Review of The North American Muslim Resource Guide: Muslim Community Life in the United States and Canada

The North American Muslim Resource Guide is a project of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is one of the most important Muslim public affairs organizations in North America. It was written by Mohamed Nimer, who since 1997 has been the principal investigator for the American Muslim Databank Project of CAIR. The book is divided into ten chapters. It begins with an introductory chapter on Islam and Muslims in North America, followed by a chapter on estimates of Muslim populations in North America. The other eight chapters deal with various Muslim groups: mosques and Islamic centres; schools; community development groups; ethnic groups; social services and charities; media; public affairs organizations; and research organizations.

The most useful part of the book is its second half, which consists of a 127-page directory of Muslim organizations in the United States and Canada. Every state and province, with the exception of Vermont, is represented. This directory will be a very important research tool for those doing work on Muslim communities in North America. Where possible, email and web addresses are also provided, as well as mailing addresses and telephone numbers. One suggestion for improvement would be to provide this directory as a web page to purchasers of the book. That web page could then be regularly updated as the organizations change their contact information.

While the directory section of the book will be welcomed by scholars doing academic work on Muslims in North America, the first half of the book is not intended for specialists in this area. For example, the book makes no mention of the dissertations or scholarly books on Muslims in North America written in the past decade by Shaheen Azmi, Rima Berns McGown, Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Zohra Husaini, Amir Hussain, Shanaz Khan, Gisela Webb, or Ahtnad Yousif. Instead, the text is aimed at people with little or no knowledge of North American Islam, and so would be an ideal starting point for student research.