9781422281147

10 M USLIMS IN A MERICA

behind. At the head of the congregation, a man raises his hands to his shoulders, folds them across his chest, and begins a melodic Arabic recitation. This scene, of a typical evening prayer at a mosque , could well be taking place in the Middle East. But it is not. In this case, the worshippers are in a quiet town in the American Midwest. The U.S. census does not collect data on religious affiliation, so it is difficult to say with precision how many Muslims live in the United States. Estimates vary widely, from 3 million to 8 mil- lion, depending on the source. In 2016, the Pew Research Center estimated that Muslims made up just under 1 percent of the total U.S. population, meaning that there were about 3.3 million Muslims of all ages living in the United States that year. Some of these people are immigrants, and some are American-born converts from other religions, but a growing number are born and raised as Muslims in the United States. American Muslims make up the third-largest religious community in the United States, after Christianity and Judaism. Despite this growing population of Muslims in the United States, many Americans know little about Islam. Many think that it represents a very different way of life. They are unaware that Islam has the same roots as Judaism and Christianity—that all three religions trace their origins to Abraham, that all three origi- nated in the region currently referred to as the Middle East, and that all three consider Jerusalem to be a holy site. More important than common history, all three of these major world religions share a similar system of values. colonialism— the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. mosque— a Muslim place of worship. Words to Understand in This Chapter