Advocating for the Muslim Ummah

Abstract

This chapter provides answers to the important question on why Muslim American interest groups continue to lobby on issues related to US foreign policy following 9/11. It describes the US Muslim organizations' foreign policy activism that contradict their interests and fuel perceptions of Muslims as outsiders concerned with the interests of other nations. It also shows how foreign policy activism is seen as a means through which US Muslim organizations communicate their belongingness to America. The chapter talks about the Muslims in the United States who say they feel a strong sense of belonging to the ummah, the global Muslim community. It explains that for Muslims the sense of belonging can be to a country of origin, but it is mostly to the larger, global Muslim community and to the religious symbols of Islam.