BOOKS
The North American Muslim Resource Guide
The North American Muslim
Resource Guide by Mohamed Nimer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
August 2002
332pp
Price: $50.00
ISBN: 0-415-93728-0
Despite the growth of ethnic and religious community
organizations in North America, there has been a
lack of research-support facilities focusing on
these groups and the domestic concerns they raise.
Likewise, the phenomenal rise of American Muslim
interest in the political process has not been matched
by the development of research institutions that
specialize in the sociopolitical conditions of American
Muslim. Thus, by default, foreign policy priorities
have dominated the discourse of researchers and
activists.
Dr. Mohamed Nimer makes the above cursory as well
as undocumented observations about the dismal state
of scholarship among Muslim Americans in his book
‘The North American Muslim Resource Guide’
published in 2002. Interestingly, Nimer does not
make any serious attempt to incorporate the existing
research into his work because such examples of
unsupported observations and generalizations abound
in the book. His literature review of the subject
is ephemeral with the exception of a chapter on
population. Instead of scholarship, Nimer injects
general information, anecdotal evidence and individual
experiences to give the book a scholarly flavor.
As Nimer frequently points out throughout the book,
Muslim Americans are an intricate mosaic of humanity
that does not easily lend itself to broad generalizations
based upon simple typologies. Muslims hail from
all parts of the world; they represent many nations,
races, cultures and political ideologies; and they
are extremely diverse in terms of education, professions,
skills, socio-economic background and social classes.
Most often, it is their faith, which holds them
together sometimes only tenuously.
Despite this diverse nature of the community, Nimer
proceeds undeterred in creating a narrow portrait
of Muslim Americans by interspersing the book with
a massive list of interesting topics. However, he
chooses not to probe them sufficiently enough to
develop them into satisfying discussions. For instance,
when Nimer discusses Muslim schools, he focuses
on community initiatives, building facilities, textbook
publishers and accreditations. He steers clear of
the issues of the most schools’ low academic
standards. He does not even mention that Muslim
professionals who usually establish these schools
do not deem these schools fit to educate their own
offspring. In instances like this, one can easily
sense Nimer’s aversion to discussions of controversial
aspects of the topics.
In another instance, Nimer’s discussion of
Muslim organizations is confusing. The reader does
not know whether Nimer has independently researched
and verified their histories and developments or
if he is reproducing whatever he has been given
by the organizations. After reading the chapter,
one concludes that Nimer has reproduced, for the
most part, the information given to him by the organizations
without verifying their accuracy. Islamic Society
of North American (ICNA), for instance, does not
have a food pantry or soup kitchen in New York City
although these two entities appear in their widely
disseminated literature. Nimer would have done a
greater service to the reader if he had chosen a
few contemporary topics and provided in-depth well-documented
discussions.
Although Nimer intends this book to be a resource
guide to North American Muslims, he does not have
any illusions about its main utility: “This
book has two more unique advantages: it offers ethnic
population data and a listing of Muslim organizations.”
Nimer is right. In one outstanding chapter, he painstakingly
provides a rich discussion of ethnic history, population
trends, settlement patterns, and community growth
and development. This well-documented discussion
is not only illuminating but also speaks volumes
about Nimer’s data collection and research
capabilities.
The listing of Muslim organizations is also very
valuable probably because most organizations are
difficult to locate. Since a few directories about
Muslim-Americans are already available in the marketplace,
Nimer could have alluded to them in a suggested
reading section.
Being cognizant of the gaping research holes in
the book and absolving himself from not producing
well-documented work, Nimer exhorts the reader to
believe that “this information [the book]
will offer a guiding light to future research.”
This statement is ironic because Nimer is fully
aware that only a handful of academics conduct serious
research on Muslim-Americans. Given this, it is
an open question as to who Nimer is delegating the
responsibility to conduct research. It is unfortunate
that all books published on Muslim Americans by
Muslims after 9/11 unabashedly make the same bold
claim instead of taking the lead in providing the
reader with fulfilling discussions. It is about
time that relevant authors writing after the events
of September 11, 2001 should choose their own “guiding
light” to present superior contributions to
Muslim-American literature. - Shahid Sheikh, Ed.D.
(Shahid Sheikh is executive director of the New
York City-based American Educational Research Institute
and the moderator of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Muslim-Americans.
He can be reached at aeriusa@hotmail.com)
