"It seems necessary to know a bit more about the Muslims living, working and raising families here in the US. The site below provides a rather biased summation (or so it seems to me) but the demographics are hard to characterize in the same manner.
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/muslimlife/ Mosques in the United States: 1,209
American Muslims associated with a mosque: 2 million
Increase in number of mosques since 1994: 25 percent
Proportion of mosques founded since 1980: 62 percent
Average number of Muslims associated with each mosque in the United States: 1,625
U.S. mosque participants who are converts: 30 percent
American Muslims who "strongly agree" that they should participate in American institutions and the political process: 70 percent
U.S. mosques attended by a single ethnic group: 7 percent
U.S. mosques that have some Asian, African-American, and Arab members: nearly 90 percent
Ethnic origins of regular participants in U.S. mosques:
South Asian (Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Afghani) = 33 percent
African-America = 30 percent
Arab = 25 percent
Sub-Saharan African = 3.4 percent
European (Bosnian, Tartar, Kosovar, etc.) = 2.1 percent
White American = 1.6 percent
Southeast Asian ( Malaysian, Indonesian, Filipino) = 1.3 percent
Caribbean = 1.2 percent
Turkish = 1.1 percent
Iranian = 0.7 percent
Hispanic/Latino = 0.6 percent
U.S. mosques that feel they strictly follow the Koran and Sunnah: more than 90 percent
U.S. mosques that feel the Koran should be interpreted with consideration of its purposes and modern circumstances: 71 percent
U.S. mosques that provide some assistance to the needy: nearly 70 percent
U.S. mosques with a full-time school: more than 20 percent I should be putting my closing in caps but I tend not to be rude... especially with associates of such high caliber. I have advised everyone I know, many of whom I have met only through net contact, to learn as much as they can about "hadiths." These are supposedly direct quotes of Muhammed and many Muslims/Moslems live by them as adjuncts to Koranic teaching. I hate to be seen as beating a dead horse (that's VERY messy) but one of the most often quoted "hadiths" is as follows."Peace is found under and Arab blade." You can take that one to the bank... for many Muslims, not yet involved in overt terrorism, still believe that Muhammed did speak these words. I am left to wonder, at what point do the peaceful faithful become rabid agents of terror?
Regards,
Mike
To quote Neal Boortz (radio dude)
"All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9-11 !"