UC Irvine

The history of Islam in the US has been changed dramatically by the events of September I I, 200 I. The directions now being taken reverse earlier tendencies on the part of American Muslim political organisations to narrow the boundaries of the community and to emphasise foreign policy issues at the expense of domestic ones. · These new directions, however, broaden the boundaries of American Islam in other ways, drawing more widely on the religion's rich, long-standing traditions of humanistic and legal scholarship. Importantly also, the directions now being taken are being strongly shaped by non-Muslim politicians and the media in the US, in an interaction between American Muslims and the state that is, perhaps paradoxically, drawing Muslims more closely into national political Life.