Journal of the American Academy of Religion Advance Access originally published online on June 9, 2009
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2009 77(2):199-237; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfp016
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Sufis on Parade: The Performance of Black, African, and Muslim Identities
Zain Abdullah, Department of Religion, 627 Anderson Hall, Temple University, 1114 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122-6090, USA
E-mail: zain{at}temple.edu
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Abstract |
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For over twenty years, West African Muslims from the Murid Sufi Brotherhood have organized the annual Cheikh Amadou Bamba Day parade in New York City. It is a major site where they redefine the boundaries of their African identities, cope with the stigma of blackness, and counteract an anti-Muslim backlash. Rather than viewing religion as a subset of ethnicity, this study shows how African Murids interrogate the meanings of religion, race and ethnicity as intersecting constructs. National flags from Senegal, Islamic chants, and banners advocating Black solidarity all indicate a negotiation of terms. Clothes worn during the parade act as symbols and afford them another opportunity to work out these borderlands, especially in contradistinction to African American converts who follow a slightly different course. This article examines how their religious procession creates a Murid cosmopolitanism, allowing them a space in which to reconcile multiple belongings.
I presented an earlier version of this paper for the Study of Islam Section at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. I am grateful for Markus Dressler's comments as a discussant. I also appreciate the remarks of Margaret J. Rausch from the floor and questions raised by other participants. I would like to thank all the reviewers for their helpful suggestions.