| This dissertation is an interpretive research in which diverse voices of American Muslims describe their America Muslim community as they negotiate and express their Muslim identity together in dialogue. The study integrates a Muslim perspective to analysis with Western communication science and its research methodology. As a Muslim primary researcher takes a participative worldview to action research, an American Muslim discourse emerges, informing American society, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, about the American Muslim community and its place in the American public square. Rich descriptions by interlocutors demonstrate the polyvocality and complexity of a learning social system.;The data are transliterations of a series of seven dialogues which took place between April 2006 and April 2007. Community-based action research was conducted with co-researchers to develop dialogues and to invite interlocutors. Interlocutors were Muslims from a small diverse community in a metropolitan Southwest city.;Layered theories of Islamization adapted for the U.S. context as well as intercultural communication theories guided the study through praxis. Three constructs were studied: Muslim identity, the American Muslim community and dialogue among Muslims. A review of the history of Muslim communities in American pluralistic society is presented, as is a background to dialogue in theory and practice. Theoretical perspectives and reflexive positions of the researcher are described.;Results demonstrate the importance of understanding inner speech and shadow dialogues that interlocutors bring with them. Interlocutors create a dialogic process in which positive and balanced dialogue experiences emerge. They describe a developing American Muslim community rooted in a salient core Muslim identity that is uniquely American. Conflict, fear and dissension is balanced by common cause that unites through dialogue. Also, the study of identity issues and identity politics are discussed as being potentially divisive.;The process of Islamization negotiates tensions between Muslim identity and background cultural identities. Self-organization at the edge of the system balances centralized influences of Islamic scholarship and tradition. The case of the relationships between immigrant Muslim and indigenous American Muslims converts is explained as tradition meeting conviction. Finally, 9/11 as an organizing element in the American Muslim community is discussed. |
