By Sulayman S. Nyang

“The public square is not only the physical space that holds us together outside our private homes, but also the metaphorical symbol that represents the actuality and potentiality of civil society”

The Muslim Americans seem to have to come of age in America. Finally, the nation’s leaders and media have added them to the list of ethnic and religious minorities whose problems and conditions warrant conversational or literary discourse. This growing interest and coverage in the media has led many scholars, journalists and ordinary citizens to ask: Who are these Muslims and how are they going to fit in the larger American political and cultural context? These questions are part of the larger focus of the Project MAPS: Muslims in the American Public Square, based at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. This study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, is part of a larger Pew initiative: “Religion in the American Public Square” that will examine Muslim, Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical Christian, African American Christian, Hispanic Christian and Jewish communities. Each such study will be the work of researchers and scholars drawn primarily from that community.
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Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 18, 2000
 
The census has caused anxiety — even anger in some quarters — with its questions about everything from income to plumbing. But there is one major aspect of American life it fails to cover: religion.
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Project MAPS: Muslims in American Public Square is presenting the results of the first ever
systematic poll of American Muslims. The Poll covers the following four areas:
1) Demographics: gender, generation and ethnicity, U.S. born and immigrants, income and
education levels, age and occupation.
2) Religious practices: relationship with the mosque, conversion to Islam, importance of religion
in their life and interaction between the mosque and politics.
3) Opinion and behavior on social and political issues, party affiliation, voting in the presidential
election, foreign policy and other domestic issues relating to religion and public life.
4) September 11th and its aftermath: reaction, backlash, President Bush’s handling of the crisis,
war against terrorism and military action in Afghanistan

American Muslim Poll 2001

September 11, 2001 led to a renewed interest in Islam and American Muslims, who have become the focus not only of law enforcement agencies but of the media and the scholarly community as well. One basic inquiry, which has acquired a political as well as a scholarly character, is the question of precisely how many American Muslims there are.

See “Demography, Identity, Space: Defining American Muslims” by Zahid Bukhari, Page 7.

Download the complete book here

By Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad
Professor of Political Science
Vice President (Academic Affairs)
International Islamic University, Islamabad
Mumtazahmad5@hotmail.com

“They was all Moslems, Tom said, and when I asked him what a Moslem was, he said it was a person that wasn’t a Presbyterian. So there is plenty of them in Missouri, though I didn’t know it before.” Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad.
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Thursday, October 18, 2001

Viewpoint, a live discussion forum on washingtonpost.com. This forum offers washingtonpost.com sponsors a platform to discuss issues, new products, company information and other topics.

How did American Muslims respond to the tragic events of Sept. 11? What are the challenges facing American Muslims following these events? What will be the nature of the relationship between the Muslim community and the larger society? Dr. Zahid Bukhari and Dr. Sulayman Nyang, co-directors of Project MAPS: Muslims in the American Public Square, answered these questions and more. Project MAPS is a three-year project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, housed at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU) at Georgetown University.
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August 16, 2012
Dr Zahid Bukhari

This is the season of Ramazan, one of the holiest times of the year for practicing Muslims. For one month, we fast from dawn until dusk, increase our charity work and deepen our faith through the Quran. This year, as Ramazan comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on the many ways this faith is being misrepresented.

Muslim Americans are in the midst of a profound crisis. Our faith is under assault. Radical groups abroad are using Islam as a justification for wanton violence, which is strictly forbidden in the Muslim faith. And at home in the United States, Islam is being criminalized, turned into an object of suspicion and threat. In New York City, the Police Department has made a practice of spying on Muslims in their restaurants, bookstores and places of worship.

Conspiracy theorists continue to ‘accuse’ President Barack Obama of being Muslim, as if this were a bad thing, capable of disqualifying him from leading the nation. And throughout the country, a movement to ban US courts from considering Shariah in their legal decisions has been sweeping the legislatures in one state after another.
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Conversation with Leadership

March 20, 2008 – 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM – Room ICC-270

POINTS TO PONDER
These points are not intended to be complete or comprehensive, nor are they in any order of significance. They are only intended to stimulate thinking and discussion.
Mosque and Muslim Identity – at the individual level
Mosque and Muslim Communal Presence – at group level
Mosque and Governance – by-laws, leadership and conflict resolution
Mosque and Worship – congregational prayers and rituals
Mosque and Social Cohesion – counseling, bonding, social service
Mosque as Sacred Space – centrality of prayer area and facilities
Mosque and Aesthetics – architecture, functionality, space design
Mosque as Center of Learning – khutbahs, halaqas, schools, education at all levels
Mosque and Change – persuasion and education by Imam and leadership
Mosque and Relations with other Mosques – especially between suburban & inner-city
Mosque and Mobilizations – advocacy for social and political causes
Mosque and Society – symbolism, activism, representation
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