American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments There probably is no single phrase or sentence that has not been used before in the acknowledgments of an academic book. The gratitude and indebtedness I express here are nevertheless heartfelt and sincere. This book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of many people. I owe my deepest gratitude to my husband, Cemil, my beacon of support and understanding, no matter how complicated or confusing life gets. He doubles as my agent, most enthusiastic fan, editor, and thoughtful critic. My daughters, Leyla and Mehtap, cheered me on throughout the writing process and learned more than they will ever need to know about chapters and publishers unless they become scholars one day. I will always cherish the “Go Mama Go” picture hanging over my desk. This book is dedicated to them with much love. My parents and sisters in Germany have followed my work from afar for many years; their love and their support for my quest for knowledge provided the foundation of my academic career. The research project at the core of this book has been supported by a faculty research grant and a small grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UnCC) and a semester of faculty research leave from George Mason University. Much of the earlier work on the project was carried out when I was a visiting scholar in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Special thanks to Sükrü Hanioğlu and Michael Cook for providing me with inspiring working conditions. I am also indebted to Brittany Huckabee, who graciously shared video footage of the woman-led prayer event in 2005. I am grateful to my colleagues at Elon University for their early encouragement of this project, especially Lynn Huber for suggesting that this would be material for a book and Jeff Pugh and Toddie Peters for walking me through my early years as an American college professor. xii American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism The participants in several workshops, “Muslims in America” and “Muslims and Media” at Princeton University in 2008 and “Islam in/and America” at Columbia University in 2010, read drafts of chapters and provided valuable feedback. Their collegiality and willingness to think through my questions and long German sentences is very much appreciated. The participants in the conference and book project “Female Religious Leadership in Mosques and Madrasas” at Oxford University deserve special gratitude for redirecting some of my thoughts and helping me focus on questions of authority and leadership. This book would not have been the same without the students in my Muslims in America courses at Elon, Princeton, UnCC, and George Mason. Each class has been helpful in thinking through my ideas and discussing aspects of this project. Special thanks go to Rachel Hinson for focusing her research project on Muslim women as scholar-activists. Our shared interest in the topic and subsequent work on American Muslim intellectuals paved the way for this book. Many scholars, peers, and mentors deserve mention as steady providers of insight, ideas, and support in the process of writing this book: Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Carl Ernst, Omid Safi, Yvonne Haddad, Kecia Ali, Laury Silvers, Saʿdiyya Shaikh, Zain Abdullah, Edward Curtis, Zareena Grewal, Ahmet Karamustafa, Amaney Jamal, Nelly van Doorn Harder, Vincent and Rkia Cornell, Bruce Lawrence, Ayesha Chaudhry, Rumee Ahmed, Sarah Islam, Timur Yuskaev, Vincent Biondo, Kristin Sands, Kambiz GhaneaBassiri , and Riem Spielhaus. Their advice, thoughtful critiques, and encouragement are very much appreciated. Leigh Schmidt, Melani McAlister, and Marie Griffith were instrumental during my year at Princeton in shaping my thoughts on this project and deserve thanks for sharing their time and energy. I am grateful for the opportunity to meet David Watts and Laura Levitt, who have become more than valued colleagues since then. Some of those who started out as colleagues have become friends over the years. They all deserve special gratitude for the many ways in which they have helped this project come to fruition. I am grateful to Omid Safi for his enthusiasm for my work. Saʿdiyya Shaikh has deeply influenced my thinking about Muslim feminisms and the beauty of Muslim sisterhood. Laury Silvers, Debra Majeed, Aysha Hidayatullah, Fatima Seedat, Kecia Ali, Zahra Ayubi, and Hina Azam embody this sisterhood in their lives, their work, and their presence in my life. Rosemary Hicks has been a fountain of theoretical insight, a nurturing [18.220.106.241] Project MUSE (2024-04...