This article critically interrogates the discourses of secularism and pluralism by analyzing their surprising effects in a 2003 dispute about the adhān (Islamic call to prayer) in Hamtramck, Michigan. Hamtramck residents advanced different understandings of how secular governance should manage religious differences, but their arguments had unintended consequences that ran counter to their stated intents. In the end, I argue, Muslims were able to make themselves heard in Hamtramck, but only if they muted that which made their voices distinct. This article uses the Hamtramck dispute to analyze the particular conditions governing Islamic entry into the American public sphere.
Americans of diverse religious backgrounds have striven to hear God’s voice or to respond to the call of other suprahuman forces. Yet despite increased attention to visual and material culture, religious studies research mostly has been deaf to the sounds of American religious life and to the significance of hearing as a spiritual practice. This essay explores the theoretical and methodological roots of this disciplinary deafness and offers theoretical resources from fields such as social history, anthropology, acoustic sciences, and phenomenology. It reviews recurring themes in research on sound and American religions—especially related to the role of music in constructing identity and difference—and suggests directions for further research, including the need to attend to how sound mediates contact among diverse religious communities. This essay encourages scholars to become more attuned to the sonic world of American religious life.
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