Encyclopedia of Islam

United States

---

permitted and 

haram

/forbidden behavior (such as 

abstaining from alcohol and pork, both of which 

are endemic to many work and social settings in 

American culture).

Basic Islamic religious roles and institutions, 

such as the mosque (masjid) and 

imam

 (religious 

teacher and leader), have adapted to American 

society to fill a wider range of social functions 

than they cover traditionally in the larger Muslim 

world, taking on “parish”-style responsibilities 

for 

children

’s and adult continuing 

edUcation

,

community/youth social events, marriage/family 

counseling, and neighborhood/media liaison. Tra-

ditional Islamic gender coding has also adapted, 

bringing Muslim girls and 

Women

 into public and 

coeducation schooling, into the workforce, into 

mosque governance, and, ultimately, into the pub-

lic discourse of forming Islamic thought through 

taking on the authority to interpret religious 

texts, such as the q

Uran

 and 

hadith

. Muslim 

boys and men have been correspondingly affected 

by American society in many of the same ways, 

but with greater access to heterosexual contact 

outside of marriage in the context of “dating.” 

Muslim parents are still more conservative in the 

standards set for daughters than for sons, and 

although often disapproving of sons’ dating, will 

turn a blind eye to it, whereas daughters engaging 

Islamic Center of America, a leading mosque for Shii Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan 

(J. Gordon Melton)