WASHINGTON, 3 December 2002 — When does being a Muslim count? Are you a Muslim only if you regularly attend a mosque? This is not a theological question, but rather one researchers are using to learn how many Muslims reside in the US.
The Glenmary Research Center, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, says there are 1.6 million Muslims in the US, but Muslim organizations say there are over 7 million. Statistics vary tremendously. The obvious source, the US Census, does ask religious questions.
Tom W. Smith, a researcher, recently wrote on the frustration over this issue in Public Opinion Quarterly: “None of the 23 specific estimates during the past five years is based on a scientifically sound or explicit methodology as far as one can tell from the published reports. All can probably be characterized as guesses or assertions.”
Researchers say that since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which focused world attention on the terrorist Muslim group, Al-Qaeda, many Muslims hesitate to talk about their religion with strangers, even those trying to poll them over the telephone.
Other surveys turn to immigration data focusing on ancestry and country of origin. Immigrants are simply difficult to count, according to journalist Joyce Davis, author of “Between Jihad and Salaam.”
“A significant number of Muslims simply do not want people to be able to trace them through the mosque,” she said in a recent interview. “This was true before 9/11 and it certainly is true now. The assumption is that the FBI is paying close attention to those membership lists. Many Muslims — for a variety of reasons — may not want to join anything right now.”
Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director of CAIR, the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations, said part of the confusion in the figuring out how many Muslims are in America, “comes from what numbers are used in defining a Muslim. If you define a Muslim as someone who goes to the mosque on a regular basis, then the numbers will be much lower. But if you count the people who don’t go to mosque on a regular basis, but who still call themselves Muslims, then the numbers will obviously be much higher.”
Commenting on the recent attempts to survey his community, Hooper said researchers are making the mistake of focusing only on those Muslims who regularly attend a mosque: “There may well be only two million Muslim Americans who regularly attend a mosque, but what they do not factor in is that the largest segment of the community are not involved, unfortunately, in attending a mosque.
“Muslims are not easily accessible to those who are counting heads, because we are such a diverse community. Take a look at the taxi drivers at Washington National Airport — of the 700 drivers there, I bet 80 percent are Muslim, but few would show up in a poll. They are not accessible, for a variety of reasons,” said Hooper.
The “fear factor” is also a big issue: many Muslim Americans fear what they see as increasing scrutiny by US authorities, and wish to blend into American culture rather than stick out. Many have changed their names, or simply “Americanized” their names. “Mo” seems to be a favorite distortion of Mohamed, for example.
Under the post 9/11 Homeland Security Bill, many Muslim Americans have been detained for questioning, and have remained in detention.
Also, US lawmakers have recently criticized the FBI investigation following the Sept. 11 attacks, saying the bureau has not sufficiently examined the possibility that many Muslim Americans might have given money to questionable Muslim charities — that might have funded terrorists — both at home and abroad.
