Racial Segregation in Muslim Congregations: Evidence from 11 Metropolitan Areas Across the United States

Catherine D. Tucker, Pennsylvania State University

A large body of literature that suggests African-Americans are segregated in nearly every aspect of their lives, including at religious services (Massey and Denton 1987, Emerson and Kim 2003). This article seeks to investigate the extent to which African-Americans are segregated among a mostly immigrant religious population, Muslims in the US. Approximately 65% of Muslims in the US are foreign born (Pew 2007), so the context of segregation is different than the traditional white/black divide often emphasized in past research. This study examines mosques in 11 metropolitan areas in the US for evidence of segregation of African-Americans. We hypothesize that, similar to patterns of congregational segregation already seen among Black Protestants, African-American Muslims will show evidence of segregation across metropolitan areas in the US. The results confirm this idea, indicating that similarly to Protestant congregations, there is a large degree of congregational segregation for African-Americans in mosques in the US.