Engaging with Muslim Clients in an Anti-Oppressive, Culturally Attuned Manner: Insights from a National Sample of American Muslims

Background and Purpose: American Muslims are a rapidly growing, culturally distinct population that faces many challenges in the United States (Zainiddinov, 2024). The profession’s ethical and educational standards require social workers to engage with members of this population in an anti-oppressive, culturally competent manner. Yet, a paucity of research exists on how to provide culturally appropriate services to American Muslims (Qasqas et al., 2024). To address this knowledge-gap, the purpose of this study was to answer the following question: What are the key precepts that should inform practice with Muslim clients wrestling with mental health challenges?

Methods: To answer this question, we employed what Sandelowski (2000) calls a qualitative descriptive design, an approach that emphasizes relating study participants’ perspectives as accurately as possible. A purposive snowball sampling procedure was used to obtain a national sample of community-dwelling American Muslims. The mean age of the sample (N=213) was approximately 39 years old (M=38.99, SD=11.79) and a majority of respondents identified as female (70.4%, n=150), married (58.2, n=124), college educated (79.8%, n=170), and Sunni (85.9%, n=183).

In addition to the demographic items, the online survey included an item to address the study’s research question. After acknowledged that Muslims can experience psychological problems and, consequently, they may seek assistance from non-Muslim practitioners to deal with the problems, individuals were asked: “What should non-Muslim mental health professionals be aware of in such situations? What is particularly important for non-Muslims to know if they are to provide successful services to Muslim clients?”

Analysis was informed by a post-positivist epistemological perspective, which guided our interpretive content analysis (Drisko & Maschi, 2016). Specifically, we used a constant comparative methodology in which the data were examined for similarities and patterns (Padgett, 2017). In a recursive process, the emerging themes were compared to similar phenomena across surveys (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). The data were coded, organized into themes, and labeled with descriptive titles.

Results: Analysis identified eight themes, which can be summarized as follows: 1) know basic Islamic beliefs, 2) recognize intra-group ethnic/cultural differences in the American Muslim community, 3) develop self-awareness of personal biases, 4) respect Islamic gender roles, 5) avoid making assumptions about Muslim clients, 6) use Islamic beliefs/practices as strengths, 7) understand the bias Muslims encounter in the larger culture, and 8) consult with Muslim therapists/Imams. In each theme, examples of practices that engender, and mitigate, rapport with Muslim clients are provided.

Conclusions and Implications: To the best of our knowledge, this is first study to employ a national sample of Muslims to identify the key precepts that should inform practice with Muslim clients dealing with mental health challenges. The results position with social workers with the knowledge they need to engage with members of the growing American Muslim community in a professional and successful manner. For example—developing awareness of the practices potential Muslim clients commonly find supportive and helpful—positions practitioners with the culturally relevant knowledge they need to work with Muslims in an anti-oppressive, culturally attuned manner.