"Yet, even Modernized Islam, in its American manifestation, poses a number of very serious problems for Blackamerican Muslims.

First, the entire edifice of Modernized Islam is grounded in a medieval social order that was highly stratified and dedicated to the principle that religious knowledge was not accessible to everyone but was the preserve of a chosen elite. This was a society in which both literacy and access to books were severely limited, in contradistinction to modern (especially Western) societies, where mandatory education and easy access to books (and now the Internet) endows even the masses with a certain autodidactic spirit and the belief that religious knowledge is open to all. Modernized scholars in the West also tend towards a certain romanticism that portrays the classical Tradition as an unattainable ideal for most mortals. American-born scholars who have studied this tradition are often even more romantic and confirm the view that only those who were born into it, particularly Arabs, can ever master it to the point of justifiably claiming any authority. These scholars rarely speak or act with independence but tend to see and present themselves as pupils of their overseas teachers. Rather than contribute to the efficacy and empowerment of American Muslims and enhance their ability to indigenize Islam, Modernized American scholars often speak and act in ways that undermine their countrymen's confidence and reduce them to accepting the ascendancy of their overseas and immigrant brethren."

-pg. 90 of Islam and the Blackamerican by Sherman A. Jackson