May Sughayar
Research Mentor: Hasher Nisar
Mentor Department: Political Science, LSA
Author(s): Not Available
Session: Session 3 (11:00 AM – 11:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 91
Abstract
The American Muslim Mosque has been present in the media and literature for more than twenty years. However, many of the conversations about mosques have widely focused on the post-9/11 era of surveillance and citizenship. As a result, less attention has been given to the everyday roles that mosques play in their local communities. Mosques function not only as active sites of worship, but also sites for community discourse and civic engagement and important hubs for the formation of collective Muslim identity through the practice of Islam. This research aims to introduce a new, publicly accessible data set documenting nearly all mosques in the United States, comprising over 2,000 locations nationwide. This is done through the original collection of data from multiple online sources and includes detailed information on mosque locations, founding dates, and institutional characteristics. Additionally, this research will gather data on key dimensions of mosque organizations, including ethnic orientation, sectarian affiliation, and Islamic educational activities. As such, this research will help improve how scholars study the American mosque. This dataset makes it possible to better understand how mosques are formed, how they differ in organization and identity, and how they are connected to their local communities across the United States.
