Using data from a two year qualitative study, this paper examines how East African Muslim immigrant youth experience and become shaped by the environments of U.S. mainstream schools as compared to a culturally specific charter high school. Results from this study reveal that East African Muslim immigrant youth are affected by religious and cultural discrimination in mainstream schools, and that attending a culturally specific charter school actually promotes positive intercultural competence where students are able to build a good self-concept and find comfort in who they are as East African immigrants, as Muslims, and as American citizens. (Contains 9 footnotes.) [This paper was published in: Proceedings of Intercultural Competence Conference August, 2010, Vol. 1, pp. 1-26.]