Even the most religiously traditional Muslims believe they should participate in American politics, according to a newly released study of one of the largest Muslim communities in the nation.
The survey of Detroit-area Muslims is the latest to show that the isolationism that once pervaded the immigrant Muslim community is dissipating. Muslims ranked protecting their civil rights as a top public policy issue, according to the study.
``A couple of decades ago, Muslims were, for the most part, internally focused and had very few involvements at any level'' with American civic life, said Ihsan Bagby, a University of Kentucky professor who conducted the study last summer but has just released the findings. ``Starting in the 1980s, the Muslim community, as it matured and it became a lot stronger, started to focus outside, to become more involved.''
Government scrutiny of American Muslims after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, has drawn even more members of the community into the public arena to defend themselves and their faith.
The project was conducted for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Michigan think-tank that specializes in Muslim issues.
Bagby, who also conducted a 2000 nationwide survey of mosques, said he focused this study in the Detroit-area because the ethnic mix of its Muslim community was representative of Muslims around the country.
The findings were based on interviews with mosque leaders and on questionnaires completed by nearly 1,300 Muslims who attend prayers on Friday, the Muslim day of worship. No margin of error was calculated.
Asked about their religious beliefs, respondents were fairly evenly divided between those who took a more traditional approach to Islam and those who believed it should be interpreted more liberally in a modern-day context. Only 8 percent said they followed ultraconservative teachings.
Yet, nearly two-thirds of the most conservative adherents strongly agreed that Muslims should participate in U.S. politics.
Overall, 78 percent of respondents said they strongly supported political involvement. Seventy-three percent said Muslims should work more closely with non-Muslims on community service projects.
``Islam itself does not lead one to a life of isolation and rejectionism,'' Bagby said.
On politics, respondents ranked civil rights as the most important issue for American Muslims, followed by education and U.S. foreign policy. Before Sept. 11, American policy in the Mideast had been a defining issue for the community.
Answering the survey just months after the invasion of Iraq, 85 percent of respondents said they disapproved of how President Bush was running the country. About two-thirds said they were registered to vote.