Dilemmas of Authenticity

The American Muslim Crisis of Faith

By Zaid Adhami

Dilemmas of Authenticity

Approx. 328 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 2 halftones, notes, bibl., index

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-8556-4
    Published: May 2025
  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-8555-7
    Published: May 2025

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The past two decades have witnessed pervasive anxieties in US Muslim communities around a perceived crisis of faith. As Zaid Adhami argues in this richly textured ethnography, these concerns are fundamentally about the pressures and dilemmas of authenticity—what it really means to be a Muslim. While discussions about authenticity in Islam typically focus on maintaining tradition and competing claims to "true Islam," Adhami focuses instead on the powerful idea of being true to one's own self and what it means to have genuine belief. Drawing on extensive conversations with American Muslims and careful readings of broader communal discourse, Adhami shows that this drive for personal authenticity plays out in complicated ways. It can produce deep doubt while also serving as the grounds to affirm tradition. It can converge with revivalist modes of piety, but it can also prompt emphatic challenges to communal orthodoxies.

Through vivid storytelling and sensitive analysis, Adhami illuminates why religious doubt is often a source of intense anxiety in today's world and how people maintain their faith despite such unsettling uncertainty.

About the Author

Zaid Adhami is assistant professor of religion at Williams College.
For more information about Zaid Adhami, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"Through insightful ethnography and superb analysis, Adhami convincingly argues that a contemporary 'crisis of faith' among American Muslims stems from the convergence of global Islamic revivalism and American spirituality, both of which revolve around concerns over 'authenticity.' Expertly weaving debates in Islamic studies and American religions, Adhami shows how this crisis has generated new possibilities for individual and communal religiosity in contemporary Islam."—Justine Howe, Case Western Reserve University

“This is an important book, written in engaging and accessible prose while sacrificing nothing in terms of conceptual and philosophical sophistication. Adhami draws on a wealth of ethnographic and historical data to advance multiple conversations in religious studies, American Muslim studies, and American studies.”—Alireza Doostdar, The University of Chicago