Here are my notes on Karen Leonard’s keynote address. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what she had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)
3 issues of interest for her talk
- race
- religion
- nation
race
- african american muslims
- rejected black and slave identities
- tried to redefine themselves as asiatics
- arab muslims
- from the ottoman empire
- 1910 called them asiatics
- south asians
- hindus (Geographic marker)
- denied citizenship in 1923
- people in the US denied citizenship on the basis of not being
white - interesting USDOT memo
- don’t single out arab, middle eastern,
south asian, muslim, and sikh - these are cultural and religious, not
racial - muslims are not a racial category
- religious descrimination has a long history in america
religion
- irish became white
- jews became white
- catholics built a separate social structure and thereby became
white - did these people have separate sub cultures?
- american religious landscape
- christians change their religious
affiliation fairly fluidly - women in america have an increasingly
influential role - muslims in context of expanding and increasingly politicized
movements - african american Muslims were initially
separatist - they looked for
identity outside the US - some groups now have
some worldwide recognition - WD Muhammad
- Islam trying to be part of the official national religious
landscape - on the basis of population and abrhamic
common history - australian police pamphlet
- cultural and religious guidelines for
police officers, helping them be sensitive and appropriate - decline in denominational division?
- seems that they might increase
- women are playing an increasing role
- arab muslim women in detroit and toledo important for
establishment of mosques - gender jihad is having much influence
nation
- african american muslims opted out of nation
- gave up rights and responsibilities
- harshest critics of US, but also among
most engaged in society - arab muslims
- engaged and more successful in large
settlement areas - many took a long time to decide about
citizenship - after 1980’s when they decided to be
citizens, the movement has been exciting - shift underway before 9/11
- toward rights and responsibilities of
muslims in this nation - insistance on civil rights and
responsibilities