Muslims as an Ethnicity in the United States

The status of Muslims in America changed radically in the wake of 9/11 (Sheridan, 2006). A small population by percentage (American-Muslims are only 1% of the U.S. population) (Besheer, 2016), Muslims nonetheless received the vast bulk of negative attention and backlash following the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. As an ethnic group, Muslims were well-connected both domestically and internationally -- and many Muslims reached out to the U.S. government post-9/11 in an effort to work with federal agencies to help address the issues arising from the climate of terror (Mantri, 2011). Haddad (2001) writing prior to the 9/11 attacks stated that Muslims in the U.S. "have mostly lived on the margins" of the nation's "political life," have a high degree of "ethnic diversity" within their own groups, and lack the political experience needed for "political integration" in America (p. 91). At the same time, admits Haddad (2001), the teaming up of the "Zionist lobby and the Christian Right" has resulted in the marginalization of Muslims in America, "a coalition of Arab-American and Muslim political action groups" supported the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2000 and helped provide support in the final swing state of Florida in an otherwise tight race (p. 91). Thus, while Muslim Americans are certainly not a major social or political group in the U.S., they have helped to shape certain outcomes -- though they have also been shaped by 9/11 and the ensuing terror attacks around the world. This paper will discuss Muslim-American mobilization before and after 9/11, examine their status pre-9/11 and how it has changed since.

The wars in the Middle East in the 21st century have been catastrophic for the some Muslim communities there while simultaneously being supported by other Muslim communities. 9/11 served as the catalyst for these wars and also amplified the fragmentation of the Muslim world as in-fighting escalated into factional wars from Yemen to Syria. To say that Muslims are an ethnic group would be highly misleading because there are so many varieties of Islam (it is akin to saying Christians or Jews are ethnicities -- it is simply not true). However, in America, the Muslim population is fragmented. Indeed, as Bakalian and Bozorgmehr (2005) show, 9/11 led to many Muslim Americans mobilizing in the face of bias and anti-Muslim immigration laws.

Prior to 9/11 Muslim American communities had been targeted by authorities -- especially in the 1960s and 1970s when Muslim American leader like Malcolm X was assassinated, followed later by the assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. Mohammed Ali was targeted for his refusal to fight in Vietnam as well as for his outspoken criticism of the cultural and political Establishment in America. These individuals inspired the next generation of Muslim Americans led by such diverse men as Louis Farrakhan to Chuck D. of Public Enemy (Turner, 2003, p. xxviii). Thus even before 9/11, the Muslim American population was sensitive to and aware of its outsider status, which was understood to be the effect of numerous causes -- from racism to moral and religious bias to cultural prejudice. The centralization of power in America by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) and Zionists meant that Muslims would never have a comfortable or welcomed place in American society (Haddad, 2001). The leadership of men like Malcolm X helped many African-American Muslims to become self-conscious and politically activated -- but Arab-American Muslim population did not particularly benefit from this approach as it was primarily oriented towards African-Americans. For this reason Muslim Americans is not an apt or efficient indicator of ethnicity as Islam has appealed to a broad range of Americans both before and after 9/11. Indeed, celebrated Hollywood director Oliver Stone's son converted to Islam following 9/11 in what amounted to a socio-political statement on how Muslims, Jews and Christians should be able to get along better. The assassination of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki indicated that the U.S. government had less tolerance for Muslim Americans than Stone had hoped to inspire.

Following 9/11, American Muslims Muslim Americans responded to the backlash against Muslims by "invoking historical precedents" and framing their legitimate right to exist within the American culture "in terms of civil rights," using "pre-existing networks, such as Islamic centers and grassroots organizations to jumpstart activism" (Bakalian, Bozorgmehr, 2005, p. 7). As Melissinos (2014) states:

The Bush administration initially appeared to take a pro-Muslim stance, both in the words of the president shortly after the attacks and in the prosecution of hate crimes. Civil liberties groups, however, complained that those words were not matched by actions. In the criminal justice system, many anti-Muslim actions occurred. Suspects were detained irrespectively of constitutional limits and conditions. Moreover, arrests for other crimes, like visa overstays, drastically increased for those of Arab origin or from Muslim countries in the final months of 2001. The government disregarded the rights of Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans in numerous cases.

Thus, just as African-American Muslims were targeted during the unrest of the Civil Rights Era, the post-9/11 world saw Muslims as the source of problems in society -- even though ample evidence had existed to the contrary for decades (Haddad, 2001).

As Pew Research Center (2007) has noted, only about half of Muslim Americans have been educated at a collegiate level, which puts them below the national average. Nonetheless, their income is at the national average, which means their economic background is largely middle class. Immigrant Muslims who come to America see themselves, in fact, as far better off financially in the U.S. than in the country from which they emigrated (Pew Research Center, 2007). While these might be positive features of the Muslim community, the fact remains that in the post-9/11 U.S. Muslim Americans still feel uneasy. 25% of Muslim Americans "say they have been the victim of discrimination in the United States" (p. 4).

When it comes to African vs. Middle Eastern Muslim Americans, the differences are even more apparent, as Pew Research Center (2007) notes: "native-born African-American Muslims are the most disillusioned segment of the U.S. Muslim population . . . .they are more skeptical of the view that hard work pays off, and more of them believe that Muslim immigrants in the U.S. should try to remain distinct from society" (p. 6). Moreover, only "13% of African-American Muslims express satisfaction with national conditions, compared with 29% of other native-born Muslims, and 45% of Muslim immigrants" (Pew Research Center, 2007, p. 6). The surveys indicate that for each successive generation of Muslims in America, that generation is less likely to be satisfied by American society -- and for African-American Muslims they experience a double-dissatisfaction both as African-Americans and as Muslims, which are two populations that fare poorly in America.

9/11 has, however, raised awareness about prejudice towards Muslims as more and more groups have spoken out regarding the plight of Muslim Americans. Nonetheless, hostility remains woven into the American culture and Muslim Americans of all ethnicities are finding it difficult at least to some degree to find their place in America. Some -- especially African-American Muslims -- feel their place should be outside of mainstream America, which is a feeling that has roots in the militancy of Malcolm X and the Black Panther movement.

References

Bakalian, A., Bozorgmehr, M. (2005). Muslim American mobilization. Diaspora: A

Journal of Transnational Studies, 14(1): 7-43.

Besheer, M. (2016). A new estimate of the U.S. Muslim population. Pew Research.

Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/06/a-new-estimate-of-the-u-s-muslim-population/

Haddad, Y. (2001). Muslims in U.S. politics: Recognized and integrated, or seduced and abandoned? SAIS Review, 21(2): 91-102.

Mantri, G. (2011). Homegrown Terrorism. Harvard International Review, 33(1), 88-104.

Melissinos, G. (2014). From backlash to mobilization: Muslim American prayer spaces

in post-9/11 New York. Graduate Center, City University of New York. Retrieved from http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1144&context=gc_etds

Pew Research Center. (2007). Muslim Americans.

Sheridan, L. (2006). Islamophobia pre- and post-September 11th, 2001. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21(3): 317-336

Turner, R. B. (2003). Islam in the African-American Experience. IN: Indiana