This essay by Jenine Kotob was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Why Now, More Than Ever, We Need A New Islamic Architecture."

This essay by Jenine Kotob was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Why Now, More Than Ever, We Need A New Islamic Architecture."At a time when Muslims find themselves at the center of the nation?s political stage, the topic of Islamic architecture in the United States is more relevant than ever. The American mosque has become a prominent symbol, within which identities, practices, and cultures converge. More often than not, this convergence results in conflicting goals, further resulting in mosques that fail to identify and serve the needs of their diverse constituents.In a 2011 report entitled The American Mosque, Dr. Ihsan Bagby, professor in Islamic studies at University of Kentucky, conducted a survey that found that only 10% of Muslims attend a total of 2,106 mosques in the United States. The report indicated that 75% of all mosques are dominated by one ethnic group, ie, by South Asians, Arabs, or African Americans. It also found that women make up a mere 18% of the attendance at Friday prayers and that 66% of the mosques sampled use dividers or partitions to separate the women?s prayer area from the main mosque, segregating women from what could be broader communal and spiritual activities. Converts, who are primarily African Americans from urban areas, are recognized as ...