Encyclopedia of Islam

United States

  

691  J

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immigration law in 1965, particularly the end of 

the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924, increased the 

momentum of Muslim immigration, particularly 

from South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, Eastern 

Europe, and the Soviet Union, primarily com-

ing from and settling in urban areas. Conflict 

throughout the Muslim Middle East and Central 

Asia since the late 1960s (post-1967 war between 

i

srael

 and the Arab states, the Lebanese civil 

war [1975–90], Iranian Revolution [late 1970s], 

Iran-Iraq war [1980–88], Iraq-Kuwait/Gulf war 

[1990–91], Afghanistan civil war [1978–present], 

and U.S.-Iraq war [2003–present]) have stimu-

lated immigration of sectarian and other Muslim 

minorities to America, particularly Shii popula-

tions, resulting in a higher than world average 

(20 percent rather than 10 percent) in relation 

to the world Sunni Muslim majority. In addition 

to immigrants, large numbers of Muslim profes-

sionals and students arrived to secure advanced 

training or degrees from all parts of the Muslim 

world, and they have added their cultural, ethno-

linguistic, and theological diversity to the Muslim 

community in America for periods from as short 

as five to as long as 20 years.

The American Muslim community reflects the 

theological as well as ethnic and linguistic diver-

sity of the world Muslim 

umma

, or religious com-

munity, including established Sufi orders and new 

Sufi teachers and groups, as well as a large num-

ber of new indigenous Islamic groups and sectar-

ian offshoots. The presence and example of the 

American Muslim immigrant and expatriate com-

munity has stimulated a growing number of con-

verts to Islam throughout the 20th century to the 

present, particularly among African Americans. 

Immigrant Muslims have struggled to maintain 

Islamic identity and life ways in a non-Muslim 

majority environment through their commitment 

to the five pillars of practice (

shahada

/witness to 

Faith

,  salat/

prayer

,  zakat/

almsgiving

,  sawm/fast-

ing, 

haJJ

/pilgrimage) and the categories of 

halal

/

Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles

(J. Gordon Melton)

K  692