the distinction between 'indigenization,' that is, carving out a space for oneself in society and "assimilation," that is, accepting the place in society assigned to one by the dominant group. In the case of Blackamerican Muslims, this is a critical distinction, for, as both blacks and as Muslims, experience has suggested that the dominant culture does not have all the answers and that in many instances accepting the invitation to be included in the latter might be tantamount to accepting admission into a burning building.
-pg. 169 of Sherman Jackson's Islam and the Blackamerican
[footnote 80: To take just one example of the inadequacies of present understandings of both pluralism and equality, Stephen Carter notes that he was told by a leading evangelist that Muslim inmates have no cause to complain because they have all the rights and privileges that Christian inmates have. Carter perceptively responds: "No doubt they do. But they would prefer to have the rights they need as Muslims. The right to do everything that Christians are allowed to do is not the same as the right to follow God in their own way." Carter, God's Name in Vain, 157-158. See also my "Shari'ah, Democracy and the Modern Nation State: Some Reflections on Islam, Popular Rule and Pluralism," Fordham International Law Journal 27, no. 1 (December, 2003): 102-107.]
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