<em>"In 1960, a Pittsburgh couple hosting a visiting Muslim student from Pakistan took him to what they assumed was an Islamic mosque--but it turned out to be the headquarters of the Shriners' Pittsburgh chapter."</em> --from <em>Al' America</em><p /><p />Four out of ten Americans say they dislike Muslims, according to a Gallup poll. "Muslims," a blogger wrote on the Web site <em>Free Republic</em>, "don't belong in America." In a lively, funny, and revealing riposte to these sentiments, journalist Jonathan Curiel offers a fascinating tour through the little-known Islamic past, and present, of American culture.<p /><p />From highbrow to pop, from lighthearted to profound, <em>Al' America</em> reveals the Islamic and Arab influences before our eyes, under our noses, and ringing in our ears. Curiel demonstrates that many of America's most celebrated places--including the Alamo in San Antonio, the French Quarter of New Orleans, and the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina--retain vestiges of Arab and Islamic culture. Likewise, some of America's most recognizable music--the Delta Blues, the surf sounds of Dick Dale, the rock and psychedelia of Jim Morrison and the Doors--is indebted to Arab music. And some of America's leading historical figures, from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Elvis Presley, relied on Arab or Muslim culture for intellectual sustenance.<p /><p />Part travelogue, part cultural history, <em>Al' America</em> confirms a continuous pattern of give-and-take between America and the Arab-Muslim world.<p /><p />The rich and surprising tapestry of Arab and Islamic influence on America includes:<p />• architecture: from the World Trade Center to the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina<p />• music: from the blues to <p />• surf music and the Doors<p />• philosophy and poetry: from the Transcendentalists and Henry James to Khalil Gibran and Rumi<p />• the food we eat: from the <p />• ice cream cone to coffee<p />• pop culture: from P.T. Barnum to the Shriners and <em>Star Wars</em><p />• Also features interviews with leading musicians, artists, historians, ethnomusicologists, and scholars of Islam <p />