Dissertation Research: Made in America: Globalization and the Construction of a Multi-Cultural Religious Community

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

Norton / Walters The image of Islam in contemporary American media is negative, portraying a monolithic, fundamentalist, fanatical ideology hostile to ideas of adaptation and change. However, at this time Muslim immigrants from diverse cultures are creating multi-cultural ethnic, national and linguistic religious communities in the US. The Muslim religion is this nation's fastest growing religion. This dissertation research project by a student of cultural anthropology studies the process of creating a religious community where adaptation and similarities of belief and custom are emphasized over significant differences. The research will be conducted in the Islamic Society of Vermont, in northern Vermont, where immigrants from the Middle East, Bosnia-Herzegovina, India/Pakistan, Southeast Asia, North America and elsewhere are creating a Muslim center. Using ethnographic techniques of participant observation and structured in-depth interviews the student will examine how immigrants manage their significant internal differences in order to construct a cohesive religious community. Focusing on religious law, parenting strategies, community leadership and conflict management, the student will examine how a uniquely American vision of Islam is being created. The results of the study will be valuable to society at large, as a corrective to the prevalent image. In addition the new information will be valuable to policy makers dealing with immigration from Muslim regions. The project also contributes to the training of a young social scientist.