Source: Chicago Tribune
On December 23, 2004 the Chicago Tribune reported, "the children of Muslim immigrants who began coming to this country in larger numbers in the 1970s are going to college. Born in America or brought here when they were young, they are defining what it means to be a Muslim American. The guys with their baggy jeans and cell phones downloaded with Biggie and Jay-Z, the girls with their head scarves tucked into hoodies and sometimes a cell phone stuck inside making a kind of Islamic hands-free phone, the other girls with their uncovered hair up in ponytails--they are all making a way of Muslim life that is distinctly theirs. Their Islam is not necessarily their parents' Islam. Many are pursuing what they call a 'pure' Islam, separate from the cultural traditions their parents brought with them. They are negotiating the sometimes complex path between Muslim faith and American culture."