Making Moderate Islam: Sufism, Service, and the "Ground Zero Mosque" Controversy PDF
Preview Making Moderate Islam: Sufism, Service, and the "Ground Zero Mosque" Controversy
MAKING M ODERATE I SLAM John L. Jackson Jr., David Kyuman Kim, Editors M A K ING MODER AT E ISL A M SUFISM, SERVICE, AND THE “GROUND ZERO MOSQUE” CONTRO VERSY ROSEMARY R . C ORBETT STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS • STANFORD, CALIFORNIA Stanford University Press Stanford, California ©2017 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Corbett, Rosemary R., author. Title: Making moderate Islam : Sufism, service, and the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy / Rosemary R. Corbett. Other titles: RaceReligion. Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2017. | Series: RaceReligion | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016027701 (print) | LCCN 2016029125 (ebook) | ISBN 9780804791281 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503600812 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503600843 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Sufism--United States. | Islam and politics--United States. | Sufis--New York (State)--New York. | Mosques--New York (State)--New York. | Voluntarism--Religious aspects--Islam. | Muslims--Cultural assimilation--United States. Classification: LCC BP188.8.U6 C67 2016 (print) | LCC BP188.8.U6 (ebook) | DDC 297.09747/109051--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016027701 Cover design: Matt Tanner Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14 Minion Pro For Tariq Towe, with gratitude. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Debating Moderate Islam 1 1 Islamic Traditions and Conservative Liberalisms 17 2 Service, Anti-Socialism, and Contests to Represent American Muslims 41 3 Sufism and the Moderate Islam of the New Millennium 69 4 From Sufism without Politics to Politics without Sufism 93 5 The Micro-Politics of Moderation 125 6 The Prophet’s Feminism: Women’s Labor and Women’s Leadership 155 7 Islam in the Age of Obama: What’s More American than Service? 183 Conclusion: Community Service and the Limits of Inclusion 205 Notes 211 Bibliography 257 Index 277 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS While the lives of all books are many, this one has perhaps had more lives than most have prior to publication. What began as research in the years after 9/11— my first visit to New York City occurred as the fires still burned at Ground Zero, in a neighborhood that I now see daily from my window—changed greatly after May of 2010. That is the month I finished the first draft of my manuscript. It is also the month that members of the community with whom I had spent six years came under international scrutiny for trying to open an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. It quickly became clear that the project I had spent so many years on suddenly needed to be almost entirely rewritten. And it took several years and drafts after that to feel I really under- stood the new story I now needed to tell. The debts incurred while undertaking such a project are numerous, to say the least. First and foremost, of course, I am deeply obliged to the members of the Masjid al-Farah community (and to the different Sufi groups affiliated with it) with whom I spent so many years. Several community members gave me not only their time but also their trust at a terrible moment in the history of our city and of our nation, when Muslim Americans had many reasons not to trust strangers who showed up with questions. Others gave me more than that: their friendship. Particularly to those with whom I shared countless hours and heartfelt, sometimes heart-rending, conversations, I wish I could thank you by name here. You may find yourself represented in the pages of this book—and I hope you do find yourself here, even though this is not the book you would have written or the way you would have written it—but I have ascribed pseudonyms to almost all of you for the sake of protecting your pri- vacy, and possibly even safety, after all that has happened since 2010. I must also express my endless gratitude to those who have patiently watched this project develop through its various incarnations—some of whom
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