“Indy Star”: What’s American about American Mosques?

Originally published in the Indianapolis Star, Feb. 18, 2018: Almost half of Americans say that they go to one every week. It’s where Americans often get married, introduce their kids to the community, mourn their dead, raise money to assist those in need, organize community service, and even negotiate business deals. It is, of course, the religious congregation, and as Alexis de Tocqueville indicated in … Continue reading “Indy Star”: What’s American about American Mosques?

Edward E. Curtis IV

How do Muslim Americans Practice Islam? Scholars, Community Members Contribute to New Book

Terrorism. Anti-Muslim prejudice. Sexism. Culture clash. Political controversy. These concerns have so dominated the study of Islam in the United States, according to Edward Curtis, Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at IUPUI, that we don’t have reliable, peer-reviewed research on how Muslim Americans pray, fast, get married, or welcome a child into the world. Funded by grants from Indiana … Continue reading How do Muslim Americans Practice Islam? Scholars, Community Members Contribute to New Book

Edward E. Curtis IV

Millennium Chair’s Awards to Prevent Islamophobia Announced

INDIANAPOLIS — Original Muslim American poetry displayed at Indianapolis’ Monument Circle. Muslim and Christian youth documenting each other’s faith communities through a joint photography exhibit. A Holocaust museum conducting Islamophobia workshops for students. An original children’s play based on Muslim folklore. Muslim youth learning how to confront anti-Muslim bias. Those are five projects that could help prevent Islamophobia in greater Indianapolis, and they will all … Continue reading Millennium Chair’s Awards to Prevent Islamophobia Announced

Edward E. Curtis IV1 Comment

“Religion Dispatches”: Muslims in America, Fifty Years Later

Originally published in Religion Dispatches, August 2, 2017: A newly-released Pew poll (headline: “U.S. Muslims Concerned About Their Place in Society, but Continue to Believe in the American Dream“) reveals a Muslim America that has changed dramatically in the past five decades. In 1967, there were probably fewer than 250,000 self-identifying Muslims in the United States: today, according the poll, there are about 3.35 million. … Continue reading “Religion Dispatches”: Muslims in America, Fifty Years Later

Edward E. Curtis IV

“Indy Star”: Muslims proudly embrace America

Originally published in the Indianapolis Star, July 26, 2017: The 2017 Pew Research Center’s poll of U.S. Muslims released today has one overarching message: even though half the country might disagree, Muslim and non-Muslim Americans really are more similar than different. Muslim Americans may have distinct religious cultures, but the fear stoked by the election of Donald Trump is not turning Muslim Americans into more … Continue reading “Indy Star”: Muslims proudly embrace America

Edward E. Curtis IV

“Indy Star”: IUPUI professor offers grants to creative types to battle Islamophobia

“To combat Islamophobia, an IUPUI professor is turning to crowd-sourcing the arts and humanities.” Arts reporter Domenica Bongiovanni interviewed me about the competition, asking why I thought the arts and humanities could help to prevent anti-Muslim violence. A link to the story is here.   Continue reading “Indy Star”: IUPUI professor offers grants to creative types to battle Islamophobia

Edward E. Curtis IV

Community Competition to Prevent Islamophobia

I am happy to announce ten awards of $1,000 each to prevent Islamophobia, or anti-Muslim prejudice, discrimination, and violence, in Greater Indianapolis. Highly original projects are sought from local writers, community activists, artists, religious congregations, public school teachers, dancers, community volunteers, philosophers, amateur historians, linguists, musicians, healers, social workers, poets, non-profit groups, and others. Projects can include performance, social media, debate, dialogue, the production of … Continue reading Community Competition to Prevent Islamophobia

Edward E. Curtis IV

Indianapolis’ Ahmadi Muslims in the 1920s and 1930s

Originally posted on Invisible Indianapolis:
This is the second of two posts on 20th-century Muslim heritage in Indianapolis that come to us from Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, Edward E. Curtis IV. Click on Indianapolis’ Homegrown Islam: The Moorish Science Temple of America for the first post. Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (1835-1908), the… Continue reading Indianapolis’ Ahmadi Muslims in the 1920s and 1930s

Edward E. Curtis IV

Indiana’s First Mosque? Syrian Shi’a Muslims in Michigan City

Michigan City, Indiana, was likely the site of Indiana’s first formal mosque. Muslim immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, especially from what today are the countries of Syria and Lebanon, immigrated to the state in the 1890s, if not before. But it was only in the twentieth century that Islam in Indiana began to develop as an institutionalized American religion that, like other American religions, created self-sustaining … Continue reading Indiana’s First Mosque? Syrian Shi’a Muslims in Michigan City

Edward E. Curtis IV