The quest for specifically "Islamic" alternatives to secularized sociopolitical orders has, according to Olivier Roy, shifted to the Muslim diaspora in the West, where many "deterritorialized" Muslims have embraced "neo-fundamentalism" (2004). Neofundamentalism, as Roy defines it, is a reaction to "the end of Dar-ul-Islam as a geographical entity" (233). A form of revivalist religiosity, it addresses "a westernization that is now at the core and no longer at the frontiers of Islam" while "conversely ...dealing with a religion that is no longer embedded in a given society and thus is open to reformation" (234). If Roy is right, the question of Islam and politics in Palestine is much more complicated than what most current discussion, focused narrowly on Hamas, allows. Among groups like the Palestinians, whose existences have become trans-regionalized, national conflicts remain a concern but the more immediate challenges of minority life in Europe or North America have become primary; consequently, the "politics of Islam" in these settings has shifted because objective life conditions have changed. This paper, a first "report from the field," will explore the impact of diaspora experience on the politics of Islam among Palestinians and Somalis in Chicago, IL and Columbus, OH, respectively. My project examines how mosques orient immigrants in these two communities relative to a host of competing institutions and value frameworks in the dominant non-Muslim culture as well as toward contending formations (other political movements, clans and families, etc.) within the communities themselves. Data will include transcriptions of sermons and Qur'an lessons and other public lectures; transcribed conversations with mosque leaders; and life-history interviews--at least 20 to 30 in each city--focusing on the religious upbringing and religiosity of mosque attendees. These interviews also will elicit stories of daily life and how individuals have responded to the challenges of social marginalization, suspicion, and surveillance. My analysis will aim to (a) determine the extent to which the discourse and practice institutionalized in mosques coheres with the orientations of individual attendees as revealed in their interviews, actions, and activities and (b) examine how this process manifests across the Palestinian and Somali communities. My objective will be to map the range of outlooks that emerge across these "deterritorialized" communities. Is "neofundamentalism" the overriding trend? Or, do nationalist politics continue to predominate as the frame within which Islamic politics is articulated? Or, still yet, do other orientations appear to manifest alongside nationalist and neofundamentalist ones?