From the Patriot Act to the “Muslim Ban”

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-71
Author(s):  
Emily Cury
Keyword(s):  
American Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Patriot Act ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Majority World ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Counterterrorism Policy

This chapter examines counterterrorism policy as one of the major sites through which American Muslims are framed as an out-group against which American identity can be measured and defined. It cites the reading of the War on Terror that presents hate crimes, bias incidents, and discriminatory state policy as a productive discourse through which certain groups are constituted as outside the boundaries of the national community. It looks at the rise of Muslim American advocacy organizations and the domestic and foreign policy issues at the core of their lobbying efforts. The chapter covers surveillance and profiling, protection of religious freedom, Islamophobia, countering violent extremism, the Palestinian—Israeli conflict, the Arab Spring, and human rights in the Muslim-majority world. It also clarifies how US Muslim organizations navigate their entry into the policy process while negotiating their community's place in the American mosaic.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 143-150
Author(s):  
Emily Cury
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
National Level ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Policy Issues

This chapter reviews the main sources of contention over advocacy and the rights of representation in the Muslim American community. By relying on existing survey data, the chapter gauges the degree to which Muslim advocacy organizations reflect and represent the interests of their constituents on a variety of policy issues. It also discusses how US Muslim organizations are constrained by two rationales: the logic of membership or the need to respond to their constituents' preferences and the logic of influence or the need to focus on issues that appeal to the policy establishment. The chapter highlights the advocacy on questions of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination that are highly reflective of the interests and preferences of American Muslims. It explains how national-level advocacy organizations are less representative of the preferences of American Muslims when it comes to foreign policy.

Muslim and Jewish Immigrants’ Adjustment: The Role of Religious-American Harmony, Religious-American Identity Centrality, and Discrimination

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-274
Author(s):  
Sadie S. Amini ◽  
Angela-MinhTu D. Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Identity Centrality ◽  
Dual Identities ◽  
Jewish Immigrants

Religious-minority immigrants must negotiate both their religious and host cultural (e.g., American) identities; however, the duality of these identities is rarely examined in relation to adjustment. In this study, we tested whether a religious-American identity centrality could predict better adjustment over and above religious identity centrality and American identity centrality. Moreover, based on the Integrative Psychological Model of Biculturalism, we investigated whether the harmony perceived between one’s religious and American identities could mediate the relationship between religious-American identity centrality and adjustment, and between perceived discrimination and adjustment. With data from 130 first-generation Muslim American and Jewish American participants, we found support for most hypotheses. Although a more central religious-American identity predicted better adjustment, it did not predict better adjustment over and above religious identity centrality and American identity centrality. More importantly, religious-American harmony mediated the positive association between religious-American identity centrality and adjustment, and the negative association between perceived discrimination and adjustment. Implications of our findings for research on dual identities are discussed.

From Co-optation to Radical Resistance: An Examination of Organized Labor’s Response(s) to Immigrant Rights in the Era of Trump

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-168
Author(s):  
Shannon Gleeson
Keyword(s):  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Guest Workers ◽  
Undocumented Workers ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Immigrant Rights ◽  
Chain Migration ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Contract Language ◽  
Progressive Agenda

This chapter tackles one of the most controversial issues of the Trump regime: immigration. Trump aggressively and unapologetically embraces an anti-immigrant agenda—focusing on Mexicans crossing the border, “chain migration” of families, and those arriving from Muslim-majority countries. The chapter examines how various union bodies have responded to the “immigration question.” It describes the labor movement's complicated history on this issue, including complex and sometimes inconsistent positions on undocumented workers, guest workers, and paths to citizenship. The chapter also finds that unions in locations that receive large numbers of immigrants have been forging sanctuary unions, advocating for inclusive policies, and negotiating fair contract language. Unions have worked against the Muslim ban and Islamophobia, and in support of refugees, often through involvement with interfaith coalitions. Despite the challenges and despite working people's complicated views, this chapter demonstrates that unions must adopt an intersectional lens and collaborate with community-based and advocacy organizations to build a progressive agenda in the age of Trump.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Alisa Perkins
Keyword(s):  
American Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Urban America ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
Muslim American Identity

The introduction lays out the central assertions of the study: that Muslims’ experiences in urban America test pluralism as a model of secular inclusion, and that Muslims and non-Muslims expand the boundaries of belonging together by engaging in social, spatial, and material exchanges across lines of difference. Because anxieties over Muslim minorities are often expressed through the idiom of gender, this study further asserts that contestations over Muslim women’s visibility and queer Muslim visibility provide significant opportunities for the elaboration of difference. After describing the context of the study and its interlocutors, the introduction discusses the challenges faced by scholars who focus on Muslim American identity as an object of analysis in the post-9/11 age. These challenges include representational dilemmas inherent in studying individuals from many backgrounds under a unified signifier, and in offering counter-representations of a group that is often stereotyped in media and popular accounts marked by Islamophobia.

Recovering from conflict and uncertainty post Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Abdelzaher ◽  
Zahir Latheef ◽  
Amir Abdelzaher
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Arab Spring

Purpose The wave of revolutions referred to as the Arab Spring has significantly impacted organizations and contributed to market turbulence. Focusing on spiritual leadership and employee religious values as key determinants of organizational survival in Muslim-majority markets, this paper aims to provide a conceptual framework that can offset consequences of turbulence by leveraging employees’ spiritual foundations to provide a sense of optimism and collective thinking that is vital in times of uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the state of turbulence post the Arab Spring and its impact on organizations. It discusses the literature on uncertainty and spiritual leadership, and draws from Islamic human resource literature to identify specific religious values engrained in the local culture. Findings A multi-staged conceptual model is presented that draws from Islamic principles of Sabr (perseverance), Tawakkul (reliance on God), Ihsan (excelling in work), Reda (acceptance of outcomes) and Al-Amal Al-Jemae’e (teamwork). The multi-staged model can help firms react effectively to turbulence while building their connection to their employee base in Muslim-majority markets. Originality/value The paper also advances theoretical work on organizational responses to turbulence, focusing on markets that have received significantly less scholarly attention. Drawing from local spiritual values in a part of the world where religious teachings influence both social and economic aspects of life is an untapped opportunity. It highlights an innovative and important application of religious values in a post-conflict context, and explores a conceptual model that is embedded in the local context rather than borrowing from Western-based models.

Fighting Fundamentalism with Pluralism

2020 ◽  
pp. 994-1015
Author(s):  
Madhavi Sunder
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Traditional Authorities ◽  
Coordination Tool ◽  
The Arab Spring

What role can social media play in helping to bring forth social revolutions, inciting change not in government or laws but in social attitudes and real world behaviors? Social change relates not only to regime change but to change in people’s way of thinking. In this chapter, I argue that social media during the Arab Spring was used as more than a mere coordination tool promoting efficient street demonstrations. Bloggers and Facebook users employed these technologies in many of the same ways that the printing press was employed during the Enlightenment period—to upend traditional authorities, to engender popular participation in debates over governance and values, and to foster care and empathy for fellow citizens. Contrary to popular perception, the Arab Spring demonstrates how today’s technological tools can go the next mile and transform not just politics but societies themselves. In the particular context of religious democracies, through examples, the chapter explores how nonstate actors are helping to influence constitutionalism and other lawmaking in Muslim majority states by using technologies to elaborate plural normative and legal options, thus undermining fundamentalist stranglehold on social and legal authority.

scholarly journals Un-Islamic or Non-Muslim

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. i-vi
Author(s):  
Zakyi Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Muslim Majority

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attractedpsychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffectedpopulations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preachedby its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretationsof Islam.”1This editorial analyzes the phenomenon of violent extremism and its identificationand association with Islam by analysts and critics. In my 29:1 editorial“The Stigma of Extremism on Muslims,” I suggested that the violent elementsin Islam are no more than “a fraction of the 7 percent of global Muslim populationconsidered to be ‘politically radicalized,’ including [non-violent] sympathizers”2 and “an inescapable nuisance and … regrettable stigma [to] thelarger Muslim majority.”3 I stand by these points, the iteration of which, in thiscurrent editorial, gains its prime relevance.Here, I argue further that despite the Prophet’s prohibition of labeling otherself-confessed practicing Muslims as “non-Muslims”4 regardless of their actions(i.e., takfīr), extremists nevertheless use it to give themselves the licenseto kill other Muslims, a fact that makes their actions “un-Islamic.” I also maintainthat the peace-loving Muslim majority has the moral right and intellectualprerogative to denounce this violent minority and to get their denunciation appreciatedand deemed supreme.

Realizing Religious Freedom in Islam

2019 ◽  
pp. 228-242
Author(s):  
Daniel Philpott
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Transnational Networks ◽  
Universal Principle ◽  
Majority World ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Muslim Majority

This concluding chapter offers six recommendations for increasing the sphere of religious freedom in the Muslim-majority world and in the globe in general. These are drawn from the book’s foregoing analysis. The chapter calls for a “gestalt” shift by which religious freedom is recognized as a universal principle, not a Western value; for a recognition of Islam’s capacity for religious freedom; for a rejection of negative secularism; and for an expansion of religious freedom in the Muslim world. Then, the chapter turns its attention to the rise of religious freedom in the foreign policy of the United States and other Western states, recommending that these states “mainstream” religious freedom in their foreign policies. It also recommends building transnational networks involving religious freedom constituencies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document