(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The new Islamic centers serve Muslims who moved into the suburbs and newer immigrants from Africa, Iraq and elsewhere. Researchers conducting the national count found 2,106 Islamic centers, compared with 1,209 in 2000 and 962 in 1994. About one-quarter of the centers were built in 2000-11, as the community faced intense scrutiny by government officials and a suspicious public.
In 2010, protest against an Islamic center near ground zero erupted into a national debate over Islam, extremism and religious freedom. Anti-mosque demonstrations spread to Tennessee, California and other states.
Ihsan Bagby, a professor at the University of Kentucky and the lead author of the report, said the findings show that Muslims are carving out a place for themselves despite the backlash.
"This is a growing, healthy Muslim community that is well-integrated into America," Bagby said. "I think that is the best message we can send to the world and the Muslim world in particular."
The report, "The American Mosque 2011," is based on mailing lists, websites and interviews with community leaders, a survey and interviews with 524 mosque leaders. The research is of interest given the limited scholarship on Muslim houses of worship, which include a wide range of religious traditions, nationalities and languages.
Researchers defined a mosque as a Muslim organization that holds Friday congregational prayers called jumah, conducts other Islamic activities and has operational control of its building. Buildings such as hospitals and schools that have space for Friday prayer were not included. Chapters of the Muslim Student Association at colleges and universities were included only if they had space off-campus or had oversight of the building where prayer was held.
Almost all the mosques are in cities, but those in suburbs rose from 16 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2011. The Northeast once had the most mosques, but Islamic centers are now concentrated in the South and West, the study found. New York still has the most Islamic centers, 257, followed by 246 in California and 166 in Texas. Florida is fourth with 118. The shift follows the general pattern of population movement to the South and West.
The study found the ethnic makeup of mosque participants largely unchanged from 2000. South Asians represent about one-third of participants, and Arabs and African-Americans make up about one-quarter each. Bagby found a slight increase in the percentage of Muslims from West Africa and Somalia. An influx of Iraqi and Iranian refugees is behind a jump in the number of Shiite mosques since the 1990s. Shiites still represent a very small percentage of U.S. Muslims.
The study's authors did not ask specifics of how each community funded mosque construction. Estimates of the total U.S. Muslim population have become an issue as Muslims seek a voice in public life. The Pew Research Center estimated last year that the U.S. Muslim community encompassed 2.75 million people, or nearly 1 percent of the population.
The 2011 mosque study is part of the Faith Communities Today partner
ship, which researches the more than 300,000 houses of worship in the U.S. Sponsors include the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and the Islamic Society of North America.
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