False Universals and "Immigrant Islam" 1

Immigrant Islam embodies the habit of universalizing the particular. It enshrines the historically informed expressions of Islam in the modern Muslim world as the standard of normativeness for Muslims everywhere. In fact, it equates its understanding of Islam itself with a simple, unmediated perception of an undifferentiated ontological reality. On this approach, “true Islam” can only assume one form anywhere it goes. And in this process, Immigrant Islam’s interpretations are effectively placed beyond critique via the tacit denial that they are in fact interpretations. In short, Immigrant Islam does not interpret; it merely transfers “true” Islam from one location to the next.

-pg. 12 of Sherman A. Jackson's Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection

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