The objective of this systematic review was to summarize the roles that religious communities played during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic. Seven databases were searched and a total of 58 articles in English published between February 2020 and July 2020 were included in evidence synthesis. The findings of the literature showed diverse influences of religion as a double-edged sword in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Religious communities have played detrimental and/or beneficial roles as a response to COVID-19 pandemic. A collaborative approach among religious communities, health science, and government is critical to combat COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics/epidemics.

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This chapter centers on the shrine (mazar) of M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (d. 1986) located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Gleaning theoretically from David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal’s framing of sacred space in America as political, cultural, and entangled, it draws attention to the contested rituals and practices at the shrine of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen as a form of boundary-making among its polyvalent users and shrine keepers, which include diverse American Sufi members of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship and newly arriving Muslim diasporic pilgrims. The aim of the analysis is to invite scholars and students of religions to consider the ways in which an examination of a Sufi space in America can provide productive insights into claims of legitimate Sufi praxis among American and immigrant Sufis through the enactment of ritual practices and boundary-making at a sacred space. It showcases how a focused exploration of this particular Sufi shrine in Pennsylvania reveals the deep roots of Sufism and Islam in the broader spatial milieu of American religions and spirituality, one that calls for a more intentional and robust inclusion of non-Protestant White Christian religious traditions and voices in the narratives of American religions.