Is there an Imam in the house?

A cool article in the Boston Globe today raises questions about the way institutions like hospitals and prisons hire and deploy chaplains - and how this creates problems for traditions, like Islam, that don't train clergy through graduate-type seminary programs.

The CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) certification is rare among Imams, says writer Vanessa Jones:

A look at the number of Muslim chaplains certified by the association at least offers a glimpse into the community. In 2000 the organization had 1,600 certified chaplains, only one of them Muslim. Last year, there were 2,000 certified chaplains, four of them Muslim.

Muslim chaplaincy is a particularly American creation. The role doesn't exist in predominantly Muslim countries, since Muslims there have a wide range of familial and spiritual support. No equivalent to the master's of divinity, which is a Judeo-Christian creation, exists in Islamic culture. Instead scholars pass down religious knowledge orally. Once the student gains enough knowledge, he or she becomes an imam.

So, according to the article, Muslim clergy are going back to school to serve the needs of their flocks in schools and hospitals.

"I can't imagine any non-Muslim chaplain talking about Ramadan , leading Friday prayer, and explaining Islamic dietary law," [program graduate Abdullah] Antepli says. "I can't imagine any non-Muslim chaplain, no matter how well-trained, responding to the unique identity crisis that Muslims are facing after Sept. 11. Islam is at the center of attention and there's so many negative messages conveyed to this society about this faith and faith tradition. You need a reliable source person on campus, at the hospital, in the prison system who understands the stereotypes and the scapegoating."

Great. And where is (according to the article) the "only degree program in the nation for Muslim chaplains"? That Qom of the west - Hartford, Connecticut.

Don't religions always change a little in transit? I've been reading about the Reform Judaism tradition lately, how the decision to "modernize" Jewish worship made it assume many of the shapes of the Protestant worship of its day - and what, in that, was lost and won. Will American Islam become more institutionalized? Our bias in the west is always towards scholarly religion. I'm thinking of the tendency, for example, to reduce the thousand faces of Hinduism to what can be studied in the scholarly Brahmanic traditions.

A quibble - I'm annoyed about the way Jones decided to end the article, with what comes across as a pretty serious dig...

Bilal Ansari, 35... began working as a Muslim prison chaplain 10 years ago and entered the Muslim chaplaincy program in the fall... Now he works two days a week -- nearly 27 hours total -- at a men's prison in Niantic, Conn. Ansari says he decided to enroll in the Muslim chaplaincy program because he realized "that there are areas where I struggled to reach the men sometimes."

One challenge? Tempering the form of Islam the prisoners practiced. Many members of the prison population receive religious materials that gave them an unorthodox, and sometimes incorrect, perspective about Islam, says Ansari. "They think they know what's right and that they have the authority to interpret the scriptures in this way." This mindset created a wedge between the prison staff and the incarcerated Muslims.

By taking the Islamic Law course taught by Ingrid Mattson , the director and founder of the Muslim chaplaincy program, Ansari learned how to give the prisoners a better understanding of the religion.

End of story. Without stating it, it seems pretty clear that Jones and Ansari are saying is that the "unorthodox, and sometimes incorrect" Islam MIGHT be the Nation of Islam, which has wide currency and practice in Africa-American communities, as opposed to the Islam as it is practiced nearer to Mecca.

Yeesh. Me - I think THAT is the underreported story of the year. Have we heard ANYTHING lately about American's homegrown Muslims? Not even Farrakhan's bad health and "final" speech during African-American History Month were enough to break the uneasy news silence about African Americans who practice Islam. In a time when both immigrant Muslims and our own minority cultures face an uneasy time in practicing and living their faith, I'd like to see something smart and well-researched about the living intersections between the two.

Anyone?