Introduction: Young American Muslim Identities

Abstract

I : Y  A  M  I  Blackwell Oxford, The MUWO October ORIGINAL Muslim Hartford UK Publishing, ARTICLE World Seminary Ltd. The Muslim World Introduction: Young Volume American 95 Muslim October Identities Introduction: Young American Muslim Identities Karen Isaksen Leonard University of California Irvine, California T his issue of The Muslim World explores the multiple identities of young Muslim Americans. Together, they show that young American Muslims are understanding and practicing Islam in ways strongly shaped by the American historical context. This picture of emerging American versions of Islam has been sharpened and clarified by the traumatic events of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath. Since that day, Muslims in America have found themselves under greater scrutiny by others and are undertaking more self-scrutiny as well. Although not all Muslims see their religion as their most salient characteristic, non-Muslims may make that identification. This encourages young people of Muslim ancestry to examine how their religion relates to other aspects of their identity as Americans, for people are multi-faceted beings with hybrid and flexible identities. Muslim identities are discussed here in the plural to unsettle the perception that there is only one Muslim identity and that it is essentially and always a religious one, much as Stuart Hall discusses cultural identities, emphasizing instability, construction in context, and reinterpretations of the past in the present. “All identity is constructed across difference,” Hall says, 1 and the societal configurations of sameness and difference with which Muslims have lived and worked since Islam’s origins in seventh century Arabia have varied greatly. Identity is based on interactions, perceptions that one is the same or not the same as others, and elements of one’s personal or collective identity, including not only religion, but gender, race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and generation. Overview The United States is a country with a long-established Judeo-Christian tradition; it also has an indigenous and long-standing African American Muslim population with somewhat different understandings and practices of Islam. Immigrants work hard to define religious identity for their descendants, particularly where religion is increasingly viewed as a form of cultural