When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America's Fight for Religious Freedom

by Asma T. Uddin

Overview

A galvanizing look at constitutional freedoms in the United States through the prism of attacks on the rights of American Muslims.

Religious liberty lawyer Asma Uddin has long considered her work defending people of all faiths to be a calling more than a job. Yet even as she seeks equal protection for Evangelicals, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike, she has seen an ominous increase in attempts to criminalize Islam and exclude American Muslims from their inalienable rights.

Somehow, the view that Muslims aren’t human enough for human rights or constitutional protections is moving from the fringe to the mainstream, along with the claim “Islam is not a religion.” This conceit affects all Americans because the loss of liberty for one means the loss of liberties for everyone.

When Islam Is Not a Religion also looks at how faith in America is being secularized and politicized, and the repercussions this has on debates about religious freedom and diversity.

Woven throughout this national saga is Uddin’s own story. She combines her experience as a person of Muslim faith and her legal and philosophical appreciation that all individuals have a right to religious liberty. Uddin examines the shifting tides of American culture and outlines a way forward for individuals and communities navigating today’s culture wars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643136059
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,080,649
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Asma T. Uddin is a religious liberty lawyer who has worked on cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate courts, and federal trial courts. She is the founding editor-in-chief of altmuslimah.com and was an executive producer for the Emmy and Peabody-nominated docuseries, The Secret Life of Muslims. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Teen Vogue. Asma lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Introduction 13

Part 1 "Stop the Islamization of America."

Chapter 1 "Islam is not a religion." 31

Chapter 2 "I think Islam hates us." 65

Chapter 3 "What is religious freedom, anyway?" 104

Chapter 4 "You have to deal with the mosques." 139

Chapter 5 "What is sharia and why does it matter?" 176

Part II "Good" versus "Bad" Muslims

Chapter 6 "If you hate terror, stay here." 213

Chapter 7 "Why hijab?" 251

Chapter 8 "Who you gonna call? Religious Liberty Task Force!" 280

Acknowledgments 321

About The Author 323

Appendix 325

Notes 328

Editorial Reviews

"A must read—especially for conservative Christians like me—to better understand the scope and the stakes of the religious liberty debate. I hope it starts a long-overdue conversation among believes. It stands to be a landmark in the religious freedom discussion."

Rod Dreher

"A stirring defense of religious freedom, which, try as we might, is inseparable from human freedom. As Uddin writes: ‘It’s not our beliefs that religious liberty protects—it protects us, the humans who hold those beliefs. Put another way, religious liberty protects believers, not beliefs.'"

Washington Post

"Asma Uddin has written a terrific book. It is all at once a primer on the very American commitment to religious freedom, a history of the discrimination that Muslims in America have endured since 9/11 and a window into the life of a leading American Muslim intellectual. It is both deeply researched and a joy to read. I give it my highest recommendation."

Eboo Patel

"The freedom to practice and cultivate one’s faith is the bedrock of America’s founding principles. People have come to our country to escape religious persecution, but there has been a rising tide of discrimination right here at home. Ms. Uddin is a leader for religious freedom and calls our attention to the challenges facing First Amendment rights in the post-9/11 world."

Senator Orrin G. Hatch

"Asma Uddin, the preeminent defender of religious freedom for American Muslims, has for years been patiently explaining why her faith is no threat to non-Muslims. When Islam Is Not a Religion is an eloquent plea for tolerance, weaving astute legal analysis with a compelling personal story. Prejudice cannot survive her testimony."

NPR - Tom Gjelten

"In the age of Donald Trump, American Muslims face a graver threat to their religious freedom than any other group. Everyone who cares about American freedom should grasp the danger and rally to their cause. In her remarkable book, Asma Uddin explains how."

Peter Beinart

"Asma Uddin’s book explores a critical and unknown dimension of Islamophobia—the false claim that Islam is not a religion—as well as the danger of this claim to American religious freedom as we know it. It is required reading for anyone who cares about the future and health of our democracy."

Dalia Mogahed

"I have been waiting for this book a long time. It is written by a young American scholar and lawyer who has fought for religious liberty for all, who also just happens to practice Islam. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand religious freedom and how it relates to American Muslims. This could be the most important book written so far on the challenges Islam faces in the United States. You don't have to agree with everything but you should respect the thought process and the person writing it."

Bob Roberts

"A compelling examination of the nation’s ongoing efforts to balance religious freedom with civil liberties – and where, in the 21st century, those efforts are falling short, particularly for Muslims but also for other non-majority communities. Uddin avoids heated rhetoric in favor of an insightful examination of modern-day Islam in the U.S. and worldwide, and argues persuasively that the United States’ commitment to religious liberty must not be derailed by animus toward those who distort Islam and use it as a mechanism of intolerance, political terrorism and violence. If you want to think seriously about the future of freedom of religion, this is a must-read."

Gene Policinski

"A bold exploration of Islam’s legal place in U.S. society, as well as a deeply personal glimpse into one American family’s Muslim faith. Uddin’s efforts to counter ignorance with grace and humility are ever-present in this well-researched first book. She presents the reader with thought-provoking examples of religious persecution that ultimately threaten to compromise the religious freedom of all Americans, not just Muslims."

Shelf Awareness

"A powerful book examining how modern discourse has tried to put Islam and Muslims into a small box of political identity. As Asma Uddin demonstrates, Islam is a vast corpus of ideas and Muslims incredibly diverse in the way they approach their faith. This book is a necessity at a time when American society is deeply divided. Perhaps in learning to recognize and appreciate the diversity within Islam, we can learn to transcend the differences we have with each other."

Kamran Pasha

"Uddin details the evolution over recent years of the shocking slander that one of the world’s three Abrahamic faiths, is not a religion; and therefore that its American adherents are not entitled to the protections enjoyed by citizens of all other faiths under the US Constitution. Drawing on her extensive career as a lawyer in religious freedom cases she examines the current landscape of the law. Even more, she describes the effect of bigotry and otherization on the human heart, calling on her experience as listener, feminist, mother and daughter."

Meryl Chertoff

"A stirring defense of religious freedom, which, try as we might, is inseparable from human freedom. As Uddin writes: ‘It’s not our beliefs that religious liberty protects—it protects us, the humans who hold those beliefs. Put another way, religious liberty protects believers, not beliefs.'"

Washington Post