The history of Islam in the US has been changed dramatically by
the events of September I I, 200 I. The directions now being taken
reverse earlier tendencies on the part of American Muslim political
organisations to narrow the boundaries of the community and to
emphasise foreign policy issues at the expense of domestic ones. ·
These new directions, however, broaden the boundaries of
American Islam in other ways, drawing more widely on the
religion's rich, long-standing traditions of humanistic and legal
scholarship. Importantly also, the directions now being taken are
being strongly shaped by non-Muslim politicians and the media in
the US, in an interaction between American Muslims and the state
that is, perhaps paradoxically, drawing Muslims more closely
into national political Life.