stills from A Land Called Paradise. Opposite page, 

filming Bassem is Trying.
38 39

Businessman

Moose

Scheib

It could be a scene 

from a movie. A 

young man, the 

son of immigrants, 

excels in his studies, attends a distinguished law school, and lands a job at 

a top law firm. One day, he walks into the 

restaurant where his mother has worked as a 

cook for years, takes off his gloves, and says: 

“Mom, come home with me. You’re never going to have to work again.”

 But it’s not a movie. It is part of the story 

of Moose Scheib, 28, who today heads a 

company that has saved thousands of families 

from losing their homes through foreclosure.

 “The main thing is to be able to help 

people stay in their homes — that is the most 

exciting thing for me,” Scheib said.

School and Work

 Scheib was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and 

some of his early memories are of the shock 

and strangeness of a child’s life during wartime. In his application to law school, Scheib 

later wrote, “Such experiences ... instilled in 

me an unwavering passion for the pursuit of 

knowledge and justice.”

 The family of six immigrated to the United 

States when Scheib was seven years old, living first in Toledo, Ohio, and then in Dearborn, Michigan. When his father suffered the 

first of several strokes, Scheib’s mother became a full-time restaurant cook.

 “My mother never complained,” he said. 

“’Your father can’t do it, I will,’ she said, and 

took a tough job at minimum wage. ... All 

she told us was to focus on our education and 

make sure to get scholarships, ‘as money for 

college is something I don’t have for you at 

this point in our lives.’”

 Scheib graduated with honors from Al -

bion College in Michigan, where he founded 

the Muslim Student Association, then attended Columbia Law School in New York City, 

where he served as a board member for the 

Muslim Law Students Association.

 Scheib’s one escape from the unrelenting pressures of work and study was sports 

— especially American-style football. “On the 

field, I shed barriers that language, poverty, 

and race had previously imposed on me,” he 

wrote in his law school application.

The L ega l World

 Scheib found law school a challenge. “The 

combination of law school and the big city 

was a big shock — and Columbia was the 

most competitive environment I’d ever been 

in,” he said.

 But Scheib persevered and succeeded. He 

received an award for public service from the 

Arab American Institute in 2004 and served 

as a clerk for a New York Supreme Court 

justice.

 In 2005, Scheib joined the prestigious 

New York law firm Proskauer Rose LLP. He 

valued the business and legal experience he 

gained there — even though he knew the corporate world didn’t represent his long-term 

future.

 “One of the factors that led me to Proskauer is because it’s the largest Jewish law firm 

in the world,” he said. “I’m all about building 

bridges between our diverse communities.”

S aving H omes

 In October 2005, with law school behind 

him, Scheib decided the long-anticipated day 

had arrived. He went to the restaurant where 

his mother had cooked for so many years and 

gave her the gift of being able to quit work 

for good.

 “My parents sacrificed so much for us,” he 

said. “They gave up a good life in Lebanon 

for us, their children, and I wanted them to 

know that the sacrifices had been worth it.”

 In 2006, Scheib returned home to Dearborn 

to launch his business venture, LoanMod.com. 

LoanMod renegotiates home mortgages to 

avoid foreclosures in a “win-win” manner that 

benefits both the homeowner and the bank or 

financial institution holding the mortgage.

 With a successful restructuring of the mortgage loan — usually a simple lowering of the 

interest rate — the family stays in its home 

and the bank avoids the much higher expense 

of taking control of a foreclosed property.

 Scheib believes his company is the first 

of its kind in the country. “We pioneered this 

business, starting by helping my uncle out, 

then friends, and realized that we had a viable business model,” he said.

 The company has completed more than 

5,000 successful negotiations that have al -

lowed families to keep their homes and banks 

to avoid the high costs of foreclosure. The 

company anticipates completing 20,000 loan 

modifications by the end of 2009.

L ooking Ahe ad

 Scheib plans to have more than 100 people on staff to meet the increasing need for 

his services. As government puts pressure on 

lenders and mortgage servicers to modify 

their portfolios to help homeowners avoid 

foreclosure, Loanmod.com is well-positioned 

Above, Moose Scheib, center, celebrates his graduation from law school with members of his family.
40 41

Fashion Designers

Nyla

Hashmi

and

Fatima

Monkush

Nyla Hashmi, 23, and Fatima Monkush, 25, 

are uncommon women with a lot in common. 

They grew up best friends in Hartford, Connecticut. Both of them have Muslim fathers 

from South Asia and American mothers who 

converted to Islam.

 And now, both are committed to designing 

chic clothing that offers Muslim women a way 

to dress both modestly and fashionably.

 The two hope to launch their new clothing 

line, called Eva Khurshid. Although the designers have a specific market in mind, they 

also hope to reach a broad base of potential 

customers.

 “The name will be recognizable as Muslim, but any woman would look great in our 

clothes,” said Hashmi. She describes the line 

as “American clothing for working women 25 

to 34 years old with an on-the-go lifestyle.”

with its network of 19,000 notaries in all 50 

states. “Our counselors will guide homeowners through the loan mod process, and our 

notaries will help them properly execute the 

paperwork at their kitchen table,” he says.

 “Helping people save the most important 

material thing in their life is the best reward of 

all,” Scheib said. “When you save a home, it 

helps the neighborhood, the community, and 

ultimately the whole country.”

 Scheib has big changes happening close 

to his home as well: A daughter, named Sophia June, was born in 2008. Scheib grew 

up in the same Dearborn neighborhood as his 

wife, Natalie, who is half Lebanese and half 

American Indian.

 “I am lucky ... and truly blessed, no 

doubt,” Scheib said. “But I’ve also found that 

the harder I work, the luckier I am.”

Clothing Dilemm a s

 Hashmi and Monkush first became interested in clothing design in their teens. Hashmi’s 

family moved to Pakistan in 1995, when she 

was 10, although she continued to spend summers in Connecticut. (The family moved back 

to the United States permanently after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.)

 “When we came back the summer I was 

13, I went through a huge culture shock,” 

Hashmi said. “I saw how different the Pakistani and American adolescent cultures were. 

My parents wanted me to start dressing more 

modestly, because I was growing up. I wanted to dress cool like the other kids, but there 

was nothing in the stores.”

 Monkush had a similar experience. “It was 

really difficult to find anything ready-made 

that I could wear,” she said. The girls often 

resorted to layering, “the Muslim girl's best 

friend,” Monkush said with a laugh.

 Both Hashmi and Monkush learned to sew 

from their mothers. “My mom taught me to 

follow a pattern and also to change it to create something completely different, something 

that was exactly what I wanted,” Monkush 

said. “I was 16 when I started making all my 

own clothes. That was the summer Nyla and I 

set our course.”

C om f ort and Clothes

 Both women have developed their own definitions of appropriate attire. “I grew up in a 

very conservative home, and my parents were 

adamant about dressing modestly,” Hashmi 

explained. “I eventually found my comfort 

zone. I will wear short sleeves, but nothing 

low cut or body hugging. Everyone has their 

own comfort level.”

 Monkush’s approach “is not about rules, 

but about what feels right,” she said. “For 

myself, I’m not going to walk around in a 

tank top or a short dress — I’m just not comfortable. I do cover my hair and have since I 

was 14.”

Growing Up in a Mixed F a mily

 Nyla Hashmi’s mother was raised a Catholic. Her father, a Pakistani, came to the United 

States in the 1970s and is a U.S. citizen. “My 

mother was studying to be a nurse when she 

met my father, who's a heart surgeon. My 

mother was so inspired — he is so kind and 

generous — that she became interested in his 

religion and converted,” Hashmi said.

Above, Moose Scheib, wife Natalie, and daughter Sophia June pose for a family portrait.Right, Fatima Monkush models one of her designs 

for Elan magazine.
42 43

 Hashmi attended Islamic school on Sundays 

in Hartford, along with her three siblings.

 Monkush’s father is from Bangladesh. He 

came to the United States in 1971 to stay with 

a cousin in West Virginia. Monkush’s mother 

met him while visiting a friend, and she, too, 

converted to Islam before the two married.

P ath to the F a shion World

 After public high school, Monkush went 

to the University of Connecticut and Central 

Connecticut State University, where she majored in art. After graduation she moved to 

New York City and shared an apartment that 

first summer with Hashmi, 

who was a student at the 

Fashion Institute of Technol -

ogy (FIT).

 Armed with a bachelor’s 

degree from FIT, Hashmi 

found a job creating women's sweaters for noted Israeli designer Elie Tahari. 

Monkush, too, has been 

working in fashion, first 

with Coogi, which makes 

hip-hop urban menswear, 

and then with Married to the 

Mob, an edgy streetwear 

label for women, where she 

is today.

 Hashmi and Monkush 

have been working in the 

evenings and on weekends 

to put together their fledgling collection. It’s 

a struggle — Hashmi lives in Queens and 

Monkush lives in Brooklyn with her husband 

— but both women are committed to their 

dream. 

 The thought behind their clothing extended 

to their choice of a name. “Eva is the name of 

Fatima’s maternal grandmother,” Hashmi explained, “and Khurshid is my dad’s mother’s 

name.” Like their designs, it marries the two 

cultures.

 Hashmi and Monkush aren’t quitting their 

day jobs just yet, but they’re hopeful their 

collection will fill a need in the industry. “We 

want to be the biggest and best in what we’re 

doing,” Hashmi said. “This is not like any other brand.”

Songwriter

Kareem

Salama

For Kareem Salama, home is the 

American Southwest, where country music provides much of the 

soundtrack to daily life. But home also meant 

growing up in a devout Muslim household and 

studying the rich textures of classical Arabic 

literature and poetry.

 So when Salama, 30, started writing and 

singing his own songs, it was quite natural 

that he would combine a sensibility rooted in 

his Muslim faith with a compelling voice and 

a distinctive southern accent — even if others 

find the combination startling.

Okl a hom a and Music

 Salama's parents are Egyptians who moved 

to Oklahoma, where they raised him along 

with two brothers and a sister. As a child, 

Salama traveled to rodeos, county fairs, and 

Indian powwows, and he was exposed to traditional bluegrass and country music in places like Branson, Missouri, and the legendary 

Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

 “Oklahoma, like me, is a place where 

cultures meet and dance,” Salama wrote on 

his Web site. “Oklahoma is a hybrid of southern, western, and Native American culture, 

and thanks to my mother's insatiable desire to 

learn and experience new things, she made 

sure that I and everyone in my family was immersed in it.”

F a ith and Music

 At the same time, Salama's parents didn’t 

neglect his Muslim religious training. Despite 

his distinctive southern accent and American 

music style, he is serious about his faith and 

draws on its rich religious and cultural heritage in his compositions. 

 His songs are neither overtly political nor 

religious, but they do reflect his remarkable 

background, which the Web site altmuslim.

com calls “a living dichotomy” on the American musical landscape.

 In one song dealing with the theme of 

tolerance, for example, Salama quotes the 

proverb of the noted Islamic scholar and poet 

Imam Shafi’ee: “I am like incense — the more 

you burn me, the more fragrant I become.”

 He acknowledges how his father's example 

shaped both his outlook and music: “He lives 

the maxim ‘Be hard on yourself, but easy on 

others.’”

 He finds the songwriting process deeply 

intertwined with his faith. “I pray before and 

after I write a song,” he said in a University 

of Iowa interview. “I choose each word carefully. I try to be very honest and hope that 

God brings this song into people’s hearts.”

Above, Fatima Monkush, second from right, gathers with other young Muslim fashion designers at 

a photography session for Elan magazine.
44 45

C ountry C onnections

 Salama's perspective on country music 

can be surprising, especially for those famil -

iar only with the dominant commercial strain 

that leans toward lyrics celebrating the open 

road, honky tonk bars, and lost loves.

 “There is a kind of soul in country music 

... something that comes 

from deeper down. ... 

You can still hear something very old and very 

traditional,” Salama said 

in an altmuslim interview.

 In fact, Salama is drawing on a much older tradition that hearkens back 

to the roots of so-called 

bluegrass from the Appalachian region of the 

southeastern United States. 

 Salama also studied English literature, especially a celebrated spiritual poem by John 

Donne (1572-1631), “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” for which he wrote a melody 

to help himself memorize it.

C omposing and P er f orming

 Salama wrote songs and lyrics while earning an engineering degree at the University of 

Oklahoma and then attending law school at 

the University of Iowa, where he met musician 

Aristotle Mihalopulos.

 In a quintessential American moment, the 

sons of Egyptian and Greek immigrants decided to collaborate on American country 

music. Over the next several years, Salama 

performed before predominately Muslim audiences in the United States and Europe, accompanied by Mihalopulos on the guitar. 

 With his trim good looks, conservative haircut, and country-classic black cowboy hat, 

Salama recognizes that people may come for 

the novelty of a Muslim country-music singer. 

He hopes they’ll stay because they find his 

songs compelling.

 He may be succeeding. On his summer 

2008 tour in Europe, Salama played to enthusiastic Muslim and non-Muslim audiences in 

London, Berlin, Paris (at Euro Disney), Rome, 

Genoa, and Amsterdam.

 Salama's first album, Generous Peace, appeared in 2006, followed by This Life of Mine

a year later. His song “A Land Called Paradise” 

provided the soundtrack for an award-winning 

music video celebrating the diversity and vitality of the American-Muslim community.

 He is now working on a commercial debut 

album that will feature the best material from 

the first two albums and several new songs.

 But Salama is not focusing exclusively 

on a singing career. Having completed law 

school, he is preparing for the licensing (bar) 

examinations and is interested in practicing 

patent law.

 He summarizes some of his thoughts about 

his music on his MySpace page: “My hope is 

that my words will fall upon ears and hearts 

that may be seeking the same thing I am seeking ... the inspiration to live a virtuous life 

that is pleasing to God.”

Television

 Journalist

Kiran

Khalid

As a child, according to her mother, Kiran Khalid 

used to sit inside 

a cardboard box 

facing outward — 

“so that I was literally in a TV, if not on it,” Khalid said. Since 

then, Khalid, 35, has pursued a career as a 

television journalist, news broadcaster, and 

producer that has taken her from local news 

reporting to covering major national and international news events.

 “I was the first Pakistani-American woman 

in broadcast news in the United States,” she 

said. “If I’m wrong about that, I would love to 

meet the true pioneer because as far as I’ve 

been told, my road was untraveled.”

Growing Up in T ex a s

 Khalid’s father was born in New Delhi, India, and her mother in Karachi, Pakistan, but 

Khalid herself grew up in suburban Houston, 

Texas, where her father was a land developer.

Above left, the cover for Kareem Salama’s second CD release, This Life of Mine. Above, in 

concert in Berlin, Germany, 2008.
46 47

She focused on journalism early in life. “My 

interest was ignited through a love of writing,” she said. “I was often busy writing short 

stories growing up.”

 Khalid, like her two brothers and her sister, 

excelled in school. The siblings’ high performance helped them overcome the strain of 

being the only minority family in their small 

community.

 “It was often a situation where you simply 

accepted that that’s the way the world was,” 

she said, “and I’m grateful for those early 

encounters because they prepared me for the 

post-9/11 backlash.”

L o ca l TV News

 Khalid graduated with a major in journalism from the University of Texas in Austin, 

where she said she fell “for the immediacy of 

television, the idea of being on the air with 

breaking news.”

 In 1996, she went to work for the local 

CBS station in Corpus Christi, Texas, a job 

that she found both exciting and frustrating. 

Corpus Christi provided many news opportunities — storms, drug smuggling, and immigration — but the station had antiquated 

equipment, which made work difficult.

 “Still, I enjoyed the work, being in front 

of the camera,” she recalled. “I just knew I 

could be good at this.”

 At another TV station in Lake Charles, 

Louisiana, Khalid found the reverse situation: 

state-of-the-art equipment but a relatively quiet news environment. “I worked hard and became the weekend anchor,” she said.

 She also became something of a local celebrity. “Walking into the mall would be like 

walking on stage,” she said with a laugh. 

“Everybody seemed to recognize me.”

 In Mobile, Alabama, Khalid was on the air 

as many as four or five times a day, but she 

found herself exhausted. “I felt I was just going in circles.” She decided to try the riskier 

but freer life of a freelance journalist.

 Looking back, “the most gratifying aspect of local news is consumer investigative 

reporting,” Khalid said. “Holding shady businesses and people accountable for their actions through the glare of a television lens is 

a community service local news provides that 

is often overlooked.”

 She added, “The pressures are often immense as more and more news outlets value 

the breaking-news model over the virtue of 

substantive, thoughtful reporting.”

F reel ancing

 In 2005, Khalid reported on the grim lives 

of subsistence farmers threatened by famine 

in Niger and Mali. Her documentary, The 

Hunger Gap, was a finalist in a United Nations film festival.

 In the United States, Khalid worked as 

a field producer for a very different kind of 

news operation, Court TV, which covers major 

criminal and civil trials.

 Khalid also became an active member of 

the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). 

“I’m very proud of my role on SAJA’s board,” 

Khalid said. “I love working with an organization that does so much for young journal -

ists, such as mentoring and scholarships.” 

P a kistan and A merica

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Khalid quickly recognized that 

“Pakistan was going to be a central player, 

and I knew it was now or never to be part of 

the story.”

 Fluent in Urdu, she traveled to Pakistan and 

became one of the first Western journalists 

to report from inside the Pakistani religious 

schools, or madrassahs, that many accused of 

encouraging terrorism.

 In 2007, Khalid returned for her most dangerous assignment, to film a documentary, 

called We Are Not Free, on media censorship 

and attacks on journalists by the Musharraf 

government in Pakistan.

 In an interview with AsiaMedia, she said, 

“The thing that really struck me was how brave 

they were ... willingly to put their safety at 

risk in order to pursue what they think is a 

noble calling.” 

 Since January 2008, Khalid has been 

working as a producer for one of television’s 

most popular news and feature programs, 

ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA).

 “I like the intensity of the work,” she said, 

which may mean preparing a story on gas 

prices one day and one on the 2008 presidential campaign the next.

 “GMA has afforded me the opportunity 

to write and produce stories that are seen by 

millions,” she said. “In 10 years I hope to still 

be working on stories that are relevant and 

serve a greater purpose.”

Above left, Kiran Khalid stuck in mud on assignment in Africa, 2005. Above right, interviewing singer John Mayer at the annual Save 

the Music Foundation Gala, 2007.
48

U.S. mosques by dominant

ethnic group

Age 18 - 29 29%

Age 30 - 49 48%

Age 50 - 64 18%

Age 65+ 5%

Male 54%

Female 46%

How important is religion in

your life? (all faiths)

In what regions do Muslims live

in the United States?

Age and gender distribution of

Muslims in the United States

South Asian 28%

African American 27%

South Asian and Arab, mixed evenly 16%

Arab 15%

All other combinations 14%

Very important 72%

Somewhat important 18%

Not too important 5%

Not at all important 4%

Don’t know 1%

South 32%

Northeast 29%

Midwest 22%

West 18%

T

oday’s Muslim American population is an 

extraordinary mosaic of ethnic, linguistic, 

ideological, social, economic, and religious groups. Native Muslim Americans are well 

integrated into American society, while many newcomers are just beginning to adapt to American 

life. In terms of religious devotion, Muslims range 

from highly orthodox to moderate to secular. Muslims resemble Christians, Jews, Hindus, and other 

American religious communities in that many of 

them seek full political and social integration, 

while others prefer to live primarily in the context of 

their communities and cultural practices. Many of 

A Statistical Portrait

Muslims in America

the immigrants come from Muslim-majority countries 

and inevitably go through a period of adjustment as 

they learn the ways of a pluralistic society.

The size of the Muslim-American population 

has proved difficult to measure because the U.S. 

Census does not track religious affiliation. Estimates 

vary widely from 2 million to 7 million. What is 

clear, however, is that the Muslim-American population has been growing rapidly as a result of immigration, a high birth rate, and conversions.

According to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center, 65 percent of the Muslim-American 

population are first-generation immigrants, and 61 

percent of the foreign-born arrived in the 1990s 

or this decade. Seventy-seven percent of Muslims 

living in the United States are citizens, with 65 percent of the foreign-born being naturalized citizens. 

As a point of comparison, 58 percent of foreignborn Chinese living in the United States are naturalized citizens. 

A recent study by the Center for Human Rights 

and Global Justice at New York University’s School 

of Law found that many Muslims were among the 

more than 40,000 people who have waited more 

than three years for a decision on their naturalization applications, a process that should take no 

longer than 180 days. 

Estimates of the African-American Muslim population have ranged from approximately one-fifth 

to one-third of the total for all Muslim Americans. 

The other major ethnic groups are Arabs and 

South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, 

and Afghanis). 

Even though most Americans identify Islam primarily with Arabs, two-thirds of Arab Americans 

are Christian. However, most Arab immigrants 

Level of education

Muslims General Public

Graduate study 10% 9%

College graduate 14% 16%

Some college 23% 29%

High school diploma 32% 30%

No high school diploma 21% 16%

Muslims General Public

$100,000 16% 17%

$75,000 - $95,000 10% 11%

$50,000 - $74,999 15% 16%

$30,000 - $49,999 24% 23%

Less than $30,000 35% 33%

Annual household income
50 51

MOSQUE distribution in the United States

Calling itself the Global Muslim eCommunity, IslamiCity.com has compiled information about Muslims in the United States 

since 1995. Its online database tallies more than 2,300 mosques, Islamic schools, and organizations in the 50 states. Listed 

here by state is the number of mosques in the IslamiCity.com database in December 2008. The statistic for the District of 

Columbia is from the Islamic Center of Washington, DC. The total is 1,018.

Mosques in each of the 

United States

 100 to 200

 50 to 99

 20 to 49

 10 to 19

0 to 9

NV

TX

NM OK AZ

UT

CA CO

KS

NE

WY

ID

OR

WA

MT ND

SD

MN

IA

MO

AR

LA

MS

TN

KY

IL IN

WI

MI

AK

HI

FL

AL GA

SC

NC

VA WV

OH

PA

NY

ME

NH

VT

MA

RI

CT

NJ

DE

MD

DC

AL Alabama 20

AK Alaska 0

AZ Arizona 10

AR Arkansas 1

CA California 198

CO Colorado 8

CT Connecticut 17

DE Delaware 2

DC District of Columbia 8

FL Florida 42

GA Georgia 40

HI Hawaii 1

ID Idaho 3

IL Illinois 43

IN Indiana 14

IA Iowa 5

KS Kansas 2

KY Kentucky 9

LA Louisiana 17

ME Maine 1

MD Maryland 18

MA Massachusetts 13

MI Michigan 55

MN Minnesota 3

MS Mississippi 9

MO Missouri 7

MT Montana 2

NE Nebraska 1

NV Nevada 3

NH New Hampshire 3

NJ New Jersey 56

NM New Mexico 7

NY New York 131

NC North Carolina 20

ND North Dakota 4

OH Ohio 41

OK Oklahoma 8

OR Oregon 10

PA Pennsylvania 43

RI Rhode Island 2

SC South Carolina 12

SD South Dakota 2

TN Tennessee 10

TX Texas 58

UT Utah 5

VT Vermont 0

VA Virginia 27

WA Washington 10

WV West Virginia 3

WI Wisconsin 13

WY Wyoming 1

since World War II have been Muslims, and Muslims are the fastest-growing segment of the ArabAmerican population. South Asians constitute the 

fastest-growing Muslim community, perhaps accounting for a quarter of all Muslim Americans. 

The Muslim population of the United States also 

includes Turks, Iranians, Bosnians, Malays, Indonesians, Nigerians, Somalis, Liberians, Kenyans, 

and Senegalese, among others. In addition, there 

is a small but growing population of white and 

Hispanic converts, many of them women who 

have married Muslim men.

Although Muslims live in every corner of the 

nation, many have settled in major metropolitan 

areas along the two coasts and in the Midwest: 

New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit/

Dearborn. The 10 states with the largest Muslim 

populations are California, New York, Illinois, 

New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, Virginia, Texas, 

Ohio, and Maryland. There are also established 

communities near state universities, which often 

have sizable numbers of foreign-born Muslim students and faculty.

The 2007 Pew survey found that Muslim 

Americans generally mirror the U.S. public in education and income levels, with immigrant Muslims 

slightly more affluent and better educated than native-born Muslims. Twenty-four percent of all Muslims and 29 percent of immigrant Muslims have 

college degrees, compared to 25 percent for the 

U.S. general population. Forty-one percent of all 

Muslim Americans and 45 percent of immigrant 

Muslims report annual household income levels 

of $50,000 or higher. This compares to the national average of 44 percent. Immigrant Muslims 

are well represented among higher-income earners, with 19 percent claiming annual household 

incomes of $100,000 or higher (compared to 16 

percent for the Muslim population as a whole and 

17 percent for the U.S. average). This is likely 

due to the strong concentration of Muslims in professional, managerial, and technical fields, especially in information technology, education, medicine, law, and the corporate world. There is some 

evidence of a decline in the wages of Muslim and 

Arab men since 2001, although more recent data 

suggest the trend might be reversing.

The Muslim-American journey is unique in that 

it is part of two quintessentially American experiences: the African American and the immigrant. 

Immigrant Muslims and African-American Muslims 

have worked to establish their voices in politics 

and society, sometimes together, but more often 

on their own. While they share an identity as 

Muslims, their racial, cultural, socioeconomic, 

and historical circumstances have differed widely. 

In working toward full political participation, immigrant Muslims have a great deal to learn from 

the successes of African-American Muslims, particularly in building institutional capacity and communicating effectively with other Americans. 

Sources: Statistical data excerpted from Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream Pew Research Center, May 22, 2007. Text for this article 

excerpted from Strengthening America: The Civic 

and Political Integration of Muslim Americans, The 

Chicago Council on Global Affairs, © 2007.
Masjid Abu-Bakr (Colorado Muslim Society)

2071 South Parker Road, Denver, Colorado

With a weekly prayer attendance between 2,000 and 

3,000 people, the Colorado Muslim Society is a pillar 

of Islamic life in Denver. It recently undertook a large expansion project that doubled the size of its prayer space 

in order to accommodate an increasing population of 

Muslims in the area. Located on one of the area’s busiest thoroughfares, the society serves as the hub for Muslim civic life, especially for its younger members. Young 

adults serve as teachers in the society’s Islamic Sunday 

school. In addition to the Sunday lessons, the society 

is involved with Islamic education through the Crescent 

View Academy. Educating Muslims and non-Muslims 

from kindergarten through eighth grade, the academy 

places strong emphasis on learning Arabic and general 

Islamic knowledge. 

52 53

Neighborhood Mosques

Islamic Community Center / Tempe Masjid

131 E. Sixth Street, Tempe, Arizona

A cultural center, masjid, and school located just north of 

Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, the Islamic 

Community Center welcomes members from more than 

75 nationalities and all socioeconomic backgrounds. 

The center was founded in 1984 to bring together Muslims who had previously worshipped in small groups 

in homes across the area. About 300 attend Friday 

prayers, but the mosque is actively involved in both 

the Muslim Student Association at Arizona State and in 

the community at large. The center maintains a small 

library with resources on Islam and gives tours of the 

mosque, which is modeled after the Dome of the Rock 

in Jerusalem, for the general public. Providing social 

services such as marriage ceremonies and burials, the 

center also operates the Phoenix Metro Islamic School 

for elementary students.

Islamic Society of Central Florida

1089 N. Goldenrod Road, Orlando, Florida 

The Islamic Society of Central Florida had modest beginnings in Orlando in the early 1970s. The first mosque, 

Masjid al-Rahman, or Mosque of the Merciful, was built 

in the early 1980s. Rapid growth in the area led the 

society to expand. Today, the society has nine mosques 

throughout the area, serving 40,000 Muslims from ethnically diverse backgrounds. In 2001, the society founded 

the Center for Peace, which works to dispel stereotypes 

about Muslims and promote peace and understanding 

among people. The Islamic Society of Central Florida 

also supports the Muslim Student League at the University of Central Florida. 

Masjid Abu-Bakr Al-Siddiq

4425 David Drive, Metairie, Louisiana 

The architecture of the Masjid Abu-Bakr al-Siddiq is 

unique, as it is the only mosque in the New Orleans 

area that was built specifically as a mosque, with a 

geodesic dome and minaret. The 250 to 300 worshippers are mostly first- and second-generation Americans from Pakistan, India, and the Middle East. Twenty 

percent of the congregation are recent immigrants and 

converts. The mosque serves Muslims from bordering 

Kenner, Lousiana, and Orleans Parish. Fortunately, the 

mosque suffered little damage from Hurricane Katrina. 

Most members have returned to their homes, and the 

mosque has retained most of its members.
54 55

Albanian Islamic Center

19775 Harper Avenue, Harper Woods, Michigan

The Albanian Islamic Center was founded in 1962 by 

the Albanian-Muslim population in the Detroit area. Located in the suburbs of Wayne County, the center serves 

about 150 families of Tosk and Gega Albanians, as 

well as Iranians, Palestinians, Maltese, Arabs, and Indians. Worship styles have fluctuated with immigration. 

Tosk Albanians, from the southern region of the country, 

are considered reformed Muslims and have lived in the 

United States since the 19th century. Their worship style 

and social norms are more relaxed. The Gega Albanians, who are from northern Albania, tend to reflect 

more traditional Islamic practices. As immigration patterns have changed, so has the style of worship. 

Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City

8501 E. 99th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 

A group of residents in Kansas City began planning 

for a mosque in the early 1970s after the first Salah 

(prayer) for Eid al-Fitr. Ten years later, the Islamic Society 

of Greater Kansas City opened the doors of its mosque 

to the public and was incorporated as a nonprofit. The 

society has been expanding ever since, acquiring property for a community park and a Muslim cemetery. A fulltime Islamic school opened at the center in 1987 and 

has more than 100 students. The society estimates that 

it serves more than 8,000 Muslims in the Kansas City 

area, but its reach extends into the non-Muslim community. Visits to the center are encouraged, and the center 

opens its study sessions on Arabic language, Islam, and 

the study of the Quran to the public. 

Masjid Al-Islam

40 Sayles Hill Road, North Smithfield, Rhode Island 

The largest masjid in Rhode Island, Masjid al-Islam was 

built in 1994 to serve the needs of the growing Muslim 

population in North Smithfield. The masjid openly welcomes Muslims of all religious affiliations from all racial 

and ethnic backgrounds, but holds primary the Quranic 

scriptures and the Sunnah. Governance of the mosque 

is democratic; a committee of six congregants attends to 

administrative matters, but all major issues are brought 

before the community before a decision is finalized. 

Masjid al-Islam works to build interfaith dialogue and 

actively reaches out to the Christian and Jewish communities for collaboration on community programming. 

Future plans include partnering with local hospitals for 

yearly health screening, as part of a health education 

day for the community. About 250 attend Jumah prayers, 

but no formal membership is required. 

Masjid Al-Muslimiin (Islamic Center of Columbia)

1929 Gervais Street, Columbia, South Carolina

Five hundred Muslims worship at Masjid al-Muslimiin 

in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. With its close 

proximity to the University of South Carolina, the center, which began operation in 1981, often works with 

students to bring prominent Islamic speakers to the 

area. The center offers many services to its members, 

including Sunday school for Muslim children in Quranic 

recitation and Islamic history and a women’s forum for 

educational development, health, and social activities. 

Actively involved in spreading the Muslim faith to the 

community at large through its prison outreach program, 

the center hopes to improve its transitional living assistance to Muslim ex-offenders and all Muslims new to the 

community. The center also plans to develop a Muslim 

community food co-op. 
56 57

1619-1800s An estimated 10 million Africans are 

brought to North America 

as slaves. Approximately 30 

percent are Muslim.

1796 President John Adams signs a Treaty of Peace 

and Friendship with the Bey 

and Subjects of Tripoli of 

Barbary.

1898 Kawkab Amrika (Star 

of America), the first Arabic 

newspaper to appear in the 

United States, begins daily 

publication, as reported by 

the New York Times above.

1908 Large numbers of 

Muslim immigrants begin 

to enter the United States 

from parts of the Ottoman 

Empire, including today’s 

Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, 

and Turkey.

1913 Noble Drew Ali 

(1886-1929) founds the 

Moorish Science Temple of 

America (MSTA) in Newark, 

New Jersey. This religious 

group claims to be an Islamic sect but incorporates influences from many religions.

1919 The first Islamic association is founded in Highland Park outside of Detroit, 

Michigan, where many immigrants found work in auto 

manufacturing plants.

1924 The Johnson-Reed Immigration Act imposes national quotas that restrict 

sharply the number of new 

immigrants to the United 

States.

1934 The Mother Mosque, the 

first building built specifically 

to be a mosque, is established 

in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

1775 Former slave Peter 

Salem (Saleem) fights in the 

Battle of Bunker Hill and 

throughout the American 

Revolution. Muslim Americans have served with distinction in all U.S. wars.

A Timeline of Key Events

1819 Freed by his master in middle age, Yarrow 

(Mamout) Marmood, depicted here in 1819, establishes himself as a property 

owner and bank investor in 

Georgetown, today part of 

Washington, D.C.

1907 Tatar immigrants from 

Poland, Russia, and Lithuania found the American 

Mohammedan Society, the 

nation’s the first Muslim organization.

1957 The Islamic Center 

of Washington, D.C., a 

mosque and Islamic cultural 

center, is dedicated, with 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie 

Eisenhower in attendance. 

1934 Elijah Muhammad 

becomes Supreme Minister of the Nation of Islam 

(NOI), a black nationalist 

organization adhering to 

some Islamic practices.
58 59

1965 Published soon after 

its subject’s assassination in 

February 1965, The Autobiography of Malcolm X tells 

the story of one man’s conversion to Islam in the larger 

context of the African-American experience. It remains 

one of the most influential 

books of the 20th century.

1991 The Islamic Cul -

tural Center in New York 

City is completed. It is the 

first building erected as a 

mosque in New York City 

and regularly draws more 

than 4,000 faithful for Friday prayers. 1996 The first celebration 

of Eid al-Fitr is held at the 

White House. 

1991 Charles Bilal is elected mayor of Kountze, Texas, the first Muslim to head 

a U.S. municipality.

2005 The first Muslim 

national sorority in United 

States, Gamma Gamma 

Chi, is founded by the 

mother-daughter team of 

Imani Abdul-Haqq and Dr. 

Althia F. Ali to help improve 

the image of Muslim women 

and Islam in general. 

2001 The U.S. Postal Service issues the first stamp 

honoring a Muslim holiday. 

The 34-cent Eid stamp is 

part of the Holiday Celebrations series.

2006 Keith Ellison becomes the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, as 

a member of the House of 

Representatives from Minnesota.

2006 Canadian-born Ingrid Mattson is elected the 

first female president of the 

Islamic Society of North 

America. 

2007 President Geroge 

W. Bush participates in the 

celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. 

1993 Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad is appointed as 

the U.S. Army’s first Muslim 

chaplain.

2008 Imam Warith Deen 

Mohammed dies. Known as 

“America’s Imam,” he was 

the first Muslim to offer the 

U.S. Senate’s invocation 

(1990). He also offered 

prayers at President Bill 

Clinton’s interfaith prayer 

services and headed The 

Mosque Cares, a dawah 

project. 

1965 President Lyndon B. 

Johnson signs into law the 

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which 

abolishes the nationalo r i g i n quotas established 

in 1924, and spurs non-European immigration to the 

United States.
60

Bibliography

Abdo, Geneive. Mecca and 

Main Street: Muslim Life in 

America After 9/11. Oxford; 

New York: Oxford University 

Press, 2006. 

Barrett, Paul. American Islam: The 

Struggle for the Soul of a Religion. New York: Farrar, Straus 

and Giroux, 2007.

Cesari, Jocelyne, ed. Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States. 

Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 

2007. 

Cesari, Jocelyne. When Islam 

and Democracy Meet: Muslims 

in Europe and in the United 

States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Strengthening America: The 

Civic and Political Integration of 

Muslim Americans. Report of the 

Task Force on Muslim American 

Civic and Political Engagement. 

Chicago: The Council, 2007.

Esposito, John L., and Dalia 

Mogahed. Who Speaks for 

Islam?: What a Billion Muslims 

Really Think. New York: Gallup 

Press, 2008.

Hammond, Andrew. What the 

Arabs Think of America. Oxford; Westport, CT: Greenwood 

World Publishing, 2007.

Hasan, Asma G. American Muslims: The New Generation. New 

York and London: Continuum, 

2000.

Huda, Qamar-ul. The Diversity of 

Muslims in the United States: Views 

as Americans. Washington, DC: 

United States Institute of Peace, 

2006.

Pew Research Center. Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly 

Mainstream. Washington DC: Pew 

Research Center, May 22, 2007.

Strum, Philippa, ed. Muslims in the 

United States: Identity, Influence, Innovation. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for 

Scholars, 2005.

Yazbeck, Yvonne Haddad, Jane I. 

Smith, and John L. Esposito, eds. 

Religion and Immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Experiences in the United States. Walnut 

Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2003. 

Web sites

The following web sites were 

used in the development of this 

publication:

The Aga Khan Program for Islamic 

Architecture at Harvard University 

and the Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology

http://web.mit.edu/akpia/www

Fazlur Rahman Khan Web site

http://fazlurrkhan.com 

Gamma Gamma Chi Sorority, 

Inc.

http://gammagammachi.org 

Heba Amin

http://hebaamin.com

Interfaith Youth Core 

http://ifyc.org

The Islamic Center at New York 

University

http://icnyu.org

IslamiCity

http://www.islamicity.com

Kareem Salama

http://kareemsalama.com

LoanMod.com

http://loanmod.com

The Mother Mosque of America

http://mothermosque.org

Pew Research Center

http://pewresearch.org

The Pluralism Project at Harvard 

University

http://pluralism.org

Dalia Ghanem’s t-shirtat.com

http://t-shirtat.com

61

United States Department of State / Bureau of International Information Programs

Photo Credits

All photos © AP Images except the following:

Page 2: courtesy Eboo Patel.

14: (bottom) © Chris Fitzgerald / Candidate Photos / The Image Works.

29: © Mohammad Muhaimin Aminuddin.

30: (top, left to right) © Ricardo Barros, courtesy Serena Kim; (bottom, left to right) courtesy Moose M. 

Scheib, courtesy Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush, courtesy Kareem Salama, courtesy Kiran Khalid.

31: (top) courtesy Kitty Aal; (bottom) courtesy Heba Amin.

32: courtesy Kitty Aal.

33: © Ricardo Barros.

35: courtesy Serena Kim.

36-37: (all) courtesy Lena Khan.

38-39: (all) courtesy Moose M. Scheib.

40: (left) courtesy Moose M. Scheib, (right) courtesy Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush.

41-42: (all) courtesy Carolina Rivera, Elan Magazine.

43-44: (all) courtesy Kareem Salama.

45-47: (all) courtesy Kiran Khalid.

52-55: (all) courtesy Omar Khalidi, The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

56: (left, bottom) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; (middle, top) Library of Congress, 

Prints & Photographs Division; (middle, bottom) portrait of Yarrow Mamout by Charles Wilson Peale, 

courtesy The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.

57: (left, top) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; (left, bottom) courtesy Moorish Science 

Temple of America, Inc.; (middle, center) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; (right, top) 

courtesy The Mother Mosque of America. 

58: (middle, top) Omar Khalidi, The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University 

and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; (middle, bottom) courtesy Charles Bilal; (right, top) courtesy Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad.

59: (left, top) Gamma Gamma Chi Sorority, Inc.; (right) courtesy The Chicago Tribune.

Supplement, page 2: (top) courtesy Dalia Ghanem; (third from bottom) courtesy Yasmin Khan Byron.

Production

Executive Editor: George Clack

Editor-in-Chief: Michael Jay Friedman

Managing Editor: Chandley McDonald

Contributing Editor: Raphael Calis

Photo Editor / Designer: Tim Brown

Writers: Howard Cincotta, Deborah Conn, Serena Kim, Meghan Loftus

Researcher: Martin Manning

Photo Researcher: Joann Stern
A 

Supplement to Di

dYouKnow?

Sixty-five percent of the Muslim American popula-

tion are first-generation immigrants, and 61 percent 

of the foreign-born arrived in the 1990s or later. 

Muslim Americans spend about $170 billion on 

consumer products annually, according to a 2007 

figure by advertising agency JWT, and this figure is 

expected to grow.

Iftar dinners at the White House during Ramadan 

have become regular occasions since the mid1990s.

An imam can serve in several different roles in the 

United States. In most African-American mosques, 

the imam operates in both spiritual and adminis-

trative capacities. In predominantly immigrant 

mosques, however, the imam is more likely to be a 

spiritual leader only.

Children’s books bring the Muslim holy month of 

Ramadan, like other holidays, into the American 

mainstream.

The largest mosque in the United States, opened 

by the Islamic Center of America in 2005, is in 

Dearborn, Michigan.

Being Muslim

in America

Government

Muslim Americans work in federal, state, and local 

governments throughout the United States. At left, from 

top to bottom, is a sample.

Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to the 

U.S. Congress, as the representative from Minnesota’s 

Fifth District, in 2006. He took his oath of office on a 

copy of the Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. 

André Carson, a member of the Indianapolis CityCounty Council, became the second Muslim member 

of Congress after winning a special election in March 

2008 to become the congressman for the Seventh 

District of Indiana. 

Diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad has served as the United 

States Ambassador to the United Nations, and as U.S. 

Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Doctor Elias A. Zerhouni was director of the National 

Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008.

Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli served as senior advi-

sor to the United States Secretary of State. 

Representative Saqib Ali represents part of Montgom-

ery County in the Maryland General Assembly’s House 

of Delegates.
United States Department of State / Bureau of International Information Programs

Business

Muslim Americans contribute to all aspects of U.S. 

business. Pictured at right, starting at the top, is a 

sampling.

New York fashion designer Dalia Ghanem, gives 

Arab traditions an American twist.

Scientist Ahmed Zewail of the California Institute of 

Technology won the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

The books of author Yahiya Emerick present Islamic 

themes and history to non-Muslim audiences.

The innovations of structural engineer Fazlur R. 

Khan, honored on this postage stamp from Bangladesh, led to Chicago’s 110-story Sears Tower, the 

world’s tallest building when completed in 1974.

Journalist Fareed Zakaria is the editor of Newsweek International magazine and host of the CNN 

interview program Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Hollywood producer and director Moustapha 

Akkad filmed stories of Islamic history such as The 

Message and Lion of the Desert, and the popular 

Halloween movies.

Sports

Sports in the United States have been an important 

route to prominence for many American Muslims.

At top, a young Muhammad Ali, who became 

heavyweight champion of the world in 1964. The 

boxer had changed his name and converted to the 

Nation of Islam. Later Ali became a Sunni Muslim, 

and he now practices Sufism.

The basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at 

far left, is also a Muslim convert. Jabbar, who retired from professional basketball in 1989, is the 

National Basketball Association’s all-time leading 

scorer.

Jihad Muhammad, in the white headband, is another basketball player who recently starred for a 

top college team, the University of Cincinnati.

Professional football player Az-Zahir Hakim, leaping to catch a pass, had a 10-year career in the 

National Football League.

Boxer Bernard Hopkins learned his craft in prison as 

a young man and was later the middleweight champion for more than 10 years. He still competes.
Q-Tip Rapper, producer

Being Muslim in America

Maysoon Zayid Comedienne, actress

The RZA

Hip-hop music artist

Everlast

Singer-songwriter

Mos Def

Rapper, actor
Shohreh Aghdashloo Actress

Dave Chappelle Comedian

Aasif Mandvi 

Actor, comedian

Ahmad Jamal

Jazz pianist

Ronald Bell

Singer, Kool & the Gang

Performers Mini-Poster