In response to non-Muslims being mystified by the purpose of watering cans in mosque bathroom stalls, the photographer probes into the commanding Qur’an or Hadith rules that govern the use of the cans and other objects which evoke differing meanings for American Muslims and non-Muslims. From flip–flops to yoga mats to water bottles to tool boxes, everyday American objects come to inhabit sacred spaces when repurposed, reclaimed for the sake of Shari’a .

This article discusses how the community at Zaytuna College, the first and only accredited Muslim college in the United States, is charting the future of Islam in America. The college is located in Berkeley, California and admitted its first class in 2010. The article gives an overview of the school and its curriculum, which combines Islamic scholarship with Western teachings. The piece then profiles four members of the school community–a female student who was raised as a Muslim, a male student who converted to Islam, and two faculty members (both of whom are also converts).

This article reveals new thinking about the meaning of shari’a (roughly translated as Islamic law) in the everyday lives of Muslims. Proposals to ban shari’a , adopted across the United States and overseas, beg the question, “what is shari’a ?” Varied individual Mulsim responses to that question appear in this article. Research is based on two years of fieldwork and more than 100 semi-structured interviews conducted by a University of California-based research team. Themes of daily guidance, family, social justice, equality and inequality, Islamic living, excessively legalistic codes, and more emerge from the narratives of identity and of learning religious values and unlearning media-driven stereotypes.