Despite professionalization, Muslim clergy in the U.S. rely on an informal “Rolodex” of contacts composed of fellow imams, students, and other sources of support to fill leadership positions in American Islam, Nancy Khalil and Safiyah Zaidi write in the journal American Religion (Fall). By this figurative Muslim “Rolodex,” the researchers point to an element they say has become more important in the process of evaluating and hiring imams than traditional professional resumes. Analyzing the resumes and hiring practices of a Boston mosque, Khalil and Zaidi show how its “Rolodex” serves as a gatekeeper in maintaining established belief and practice. They also cite research showing that the older ways of maintaining and developing Islamic leadership in the U.S. by sponsoring aspiring imams to study abroad has shifted, as Muslim “custodians of knowledge” are formed through new domestic seminaries of higher learning. Accordingly, the composition of the American Muslim “Rolodex” has also shifted from contacts and networks abroad, such as from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, to national networks in the U.S.
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While many mosques draw on this informal network of contacts, there is considerable variation in their evaluation and hiring practices depending on the backgrounds and experience of mosque board members. A mosque can have an “extremely formal or completely informal structure to their imam hiring process,” Khalil and Zaidi write. While their case study of the Boston mosque illustrates how the professionalization of imams might entail the use of resumes that combine religious and secular references, the final hire at the mosque did not actually use a resume. In fact, resumes are often a “forced element, foisted on imams by [mosque] boards composed of working professionals who often know of no other entry point with which to assess potential hires.” Instead, Khalil and Zaidi find that the Muslim “Rolodex” remains more important than job calls, with resumes only serving as conversation starters, if they are used at all. It is mainly by “word of mouth and direct references” that mosques seek to maintain religious practices and traditions.
(American Religion, https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/943291)
