The mosque and black Islam

Abstract

■ This ethnographic study of a predominantly African American, Sunni Muslim mosque and the surrounding African American Muslim community explores the role that Islam plays in an inner-city neighborhood in the northeastern US. It seeks to understand the culture of the African American mosque, to shed light on why great numbers of African Americans are turning to Islam, and to determine what effects Islam has on contemporary black communities. This article draws on six months of fieldwork centered on the mosque, immersion in the mosque’s community, conversations with the mosque’s male and female leadership, and African American members’ accounts of how they were drawn to Islam. The larger study seeks to identify ongoing social, political, and economic problems faced by the black community in the inner city and to illuminate how religion in general and Islam in particular succeed or fail in creating community solidarity, stimulating community mobilization, and serving as a driving force for social change.