PART II. THE AMERICAN BORN GENERATION
CHAPTER 5
Why Mosque?
Motivations for building a mosque were both outer and inner-directed. One American born Muslim woman and executive officer explained:
"I think this generation wanted to relate to a church. When people asked us what church do you go to, it would be embarrassing to say, `we don't have a church.' The kids would come home and say to their parents: `How come we don't have a church?'"
Scholars who have studied the religious experience in America describe it much in the same way:
" ...To be a Protestant, Catholic or a Jew are today the alternative ways of being an American."
"Religion in the United States is so closely identified with cultural and civil values as to take on the character of nationalism; and being `American' presupposes the Judeo-Christian heritage or experience."
Relating to a "church" is an outer-directed motivation. But since there was no other model, the Muslims fashioned themselves in many ways after the religious communities of the People of the Book (Christians and Jews). To build a mosque would, in some respect, "nationalize" their religious community in the same way a church symbolized the Christian community in America. According to the respondents in this study, there were three inner-directed motivations for building a mosque: to be able to pray together, to educate their children, and to have a place where the children could socialize.