African Immigrant Religions in America

8: West African Muslims in America: When Are Muslims Not Muslims?

8 West African Muslims in America When Are Muslims Not Muslims? Linda Beck Introduction The subtitle of this chapter may be somewhat misleading, if not offensive. The religious identity of Muslims is after all invariable, as is the case with Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and members of other any religious (or atheistic) group. Nevertheless, it has been argued and commonly accepted that identity is multifaceted and situational, with a single group identification becoming particularly salient depending on the context. The salience of one aspect of our identity, however, does not negate the presence or importance of other facets that continue to influence the fluid boundaries between groups and the way we relate to others with overlapping identities who share one or more elements of our identity. Moreover, the salience of a dimension of our identity is often external, a product of the way others perceive or do not perceive us. This does not, of course, change who we are or who we believe ourselves to be in general terms or in any particular context or situation. This chapter examines the multifaceted identities of West African Muslims in the United States, specifically in metropolitan New York City, to investigate the alleged situational nature of identity and its impact on group membership and relations. As with any other group of individuals, there are many dimensions to the identity of West African Muslims, including race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, gender, immigration status , and, of course, religion. In conversations with West African Muslims in New York City, I found that the various aspects of their identities undoubtedly influenced their assessment of the place of West African immigrants in American society and their relations with the larger “black 182 American” and Muslim communities.1 As it is beyond the scope of a single chapter to discuss all the dimensions of the identities of West African Muslims, this chapter focuses solely on three aspects of their identity that they share: race, religion, and recent emigration from West Africa. Although I have been working in and with African immigrant communities in New York City for a number of years, the analysis presented here is based largely on a series of interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2005 with West African immigrants and representatives of the broader black American and Muslim communities as part of a larger research project on West African Muslims. The questions posed were based on prior knowledge of the historical relationship between these communities as well as of various contemporary events, some of which are discussed in the chapter. Having watched the African immigrant communities grow and transform over the past decade, I recognize that this chapter is a snapshot of a “moving target” that can provide us with insights into the experiences of West African Muslims in America and their relations with the broader communities in which they live. It is, therefore, likely that subsequent research, including my own, may reveal that some aspects of what is presented here may no longer hold true. Nonetheless, the views of these informants at this point in time provide critical information about the early experiences and adaptation of West African Muslims to life in America. West African Muslims in New York are considered and consider themselves to be “foreign,” not only in terms of their immigration status but also in sociocultural terms, as African and Muslim. To analyze their dual Fremdheit or foreignness, this chapter focuses on how the formation of West African Muslim communities, which has been well documented by other researchers,2 has influenced and been influenced by the communities ’ relationship with two marginal groups in the United States: the largely foreign-born Muslim communities and autochthonous African Americans. The tension and confluence among these communities with overlapping identities are a product of not only their interactions but also the conceptions of the dominant “autochthonous” population (i.e., white Christian Americans) as to what it means to be African, Muslim, and foreign . Within the global city of New York, these interactions (or lack thereof) influence the mobility of West African Muslims in spatial and economic terms, as well as their “integrative” mobility, that is their ability to undergo, control, or resist integration into American society that may transform individual identities and/or sociocultural categories (e.g., African American, Muslim, and foreigner). West African Muslims in America 183 Intra-Muslim Relations in...