Introduction

The Introduction outlines the major questions regarding Muslim American youth and the turn to rights-based activism and cross-ethnic coalitions that are the focus of the book. It discusses why the concept of “youth,” and particularly Muslim and Middle Eastern youth, is so central to to the War on Terror and also often exceptionalized in the post-9/11 moment. It offers an overview of the context of the ethnographic research in Silicon Valley and Fremont/Hayward, situating the three communities (South Asian, Arab, and Afghan American) in the study against the backdrop of the longer history of contestations over race, class, and immigration in this region. It also provides a discussion of the research methods on which the project is based.

Democracy and Its Others

This chapter explores the notion of “democracy” for young people in a post-9/11 era when liberal democracy has become an alibi for imperial interventions overseas. Using the example of the Arab uprisings and drawing on fieldwork at a hackathon for Egypt, it examines international solidarity campaigns with these democracy movements that erased questions of imperialism and sovereignty. The chapter discusses whether there is an alternative to rights-based politics and imperial democracy, concluding with a reflection on struggles for justice that exceed the language of rights and are not focused on political recognition and inclusion.

More Delicate than a Flower, yet Harder than a Rock

This chapter addresses the invisibility of Afghan Americans and the absence of Afghan solidarity activism, arguing that Afghans in the U.S. are erased by a racialized discourse of humanitiarianism. The “Af-Pak” war is based on the notion of humanitarian rescue, of women and backward “others,” and degraded sovereignty, produced through a long history of colonial interventions in Afghanistan. The chapter also discusses the ways in which youth from Afghan refugee families grappled with questions of self-determination and indigenous sovereignty and the impact of displacement and suffering.

The New Civil Rights Movement

This chapter explores the emergence of the “Muslim civil rights” movement, as well as interfaith alliances, in the post-9/11 era and how these shape or undermine cross-ethnic and cross-class coalitions. It discusses how civil liberties is a major political paradigm that young Muslim American activists have adopted since 9/11 but one that also confines their resistance, in many instances, to a nationalist discourse of inclusion that evades critique of U.S. imperialism. The investment in interfaith dialogue in some cases also suppresses critique of the global War on Terror, as well as as anti-Palestinian racism, and redirects resistance from cross-racial coalitions to safer forms of activism. The chapter addresses inter-racial tensions and examines how liberal “religious multiculturalism” and practices of “faithwashing” help produce an arrested politics.

Coming of Age under Surveillance

This chapter examines the role of surveillance in the post-9/11 culture wars, as a racial and gendered project that targets Muslim and Arab youth, especially young males. These youth have grown up in a culture of surveillance and counterterrorism and with “surveillance effects,” resisting as well as normalizing surveillance, as revealed through their surveillance stories. Many also engage in self-surveillance, and the research demonstrates how covert surveillance and counter-radicalization programs shape selfhood and sociality for the 9/11 generation. But youth also engage in counter-surveillance, challenging FBI intrusions and entrapment, and using legal strategies and protests to make surveillance visible. The chapter examines the impact of surveillance on class politics, and the economic insecurities it generates, as well as the emergence of a new generation of Muslim and Arab American lawyers and advocates.

Human Rights, Uncivil Activism, and Palestinianization

This chapter focuses on “human rights” as a framework youth use to highlight issues of national sovereignty and imperial violence, engaging in transnational solidarity movements but also encountering political repression. In the context of the U.S.-backed occupations in Palestine, however, human rights seemingly fails to be legible in the U.S., revealing the exceptions of humanitarian/human rights politics. The chapter discusses the process of “Palestinianization” or political socialization through Palestine solidarity activism that is embedded in the racialization of Palestinians and Arabs and their exclusion from rights. It documents instances of censorship and backlash facing Palestine solidarity and BDS activists and examines the ways in which involvement in “radical” or risky politics is a transformative experience for youth.

The 9/11 Generation in Silicon Valley

This chapter discusses the impact of 9/11 on South Asian, Arab, and Afghan American youth and the turn to the so-called “new Islam” and prioritization of a “Muslim first” identity as the basis for their affiliation as well as mobilization. It examines the notion of 9/11 as a crucible for politicization, reflecting on the narrative of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area as a liberal, multicultural “oasis” buffered from Islamophobic backlash as well as the contradictions this exceptionalist image generates for youth. The political subjecthood of the 9/11 generation has been deeply shaped by the binary of the good/moderate vs bad/radical Muslim, as explained in this chapter, which has infused the post-9/11 culture wars.