Moving Toward Culturally Competent Practice with Muslims: Modifying Cognitive Therapy with Islamic Tenets (Report‪)‬

Cultural competence is a fundamental social work value. The NASW Code of Ethics (2000) emphasizes the provision of services that are sensitive to clients' cultures. Similarly, the NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice (2001) underscores utilization of interventions that are congruent with clients' cultural narratives. One particularly distinct cultural narrative is provided by Islam (Nadir & Dziegielewski, 2001; Williams, 2005). The number of Muslims in the United States has increased dramatically over the course of the past three decades (Carter & El Hindi, 1999; Hedayat-Diba, 2000; Hodge, 2005). Although estimates vary significantly, somewhere in the range of 2 to 8 million Muslims now reside in the United States (Hodge, 2005; Richards & Bergin, 2005; Smith, 2002).