Conversion to Islam in Colorado

<p>In the scholarship concerning conversion to Islam in the West, few books or articles have been written that examine non-African American US converts. Furthermore, this literature generally neglects using models of conversion for analyzing US Muslims. This thesis is an attempt to begin such a project. For this thesis, I interviewed 13 converts to Islam over the course of a month and a half at a local mosque: 8 females and 5 males; 9 white, 3 Latina/o, and 1 non-African American black. These converts told me their stories of conversion: beginning with their life prior to conversion, the process leading up to conversion, the conversion experience, and the events that took place after their conversion. In this thesis I compare their responses with other studies of non-African American converts in the West. While these converts share many similarities with their European counterparts, there are 4 prominent differences: the Denver converts, on the whole, had religious upbringings; most have moved several times throughout their lives; European converts tended to have higher education levels; and Denver converts are far less attracted to intellectual aspects of Islam, while being more attracted to spiritual aspects.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2009

Author dc:creator

• Bowen, Patrick D.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Liyakat Takim, Ph.D.
• Luis Leon
• Nader Hashemi

• Conversion
• Islam
• Latino
• United States
• West
• White
• Islamic Studies
• Religion

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/79

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1078