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This paper explores the public self-representations of Muslim American leaders from major Muslim organizations in the United States as articulated in a local community engagement. I argue that the prevalent self-representations of the 'mainstream Muslim' and 'American Islam' have become politicized terms in an eff ort to construct a political and religious constituency in resistance to rampant Islamophobic expressions. By stressing compatibility and reconciliation with American political and social life, a counternarrative of citizenship and belonging emerges. Hence, the self-representations also shed important light on how Muslims as a minority group negotiate and perform politics of belonging and inclusion in the United States through the appropriation of powerful notions of what represents 'the mainstream'. As any religious defi nition, 'American Islam' has to be understood as a particular discursive product specifi c to time and place. While highlighting hybridity and fl uidity, as well as the fl exibility of the religious faith with respect to interpretation, 'American Islam'-a defi nition used by activists as well as scholars-also has essentializing tendencies overlooking particular voices and geographies within the Muslim community in the USA.

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