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Nieman Reports Summer 2007 Issue Islam: Reporting in Context and With Complexity American Muslims By Andrea Elliott By some estimates, as many as six million Muslims live in the United States. They have roots around the globe, from Albania to Senegal, Guyana to Pakistan. Some 34 percent of American Muslims are of South Asian descent, another 26 percent are of Arab extraction, and roughly a quarter of them are African-American, according to the pollster John Zogby. The rich texture of American Islam draws not only from that mix of race, ethnicity and national origin, but also from a spectrum of religious expression—secular and devout, Sunni and Shi'ite, flexibly modern and rigidly
One thing binding many American Muslims together is their relative prosperity. Muslims began arriving in large numbers in the 1960's, after immigration reforms granted entry to thousands of skilled workers from the Middle East and South Asia. A larger percentage of immigrants from Muslim countries have graduate degrees than other U.S. residents, and their average salary is about 20 percent higher, according to census data. Andrea Elliott covers Islam in America, a beat she created in 2005 for The New York Times. Her three-part series, "An Imam in America," won the 2007 Pulitzer for Feature Writing. She is learning Arabic. Back to main article: Andrea Elliott Table of contents Printer-friendly format |
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