Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest

The book "Muslims of the Heartland" explores the history of Muslim communities in the early American Midwest, highlighting the contributions and experiences of Syrian Americans. It challenges the notion of the region as uniformly white and Christian and reveals a multicultural history that has been overlooked.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2022
Publisher: New York University Press

The American Midwest is frequently perceived as uniformly white and shaped solely by Christian principles. However, this portrayal of the region as an unchanging landscape fails to account for a significant community that resides at its core. Muslims of the Heartland unveils the remarkable history of Muslims in a region where many readers would not anticipate encountering them. Edward E. Curtis IV, a descendant of Syrian Midwesterners, vividly portrays the courageous individuals who toiled on the short-grass prairies of the Dakotas, sold needles and lace on the streets of Cedar Rapids, and worked in the railroad car factories of Michigan City. This intimate portrait follows the stories of individuals such as farmer Mary Juma, pacifist Kassem Rameden, poet Aliya Hassen, and bookmaker Kamel Osman from the early 1900s through World War I, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and World War II. Its story-driven approach centers Syrian Americans at the forefront of pivotal American institutions like the assembly line, the family farm, the dance hall, and the public school, demonstrating how the first two generations of Midwestern Syrians crafted a life that was Arab, Muslim, and American, all simultaneously.

Muslims of the Heartland recreates the visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory landscape of the Syrian Muslim Midwest, encompassing the allspice-seasoned lamb and rice shared in mosque basements and the sound of the trains on the Rock Island Line passing by the dry goods store. It restores a multicultural history of the American Midwest that cannot be disregarded.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 161 x 236 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479812561