Dissertation Title Page

UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Sources of Authority and Authenticity in American Shar’ia Law Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/02g575qq Author Benson, Kristina Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles ! ! ! ! ! ! Sources of Authority and Authenticity in American Shar’ia Law ! ! A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic Studies ! by Kristina Elizabeth Benson ! ! ! ! 2015 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Sources of Authority and Authenticity in American Shar’ia Law ! by ! Kristina Elizabeth Benson Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Sondra Hale, Chair ! In this project, I use anthropological, sociological, and ethnographic methodologies to interrogate the production of religious knowledge and concepts surrounding authority and authenticity for U.S. Muslims in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. First, I ask who exercises interpretive authority over religious texts to produce religious knowledge for the community. Second, I ask how Muslim Americans determine that religious knowledge is authoritative. Finally, I examine the extent to which there are tensions between American and Islamic values (however understood), and ask how these tensions are resolved . My research, drawn from internet-based ethnography and open-ended interviews, reveals inter alia that U.S. Muslims identify Islamic law as crucial to larger processes of decision- making as well as to the rhythm of their daily lives. While authority for U.S. Muslims primarily resides in self-authorized, individual interpretations of religious texts, certain members of the community are viewed as valuable resources for guiding the framework of interpretive efforts. ii The purpose of these interpretive efforts is oriented towards developing a personal relationship with God, experiencing a connection to the broader Muslim community, and living in harmony with key Islamic values like modesty and charity. Religious ideology, therefore, factors heavily into expressions of Muslim identity, particularly for U.S. Muslim women, who often strive to embody Islamicate values through a mix of sartorial and behavioral choices. At present, while there has been scholarly research on Muslims in the U.S., there is little scholarly work on the development of Islam itself in the U.S. The substance and content of U.S. Shar’ia law, as well as its sources of authority and drivers of authenticity, are largely unknown. Therefore, in a time when there is widespread anxiety about Shari’a law in the United States among non-Muslims, my project has applied significance to bodies of knowledge related to sociology, Islamic jurisprudence, and American studies; it also makes important contributions to anthropological and sociological theoretical frameworks regarding how the production of authoritative knowledge is influenced by the ubiquity of social media and on-line religious knowledge production. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! iii The dissertation of Kristina Elizabeth Benson is approved. Khaled M. Abou el Fadl Aslı Ü. Bâli Roger Waldinger Sondra Hale, Committee Chair ! ! ! ! ! ! ! University of California, Los Angeles 2015 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! iv Table of Contents ! Chapter I: Introduction and Purpose 1 Chapter I Bibliography 13 Chapter II: The Origins and Evolutions of Islam and Muslim Communities in 15 the US: Core Beliefs, Authority, and Authenticity in History Chapter II Bibliography 42 Chapter III: Review of Literature: Theoretical Framework and Methodological 45 Approach Chapter III Bibliography 81 Chapter IV: Individualism, Authority, and Legitimacy for U.S. Muslims 90 Chapter IV Bibliography 124 Chapter V: Identity, Ethnicity, and Religiosity for U.S. Muslims: The 127 Ethnicization of Islam Chapter V Bibliography 159 Chapter VI: Identity, Authenticity, and Gender: (Re) Evaluating Hijab in 165 Contemporary U.S. Contexts Chapter VI Bibliography 199 Chapter VII: Media Muftis: Computer Mediated Environments and Concepts of 202 Authority for U.S. Muslims Chapter VII Bibliography 234 Chapter VIII: Concluding Thoughts and Observations 236 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! v Acknowledgements ! This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and support of my parents, my fiancé, and my committee. I would additionally like to thank the Graduate Division for awarding me the Dissertation Year Fellowship to help support me during the writing phase of the dissertation. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! vi Biographical Sketch ! Kristina Benson’s research primarily focuses on Islam in contemporary Western contexts. She is particularly interested in themes relating to legal pluralism, Shar’ia law, and the War on Terror. Her work interrogates the effects of the securitization of Islam on articulations of Islam and the trajectory of Muslim religio-cultural norms. Because of her interdisciplinary background, she approaches these issues using a mix of sociological, anthropological, and critical theoretical frameworks. In so doing, her work destabilizes theoretical frameworks implying that “Muslim” and “Western” behavioral matrices are mutually exclusive and teases out the relationships between group and individual expressions of identity, solidarity, and piety. She received Bachelor’s degrees in Music and in Environmental Analysis and Design from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has presented papers at selective scholarly conferences in a number of disciplines, given invited lectures on topics such as public health, Islam, and gender. received training in interview techniques from the UCLA Research Library’s Department of Oral History, achieved advanced language competency in Persian and Arabic, and published papers in scholarly sources such as the UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law, the Buffalo Journal of Human Rights Law (a top ten law review in the field of human rights law), Voices of Claremont University Student Research Journal, and the Pacific McGeorge Journal of International Law. ! ! vii ! I. Introduction and Purpose ! In this project, I use anthropological, sociological, and ethnographic methodologies to interrogate the production of religious knowledge, and concepts surrounding authority and authenticity for U.S. Muslims in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Several research questions flow from this broad statement of purpose: first, I ask who exercises interpretive authority over religious texts to produce religious knowledge on behalf of the community. Second, I ask how Muslim Americans determine which religious knowledge is authoritative, and which is not credible. Finally, I examine the extent to which there are tensions between American and Islamic values (however understood), and ask how these tensions are resolved or otherwise dealt with. My research, based on both written and interview sources, reveals inter alia that Muslim Americans identify Islamic law as crucial to larger processes of decision-making as well as to the rhythm of their daily lives, and that they make enormous effort to instill in their children the importance of Islam and Islamicate values. While authority for U.S. Muslims primarily resides in self-authorized, individual interpretations of religious texts, certain key Media Muftis and local Imams—terms I will define more precisely in relevant chapters-- are viewed as valuable resources for guiding the framework of interpretive efforts. The purpose of these interpretive efforts is oriented towards developing a personal relationship with God, experiencing a connection to the broader Muslim community, and living a lifestyle in harmony with key Islamic values like modesty and charity. Religious ideology, therefore, factors heavily into expressions of !1 ! Muslim identity, particularly for U.S. Muslim women, who often strive to embody Islamicate values through a mix of sartorial and behavioral choices. As anthropologist Karen Leonard recognized, religion and religious identity can be enormous factors in shaping concepts of group and individual identity. However, it has only been in the past few decades that anthropologists and sociologists have begun interrogating this process. While there is research on Muslims in the U.S., there is little scholarly work on the development of Islam itself in the U.S. and the substance and content of U.S. Shar’ia law, as well as its sources of authority and drivers of authenticity, are largely unknown. Although I provide a nuanced and textured portrait of American Shari’a law for the Muslim community in Southern California, more work is needed to fill in this critical scholarly gap. Additionally, in a time when there is widespread anxiety about Shari’a law in the United States among non-Muslims, my project has applied significance to bodies of knowledge related to sociology, Islamic jurisprudence, and American studies; it also makes important contributions to anthropological and sociological theoretical frameworks regarding how the production of authoritative knowledge is influenced by the ubiquity of social media and on-line religious knowledge production. ! Setting and Field Site ! It is difficult to say with any certainty how many Muslims, exactly, reside in Southern California. At present, the U.S. Census is barred from asking people for their

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