Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible

Although they are typically portrayed by the media as dangerous extremists in distant lands, Muslims in fact form a permanent, peaceful and growing population in nearly every Western country. While Westerners are now more commonly seeing mosques in their neighborhoods or scarved Muslim women in their streets, misperceptions and stereotypes remain. With expanding numbers and desires to protect their rights and identities, Muslims are coming into more and more into the public view. In Muslim Minorites in the West noted scholars Haddad and Smith bring together outstanding essays on the distinct experiences of minority Muslim communities from Detroit, Michigan to Perth, Australia and the wide range of issues facing them. Haddad and Smith in their introduction trace the broad contours of the Muslim experience in Europe, America and other areas of European settlement and shed light on the common questions minority Muslims face of assimilation, discrimination, evangelism, and politics. Muslim Minorities in the West provides a welcome introduction to these increasingly visible citizens of Western nations.

Yvonne Haddad is Professor of History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Past president of the Middle East Studies Association, she has authored and edited many books on contemporary Islam.

Jane I. Smith is Professor of Islamic Studies and Co-Director of the Macdonald Center for Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. She has done extensive work on Muslim communities in America, Christian theology in relation to Islam, historical relations between Christians and Muslims, Islamic conceptions of death and afterlife, and the role and status of women in Islam. She is also co-editor of The Muslim World.