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This article examines the engagement of Islam by a certain family of religious movements, which I term 'Scientific Religion', that developed in the United States during the nineteenth century. Not only was Scientific Religion a religious matrix in which Islam was regularly portrayed in a positive light, but also more Scientific Religionists took on an Islamic identity than any other group of Muslim sympathizers. This was due to the fact that, unlike many of the more mainstream liberal religions, Scientific Religion did not rule out the possibility that exclusive commitment to one specific traditional religious identity could be used to promote Scientific Religion values. In fact, the largest and most prominent US Islamic-identity convert groups of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were significantly influenced by Scientific Religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strictly speaking any enclosed space or building can qualify as a mosque (masjid) if it satisfies the requirement of cleanliness, but although Muslims can pray almost anywhere, they have often set up mosques as a nucleus for community life, fulfilling social as well as cultural and aesthetic needs. The masjid is both a space and an institution through which Muslims make statements about themselves and about their faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of books received by the journal. Included are "A Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russell Webb," by Umar F. Abd-Allah, "Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation," by Madawi Al-Rasheed, and "Muslims in the United States," by Kassim Kone and Ilyas Ba-Yunus.