The Rumi Forum presented “Untangling the Web: How Religion, Politics, Ethnicity and Other Issues Have Always Made the Middle East a Mess” by Ori Soltes
The most comprehensive study ever done on the American Muslim community, Journey into America explores and documents how Muslims are fitting into U.S. society, seeking to place the Muslim experience in the U.S. within the larger context of American identity. In doing so, it is a major contribution to the study of American history and culture.
Renowned scholar Akbar Ahmed and his team of young researchers traveled through over seventy-five cities across the United States—from New York City to Salt Lake City; from Las Vegas to Miami; from large enclaves such as Dearborn, Michigan, to small towns like Arab, Alabama. They visited over one hundred mosques and visited homes and schools to discover what Muslims are thinking, what they are reading, and how they are living every day in America.
Ahmed illuminates unexplored Muslim-American communities through his pursuit of challenging questions: Can we expect an increase in homegrown terrorism? How do American Muslims of Arab descent differ from those of other origins (e.g. Somali or South Asian)? Why are so many white women converting to Islam? He also delves into the potentially sticky area of relations with other religions. For example, is there truly a deep divide between Muslims and Jews in America? And how well do Muslims get along with other larger religious groups, such as Mormons in Utah?
Much like Ahmed’s widely hailed Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization(Brookings, 2007), Journey into America is equal parts anthropological research, listening tour, and travelogue. Whereas the previous book took the reader into homes, schools, mosques, and public places in heavily Muslim nations, Journey into America takes us into the heart of America’s Muslim communities in America. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of America today, especially its Muslim population—the challenges it faces, the challenges it poses, and its prospects for the future.
Synopsis: The Middle East is a tangled web. Religion, ethnicity, nationalism, politics as well as economics interweave each other and are in turn interwoven with confusing definitions, conflicting aspirations and constant interferences from outside the region. This volume unravels these threads in a concise and even-handed manner, reaching back through four thousand years of history and exploring how the complex narrative of the Middle East has been fraught for countless generations with the complications that remain in evidence today.
Ori Z. Soltes is Goldman Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Fine Arts at Georgetown University, and the former Director and Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, where he curated over 80 exhibitions. He has taught and lectured in 23 other universities and museums throughout the country, on subjects ranging from the Arab-Israeli conflict to “The Body in Ancient Art.” Both before and since his years as a museum director, he has guest-curated exhibitions across the United States and overseas that have focused on diverse aspects of both Western art throughout the ages and art beyond the West from across the world.
Professor Soltes was educated in Classics and Philosophy at Haverford College, in Classics at Princeton University and The Johns Hopkins University, and in Interdisciplinary Studies at Union University. He is the author of over 180 articles, exhibition catalogues, essays and books on a wide range of topics, and the writer, director, and narrator of over thirty documentary videos. His most recent books include Our Sacred Signs: How Christian, Jewish and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source, The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust, and Mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Searching for Oneness. Two current book projects include Untangling the Web: Why the Middle East is a Mess and Always Has Been and Famous Jewish Trials: From Jesus to Jonathan Pollard.