Illinois has the most Muslims per capita in the US. A new report provides a snapshot of their needs.

The report highlights assets, like business ownership, and needs, like mental health services, for more than 350,000 Muslims in Illinois.

Muslim prayer services at Morton Grove mosque
In this 2019 file photo, worshippers gather for Friday prayer services at the Muslim Community Center mosque in north suburban Morton Grove. A new report shows that Illinois has the highest per capita Muslim population in the nation. Esther Yoon-Ji Kang / WBEZ News
Muslim prayer services at Morton Grove mosque
In this 2019 file photo, worshippers gather for Friday prayer services at the Muslim Community Center mosque in north suburban Morton Grove. A new report shows that Illinois has the highest per capita Muslim population in the nation. Esther Yoon-Ji Kang / WBEZ News

Illinois has the most Muslims per capita in the US. A new report provides a snapshot of their needs.

The report highlights assets, like business ownership, and needs, like mental health services, for more than 350,000 Muslims in Illinois.

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A new report on Muslims in Illinois — the first of its kind — shows a diverse and young population in need of services and engagement from policymakers and philanthropy.

Titled “Illinois Muslims: Needs, Assets, and Opportunities,” the report is a product of three years of preparation and research — including surveys and focus groups — in a partnership between the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition; the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement at the University of Illinois Chicago; and Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a Washington,D.C.-based think tank.

“Illinois has the highest per capita population of American Muslims,” said Erum Ikramullah, ISPU’s research project manager. “A snapshot of Illinois’ Muslims is a snapshot of American Muslims.”

The report estimates that there are more than 350,000 Illinois residents who self-identify as Muslim — roughly 3% of the state’s population. The report also says Muslims are the youngest and most diverse faith community in the state, consisting of members of various races, ethnicities and nationalities. According to the report, 35% of Illinois Muslims are Black, 31% are Asian, 23% are white, and 8% are Hispanic. The study shows that 50% of Muslim respondents reported being between the ages of 18 and 35, compared to 42% of the general Illinois sample. In addition, just 15% of Muslim respondents reported being older than 55, compared to 29% of respondents from the general Illinois population.

Ikramullah said the report helps to illuminate the longstanding issue of discrimination against members of the faith. The report indicates that 52% of Muslim respondents said they had experienced religious discrimination, compared to 24% of the general Illinois sample. She added that the Illinois numbers mirror a national trend.

Data around the mental health needs of Muslims was another point that mirrored national figures, Ikramullah said. About 47% of Muslim respondents reported experiencing mental health issues, on par with 51% of respondents from the general Illinois population. However, fewer Illinois Muslim respondents sought out and received help for those issues — often citing the lack of affordable and culturally appropriate mental health resources, according to the report.

These challenges notwithstanding, Ikramullah said, the Illinois Muslim community is also “thriving and highly engaged” with about a third of Muslims taking part in civic activities beyond registering to vote or voting.

The study also shows that among Muslim respondents in Illinois, 12% are self-employed or have their own businesses, compared to 7% of the general state sample.

“[Illinois Muslims] are creating more than 350,000 jobs across the state,” said Dilara Sayeed, president of the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, which brought together the partners for the study. “You have this community that is very eager to be entrepreneurial, to bring jobs to bring growth to their state and their nation.”

Sayeed added that Muslims in Illinois are also a “generous and giving community.” The report notes that about 83% of Muslim respondents donated to organizations or causes associated with their faith community in the last year, compared with 46% of the general state sample.

For Seth Ibrahim, who was an imam at Mosque of Umar on Chicago’s South Side for 35 years, the report confirms what he has seen for decades: the Muslim community in Illinois is diverse and vast, consisting of Black Americans and immigrants from every continent.

“We are a large part of the social dynamic,” Ibrahim said. “We vote and we speak up, and we speak up for what’s right.”

He said the needs of different Muslim communities throughout the state vary based on their geographies, but all groups are “organized, structured, building our places of worship and places of education.”

Ibrahim said Muslims “need to continue unifying, structuring ourselves in a way where we’re not in need of anything.”

Sayeed, with the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, said she hopes government, philanthropy and other institutions will keep learning about the strengths and needs of a “very large, diverse and complicated community.”

The report called for lawmakers to invite Muslims to the table when crafting policies, and for schools and organizations to provide halal options for food (halal means “permissible” in Arabic and is most often used when referring to food or consumable goods). The report also invited funders to “invest equitably in Muslim-led nonprofits based on demographics and needs.”

The report’s full results will be presented Thursday afternoon via Zoom. Registration info can be found here.

Esther Yoon-Ji Kang is a reporter for WBEZ’s Race, Class and Communities desk. Follow her on Twitter @estheryjkang.