Without forgetting the Imam : Lebanese Shi\ism in American community / Linda S. Walbridge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walbridge, Linda S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shīʻah--United States--Michigan.

Shīʻah.

Lebanese--Michigan--Dearborn.

Lebanese.

Dearborn (Mich.)--Religious life and customs.

Dearborn (Mich.).

Michigan--Dearborn.

United States.

Michigan.

Physical Description:

242 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, [1997]

Summary:

Without Forgetting the Imam is an ethnographic study of the religious life of the Lebanese Shi'ites of Dearborn, Michigan, the largest Muslim community outside of the Middle East. Based on four years of fieldwork, this book explores how the Lebanese who have emigrated, most in the past three decades, to the United States, have adapted to their new surroundings. Anthropologist Linda Walbridge delves into the ways in which politics and religion have converged as the Lebanese Shi'i community has remade its identity and accommodated itself to a new environment. She captures a broad picture of religious life within the realm of community living and within the mosques which have proliferated in Dearborn. Walbridge explains how Shi'ites, affected in one way or another by Islamic revivalism, have brought different notions of how their religion should be expressed and carried out in America. These differences are reflected in mosque rituals, social functions, sermons, and educational activities. She also explores how contemporary Middle Eastern politics and the religious leadership in Iran and Iraq influence the functioning of the mosques.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-237) and index.

ISBN:

0814326757

OCLC:

35042033