Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!m2c!wpi!ncp@math.ucla.edu
From: ncp@math.ucla.edu (N. Christopher Phillips)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Questions
Message-ID: <11167@wpi.wpi.edu>
Date: 8 Apr 90 16:51:10 GMT
Sender: shari@wpi.wpi.edu
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Approved: shari@wpi.edu




      I am interested in knowing roughly how many Moslems there are in the U.S.
and Canada, and something about their origins. For example, I can imagine the
following distinct groups:
      (1) Recent immigrants from the Middle East and from other predominantly
Moslem countries.
      (2) Students from predominantly Moslem countries who expect to return
home when their studies are completed.
      (3) The Black Muslim movement.
      (4) Descendents of non-recent immigrants from Moslem countries.
      (5) Converts not connected with the Black Muslim movement.
I know that the first three are sizable groups, but I have no idea how large
they are, and I would like to know. I have never actually heard of anyone in
either of the last two groups, but surely they exist, and I would like to know
more.
      A few other questions: Do these various groups of people have much
contact with each other? Have I overlooked any large groups of Moslems in
the U.S. or Canada? Are most of these people practising Moslems, or are there
a lot who are only nominally Moslems? (For comparison, there are many people
in the U.S. who are nominally Christians, but rarely or never go to church
and generally pay little or no attention to religion.)
      Note: I realize that many Moslems consider such groups as Louis
Farrakhan's "Nation of Islam" (do I have the name right?) not to be true
Moslems. For the purposes of these questions, please don't exclude them
entirely. (For comparison, if I were asking about Christians instead, I would
want to know about the followers of Sun Myung Moon as well, although of
course they should be treated as a different category.)
      Thanks.
      N. Christopher Phillips