See the Akhtar family at a weekend lunch, and the renewal of Islam in America seems inevitable and irresistible.
Meeting them at their house in a quiet tree-lined street in Emerson, New Jersey, it soon seems clear that they, and their progressive Islam, are as perfectly adapted to life in modern America as their Christian neighbours.
The Aktar daughters are pursuing careers as a lawyer, businesswoman and dentist. Their emancipation has not diluted their sense of being Muslim, but it has changed it.
American Muslims' determination to grasp the basic principles of their religion - rather than the sometimes harsh rules contributed by other cultures during its long history - grew out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers.
We've been working with a variety of organisations on really taking the teachings of Islam and delivering them without the baggage of tradition
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk 
