Reconstructing the narratives around young Muslim men in the GTA

Huda Hussain

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14656605.v1

Abstract

This research explores the narratives of young Muslim men and challenges social work practitioners to be more critical about their own implicit biases towards them. Existing literature on young Muslim men have not focused on the positive narratives that I personally and professionally know of them. This research examined the harmful impact the historical and current master narrative has on young Muslim men. This was a qualitative study examining Canadian Muslim men. Participants were interviewed through open-ended questions to examine how they continued to thrive regardless of the problematic notions that surround them, the strategies they used to navigate to be successful and their self-perception. The findings present a compelling case for rethinking about the way young Muslim men are perceived, using orientalism in reconstructing how we perceive them. In conclusion, although themes were common amongst both participants, the experiences of young Muslim men cannot be generalized. Key words: Young Muslim men, anti-Muslim racism, orientalism, narrative resistance, social work

Highlights

Young Muslim men are often represented as embodying a masculinity that is inherently dangerous and, more recently, associated with radicalization and terrorism (Sanghera, ThaparBjörkert & Humanistisk, 2012)
The findings provide social work practitioners with the opportunity to be more critical about their own implicit biases on young Muslim men
The literature available that included the narratives of young Muslim men was problematic as it further perpetuated stereotypes around them, in addition to half of the literature being written by white researchers who did not identify as being apart of the Muslim community

Summary

Introduction

Young Muslim men are often represented as embodying a masculinity that is inherently dangerous and, more recently, associated with radicalization and terrorism (Sanghera, ThaparBjörkert & Humanistisk, 2012). As a young Muslim woman who worked as a practitioner with predominantly young Muslim men as my service users, it was frustrating to hear the amount of negative remarks made towards them by other professionals These remarks were often biased, as they constructed them as “aggressive” or “threatening” which impacted their education, emotional health and how they perceived themselves. There have been tragic events such as the Quebec mosque shooting in which six Muslim men were killed while praying (Canadian Press & Montreal Gazette, 2019) Most recently, another white supremacist murdered fifty Muslims in the New Zealand mosque massacre (Beydoun, 2019). While this paper focused on the context of Muslims in white settler colonies, it is significant that we are mindful of the Muslims unjustifiably killed by western imperialism in the global South as well

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