scholarly journals “Hey, Come on, We’re All Americans Here": The Representation of Muslim-American Identity in John Updike’s "Terrorist"

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 215-228
Author(s):  
Ulla Kriebernegg
Keyword(s):  
American Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Muslim American Identity

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.

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.

“Cool Piety”

2019 ◽  
pp. 22-49
Author(s):  
John O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Ethnic Community ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Identity Performance ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Second Generation Immigrants

This chapter discusses how participation in hip hop culture could lead to recognition from non-Muslim peers. “Hip hopper” was for the Legendz a widely recognized and desirable identity that could momentarily precede and eclipse that of “religious Muslim” in an interaction with non-Muslim peers. In making meaningful social connections with other urban youth based on a shared engagement with hip hop culture, the Legendz were following a pattern observed by sociologists among other second-generation immigrants whose participation in hip hop music and style allowed them to gain acceptance and make social inroads among young people from outside their immediate ethnic community. In addition to employing hip hop as a way to gain acceptance and make connections with a broader urban American community of non-Muslims, the Legendz also actively adapted the genre's music and culture in creative ways to develop their own in-group Muslim American identity and style. The resulting identity performance—referred to as cool piety—tapped into broader African American urban cool while still exhibiting a close association with local standards of Islamic behavior to produce a nuanced and multifaceted presentation of Muslim American self.

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.

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