The composition of the American Muslim community is far from homogeneous. In fact, American Islam is a mosaic of many ethnic, racial, sectarian, and national groups. Scholars who look at Muslims in America as a monolithic entity often neglect the various nuances that characterize the diverse Muslim population here.

The growing presence of the American Muslim community has led to increased interaction between Muslims living here and those abroad. Globalization and improved modes of communications have further allowed foreign ideas to flow freely, enabling foreign accretions to permeate the lives of American Muslims.

     This paper examines exterior influences on Shi’ite  American Muslims. Furthermore, the paper assesses the impact of the imported Shi’ite heritage on the definition of Shi’itesm in the American context. It also examines how foreign factors have helped to shape Shi’ite institutions in America and how the Shi’ites have drawn on their spiritual leaders based in the Middle East to form a cohesive milieu in America.
Majlis and the formation of a Shi’ite identity in America

Besides the major foundations established by the Ayatullahs, centers have been founded to serve local Shi’ite communities. It is in these centers that commemorative gatherings (majlis) are normally held. Historically, these gatherings have been used to recount the persecution endured by the Shi’ite Imams, evoking thereby, the emotions of the audience. The role of these gatherings in regulating the socio-political and religious lives of Shi’ite Muslims in America must be properly understood. An inherent element in Shi’ite religious experience is the glorification of the martyrdom of Husain. This experience provides Shi’ite leaders with a favorable channel for mobilizing the populace. The majalis (plural of majlis) are normally held at the Husainiyyas where a number of functions are carried out, including devotional rituals, community education, marriages, and preparation of the dead for burial.

     Although lectures are held at the Husainiyyas throughout the year, the Shi’ite faithful congregate in large numbers in the month of Muharram, the month when Husain was killed. It is in the majlis that the khutaba’ often re-enact the events of Kerbala, reviving devotional feelings to the family of the Prophet, and discuss the challenges of living in a secularized Western society. As Schubel states: “The remembrance of the battle of Karbala as a significant historical and religious event is crucial to the way in which Shi’ite Muslims maintain their unique identity within the larger ummah. The importation of rituals for the remembrance of Karbala has also facilitated the community's adaptation to the Canadian environment. The remembrance and re-creation of Karbala allows the Shi’ite community to claim space in North America that is both North American and Islamic: they thus Islamize elements of North American culture while creatively adapting Islam to the North American environment.”

     The exposition of highly developed polemicized discourses and repeated affirmation of the historical injustices endured by the progeny of the Prophet helps mediate Shi’ite Islam to the younger generation. The majlis also seeks to prove the verities of Shi’ite beliefs and liturgical practices so as to forge and perpetuate a distinct Shi’ite identity in America. This didactic function is indispensable to a religious minority that is required to defend its beliefs regularly from the assiduous attacks by the Wahhabis in America.

     By linking events in Kerbala with contemporary society, the majlis, although  imported from abroad, acts as a source of moral edification, teaching young American Shi’ites that Shi’ite sacred history demands allegiance to the family of the Prophet even in a non-Muslim environment. Thus the majlis becomes an important tool in perpetuating Shi’ite heritage and ethos. The majlis also provides the leadership with an important vehicle to bring about the reformations necessary as this religious minority strives to assert its identity in the midst of the challenges of a pluralistic society.

     Powerful rituals accompany the majlis. These foreign rituals bring alive a historical moment filling a spiritual void that is engendered by living in a secularized ambiance. The ritual encounter with Kerbala allows the believer to experience Kerbala in America, precipitating individual and communal reflection insofar as it challenges the believers to base their demeanor on the paradigmatic actions of the Shi’ite Imams. It is the Muharram rituals that give American Islam a distinctly Shi’ite coloring for they differentiate Shi’ites from Sunnis and all other Muslim sects.

     Some communities perform these rituals in public, distributing, in the process, literature about Islam. Public re-enactment of Kerbala enables the community to make statements regarding its identity. Thus what is inherently a re-enactment of a historical event is used to remove Western misconceptions of Islam. By observing the Muharram festivities in public, Shi’ites utilize the occasion to foster a better understanding with their non-Muslim neighbors.

     The Muharram rituals that originate abroad are also used to forge Shi’ite identity in America. In a survey I conducted in 1996, one of the institutions clearly linked fashioning a Shi’ite identity with observing Muharram rituals. It proudly stated: “We were the first to take out julus in North America.” For some Iranian groups, Shi’ite identity is connected to observing an appropriate dress code.

     However, not all communities accentuate their Shi’ite identity. A question in my survey was related to the tension experienced between maintaining a distinct Shi’ite identity and being a Muslim in America. It is noticeable that centers located in areas where there is a small Shi’ite population are more willing to identify themselves with the larger Muslim community than those Shi’ites living in places like New York or Washington where support from the community is greater. Thus one center said: “Whilst our mosque is Shi‘a, our doors are always open to all Muslims. This is necessary in such a small community”. While not denying their Shi’ite penchant, smaller communities are more likely to downplay their Shi’ite predilections than larger ones. This is also done to overcome the disadvantage of being in a double minority status that is, Shi’ite Muslims are not only disadvantaged (and thus in a minority) because they are Muslims but are also further discriminated against because they are Shi’ites.

     It is to be remembered that the challenges facing the Shi’ites in America are greater than those facing the Sunnis. This is because the Shi’ites seek not only to assert their Islamic identity in the West but also to maintain their own distinct Shi’ite identity. It is the Muharram rituals that help to affirm the latter.

Foreign Cultures in Shi’ite Centers

     Muslims in America are also subjected to external influences through cultural forces. Many immigrants continually reach out to their homeland for social and cultural reinforcement so as to perpetuate the ancestral traditions they brought with them.

     Instead of forming religious organizations in America based exclusively on Islamic provenance, other characteristics such as ethnic, cultural, and even national influences have prevailed. The process of ethnicization, involving linking a specific population to distinctive cultural characteristics, is important to many communities as it unites communal members and perpetuates customs imported from the home country. Thus mosques have tended to fragment along ethnic lines, and the leadership has remained tied to customs developed in home states. In the processes of cultural negotiations, re-definitions and re-appropriation of a different culture, members of the Shi’ite community have pursued different ways to adapt to the American milieu.

    Iraqi Shi’ites who sought asylum in America after the Gulf War renew ties with the homeland, importing, in the process, their own distinctive culture. They often chide secularized Shi’ites, leading to further altercations both within and between centers. In addition, having lived in areas like Najaf and Kerbala where the maraji‘ reside, Iraqi Shi’ites bring with them a deep sense of religious commitment that is not always shared by Iranian and Lebanese Shi’ites.  The Lebanese originate from a more pluralistic and tolerant background whereas many Iranians have been influenced by the Shah’s modernization and Westernization programs. Hence their cultural outlook is quite different. The diverse imported cultures have precipitated “ethnic centers” in America alienating Shi’ites originating from different cultural backgrounds. To cater specifically to the Iraqi Shi’ites a separate Iraqi center appropriately called the “Kerbala center” was established in Dearborn after the end of the Gulf War.

     The importation of extraneous cultures has engendered considerable tensions within the Shi’ite community. These tensions are discernible in the running of the centers. My survey of Shi’ite institutes indicates that in many centers services are conducted along the same lines that were held in their own countries, with little or no concern for the needs of the members in this milieu. The imposition of an alien culture in the centers has estranged the youths in the Shi’ite community. Programs held at the centers do not generate interest even among their own ethnic members. The “intellectually inclined” adults and the younger generation reject the ancestral traditions and demand changes in the format of the programs offered. Due to the linguistic problem and the ritualization of religious services, many members of the community are estranged from the mosques. This observation is corroborated by the fact that the average crowd for Thursday night lectures in many centers is normally only 20-30 people.

     The problems engendered by the imposition of extraneous cultures and lack of participation by the younger generation in the centers have concerned many parents, leading to a re-examination of the types of programs offered in the centers. My survey indicates that most institutions view the establishment of youth programs to be among their most pressing needs. Seventy percent of the institutions interviewed said they plan to organize events that would attract the younger generation within the community. However, many seem perplexed as to how to attract the youths to the centers. A remark in one of the responses is worth noting: “Muslim youths are more attracted by American rather than traditional Muslim events. Thus they are more likely to be attracted to retreats, recreational camps, picnics and debates than sermons and prayers.” Youths reject what is posited as “normative Islam” imposed by the adult immigrant community. They are more concerned to differentiate between culture and religion leading to a paradigm shift from an old, culturally imposed mentality to a distinctly American mindset.

     Tensions generated by intergenerational differences are further exacerbated by the fact that many Muslim youths are now trained in universities and colleges where they appropriate a distinctly American culture and are exposed to ideas that challenge traditional concepts. In addition to there being no interaction with preachers in the centers, either the lectures are delivered in languages that are alien to the youths or they are in the form of repetitive and highly polemicized discourses, quite distinct from the much more objective intellectual challenges the youth are accustomed to in the universities.

     It is important to bear in mind that the cultural factor is more accentuated in Shi’itesm than Sunnism. Whereas Sunni religious events are confined to prayers at which Muslims from different ethnic backgrounds congregate, the Shi’ite calendar is punctuated with events marking the births and deaths of Imams. Shi’ites who congregate at the Husainiyya are divided along ethnic lines, with Pakistani Shi’ites marking events like the death of Husain b. ‘Ali differently from the way that Iraqi or Iranian Shi’ites do.

Conversion to Shiasm in America

     Shi’ite proselytization activities in American lack the financial support that is afforded, for example, to the Saudi-backed Muslim World League (MWL) which reflects Saudi religious interests in America, and, through various means, disseminates views attributed to the Wahhabis. In contrast, there are no such institutions or countries that financially support Shi’ite missionary work.

     In the late 1970s, foreign organizations such as the World Organization for Islamic Services sent books for distribution to al-Jibouri’s Islamic Societies of Georgia. The Bilal Muslim Mission, which has been proselytizing in East Africa since the 1960s, also sent many books to America. By July 1977, about 5,770 books and booklets had been mailed out. Some private Iranian sources like Ansariyan Publications based in Tehran also send Shi’ite literature to American prisons. In recent years, the Canadian based Islamic Research and Education Center started a correspondence course, teaching Shi’itesm to potential or actual converts.

     Due to the relatively young age of many centers, few, if any, Shi’ite mosques or centers in America have considered reaching out to non-Muslims or engaging in any inter-faith dialogue. A question in my survey related to types of da’wa (missionary) activities undertaken by the centers. Most centers did not respond to the question. It was clear that more stress is laid on providing religious services to community members.
     Shi’ite proselytization activities in America are limited to a few poorly funded organizations that are not properly structured for extensive da‘wa activities. Institutes like the New York based Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Islamic Humanitarian Services in Canada, Bilal Muslim Missions of America, and individual efforts by the likes of Dr. Hashim in Washington have dedicated themselves to reaching out to non-Muslims. A discussion on their proselytization activities, however, is beyond the scope of this study.

     A recent survey that I conducted suggests that there is a gradual increase in the number of Sunni inmates converting to Shi’itesm. Most converts espouse Shi’itesm after having initially converted to Sunnism. Ironically, by their assiduous attacks on the Shi’ites, the Wahhabis have aroused the curiosity of many converts to Sunnism who had not previously heard of Shi’itesm. Most of those who convert to Shi’itesm do so due to their own study of Shi’itesm rather than due to extensive da’wa activities by the Shi’ite community. Most converts come to Shi’itesm from intrinsic rather than extrinsic factors. However, the writings of one convert in particular have had a remarkable impact on converting Sunnis to Shi’itesm in America.

     The past decade has witnessed an increasing trend of foreign influences on American Muslims. In their desire to help their American brothers and sisters, Muslims abroad continue to shape the lives of American Muslims in diverse forms.

     However, extraneous influences have also led to conflicts within the American Muslim community. Some of these tensions stemmed from the desires of Muslims abroad to increase the sphere of the abode of Islam thus imposing their distinct ideologies. Tensions have also been generated by Saudi-Iranian political battles in the Middle East that have resurfaced in America. Indigenous conflicts have arisen due to an immigrant community that has had to come to terms with an alien culture. Discussion about whether to assimilate with the West or isolate from it has created much dissension between the adult and younger community.

     In many ways, the Muslim community is experiencing the tensions and conflicts experienced by the Jewish community when it began to settle in America. Given the conflicts and divisions within the Muslim community, it is quite possible that it too will be divided along the same lines that the Jewish community was. The challenge for the Muslim population in America is not only to engage in interfaith dialogue but also to initiate dialogue within the community.