Dearborn, USA - Sayyid Haider Bahar al-Uloom paces before his students seated in two neat rows men in one, women in the other. They meet each week in a small office in an old storefront downtown, its shelves lined with Arabic texts on Islamic jurisprudence.
Tonight's lesson is on justice, but Bahar al-Uloom's lecture ranges wide from Muslim teaching. He cites the Federalist Papers, slavery in U.S. history and spirituality in President Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope."
The 37-year-old Iraqi Shiite consumes books on American culture and religion, analyzing the work of mega-pastors Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and others, to understand their appeal.
"We should not fear introducing people to other ideas," says Bahar al-Uloom, whose title, sayyid, is for those who trace their lineage to the Prophet Muhammad.
On this night, he ends his lecture with the same message he brings to Shiite groups across America: Your ideals, rooted in Islam, aren't alien here.
"We call them Islamic values, but they are universal values," he says. "If it's a principle or act that would help all Americans, all I need to do is speak it in a language that is universal."
Shiites make up less than 15 percent of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and an even smaller percentage of the Muslims in the U.S. Within the wider, mostly Sunni, Muslim world they are often persecuted as a minority sect.
Pious Shiites have seen threats to their faith from the permissive American way of life and what for many is their first experience of a non-Muslim government. Worried that voting or other civic involvement would violate Islamic law, many have opted instead to turn inward, focusing on preserving their traditions.
But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq and other world events have prompted some significant changes in the U.S. Shiite community. Shiite clerics and activists are pushing community members beyond the protective walls they built, encouraging them to fully embrace their American citizenship.
At the forefront is the nonprofit group that Bahar al-Uloom helps represent, called I.M.A.M., which tells Shiites they can vote, participate in the 2010 U.S. census and hold public office without abandoning their faith.
"In the United States, the law here is not against Islam," Sheik Mohammed el-Ali al-Halabi, a Syrian who came to the U.S. a decade ago, said as he sat in his bare-bones office at I.M.A.M. "I can be a good Muslim and a good American."
Half a world away from Dearborn lies the inspiration for this drive, an unexpected source for dramatic change: an elderly holy man who rarely leaves his home in the old quarter of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf and who will probably never visit the United States.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani isn't widely known in the U.S. outside public policy circles, but he should be. He is one of the most revered thinkers in global Shiism, a moderate in outlook and a powerful force in Iraq. His behind-the-scenes interventions were crucial to guiding Iraq's fledgling democracy.
The grand ayatollah and his advisers are pioneers in using the Web to reach their globally dispersed faithful. They teach that good Muslims must be active citizens of whatever country they call home.
As Shiites emigrate around the world, Sistani sends his representatives along to guide them on how to remain devout in a foreign culture.
I.M.A.M., the Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya, is the liaison office in America for Sistani.
The organization's lecturers and scholars crisscross the country to support fledgling Shiite institutions. Sistani is far from the only marja, or top-level religious authority, with American followers, but he is one of the most prominent.
"It's kind of a status symbol that you are recognized and trusted by the office of the ayatollah," said Liyakat Takim, author of "Shi'ism in America" and a professor at McMaster University in Canada. "It builds your credibility."
I.M.A.M. opened a year ago under the leadership of Sayyid Mohammad Baqir Kashmiri, a cleric who works in Dearborn and Los Angeles on behalf of Sistani and his advisers.
The Dearborn area has the biggest concentration of Shiites in the United States.
Bahar al-Uloom, I.M.A.M.'s vice chairman, graduated from public high school in Dearborn and Wayne State University, but his seminary education has been by correspondence with scholars from Najaf and from Qom, Iran — prominent centers of Shiite learning.
He and his cousin Sayyid Hassan al-Hakim, a 26-year-old graduate student in public administration, often arrive early in the morning to study before the deluge of calls and e-mails with questions about Islamic law and requests for help. I.M.A.M. also produces a glossy educational magazine, Reflections.
"Muslims should be essential participants in their respective societies while maintaining the beauty of Islam as their code of conduct," says a recent Reflections article titled "Being American and Being Muslim."
The same article condemns "so-called 'Muslims' who endanger innocent lives." It urges Muslims and non-Muslims to report any potential threats to civil authorities.
In the basement is the organization's video production arm, AscentTV.net. The shows are in English and include lectures on Islamic teaching and the importance of interfaith relations as well as discussions of workplace and family issues.
An underlying theme of the shows is that observant Shiites can find ways to fit into Western society. On a program for young professionals, Wissam Bazzi, a 34-year-old who works at AscentTV, holds out his right arm to show how men can create a personal safe zone — two or three arm lengths — to avoid being drawn into a handshake or hug with a female co-worker.
AscentTV was created by Aous Asfar, a veteran branding executive, and targets Shiites younger than 35.
"They don't have to feel like outsiders," said Asfar, a Canadian of Iraqi descent.