The family unit is regarded as the cornerstone of a healthy and balanced society.1 The different plane of emphasis from that found in individual-centered cultures is for many remarkable. Muslims are considered to be the fastest-growing religious group in the world. Handbook of Contemporary Families. The largest concentration of African American Muslims is in Illinois (Stone, 1991). I dont want to believe that in five years itll be this bad or worse.. Although Islam is one of the youngest religions in the world (its inception dates to 622 A.D), it is, globally, the fastest growing religion, with currently approximately 1.3 billion adherents worldwide. How many Muslims are there in the United States? These interrelated systems include not only the individual and environment but also a myriad of situational, temporal, cultural, and societal influences. So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. Asked to rate their personal financial situation, 43% of Muslims say they are in either good or excellent financial shape, while 56% say they are in only fair or poor shape financially. Around my non-Muslim friends, I dont talk about stuff thats going on because itd make them uncomfortable., Editing by Jason Szep, Ken Wills, Steve Orlofsky and Leslie Adler. The extent to which religious beliefs play a role in those experiences has not been widely pursued. By incorporating a perspective that group experiences are always the product of social constructs, researchers move away from a static perspective on the role of Islam in individuals lives. At a seminar on transcultural medicine, junior physicians were asked if they had any particular questions about Islam. Nonetheless, interpretations vary considerably, particularly with respect to womens roles. About three-in-ten are Asian (28%), including those from South Asia, and one-fifth are black (20%).9 Fewer are Hispanic (8%), and an additional 3% identify with another race or with multiple races. The study of Muslim American families provides family scholars with the chance to pursue truly innovative research that will further the field of family diversity as well as family studies as a whole. One of the most striking features of Muslim society is the importance attached to the family. Americans overall average 2.1 children.18 This is in line with previous Pew Research Center research suggesting that, worldwide, Muslims have higher fertility rates than any other major religious group. But they also are more likely to be at the other end of the income scale: 40% of Muslim Americans report household incomes under $30,000, compared with 32% of the U.S. population as a whole. They're not the same as us?: Midwives' stereotype of south Asian maternity patients. But even before the Paris violence, anti-Muslim sentiment was on the rise, swept along by rhetoric from U.S. presidential candidates - from Republican Ben Carsons comment in September that Muslims were unfit for the presidency to billionaire Donald Trumps recent call for a ban on Muslim immigration. The idda is the period between separation of the couple and the final termination of marriage, and it carries with it certain obligations and rights for both spouses. Instead, beliefs and practices with respect to women and mens roles are part of a complicated interwoven set of social traditions, religions, and ever-changing political and economic conditions (Chatty & Rabo, 1997). Our ancestors translated Greek texts when Europe was in the Dark Ages. The 1,001 Muslim respondents in this survey say they were born in 75 different countries. Women are potentially so powerful that they are required to submit to their husbands, segregate themselves from men to whom they are not immediately related, and restrain themselves lest the pattern of gender relations at the core of a properly ordered society be overturned. Education is needed both within the Muslim community and among professionals so that the importance and implications of genital tract bleeding are better appreciated. At present, however, Pew Research Center generally uses the census classifications because they allow comparisons with the general public both for statistical analysis and, in some cases, for weighting of survey data to achieve nationally representative samples. Bowler I. Unemployment, then, can greatly affect the integrity of the family, leaving the man in a role limbo. Particularly given the recent emphasis on fatherhood initiatives, examining the relationship between men, Islam, and fatherhood in African American Muslims may provide valuable insights. The opportunity to attend to the needs of one's parents in their later years is viewed as a gift from Allah. More recently, Muslim immigrants have come primarily from western Asia, specifically Iran, Pakistan, and India (Walbridge, 1999). The future of the extended family, however, is under considerable threat, Female genital mutilation is common among Muslim and non-Muslim women of African origin, Marriage forms the sole basis for sexual relations and parenthood, Islamic law generally discourages the use of contraception, extolling the virtues of large families, but there seems to be a trend toward smaller families, Some social problems such as sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer, and unwanted pregnancies may be mitigated by developing vehicles to strengthen the traditional Muslim family structure, Young Muslims in Britain: Attitudes, Educational Needs, and Policy Implications. Request PDF | On Jan 1, 2017, Mazna Patka and others published Muslim American families | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate Lo! Combining the survey finding that, on average, 68% of immigrants from countries in the very high category are Muslims with the Census Bureau data yields an estimate that there are roughly 200,000 U.S. households headed by Muslims born in countries in the very high category; these households include about 400,000 Muslim adults and 225,000 Muslim children.21. Despite the many pressures it faces, the family institution remains strong. What are Muslim Americans? However, as immigrant populations from Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Asia have grown, African American Muslims have decreased as a share of the U.S. Muslim population.16 The new survey finds that American-born black people account for about 13% of the adult Muslim community.17 And among Muslims whose families have been in the U.S. for at least three generations, fully half are black. Those describing their race as Nigerian or African are coded as black. Those describing their race as Indian from Asia or Pakistani are coded as Asian. American Muslims are distinguished by different levels of education, types of occupations, arrival time in the United States, adherence to religious beliefs, and desire to assimilate in society. African American Muslims have long played a notable role in U.S. Muslim society. Estimates below 500,000 are rounded to the nearest 25,000. The child is entitled to love, attention, and devotion to all its needs. And how do we know? For the most part, they were not based on ethnographic or other social scientific data; instead, they outlined basic principles that can be applied to contemporary understandings of Muslim families. The mahr, depending on custom, can range from gifts of a coin to large sums of money or valuables. In the third step of the process, this procedure was repeated for immigrants from countries in each of the other categories (high, medium, low, very low), as well as for households in which either the head or spouse is a U.S.-born adult with at least one foreign-born parent. Every school of Islamic law perceives marriage as a contract, the main function of which is to make sexual relations between a man and a woman licit (Nasir, 1990). This family was primarily described in opposition to its Western counterpart: It was purported that the institution of the Muslim family had not undergone the significant structural transformations that are associated with the rise of capitalism in the West and that it had not been the object of modernization that promoted individualism at the expense of family control (Tucker, 1993). Economic responsibility for maintaining the family falls squarely on the shoulders of the man, irrespective of whether his wife is earning money. Nevertheless, the relationship between these groups has not improved due to widely varying experiences and concerns. When I was pregnant with my son, I told my husband, Maybe we should name him George. Innate differences between the sexes are not perceived in terms of a dichotomy of superior and inferior but as complementary (Macleod, 1991). This problem is compounded because Muslim American families elude research categories that often classify individuals along racial or ethnic lines. Although recognition of family diversity is now an integral aspect of research on more mainstream families, many studies of Muslim families assumed that the terms Arab family, Islamic family, and Middle Eastern family were interchangeable (Barakat, 1985; McGoldrick et al., 1996). Population estimates of 500,000 or higher are rounded to the nearest 50,000. All immigrants share the experience of uprooting themselves from one culture and trying to establish themselves in a new one. A saying of the Prophet Muhammad is that there is no fitna more harmful to men than women. Beyond its legal components, marriage also has a religious dimension and is invested with many ethical injunctions. Authors: Dr Dhami is a general practitioner in Harrow, Middlesex. Most of these statistics rely on percentages derived from data on national origin, language use, and mosque association and how these are linked to religious affiliation. Furthermore, all of the religious provisions concerning wifely maintenance, divorce, and the economic and social well-being of children and parents indicate the supreme importance in Islam of the sustenance and stabilization of the family unit. These ideals validate certain power relations in the family but are not unchanging. He said he and his wife, who wears a hijab, take precautions when leaving the house. The significance of the Islamic ideals of marriage inherent in the Quran and the sharia (legal interpretations) is that they provide a primary frame of reference for legitimizing the actions of individuals and validating certain power relations within the family. It's as patriotic as can be. We settled on Emre, a modern Turkish name. 2004. With the typical Muslim American family in mind, a group of like-minded volunteers came together to address these growing needs. Whereas consanguinity doubtless results in an increased frequency of familial disorders with an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance,10 assessing the relative contribution of consanguinity to the high rates of congenital defect and perinatal mortality among Pakistanis is far from easy. Another distinctive feature of Islam is the five pillars of faith. For some, such as 27-year-old Sara Haddad, that means reminding people that they watch football or listen to pop music. On joining the Muslim community, I was astonished that so much emphasis was put on my relationship with my parents. About a quarter (24%) of American Muslims are U.S. natives whose parents were born in the United States. Many, for example, would consider an unmarried couple, a single mother, and homosexual couples as equally legitimate expressions of the family unit. But in the Pew Research Center survey, just 3% of all U.S.-born black Muslims say they identify with the Nation of Islam. In recent years, advocacy groups for Arab Americans and others have argued that being classified as white does not reflect the self identity of Americans from the Middle East or North Africa.11 In response, the U.S. Census Bureau is considering a new MENA category for people from the Middle East and North Africa for possible use in the 2020 census and census surveys.12. The stress in the Quran and Islamic law on the idda illustrates the Islamic emphasis on ensuring the well-being of the unborn child. To some, the opportunities with respect to individual freedom offered by a nuclear family structure far outweigh any benefits of living in an extended family.2, Gender issues and, in particular, the rights of women in Muslim culture, continue to generate much media attention in the West. In the U.S. population as a whole, the median age of adults is 47. The paucity of studies on American Muslim families is part of a larger problem that is reflected in the overall field of research on Islamic marriage and family formation. Estimating an exact figure for the number of Muslims in the United States is complicated by the fact that the census does not require religious information as part of its surveys. Confused, distraught, and visibly shaken, she explained that her husband was threatening to leave her unless she gave up her job. Another 6% of all adult Muslims identify as black, but were born outside the U.S., generally in sub-Saharan Africa. This is neither an accurate nor a fruitful approach to explaining intragroup or inter-group variability, and it can lead to stereotyping or worse. Thus, estimates for the number of Muslims in the United States range from approximately 3 million (Smith, 2002) to 4 to 6 million (Stone, 1991; World Almanac, 1998). If women do not adhere to this moral order, then society runs the risk of degenerating into fitna (temptation or, more importantly, rebellion, social dissension, or disorder). A primary difference is that Islam does not accept the Christian concept of the Trinity or Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The Quran and the sunna (practices) are extremely concerned with motherhood, fatherhood, and the protection of children from the moment of conception until the age of maturity. Female genital mutilation is currently illegal in many countries, including Britain.16. May his nose be rubbed in the dust! This practice is most widespread in parts of Africa, stretching in a band from the Horn through Central Africa and extending to parts of Nigeria.15 The custom's exact origins are uncertain, but it almost certainly predates the arrival of Christianity and Islam to these regions. Islam also condemns and discourages celibacy. In this article, I will present a summary description of the 'American Muslim Family Structure', its evaluation, examination and re-examination. The functionality is limited to basic scrolling. On average, Muslim Americans are considerably younger than the overall U.S. population. Counselors cannot understand this.. Islamic tenets stress parents responsibility, which begins at conception, for the economic and social welfare of children. As anti-Muslim sentiment swells following the Dec. 2 massacre in San Bernardino, California, by a young Muslim couple inspired by Islamic State, many Muslim parents and their children say. Aggregated political surveys conducted by Pew Research Center since the beginning of 2016 find that 1.1% of U.S. adults are Muslims. While the Muslim-American community is growing in the Cincinnati suburb, they are still very much a minority. We dont want his world to be foccused on how we combat negative stereotypes against us, said Khan, 29. During the last 3 years, he had been forced into various manual occupations. Important differences include diet, ideas of modesty, privacy, touch restriction, and alcohol intake restriction. The remainder are not U.S. citizens (18%). The opportunities we have, the protection from harmand the economic stability are all far superior to the majority of Muslim countries. The American Muslims nonprofit organization is managed by a team of individuals who are passionate about empowering the communities around them, and are . They are forged, negotiated, and re-expressed in connection with other social, economic, and historical factors. It's something to consider when you're a Muslim living in the U.S. Not to mention that traditional Muslim names are often mispronounced. Several recent works have highlighted issues specifically facing Muslim women in the United States. ET or send an email to helpline@icnarelief.org. The most common situation is in the period before Hajj. Muslim American families, therefore, provide a venue for the further development of theories, frameworks, and empirical studies that can assist family scholars in developing a greater understanding of culturally diverse families. And with respect to Muslim Americans, national origin cannot be equated with religious affiliation, beliefs, race, or ethnicity. the display of certain parts of an article in other eReaders. 2 An extended structure offers many advantages, including stability, coherence, and physical and psychological support, particularly in times of need. Conversely, sex outside of heterosexual marriage is considered deviant, deserving of punishment in the here-after.1 In keeping with orthodox Judeo-Christian teaching, homosexuality is considered sinful. To understand some of the principles underlying Islamic beliefs with respect to family, it is instructive to look at some Islamic teachings on gender, marriage, parent-child relationships, and divorce. The largest numbers of mosques and prayer halls are found in California, New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania (Nimer, 2002). Menstruation, therefore, may have many social and psychological ramifications. Or at least say no to pork. Islam takes a more conservative stance, arguing that the family is a divinely inspired institution, with marriage at its core. Another way to compare how old or young a group is within a broader population is to calculate its median age, which for Muslim adults in the U.S. is 35. Even though the Quran is the central source of Islamic beliefs with respect to gender roles, there is considerable controversy about the meaning of passages and their implications for the status of women (Fernea & Bezirgan, 1977). The frequency of consanguineous marriage among British Pakistanis. In contrast, celibacy and sex outside of marriage are strongly discouraged because they are considered behavioral extremes that are not conducive to a wholesome society.8. The types of problems brought to civil court judges vary in terms of the length of the marriage and . As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. The diversity among Muslim Americans has contributed to a lack of feeling of solidarity or group identity. Some observers have suggested that increasing age curtails a person's ability to adapt to change, adaptability being the hallmark of youth. Most Muslims are spread out over metropolitan areas and tend to congregate more by ethnicity or national origin than by religious affiliation. Despite the positive outlook toward sex, it is not a subject that is openly discussed. By focusing on the intertwined nature of individual trajectories within kinship networks in the context of time, culture, and social change, this framework offers the conceptual flexibility to address a variety of family forms in diverse environments (Dilworth-Anderson et al., 1993). These studies indicate that, as with many other groups in the United States, the importance of extended family for providing social and emotional support remains at least a sought-after ideal, even if not actualized in practice. You can select as many as apply: White, black or African American, Asian or Asian American, or some other race, and Are you of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin, such as Mexican, Puerto Rican or Cuban? Those answering the second question affirmatively are coded as Hispanic, regardless of how they answered the first question. An additional 23% were born in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region (such as Iran, Indonesia, etc. Although Muslim American families are among the most diverse groups today in the United States, the study of their experiences is constrained due to the inadequacy of frameworks that are unable to capture their heterogeneity. Aliya G. Hasan, M.D., lives in Denver. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, 1. As already noted, Islam clearly demarcates between legitimate and illegitimate human relationships. Psychology. Many Muslim women are unaware that traumatic bleeding of this kind is distinct from menstrual bleeding, and hence, the religious constraints do not apply. About a third (35%) of Muslim American adults are between 18 and 29 years old, which is a far higher percentage than the share of the general population that falls in that age bracket (21%). Bahira Sherif-Trask. Estimates based directly on survey incidence rates tend to be very similar to the estimates described above. Third- and fourth-generation Muslim families may know little of the immigrant experience and may practice a version of Islam that is dissimilar to that of their parents or their country/community of origin. This transition is all the more difficult where Muslims live as minorities because in many cases, migration patterns have resulted in fragmentation of the extended family structure. Instead, among many American Muslims a more egalitarian model of shared economic responsibilities and household obligations is becoming the norm. These are often regarded by Muslims as the basis for legitimizing gender roles. Muslim American Families and Their Child's Education in America, Yolanda Dawson. Many research trends with respect to Muslim American families are comparable to those regarding other culturally diverse groups in the United States. But we did. Pork and pork byproducts are haram, or forbidden, in Islam. Promiscuity does exist among Muslims, although in all probability its prevalence is considerably lower than in some segments of western society.13 Those who operate outside the Muslim framework often find themselves ostracized and held responsible for bringing the family name into disrepute. Her husband, a doctor trained in Somalia, was unable to practice his craft because his qualifications were not recognized in the United Kingdom. However, underlying Islamic ideological formulations with respect to gender is the belief that women must remain in their place for political and social harmony to prevail. This parental responsibility is enforceable under Islamic law (Fluehr-Lobban, 1987). These are, however, such tenuous linkages that it is uncertain which estimates of the Muslim population are reliable (Smith, 2002). Things are not like they used to be. Muslim Americans are racially and ethnically diverse No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of Muslim American adults. Pew Research Center estimated the Muslim population within each demographic category by multiplying the estimated number of households derived from the census data, times the mean number of Muslim adults and Muslim children per household within that category derived from the survey. Clearly delineating specific Muslim communities is complicated by the fact that until the mid-1970s, immigrant Muslims and African American practitioners had very little contact with each other. In addition, American-born black Muslims are more likely than other U.S. Muslims to say it has become harder in recent years to be Muslim in the United States. Some studies on Muslim families focus specifically on the Islamic family as a religious institution. It is common for women to work outside the home and contribute to the family income. A distinction is made, however, between a homosexual inclination and the act itself. Editor: Marilyn Coleman & Lawrence H Ganong. They built the Taj Mahal, and gave us the lead singer of Queen. Thousands of American Muslims were surveilled, targeted in cases of entrapment, or prosecuted for aiding and abetting terrorism. The recent large-scale migration from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia to parts of Europe has highlighted the difficulties and problems involved with caring for infibulated women. Nearly all American-born black Muslims (96%) say there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in America, almost identical to the share who say there is a lot of discrimination against black people in the U.S. (94%). Islam has a somewhat less formal structure than the other monotheistic religions (Cooper, 1993). This interest can be attributed to several factors: world events that have brought issues occurring in the Islamic world to the foreground, the rapid growth of Islam among African Americans, and a recent large influx of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, India, and Southeast Asia. Cross-disciplinary research, specifically in conjunction with anthropology, history, and religious studies, could lend insight into the complexity of understanding the dynamic relationship between religion and social groups. In this article, we explore what the family means for Muslims living in minority communities in the West. And U.S.-born Muslims are more likely than immigrant Muslims to be black (32% vs. 11%). She teaches her 8-year-old son to never utter the words blow up at school, regardless of the context, and to never pretend he is playing with guns, even if his friends do. The U.S. Muslim community is made up heavily of immigrants and the children of immigrants from around the world. Muslim feminist writers have gone to great lengths to illustrate that gender asymmetry and the status of women cannot be attributed to Islam. This chapter seeks to elucidate some of the basic tenets of Islam with respect to family life and to highlight aspects of contemporary research that illustrate the diversity that is characteristic of Muslim families in the United States. She was advised that she should continue praying because the pattern of bleeding was unlikely to represent menstrual bleeding. ); 25% come from the Middle East-North Africa region, 9% come from sub-Saharan Africa, 4% were born in Europe and 4% come from elsewhere in the Americas. Counseling With a Muslim-American Family. Muslim immigrants are much more likely than U.S.-born Muslims to describe their race as Asian (41% vs. 10%). Take, for example, the high-level negotiations I had with the school lunch planners about not giving our daughter pork. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. This selective use is part of the way in which gender hierarchies and sexuality are negotiated and enforced. This involves omitting the 7-day break between pill packs, thus avoiding the withdrawal bleeding that ensues.14(p53) Alternatively, progesterone (for example, norethisterone [norethindrone]) may be used daily, beginning 2 to 3 days before the period is due and continuing treatment until such time that bleeding is more convenient. . What it means to be a Muslim male or female is shaped not only by Islamic traditions and beliefs but also by the social environment in which these concepts are negotiated and the personal characteristics of the individual. (For more detail on weighting procedures, see the Methodology.) About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Those analyses projected that the number of U.S. Muslims (of all ages) would reach 3.3 million by 2015 and 3.85 million by 2020. Due to the visible, daily nature of these practices, Islam is often perceived as more ritualized than other religions (El-Amin, 1991). Linguistic, religious, and cultural barriers make social scientific studies of Muslim Americans by non-Muslims particularly difficult. The sides of the vagina are then sutured, leaving a small opening for the passage of urine and menstrual flow.16 An intermediate form involves removing the clitoris either partially or totally, together with a portion of the labia minora. There are also many possible implications for clinical care. Speaking of my son, he was telling us about a girl in his class. A recent poll found that countries throughout Europe hold unfavorable views of Muslims. Instead, Jesus is regarded as a prophet who was then followed by Muhammad, the last prophet. For example, the survey estimates that Muslims account for 2.1% of all black adults under age 40 whose families have been in the U.S. for three generations or longer. Reproduced with permission of the authors and publishers. Furthermore, every Muslim is expected to be moderate, and he or she may not drink alcohol, eat pork, or gamble. 7. Any sexual contact outside marriage is considered adultery and is subject to punishment. Black JA, Debelle GD. Women may consult their physician or family planning clinic to postpone their menstrual periods at particular times. Although it is now understood that gender roles and expectations differ significantly between families of varied traditions and cultures, we do not know to what extent there may be variables that bind groups together. When the Prophet was asked whom he meant by this, he said, The one who sees his parents, one or both, during their old age but does not enter Paradise (by doing good to them). With my Muslim friends, I feel like Im not Muslim enough. About three-in-ten (31%) U.S. Muslims are college graduates, including 11% who have a postgraduate degree. Islamophobia is the unfounded fear of Islam and resulting hostility that Muslims experience as a religious minority in the U.S. Read about what it's like to grow up in a Muslim-American family today. An often-quoted hadith states that the prayer of a married man is equal to 70 prayers of a single man. In practice, it is usual for a new bride to move into the household of her husband. An examination of the specific Islamic rulings that deal with marriage and the maintenance of the wife, the child, and elderly parents reveals a concern with a social group that can be characterized as a nuclear family. The family explained that they would prefer to look after him at home. The "othering" of Muslims since 9/11 has had a long-term impact on the lives of Muslim Americans and their sense of belonging and inclusion in the fabric of American society. The Great Leap 2: A Study of Muslim Students. I hope they'll feel uniquely American because they are Muslim. American Muslims can be roughly divided into several groups: immigrants who came from Asia, Africa, Iran and the Middle East; African Americans; and converts from other groups found in the United States (Cooper, 1993). These religiously oriented works have fallen prey to the orientalist truism that Islam is about texts rather than people (Said, 1978). This phenomenon is congruent with changes in the Middle East and Asia, where it is increasingly common for women to secure and maintain external employment. Again, this points to the religious emphasis on creating a family and ensuring that the woman and her children have a form of social protection. African American Muslim families suffer from the influence of the overwhelming incidences The reasons for observing the idda are threefold: (a) to ascertain the possibility of a pregnancy and, if necessary, to establish the paternity of the child; (b) to provide the husband with an opportunity to return to his wife if the divorce is revocable; and (c) to enable a widow to mourn her deceased husband (Nasir, 1990). Until very recently, definitional issues hampered studies of all Muslim families, both in the United States and abroad. He was bed-bound, the result of multiple strokes. In the 1970s, as more African Americans converted to orthodox Islam, some joined largely immigrant religious communities. The Muslim community of Orlando has been growing significantly over the years, and with growth comes more needs. The option of counseling was discussed but was strongly declined. These studies highlight that gender constructions are always embedded in sociohistorical contexts. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. "Both their identities were challenged: their American identity and their Muslim identity," said Asani, who teaches Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures . A married woman in her late 30s contacted a friend (a female Muslim physician) to discuss her menstrual problems. Islam is an Arabic word meaning submission to the will of God. A Muslim is anyone who follows the religion of Islam. By comparison, 12% of U.S. adults overall are underemployed in these ways, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey. But our Muslim family is as American as yours. Cultural taboos dictate that sex should remain a private matter between husband and wife.8 This explains, at least in part, why Muslims are reluctant to seek help for sexual problems and the long time lag before seeing a physician. Besides the Quran, many significant Islamic texts indicate the primary importance of children and their well-being in the family unit. Many of the countrys 2.8 million Muslims say they fear such tensions may become uglier during a presidential race that is already tapping a vein of anger and bigotry. Several recent compilations on family ethnicity and diversity (McAdoo, 1999; McGoldrick, Giordano, & Pearce, 1996) included overviews of the current state of understanding about Muslim families. The United States population comprises over 3 million Muslims, and this number is projected to increase to 8 million by 2050 [].Over half of the Muslims in the U.S. are immigrants, the majority of whom arrived within the last two decades from various countries in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa [].The remaining U.S.-born Muslim population consists of children of immigrant Muslims from . While menstruating, women are exempt from some of the important religious rites, such as ritual prayer, fasting, and Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca). But 6% of all U.S. Muslims live in households with children who are not Muslim. A wife, however, to initiate a divorce, must place her claim before a sharia court and argue her case on the basis of certain legal precepts. From this perspective, it is possible to debate when and under what circumstances does Islamic law direct [individuals lives], and when and under what conditions does it reflect [individuals actions]? (Mir-Hosseini, 1993, p. 14). There is an increasing trickle of Muslims entering nursing homes, and I've actually been thinking of opening a home specifically for Muslims. In addition, despite religious teachings that encourage marriage at an early age, a secular trend to marry late is being seen among Muslims. We want him to be a person indicative of what true Islamic and American values are.. Once an Islamic marriage becomes valid through the signing of the marital contract, it is the duty of the husband to provide for his wife under three conditions: She also signs the contract; she puts herself under her husbands authority and allows him free access to her; and she obeys him for the duration of the marriage. This provides both a barrier and an opportunity for researchers grappling with capturing the social complexity of families. Minority populations in the United States have long been suspicious of outside researchers, and Muslim Americans are no exception. Other avenues of attaining sex education for Muslim teens such as through healthcare are By applying an ecological/systems approach to the study of issues relevant to these families, we may be able to better determine the extent to which religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and external and internal familial factors play a role in their lives. (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main A Qualitative Research Proposal to Explore Parent-Teen Communication about Sexual and Reproductive Health in Muslim-American Families. An additional 26% arrived between 2000 and 2009, and roughly one-in-five (19%) Muslim immigrants arrived in the 1990s. The practice of choosing marriage partners from within one's community, however, continues to be considered important by young and old. Find out with our income calculator. the show follows five muslim-american families in dearborn, michigan: nadar and nawal aoude, newlyweds expecting a baby; dearborn deputy chief sheriff mike jaafar, his wife angela, and their. As globalizing influences are felt in all parts of the world, taken-for-granted assumptions about families and approaches to studying them are increasingly being questioned. When her notes were reviewed, it transpired that she had had 3 consecutive stillbirths, the last being only 6 months previously at 36 weeks' gestation. The man is considered the head of the family; to many a man, however, this is a poisoned chalice because with leadership comes responsibility. My daughter may not be able to drive in Saudi Arabia, but she could become president of the U.S. Inshallah (a word used by Muslims meaning God willing), my kids will grow up proud of our heritage. A plurality (41%) are white, a category that includes those who describe their race as Arab, Middle Eastern, Persian/Iranian or in a variety of other ways (see sidebar on white racial classifications). In the contemporary context, where some Muslim Americans feel stereotyped and discriminated against, these suspicions may, in some communities, become even more heightened (Walbridge, 1999). The other half are almost entirely immigrants, except for a few converts to Islam from various other cultural groups (Cooper, 1993; Stone, 1991). Recent research has highlighted that the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad specified protections and rights for women that were radical departures from the existing culture. The complexity of Muslim American communities is another barrier to studies on Muslim American families. This diversity is also reflected in the beliefs and traditions of adherents to Islam in the United States. These include a temporary legal restraint from remarrying, sexual abstinence for a woman, the mutual entitlement to inheritance, and the maintenance and lodging of the wife, who must wait three menstrual cycles before the divorce is final (Quran, 2:228). A detailed critique of the feminist position is beyond the scope of this article; readers are referred to other texts.4,5. Furthermore, there are two major strands of Islam, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, their distinction resulting from a crisis of succession after the death of Muhammad. A fundamental Islamic belief is the distinct difference between male and female in terms of their personalities, social roles, and functions. Two themes dominated: women's rights and fundamentalism. In the first step of this process, every country in the world is sorted into one of five categories (very high, high, medium, low or very low) based on the percentage of U.S. immigrants from that country who identify as Muslim. U.S. law at the time limited naturalization to aliens being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.. Thats what breaks my heart - to tell my kids that a choice I made to stand up for my religion could make me unsafe.. As a discipline, family studies also needs to reinvestigate its multidisciplinary roots in an effort to build on what we know and what we still need to learn. Islamic law states that every Muslim infant is entitled to badana, which loosely translates into the fulfillment of physical and emotional needs. Psychological morbidity in such situations may be high, with ramifications for the family as a whole. Their voices are thus not represented when family diversity issues are addressed. Specifically, the primary legal relationship centers on adequate maintenance of dependent children and parents. These estimates are derived through a multistep process that combines information from the survey on the prevalence of Muslims among immigrants and other demographic groups with official Census Bureau statistics on the total number of people in the U.S. who fall into these groups. Every donated penny will be used to empower underprivileged youth, families and communities in the USA. Al-Jazeera America, 12.28.15 . Islamic teachings stress the equality of all people before God. At the same time, they are more likely than Americans in general to have an income under $30,000. A symbolic interactionist framework allows researchers to understand the experiences of Muslim American families from their vantage point. Terrorism and concerns about extremism, 7. Life course analysis provides another important venue for understanding the experiences of both immigrant and African American Muslims. After obtaining estimates of the number of Muslims in each subgroup of the population including immigrants categorized by country of origin and the U.S.-born categorized by age and race the figures were summed to generate an estimate of the overall size of the Muslim population. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which tracks such incidents, says the scale of vandalism, damage and intimidation at American mosques this year is the worst in the six years it has kept records. Interdisciplinary comparative studies between religious groups could provide one potential area for exploration. Besides the mahr, the idda also acts as a restraint to divorce. The imam of a mosque is perceived as a teacher rather than a leader or mediator, and every individual is thought to have a direct relationship to God. Finally, U.S.-born adults whose parents were also born in the United States were subdivided by age and race (e.g., blacks under age 40, blacks ages 40 and older, etc. The vast majority of U.S. Muslims who are married have a spouse who is also Muslim. Women who stipulate a mahr in their marriage contracts will use it primarily as a bargaining tool, should their husband threaten to divorce them. The ePub format is best viewed in the iBooks reader. With respect to Muslim Americans, the literature takes a negative slant on this topic, adhering to the view that Muslims face prejudice due to their religion (Abudabbeh & Nydell, 1993; Erickson & al-Timimi, 2001; Jackson, 1997). The fewest Muslim immigrants are located in the Southeast and Northwest regions of the country, with the exceptions of southern Florida and the Seattle area. Many Islamic religious injunctions deal specifically with the relationship between men and women in families. Raised with a strict no-dating policy, and having a semi-arranged marriage, I may be seriously ill-equipped for this. Crude estimates from census and Immigration and Naturalization Service figures indicate that the Muslim population ranges between 1,456,000 to 3,397,000, or 0.5% to 1.2% of the total population when the American-born Muslim population is included (Smith, 2002, p. 414). A Muslim family is established on the concept of a contractual exchange that legally commences with a marriage contract and its consummation. The American Mosque 2011 goes on to state that If there are 2.6 million Muslims who pray the Eid prayer, then the total Muslim population should be closer to the estimates of up to 7 million. The main difference between the 3.45 million estimate from the Pew Research Center study and the 7 million estimate consists of different assumptions about the percentage of U.S. Muslims who attend mosque at least once or twice a year. The vast majority of U.S.-born black Muslims say they are either Sunni Muslims (45%), or they identify with no particular Islamic denomination or they did not answer the question (43%). Despite this interest and concern about the global role of Islam, there is relatively little research or public knowledge about Muslims and their families in the United States. Further, determining whether a family is Muslim, or for that matter Christian, Jewish, or any other religious category, can be ambiguous if family members are not part of a formal community such as a mosque, neighborhood, or association. What has happened to me is a test from Allah and something I will come to terms with. Developing a well-articulated analysis of gender among different groups of Muslim American women would allow for a clearer insight into family relationships, power relations, and family dynamics. For instance, a large majority of the survey respondents who were born in Pakistan say they are Muslims, and therefore Pakistan is included in the very high category; the survey indicates that, on average, about two-thirds of U.S. adults from the very high countries are Muslim. 25 In the United States . American muslims sponsored 120 students of Renton School Dis. The Muslim American experience in the Trump era, 5. The possibility of the stillbirths contributing to her current condition was raised. Donate to Muslim Family Services. For example, many immigrants from the Middle East, particularly before 1975, were Christians and not Muslims. When the Center first conducted a study of U.S. Muslims in 2007, researchers estimated that there were 2.35 million Muslims of all ages (including 1.5 million adults). The share of Muslims who report owning a home (37%) is considerably lower than among all U.S. adults (57%). From 1924 to 1975, Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa outnumbered all those from other parts of the world. Sexual intercourse is also prohibited at such times. How to be an ally to Muslim American families by Zaiba Hasan and Uzma Jafri PDF in English PDF in Spanish We are two Muslim American moms who grew up in the U.S. before 9/11, raising Muslim American kids who have grown up in the shadow of 9/11 and the deep hostility directed by so many against Islam. Only a relatively small number of American Muslims live in recognized Muslim communities. With respect to morals and human behavior, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are virtually identical. (An Arabic expression denoting degradation). Similarly, U.S. Muslims are about as likely as Americans overall to report household incomes of $100,000 or higher (24% of Muslims and 23% of Americans in general). I never thought I would cross-reference baby names with the names of terrorists. Currently, the study of culturally diverse families needs to be invigorated through the application of more explicit theoretical approaches, the development of culturally sensitive frameworks, and a wider, more imaginative range of topics to be studied. During a conference, Furah's second-grade teacher remarked (and I don't think positively) that our daughter was obsessed with whether her food had pork in it. Muslim American families provide a rich new area of exploration for family scholars interested in issues of diversity, gender, religion, and group identity. Thus, researchers need to employ new paradigms in their studies and formulate new types of questions about the subject matter. Among African Americans, family characteristics often include the prominence of fictive kin, or close friends who take on family roles and responsibilities (Dilworth-Anderson & Burton, 1999), as well as key involvement of extended family (Carter, 1997) for care. Is there a dating scene in kindergarten?! Born in Paris and raised in nearby Bondy, Mbapp began his senior club career in 2015 . The estimate that there are now 3.45 million Muslims in the United States is also consistent with demographic projections outlined in Pew Research Centers report The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. In that report, demographers compiled data from nearly every country in the world on the current size of religious groups, the age structure and fertility rates of those groups, their rates of religious switching and migration, and related information to produce country-by-country projections of the future growth trajectories of religious groups from 2010 to the year 2050. A Muslim-American family enjoying a day out at a Texas beach were subjected to a barrage of racial abuse from a Donald Trump supporter. GhanheaBassiri, Kambiz. Many of these Iranian immigrants, though designated as Muslim, are highly secular and identify themselves by their cultural and not their religious backgrounds (Walbridge, 1999). Furthermore, immigration research draws attention to the international aspect of these families. Labels such as Christian, Muslim, or Jewish do not address degree of belief, measures of religiosity, or the relationship between belief and practice (Waugh et al., 1991). This succinct Qur'anic simile encapsulates the primary aims of marriageto provide warmth, comfort, and protection and to beautify. Umar, Nawal Qaiser. This creates a flow of movement of people, information, and ideological orientations. Comparisons between Muslim and American, white, or ethnic families are misleading because the latter designate geographic and/or racial affiliations instead of religious connections. Discrimination against Muslims is an issue worldwide and is often the result of misleading information about what Muslims believe. One alternative is to estimate the percentage of Muslims in the overall U.S. population directly from the results of a survey, without combining the survey data with census figures. Her son has asked if people hate him and his family, Judeh said, a question she can find difficult to answer after receiving hateful comments and threats because of her hijab. This was causing havoc with prayer routines because on each occasion she had stopped praying. Still another way to estimate the size of the Muslim population was employed by Ihsan Bagby in his study The American Mosque 2011, which was based on an extensive survey conducted among leaders of a large sample of mosques around the country.24 In that study, estimates of the average number of people associated with a mosque were combined with information on the total number of mosques in the United States to produce an estimate that there are 2.6 million mosque-connected U.S. Muslims (i.e., Muslims who attend mosque at least once or twice a year for Eid prayers). Wayte C. Bible is disapproving of homosexual activity but not homosexual orientation [letter]. African American Muslims include Sunnis, members of the Nation of Islam, and members of other smaller denominations. Another long-neglected area of study is interfaith marriages with respect to Muslims. However, it is sometimes difficult for respondents to select from the Census Bureaus options. Darr A, Modell B. Census data indicate that there are about 4.65 million households headed by African Americans under age 40. The number of children ever born to adults ages 40 to 59 is a good measure of what demographers call completed fertility because those in that age group have largely finished having children. About a quarter (24%) of U.S. Muslims are U.S. natives with U.S.-born parents (i.e., they are from families who have been in the U.S. for three generations or longer), which is the case for nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults overall (73%). Muslim jurists have gone so far as to elevate marriage to the level of a religious duty. Female genital mutilation in Britain. Our aim is not to be prescriptive, but rather to provide clinicians with key insights needed to allow their Muslim patients' concerns to be adequately heard. On the one hand, this group is characterized by its adherence to Islam. This problem is exacerbated in research on amorphous groups such as Muslim Americans. These ideals provide one potential area from which individuals draw their beliefs, which they negotiate within their social and cultural environment. Religious principles constitute only one arena from which individuals actively and selectively draw their beliefs. Other issues faced by some Muslim American families are young womens rebelliousness regarding issues of modest dress and veiling. Respondents who described their race as Arab or Egyptian or Middle Eastern, for example, are coded as white. In contrast, many Muslim immigrants work harder to maintain their ethnic than their religious identities, while trying to assimilate into American culture (Kolars, 1994). When to utilize the services provided by American family law courts. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. In Muslim culture, akin to other traditional cultures, respect and esteem increase with age. These works do not acknowledge religious variation or interpretation. The former is acceptable so long as it is not practiced.12. For example, immigrants and the children of immigrants from the Middle East-North Africa region and from Iran have no explicit option to identify as Arab, Persian, Kurdish, etc., or to identify with a particular place of origin (e.g., Egypt, Palestine, Morocco) in place of a racial category. The signing of the contract entitles the bride to the mahr, a suitable home, maintenance (i.e., food, clothes, gifts), and a partial inheritance from the husband. 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