And then in a time of great change that we are seeing in America a time of tension of crisis that is the backdrop. Not only for Muslims it is a time for great uncertainty and change for all Americans white or non white Muslim or non Muslim issues of the economy issues of the interminable wars overseas the immigration issues, the first time that we have a non white president in the white house. All these are causing a lot of anguish and soul searching and debate and controversy and then the role of Islam. So when you put this in the background and you have a tiny community which has not really thrown up that kind of leadership that a community needs and requires you suddenly realize the enormity of the challenge the community faces. And we saw this that on the ground we met many Imams especially African American Imams very impressive, very impressive. These are wise compassionate leaders but they are really restricted to the community. And the next mosque may have a very different kind of leadership, many of the Imams in many mosques created the question in my mind as to how well connected, they were with local people?

So if you’re a Muslim teenager and you had problems you wanted to ask a lot of young people asking questions about the boundaries around the Islam. And the issues that concern them are dating, drugs, drinking the 4Ds as the young Muslims call it. Who do they talk to? In Muslim culture the relationship between parents and the young generation is not as free as it is in most American homes. So they may then want to talk to the local Imam priest the local Muslim priest. And if the local priest happens to be from Egypt or Bangladesh or Pakistan they are coming from a very different culture. And they will not be able to satisfy the young American teenager quite easily or fluently. And therefore the teenager then is left floundering for answers. And that is why some of them, a very tiny number may then just go on the internet and get in touch with people overseas. So we did see that these are problems that are out there and they are simmering. And our job as scholars as researchers was really to capture what anthropologists call take a snap shot of a society at that moment in time. And we need many more studies like this we need many more studies like this of not only the Muslim community but the Muslim community in the context of American society today living in the north and the south in the east and the west and then cross culture comparisons of these societies.

Michelle: And so if you had to predict that’s what we’re always trying to do in journals and say… say something ten years from now that will seem like [IB]. So if you had to guess where this discussion about leadership is going is there are there particular issues that you think? Obviously people aren’t coalescing around this you know sort of outcry of criticism and prejudice against Islam. I mean what are the, what where is this going are there particular issues are there particular people or particular ways that you think this is going to… If we were looking again down the road to see, where is the leadership going to come from?