Turning to Islam: African-American conversion stories

Christian Century, July 12, 2003 by Rose-Marie Armstrong

Dannin also writes of Aminah Ali, who converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim. In her case, the marriage was called off because she learned that "being a Muslim wife implied a particular status that excluded her from camaraderie with her husband and his friends." Aminah eventually left the faith. Dannin says that Aminah was adamantly opposed to "the popular assertion that polygamy is truly a viable solution for the dearth of marriageable men among African-Americans."

Who would expect well-educated 25-year-old Sherifah, whom I met at the Masjid Mohammad and who speaks Mandarin Chinese and Arabic, to permit her husband to have another wife? Yet in a conversation with me she upheld plural marriage in principle. "In our community we say it's best to marry one, but we don't want to see another sister struggling [without resources]," she told me. "Some groups say you can put in the marriage contract that the husband cannot take a second wife. But, actually, a lot of men marry a second wife." Speaking of her own upcoming marriage, Sherifah confides that she thinks it will be monogamous, since her fiance was not born Muslim and is not, therefore, culturally attached to polygamy.

Dannin offers a nuanced and revealing discussion of polygamy that underscores how perplexing the issue is for Muslims themselves. Most orthodox Muslims believe in interpreting scripture along very strict lines, and the Qur'an does indeed permit polygamy. To forbid what scripture teaches is considered blasphemous. Yet Dannin points out that most Muslim leaders who "are concerned with propagating their faith in 20th-century America have minimized the importance of polygamy to Islam. Historically, this strategy amounts to accommodation with the dominant form of monogamy in a society where polygamy itself transgresses the definition of marriage. The general view of polygamy is that it is an institution alien to American culture and generally incompatible with modem society. If Muslim men are reluctant to admit this publicly, it is also because they avoid this very controversial issue among themselves."

Abdul Malek Muhammad, speaking for the Muslim American Society, told me that the society strongly disapproves of plural marriages.

For Dannin, patriarchy, which in his view troubles all major world religions, is the deeper problem beneath polygamy. Fatima Mernissi, he observes, is one of the few scholars who has "waded boldly into the question of feminism and Islam" with books like Beyond the Veil.

None of the Muslim women I spoke with, however, were interested in feminist analysis. They enjoy the respect they receive from Muslim men, and many like the rules on modest dress and chastity. A younger crowd praised chaperoned and group dating.

Women also like the fact that no matter how much money they earn, they have no monetary responsibilities in the marriage. "That's because, should the man divorce a wife, she needs her own money," one member of the mosque told me. The clarity with which Islam defines the economic rights and responsibilities of women is appealing to African-American Muslim women, in contrast to what they see as the ambiguities of American society. How well it works in practice is another matter. Dannin sites numerous cases in which men failed to live up to their responsibilities. As in any community, individual abuses cannot be blamed on the religion. The security and personal empowerment marriage promises Muslim women are only as dependable as the individual who makes the promise.