American Muslims represent a growing and diverse community. Efforts at promoting cultural competence, enhancing cross-cultural communication skills, and improving community health must account for the religio-cultural frame through which American Muslims view healing. Using a community-based participatory research model, we conducted 13 focus groups at area mosques in southeast Michigan to explore American Muslim views on healing and to identify the primary agents, and their roles, within the healing process. Participants shared a God-centric view of healing. Healing was accessed through direct means such as supplication and recitation of the Qur’an, or indirectly through human agents including imams, health care practitioners, family, friends, and community. Human agents served integral roles, influencing spiritual, psychological, and physical health. Additional research into how religiosity, health care systems, and community factors influence health-care-seeking behaviors is warranted.

Objective This study aimed to assess rates of Papanicolaou (Pap) testing and associations between religion-related factors and these rates among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of American Muslim women. Materials and Methods A community-based participatory research design was used in partnering with the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago to recruit Muslim women attending mosque and community events. These participants self-administered surveys incorporating measures of fatalism, religiosity, perceived discrimination, Islamic modesty, and a marker of Pap test use. Results A total of 254 survey respondents were collected with nearly equal numbers of Arabs, South Asians, and African American respondents. Of these respondents, 84% had obtained a Pap test in their lifetime, with individuals who interpret disease as a manifestation of God’s punishment having a lower odds of having had Pap testing after controlling for sociodemographic factors (odds ratio [OR] = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.77–1.0). In multivariate models, living in the United States for more than 20 years (OR = 4.7, 95% CI = 1.4–16) and having a primary care physician (OR = 7.7, 95% CI = 2.5–23.4) were positive predictors of having had a Pap test. Ethnicity, fatalistic beliefs, perceived discrimination, and modesty levels were not significantly associated with Pap testing rates. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess Pap testing behaviors among a diverse sample of American Muslim women and to observe that negative religious coping (e.g., viewing health problems as a punishment from God) is associated with a lower odds of obtaining a Pap test. The relationship between religious coping and cancer screening behaviors deserves further study so that religious values can be appropriately addressed through cancer screening programs.

Background.: Muslim communities tend to hold more negative attitudes toward organ donation than other communities. These views, in part, reflect the diverse views of Islamic scholars who debate the conditions under which donation and transplantation is morally licit. In December 2018, the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) weighed in on the US context of donation and transplantation through an Islamic ethico-legal verdict (fatwa). Methods.: Between 2016 and 2018, FCNA members engaged in multidisciplinary research using conventions of collective Islamic moral deliberation. They examined rulings on organ donation and transplantation issued by Islamic jurists and juridical councils abroad, convened with organ donation and transplantation professionals and stakeholders including families and patients, and consulted medical and bioethics experts. Results.: FCNA judges organ donation to be morally permissible from the perspective of Islamic law and ethics, subject to several conditions. These include first-person authorization, that donation occur either while living or after circulatory declaration of death, harm to the donor is minimized, reproductive organs are not donated, among others. Organ transplantation, in general, was also deemed licit. Conclusions.: FCNA’s verdict uniquely addresses American contexts and has several clinical practice implications. By sharing their perspective with academic and professional stakeholders, the council aims to provide nuanced guidance for assisting Muslims in making informed choices regarding these procedures and further societal dialogue on the ethics and practices of donation and transplantation.