Based on observational fieldwork and interviews carried out in Boston in ten Islamic community centers and mosques, supplemented by archival research in Suffolk County court records and surveys of relevant literature, this ethnography investigates how various communities and sects of Sunni Muslims in the Boston area utilize and conceptualize Islamic law. The presence and operation of Islamic law in the US (as well as in Europe) has increasingly become a center of interest and conflict. Some commentators have portrayed the operation of Sharia in non-majority Islamic countries as a victory for cultural pluralism and for an open, even expanding, global community. Others see Sharia as a threat to basic and ancient lifeways that have traditionally been characterized by the predominance of “Judeo-Christian” religion.
This ethnography seeks to move beyond these poles to examine what role Islamic law actually plays in the lives and religion of a cross-section of American Muslims. Through a combination of interviews, the examination of legal records and local government activities, such as courts and public hearings I use the microcosm of the Islamic community in Boston to understand how American disestablishmentarianism, or the American relation between the church and the state, creates an environment that allows Muslims to seek and gain public recognition and accommodation for their faith. Moreover, I examine how these laws allow Boston’s Muslims, and in turn the Muslims of the United States at large, to build lives that are distinctly Islamic while simultaneously incorporating themselves within the larger American cultural milieu, which has historically been characterized by primarily Christian and less prominently Jewish religious cultural practice.
The thesis also examines the role Islamic law plays in building both accommodations and distinctions between the Islamic community and its American neighbors. It analyzes which aspects of the Sharia various communities of Muslims consider most important and how they reconcile differences and conflicts between aspects of American culture and law that present obstacles to realizing the ideal Islamic life according to Sharia. Far from a draconian code that demands complete obedience, the data shows that Sharia is actually a flexible tool that makes accommodation possible. At the same time, the discourse and praxis of Sharia also divides American Muslims along lines that often have nothing to do with the law per se but rather reflect the basic tensions and divisions of American society at large. In particular, it considers the differences between African-American Muslim communities and Muslims originated from the Middle East and elsewhere.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42641 |
| Date | 26 May 2021 |
| Creators | Bristol, Jeffrey Paul |
| Contributors | Haeri, Shahla, Lindholm, Charles |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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