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June 22, 2005
The Detroit mosque Study revisited
by Dr. Ihsan Bagby and M. Misbah Shahid
During the summer of 2004, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) released the results of an extensive study on Detroit metropolitan area mosques. Dr. Ihsan Bagby of the University of Kentucky conducted the study, surveying more than 1,300 participants from twelve different local mosques. An additional thirty-two mosques were also profiled in detail.
While the study has given the outside world a rare glimpse into the mosque, it has also served as a tool for Muslim communities and their leaders to strategically plan for the future. Specifically, the trends and
demographics identified in the survey highlight important social and religious challenges that American Muslims living in metropolitan areas face. Without adequately understanding and preparing for these challenges, American Muslim leaders and community activists risk becoming irrelevant to their respective constituents.
Major Findings:
1. A large number of metropolitan Detroit mosques house predominantly one ethnic group (24 percent vs. 7 percent nationally). The study found very little interaction as well as poor coordination between the leadership of any two mosques and the activities they plan. This phenomenon is not true of all metropolitan areas.
2. The majority of immigrants in Detroit – 58 percent – have been in the country since 1990. Furthermore, the American Muslim community saw an influx of immigrants from a variety of ethnic backgrounds prior to September 11. Newer immigrants are drastically more intent on returning to their own homeland. Consequently, these new immigrants have a lower sense of belonging to the community. However, their sense of belonging increases with length of time they spend in the United States.
3. The second generation of immigrant Muslims in the city is growing in number and attendance. Well over half of the people attending the mosques are under the age of 39: 43 percent are ages 21 to 39, while 54 percent are in the 15 to 20-year-old age bracket. However, this growth of the youth sector also brings with it a very negative attitude toward the mosque and the community. The second-generation community ranked as having the lowest sense of belonging to the mosque. They also had the lowest interest in Islamic schools – 25 percent interest vs. 50 percent interest among first generation immigrants.
4. American Muslims in Detroit stated that community priorities are as follows, in order of preference: 1) education, 2) schools, 3) youth, 4) unity, and 5) spiritual growth. There is relatively little support for involvement in the surrounding non-Muslim community. However, there is a strong support – more than 90 percent – for political involvement of some kind.
5. The role of women in the Detroit Muslim community is limited at best. Women are allowed to attend and serve or have served on the board of only a little more than one- half of the mosques surveyed. The other half was split almost evenly between mosques that allowed women to serve, but simply had none that were serving, and mosques that restricted women from serving on the board. Moreover, total attendance of women at the congregational Friday prayer averaged less than 15 percent. When taking different ethnicities into account, African American communities were the most open to female involvement, while South Asian communities were the most restrictive. Arab communities tended to fall somewhere in between.
Read full report: http://www.ispu.us/reports/the_detroit_mosque_study.html
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