MOORE, Kathleen M.

Muslims in the United States : pluralism under exceptional circumstances - Thousand Oaks : SAGE, July 2007

In the contemporary United States, can Muslims draw on religious authorities living in other, very different societies and to the normative ideas those authorities espouse? Or is this a challenge that cannot be tolerated by distinctively American dogmas of what constitutes a good society? The concept of pluralism, as fact and theory, is discussed in light of what the Muslim American experience has to tell us about the limits of tolerance. The idiosyncratic circumstances of Muslim Americans gives rise to both an internal struggle to be pluralists and an outward struggle to negotiate rights and liberties in a climate of fear. The study of Muslims in the United States illustrates the need to rethink what the term pluralism means in America.