Major Study on American Mosques to Be Released at D.C. National Press Club

On Wednesday, 29 February, a coalition of major American Muslim and academic organizations will hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to release the results of a comprehensive study of mosques and the attitudes of mosque leaders in the United States.

The report, titled "The American Mosque 2011: Basic Characteristics of the American Mosque, Attitudes of Mosque Leaders," is the first part of the larger U.S. Mosque Survey 2011 to be published. To conduct the survey, researchers counted all mosques in America and then conducted telephone interviews with mosque leaders.

The U.S. Mosque Survey 2011 is in turn part of a massive study project of American religious congregations called Faith Communities Today (FACT), which is a project of Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, a multi-faith coalition of denominations and faith groups.

Major findings to be released at the Wednesday news conference include data on the growth in the number of American mosques and mosque participants in the past 10 years, demographic characterizes of mosques and mosque participants, the approaches American mosque leaders take to interpretations of the Quran and Sunnah (the normative practice of Islam's Prophet Muhammad), and the attitudes of mosque leaders toward Muslim involvement in American society and toward the so-called "radicalization" of Muslim youth.

Speakers at the news conference will include:

Ihsan Bagby, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky

David Roozen, Director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research

Nihad Awad, National Executive Director of the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Zahid Bukhari, President of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)

Safaa Zarzour, Secretary General of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)

Imam Mohamed Magid, President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)

Sponsors of the U.S. Mosque Survey 2011 include: The Hartford Institute for Religion Research (Hartford Seminary), the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North American (ISNA), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).