The Study

There are many issues surrounding American female converts to Islam, which require clarification. As previously mentioned, 73% of images the American public are seeing of Muslim women are portraying them as victims who desperately need to be rescued from oppression.[4] Sadly, portrayals such as these are not the exception, but the norm. However, these depictions of Muslim women do not at all equal the views Muslim women have of themselves. The responses to this mixed-methods study highlight the unadulterated views of American female converts to Islam and offer a drastically different narrative to counter the misconceptions. The hope is that by listening to the stories of these women, a shift will occur in the dialogue surrounding American female converts to Islam, which may ultimately effect change regarding public opinion.

Additionally, it is crucial to grasp what American female converts to Islam report about their experiences of becoming Muslim and feeling Muslim, as well as what distinctions, if any, the converts report, and how, if at all, they relate these two experiences. From a theoretical perspective, this research will extend existing literature on Muslim American women, which has primarily focused on first generation foreign-born immigrants and second and third generation U.S.-born immigrant families. It is important to understand how converts’ personal experiences both pre and post-conversion shape their eventual Muslim identities while exploring notions regarding what led to their conversions through research questions. On a practical level, the results will provide rich data on the firsthand views of this group and provide insights, which may be useful for Islamic studies educators in higher education, primary school, and at the local masjid level as well as schools of education planning for programs and student needs.

We know very little about the identity formation and feelings of American female converts to Islam, as experienced by them, because there is very little research that specifically addresses convert issues and asks converts directly for input regarding solutions. This research addresses the following:

1. — Studies of Muslim Americans do not necessarily apply to converts or include them, which leaves a gap in scholarly literature on the subject.
2. — While there are numerous books and scholarly articles about converts to Islam, many are autobiographical and tell the story of one convert in particular or lead to generalizations about converts based on the experiences of a few.
   
3. — To the best of my knowledge, no study yet exists regarding what helps female converts to Islam feel Muslim.
   
4. — With 85% of full-time paid Imams being born outside the United States, Muslim American educators continue to struggle to adapt instruction and learning environments to the needs of culturally diverse learners, making it difficult for them to identify with the needs of American converts, and the U.S.-born children of immigrants.[7]
   
5. — Research conducted on American mosques shows that only 3% of mosques consider classes for converts to Islam a top priority.[8]
   
6. — As U.S. citizens who understand American cultural and societal norms, American female converts to Islam are in a good position to serve as advocates and change agents, not only for themselves, but also on behalf of their fellow Muslim Americans.
   
7. — A majority of U.S. news media coverage of American female converts to Islam reflects bias toward Islam and portrays converts as brainwashed and oppressed victims.[9],[10],[11]
   
8. — Understanding converts perceptions about their own identities, their ideas about community support, and what they need, is a first step toward understanding the important role U.S. converts to Islam can play in bridging the cultural divide between Muslims and other Americans.
   
9. — Understanding how community support influences feelings of Muslimness may provide insight into the identity cultivation of converts as well as revealing steps that communities can take to nurture those feelings.

Thus, a mixed-methods study of American female converts to Islam, focusing on converts’ perspectives, can make an important contribution to the extant body of literature.

Research Questions[12]

First, the research sought to answer the following: Do converts distinguish between outwardly becoming Muslim and inwardly feeling Muslim. What did becoming Muslim and feeling Muslim mean to converts? What common characteristics do converts identify as ‘feelings of Muslimness’? Do converts identify stages in the cultivation of their Muslim identities? Moreover, do converts identify their needs as converts? By seeking to understand feelings of Muslimness as experienced by U.S. female converts, an intimate portrait of their individual and collective experiences develops.

While the aforementioned questions are the overarching questions, the mixed-methods survey itself, is broken down into quantitative and qualitative strands. A table of the quantitative questions is located in Appendix B.[13]

While, for the purpose of these tables, the numbering of questions is sequential, the quantitative and qualitative strands were intermixed throughout the survey, with the bulk of quantitative questions preceding the qualitative questions. Additionally, some questions had both quantitative and qualitative elements. A table of the qualitative questions is located in Appendix C. A complete sequential list of both quantitative and qualitative questions, as they appeared in the survey is located in Appendix D.

Methods[14]

This study represents an in-depth mixed-methods survey of 257 U.S. female converts to Islam. The definition of mixed methods research methodology, as understood herein, is as follows:

Mixed methods research is a research design with philosophical assumptions as well as methods of inquiry. As a methodology, it involves philosophical assumptions that guide the direction of the collection and analysis and the mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches in many phases of the research process. As a method, it focuses on collecting, analyzing, and mixing both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or series of studies. Its central premise is that the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches, in combination, provides a better understanding of research problems than either approach alone.[15]

 This definition serves as a guide to understanding the approach to this research design, data collection, and data analysis.

Regarding data analysis, responses to qualitative and quantitative questions are coded, categorized, and analyzed on an ongoing basis as a source for further questions, the emergence of themes, and as an eventual source for organizing patterns of response across categories and individuals. Additionally, qualitative responses serve as further basis of discussion according to themes, providing a source to compare and contrast beliefs, practices, thinking, and identity. To verify the findings and themes, I will undertake extensive member checks of the findings and participant responses on an ongoing basis.

To deepen the understanding of the data, I discuss qualitative responses and accompany the quantitative results with diagrams. The data analysis follows a convergent, data-validation variant of mixed methods design. Initially, the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative strands happens independently, then a merger of the results occurs, followed by a summarization and interpretation of the merged results, ending with a discussion of the extent to which, and in what ways results from both sets of data converge, diverge, relate to each other, and/or produce a more complete understanding. This description is adapted from the flowchart for implementing a convergent design as presented in Creswell.[17] The flowchart provides a brief overview of the basic procedures for implementing a convergent, parallel mixed methods design.

Validity[19]

There are numerous ways my results and conclusions could be wrong. While a great effort was made to reach as many American female converts to Islam, some communities proved more difficult to reach than others. Thus, those communities I was unable to reach may not be represented evenly in the conclusions or may be underrepresented due to a poor sample size. For example, although African-American female converts to Islam outnumber Caucasian female converts to Islam, far more Caucasian converts completed the survey than African-American converts. This is something to take into consideration when analyzing the responses.

To deal with ‘reactivity’ and ‘hesitation’ on the part of potential participants, I emphasized that I support converts as a fellow American female convert to Islam and that I am interested in learning and understanding more about their views and experiences. To deal with my own biases, I am exercising extensive self-reflection and reflexivity as I proceed through data collection and analysis, raising my own awareness.

Regarding verification techniques, there will be frequent member-checks of qualitative and quantitative responses. Additionally, there will be active searches for discrepant evidence by using informed surveying techniques, and placing emphasis on discrepant evidence in member checks. Lastly, I am actively seeking informed input from colleagues and committee members while undertaking reflection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative responses to ensure that the degree to which my own biases could influence the findings, is diminished.

Rather than to identify a generalizable phenomenon, findings are intended to provide a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of U.S. female converts to Islam for academics and other interested parties such as policy makers, Islamic educators, administrators of mosques, as well as members of Muslim communities all over the United States.

The results herein deserve consideration as valid due to the large sample size obtained (257 responses), having representative samples across sects of Islam, races and ethnicities, age at the time of conversion, education, location, length of time as a Muslim, marital status at conversion, current marital status, and choice of attire. Additionally, the validity of the study increased due to employing a mixed-methods approach to the research and independent analysis of each data set before merging. Most importantly, these results should be relevant because the research allows converts to speak for themselves; define the subject of feeling Muslim; outline their personal journeys; detail some key factors of their feelings of Muslimness; convey what makes them feel Muslim; and educate others on how they can nurture or hinder the cultivation of those feelings.

References

[1] Joseph Alex Maxwell, Qualitative Research Design : An Interactive Approach, 3rd ed., Applied Social Research Methods (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, 2013).

[2] Ibid. Joseph Maxwell outlines five components, which are similar to those put forth, by Margaret LeCompte and Judith Preissle in 1993 in Ethnography and Qualitative Design in Educational Research. Dr. Judith Preissle is a distinguished professor of Qualitative Research at the University of Georgia. In preparation for this study, I began my journey into qualitative research as a student in her course, Qualitative Research Traditions.