Islam and America: Building a Future without Prejudice

Majid, born in Morocco, raised a Muslim, educated in the U.S., and now an American, offers a personal view of the tensions between the U.S. and Islam and the foundation for moving forward. He begins, and ends, with the revolutionary idea that embodies the U.S.: the promise of liberty, free inquiry, new ideas, and a democratic spirit and the hope it engenders. In between, he argues that both sides have used sacred scriptures and unexamined religious beliefs to justify social injustice, misguided foreign-policy choices, and acts of aggression. Although both sides need to rethink their relationship to their respective traditions, reevaluate their own assumptions, and reexamine their place in the world today, the U.S. needs, in particular, to return to its revolutionary roots―roots planted in the soil of reason, not divine providence. The path forward will require speaking the truth. Forthright and fair, Majid’s analysis will not satisfy everyone. But that’s exactly the point. ‘Conversations humanize us; unyielding certitudes turn us into warring tribes and killing machines.’ ― Booklist

As the Moroccan American scholar Anouar Majid reminds us on the first page of his latest book, Islam and America: Building a Future without Prejudice, we are drowning in information about the relationships of Muslims and the West but are not yet being rescued by this expanding corpus. This and his earlier We Are All Moors come as close to any books I have read recently that hold out promise for such a rescue, at least in the forward-thinking rhetoric that outlasts the general effluvium of political punditry. . . . Islam and America is a narrative that harnesses anecdotes and historical trivia to produce a text that is accessible to a wide range of readers and at the same time entertains as it informs. The unique aspect of the book is the reflective experience of a Muslim-born American from Morocco. . . . The value of Majid’s writing is that it argues for a focus on the common humanity that can shine through ethnic and religious filters, but a focus that is not shy about exposing the ugly side or prejudice on all sides. . . . Majid provides a compelling portrait, much abridged from the available literature he had read, on how Muslims viewed Americans and were viewed by Americans long before the tragedy of 9/11 and initiation of two wars costly both in lives and American prestige. ― Springer Science + Business Media

Islam and America is a narrative that harnesses anecdotes and historical trivia to produce a text that is accessible to a wide range of readers and at the same time entertains as it informs. ― Contemporary Islam

Most books on Islam these days stress the negative, but Majid builds a highly personal and well documented blueprint for proudly being American and Muslim at the same time. Beneath the media-hyped ‘clash of civilizations’ there is far too much ‘trash talking’ and not near enough reasoned exploration of the principles that should unite the best values of both the United States and the Islamic World. As the current ‘Arab Spring’ demonstrates, the future belongs to those who challenge the status quo rather than pandering to past prejudice and perpetuating the injustice that tarnishes all sides. What makes this book stand out from the rest are both Majid’s self reflection as a Muslim from Morocco and his passion for retelling the principles that at one time made the American experiment the envy of the world. As Majid persuasively argues, Americans and Muslims do not straddle a rigid cultural divide but can build on shared values if everyone recognizes that past prejudice is the enemy of future progress. — Daniel Martin Varisco, Hofstra University; author of Islam Obscured: The Rhetoric of Anthropological Representation

Anouar Majid’s Islam and America is a bold and courageous book, putting a millennium of history, theology, and culture into context and challenging assumptions on all sides. Islam and America should be read by all who are perplexed at the catastrophic relations between the United States and the Muslim world, between Israel and her neighbors―who might come away with renewed faith that we still have it in our power to begin the world anew. — Robert J. Allison, Suffolk University; author of The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815

Possessed of a profound knowledge of several societies, Anouar Majid is that very rare writer in our noisily polemical culture―someone who offers true wisdom and understanding. — Pankaj Mishra, author of Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet and beyond