Abstract
This article explores several key events in the last 12 years that led to periods of heightened suspicion about Islam and Muslims in the United States. It provides a brief overview of the rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam sentiment known as “Islamophobia”, and it investigates claims that American Muslims cannot be trusted to be loyal to the United States because of their religion. This research examines American Muslim perspectives on national security discourse regarding terrorism and radicalization, both domestic and foreign, after 9/11. The article argues that it is important to highlight developments, both progressive and conservative, in Muslim communities in the United States over the last 12 years that belie suspicions of widespread anti-American sentiment among Muslims or questions about the loyalty of American Muslims. The article concludes with a discussion of important shifts from a Muslim identity politics that disassociated from American identity and ‘American exceptionalism’ to a position of integration and cultural assimilation.
Highlights
This article explores several key events in the last 12 years that led to periods of heightened suspicion about Islam and Muslims in the United States
We attempt to identify the major trends in American Islam as well as changes in the everyday activities of American Muslims after 9/11.2 We argue that Islam in America is continuing to change and be transformed in ways that sometimes coincide with the policy objectives of the U.S government and national security officials
There are no easy answers as to whether Islamophobia will ever loosen its grasp on the psyches of millions of Americans who lived through 9/11 and witnessed 12 years of sporadic ‘homegrown’ attacks on American soil and cannot help but associate Islam and Muslims with terrorism and violence
Summary
The attacks of 9/11 have been analyzed in various ways as constituting a point of transformation in American history after which “everything had changed”—including perceptions about the world and one’s surroundings, and relation to and awareness of a broader political geography ([1]; [2], p. 180; [3]). This article explores some of the key events that led to periods of heightened suspicion about Islam and Muslims in the United States in the last 12 years. It provides a brief overview of the rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam sentiment known as Islamophobia, and it critically examines the claims of those who promote legislation designed to marginalize American Muslims on the basis of their Islamic faith. Many American Muslims are embracing an authentically American identity inspired by and infused with modern and recognizably post-9/11 interpretations of mainstream Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxy They are increasingly choosing to integrate into American society through participation in and production of American culture in both civic engagement and in new, innovative ways such as art, filmmaking, political involvement, authorship, scholarship, and interfaith engagement. Islam in the media” [21,22]
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