Embracing “Dethroned” Islam: Iranian Initiative in Practicing Islam as an American Religion in Kentucky

Abstract This article builds on and contributes to current discussions on the study of Islam as an American religion by using the Iranian American experience in Kentucky as an ethnographic focal point for analyzing the positionality of “lay” Muslims toward clerical authority. The resurgence of Muslim racialization during the Trump era reminded Iranian Americans that their commitment to American national belonging necessitated a sustained demonstration of conformity to white Christian norms. This article assesses the strategies Iranians employ in Kentucky to mirror the pattern of the autonomous church and the authority of the Bible to establish an unmediated relationship with the Quran. Based on an analysis of these collective, exploratory, and contradictory exegeses of the Quranic meanings, this article illustrates how the religious configuration of the South compels “lay” Muslims to contest clerical authority and expertise, thereby autonomously framing their practices as both Islamic and American.