Paul L. Williams - Crescent Moon Rising: The Islamic Transformation of America

This work would have never appeared on a bookshelf without the constant support of my wonderful wife, Pat. It took five years to write, including visits to several of the hotbeds of radical Islam and spawning grounds of homegrown terror, including Islamberg, Red House, Dar al-Hijrah, Masjid al-Farooq, Masjid al-Taqwa, and the Gulen fortress within the heart of the Pocono Mountains. I was accompanied on these trips by intrepid companions, including Patrick Walsh, Bill Krayer, and Michael Rash. Others, including Judith Schmitt, Judy Forti, Patti May, Pitts Evans, Frank Salvato, and Dr. Hugh Cort, provided the financial, technical, and spiritual support so crucial for the investigations. I would be remiss if I neglected to express my gratitude to Barbara Johnson, my terrific agent; Mary Riggall, my good and faithful assistant; and the crew at Prometheus Books, including Steven L. Mitchell, my editor, and Jill Maxick, my publicist.

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

So begins The Go-Between, L. P. Hartley's classic novel.

For proof of this claim, let's journey back to 1975. The leading bestselling books of this year are Sylvia Porter's Money Book, E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime, Theodore H. White's Breach of Faith, and Leo Rosten's Religions of America: Ferment and Faith in an Age of Crisis.

The Rosten work of 672 pages represents an exhaustive compilation of statistical information on every major and minor body of believers in the country. Chapters are devoted to such Protestant denominations as the Disciples of Christ, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Unitarian Universalists, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, the Baptist Movement, and every branch manifestation of Methodism. The thick volume contains abundant data concerning the three forms of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform); lengthy discussions about the liturgical and doctrinal differences between Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism; and authoritative explanations of the basic tenets of Mormons, Quakers, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-Day Adventists. It even presents facts and figures concerning the 5 percent of Americans who claim to be either agnostic or atheist.

In his preface, Rosten writes that this New Guide and Almanac represents a massive compendium, more complete and far-ranging than any book in print of the statistics, public opinion polls, and basic documents which characterize religion in the United States.

NO MENTION OF MUSLIMS

But the book contains no discussion of Islam as a religious factor in America. This is not an oversight. In 1975, Sunni, Shiite, and Sufi Muslims in America were statistically insignificant, numbering fewer than one thousand.