Religiously Grounded: Muslim Legal Subjectivity in the “Navigating Differences” Letter

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is one of the first and oldest American Muslim nonprofit organizations focused on policy and civic engagement. Its work focuses on improving policies impacting the Muslim community by lobbying in Washington, D.C. In addition, it seeks to improve the public perception of American Muslims, especially through its advocacy work in Hollywood. While it shares common goals with similar groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), MPAC is distinct in that it does not focus exclusively on civil rights for the American Muslim community as CAIR does. Founded in the late 1980s by Dr. Maher Hathout and Salam Al-Marayati through the Islamic Center of Southern California, MPAC continues to advocate for its mission of having American Muslims become an integral part of American diversity and pluralism by grounding itself in its understanding of the American Muslim identity. Its work has focused on bringing the American Muslim community and wider American society closer together while also educating non-Muslims about Islam and Muslims to combat Islamophobia. A quote from Dr. Hathout summarizes the intent of MPAC to create an American Muslim institution: “Home is not where my grandparents are buried but where my grandchildren will be raised.” It has committed to engaging the government to improve policies that impact American Muslims and Americans as a whole while also advocating the media and Hollywood to improve their narratives about Islam and Muslims. MPAC has published many books and policy papers that have influenced the discourse on Islam in America. Its work reflects a unique approach from its founders that distinguishes it from other American Muslim organizations and that has yielded criticism over the years. However, they remain committed to their vision for American Muslims based on their understanding of the Qur’an and an interpretation of Islam in modern American context. This article seeks to provide one of the first broad academic overviews of the history and work of MPAC given that they have not been studied in academic works before beyond short references to them as an organization in the American Muslim community.

This study aims to determine the basis of the development of Islam in the United States and the manifestations of the influence of Islamic development in the field of United States politics, both in domestic and foreign policy of the United States. In this study a descriptive analytic method will be used which uses data collection techniques in the form of literature review, while the type of data used is theoretical data obtained from literature in the form of books, documents, journals, and information related to the problem to be studied. The data analysis technique used in this study is a qualitative analysis technique. The results of the research show that the basis for the development of Islam in the United States and its influence in the political field is based on the political system and the basic values that apply and are adhered to by the people of the United States. Islam in the United States shows rapid development both in terms of quantity and quality. In the political field, Muslims have shown an increase in involvement in political activities, for example, an increase in the number of participation in elections and also an increase in the number of partisans who are active in political party activities and an increase in cooperation and lobbying with elites and political institutions. The highest achievement of Muslims in the political field is the election of members of the congress who are Muslims. Currently there are two members of Congress who are Muslims and several of them occupy important public positions in the political and governmental structures of the United States. Muslims are also actively fighting for civil rights including political rights through Islamic organizations formed by Muslims in the United States.

Since the late 1980s, the history of Islam in America has become increasingly more multifaceted. Between the time when the Berlin wall fell and when George W. Bush left office, many more Muslims immigrated to the United States. The United States became home to a large number of Muslim refugees from such war-torn regions as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and the Sudan. The number of converts to Islam increased to include sizeable Latin and European American communities alongside a growing African American Muslim community. American Muslims of varying religious understandings and ethnic backgrounds established many more mosques, self-help organizations, and political and civil rights advocacy groups. They became more active in public service both in their local communities and in the federal government. American Muslims also became more visible participants in cultural ventures as comedians, musicians, actors, and authors. Acts of violence carried out by militant Muslims and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq brought American Muslims into America's collective conscience as a security threat - a potential enemy within. Consequently, hundreds of American Muslims have found their civil rights abused and an untold number have been deported. Most of the scholarship on Islam in America has focusesd on the activities of Muslims in this period. It is impossible for a single chapter to adequately represent the findings of this scholarship and to detail the complex developments that shaped Islam and Muslim lives in the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy

With the war against terrorism and increased attention on the Muslim world, this article analyzes ways Muslims in the United States understand their roles as Americans in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and in peacemaking. The assimilation and integration of American Muslims has effectively enabled the flourishing of dozens of national and regional organizations to work in areas of civil rights, human rights, interfaith dialogue, education, charity, public diplomacy, political activism, and other religious and secular activities. Despite the post 9/11 scrutiny of the American Muslim community, American Muslim groups have devised sophisticated grassroots campaigns on counter-terrorism, anti-extremist ideology, and methods in conflict prevention with various law enforcement authorities.

Social identity theory predicts that individuals prefer to give to people with the same identity as themselves. However, individuals have multiple identities that interact simultaneously. For instance, religion is an essential identity for many individuals, particularly those from racialized minority groups, such as Muslims and Jews, who are often discriminated against due to these identities. Moreover, individuals like to support faith-based causes. However, they may also feel that they have a linked fate identity, where they perceive a commonality with other persecuted minorities due to similar experiences of discrimination. Moreover, political ideology is another vital identity marker for many individuals. How do these identities interact in giving to faith-based and non-faith-based causes? This article addresses the question by exploring support for civil rights organizations among the general population and two racialized, faith-based minorities – Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans. The findings show that these racialized minorities are more likely than other groups to fund civil rights organizations that work both within and outside their faith-based communities, suggesting that the concept of linked fate may operate in the domain of philanthropy, where minorities are helping themselves and other communities suffering discrimination. The findings also indicate that political ideology affects giving, as liberals are more likely to donate to civil rights causes both within and outside their faith tradition. Overall, this article expands the existing literature on philanthropy by looking at how the effects of political ideology and the notion of linked fate among minority groups may influence giving in times of crisis.

Arabs and Muslims in the Media after 9/11: Representational Strategies for a “Postrace” Era Evelyn Alsultany (bio) After 9/11 a strange thing happened: there was an increase in sympathetic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims on US television. If a TV drama or Hollywood film represented an Arab or Muslim as a terrorist, then the story line usually included a “positive” representation of an Arab or Muslim to offset the negative depiction. Dozens of TV dramas portrayed Arab and Muslim Americans as the unjust target of hate crimes or as patriotic US citizens. President George W. Bush was sure to distinguish between Arab and Muslim “friends” and “enemies,” stating “the enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.”1 News reporters interviewed Arab and Muslim Americans, seemingly eager to include their perspectives on the terrorist attacks, careful to point out their experiences with hate crimes. Yet at the same time that sympathetic portrayals of Arab and Muslim Americans proliferated on US commercial television in the weeks, months, and years after 9/11, hate crimes, workplace discrimination, bias incidents, and airline discrimination targeting Arab and Muslim Americans increased exponentially. According to the FBI, hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims multiplied by 1,600 percent from 2000 to 2001.2 In just the first weeks and months after 9/11, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and other organizations documented hundreds of violent incidents experienced by Arab and Muslim Americans and people mistaken for Arabs or Muslims, including several murders. Dozens of airline passengers perceived to be Arab or Muslim were removed from flights. Hundreds of Arab and Muslim Americans reported discrimination at work, receiving hate mail, and physical assaults, and their property, mosques, and community centers vandalized or set on fire.3 In the decade after 9/11, such discriminatory acts have persisted. [End Page 161] In addition to individual citizens taking the law into their own hands, the US government passed legislation that targeted Arabs and Muslims (both inside and outside the United States) and legalized the suspension of constitutional rights.4 The government’s overt propaganda of war was palatable to many citizens on edge and regarded with suspicion by others as the government passed the USA PATRIOT Act, initiated war in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, and explained the terrorist attacks to the public by stating “they hate us for our freedom.” Given that Arabs and Muslims have been stereotyped for over a century, given that 9/11 was such an opportune moment for further stereotyping, given that the US government passed domestic and foreign policies that compromised the civil and human rights of Arabs and Muslims, and given that demonizing the enemy during times of war has been commonplace, why would sympathetic portrayals appear during such a fraught moment? As overt war propaganda has become increasingly transparent and ineffective over the decades since World War II and the Cold War, the production and circulation of “positive” representations of the “enemy” have become essential to projecting the United States as benevolent, especially in its declaration of war and passage of racist policies. Positive representations of Arabs and Muslims have helped form a new kind of racism, one that projects antiracism and multiculturalism on the surface but simultaneously produces the logics and affects necessary to legitimize racist policies and practices.5 It is no longer the case that the other is explicitly demonized to justify war or injustice. Now the other is portrayed sympathetically in order to project the United States as an enlightened country that has entered a postrace era. The representational mode that has become standard since 9/11 seeks to balance a negative representation with a positive one, what I refer to as “simplified complex representations.” These are strategies used by television producers, writers, and directors to give the impression that the representations they are producing are complex, yet they do so in a simplified way. These predictable strategies can be relied on if the plot involves an Arab or Muslim terrorist, but are a new standard...

Who speaks for Muslims in the United States? And who advocates for their interests at home and abroad? These are the question political scientist Emily Cury addresses in her book, Claiming Belonging, Muslim American Advocacy in an Era of Islamophobia. The book offers an engaging overview of the advocacy and lobbying strategies of some of the major Muslim American organizations such as the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). It “looks at how Muslim American organizations engage in framing and articulating a Muslim American collective identity through their policy and claims-making strategies” (p. 11). Cury starts with a paradox: a context marked by enduring Islamophobia since 2001 has offered an unexpected structural political opportunity for Muslims to become more visible and more assertive. Her book demonstrates how, despite the context of persistent anti-Muslim bias that has informed U.S. politics since the early 2000s, Muslim organizations have productively used traditional interest groups tactics to give shape to a “distinctly liberal, inclusive, and civically engaged Muslim American political identity” (p. 150). While the book offers a compelling description and argumentation in support of that claim, the question of the type of religio-political interventions that are excluded by the focus on building an acceptable brand of liberal American Islam compatible with the American myth of civil religion remains open.

American Muslim is one of some existing religious minorities in America. Despite of minority, this religious group has been long, some believed it has been even since the Columbus exploration, living in the country. As time goes, the American Muslims are able to blend with American Society. These Muslim individuals are found in many fields of life of American, such as social, economic, education, and even politics in America. This condition is anyway worth appreciating as the struggle of American Muslims for their existence is not something simple and easy. Apart from the reality, the deadly attacks of 9/11, to some extent, has put American Muslims to be objects of suspicions. Soon after the tragedy, Muslims in many occasions are prejudiced as harsh, and of course, terrorists. These suspicions and prejudice have been, in fact, long found in the middle of American society pre-9/11 attacks. However, the tragedy aggravates the status quo of the American Muslims and it soon creates the worst point of so-called Islamophobia. In response to this phenomenon, many American Muslims start to deliver counters in various ways and media. Among the American Muslim figures, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, an American Muslim activist and leader, actively brushes off the bad images of Islam, especially regarding the 9/11 tragedy. Through his book entitled “Moving the Mountain: beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America”, Rauf explains his views on Islam. This book also implies counters to the so-called phenomena of Islamophobia. On the other hand, Moderate Islam contains the same spirits with Rauf’s Moving the Mountain. It offers the spirit of moderation in understanding and practicing Islam. Both the ideas in turn are able to counter Islamophobia in America, especially in post 9/11 America.Keyword: American Muslims, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Moving the Mountain,Islamophobia, Moderate Islam

American Muslims are often targets of workplace discrimination as they are observed through the sphere of “otherness”, which many Americans relate to stereotypes that are perpetuated through the literature and popular media. One's religiosity is often incorporated into one's identity and consequently, religious discrimination can deeply harm employees. Work time consume large portion of employee's life which is why it is daunting task to separate workplace from employee's religious life. Despite legal prohibition of religious discrimination by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (C.R.A.) of 1964, Muslims are frequently targeted and bullied at workplaces. Given the state of increased claims of religious discrimination despite existing law that prohibits that, this article suggests changes that have potential to provide better protection of American Muslim employees. This article reviews the literature on workplace discrimination against American Muslims and offers suggestions and strategies for tackling religious discrimination in workplaces on organizational and legislative levels.

During the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Muslims were brought from North and West Africa to what would become the United States. Many of these African Muslims were literate in Arabic. Even in the face of formative obstacles, enslaved people and their descendants continued to observe their faith and to adapt Islamic and Islamically influenced practices in the United States. In the mid-1800s to early 1900s, Muslims began to immigrate to the United States from the Middle East and South Asia. Muslim immigrants used a variety of tactics to establish communities in the United States while navigating segregation, miscegenation, and restrictive citizenship laws. A few small-scale Muslim institutions were established, including mosques and cultural centers. Prominent Muslim and Islamically influenced movements flourished in the early 20th century, such as the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community movement. The MSTA was an African American–majority movement born of the Great Migration. The Thesophist movement was largely white. Both movements were similar in terms of their exploration of the occult and emphasis on bodily control as a means of spiritual purification. The Ahmadiyya produced and translated much of the religious literature that circulated in the United States across Muslim sects in the first half of the 20th century, including the most popular translation of the Qur’an, often without attribution. Sunni and Shi’i communities were also present in this time period. The Nation of Islam (NOI, 1930–1975) surpassed the MSTA and Ahmadiyya to become the largest and most influential Muslim American movement in the secondhalf of the 20th century. The NOI emphasized communal economic empowerment and self-reliance for Black Americans in order to achieve the goal of separation from Whites as a means of achieving racial justice. Prominent figures from the NOI, such as Malcolm X, are frequently invoked by different Muslim American groups in the 21st century. When Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, NOI members went in different directions. Elijah Muhammad’s son, Warith Deen Muhammad, led a large portion of the community to Sunni Islam. Other members joined Louis Farrakhan’s NOI. The Harter-Celler Act of 1965 opened up non-European immigration, leading to a large increase in Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Due to the law’s stipulations, these immigrants were largely upper-class and well-educated. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was also a push by many different Muslim American groups toward Sunnism. The 1979 Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis increased anti-Muslim hostility in the United States and created the stereotype that all Muslim Americans were immigrants from the Middle East. The 9/11 attacks amplified this backlash, but also led to the creation and strengthening of nationwide Muslim civil rights and advocacy organizations. Advocacy campaigns and heated debates have also taken place within the Muslim American community in the 21st century. Professor of Islamic Studies Amina Wadud has been particularly influential in shaping conversations around gender and Islam, both in the United States and globally. Wadud is also well-known for leading a mixed-gender congregational prayer in New York City in 2005, which sparked a global debate over the permissibility of women leading prayer. In the early 21st century, so-called third spaces proliferated, including art spaces and gatherings facilitated through online groups such as Meetup, where Muslims who felt left out of more traditional mosque spaces found community. This entry ends in 2010, almost a decade after 9/11 and before the rising presidential candidacy of Donald J. Trump.

The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) is the premier civil rights organization for Muslims in the United States. Founded in Washington, DC, in 1994 with an emphasis on public relations and media communications, over two decades it has expanded to about two hundred employees at thirty-two offices in major US cities in nineteen states, according to its official website. The organization emphasizes that it is structured so that these offices operate independently. In addition to tracking hate crimes, these offices provide or arrange for legal services in areas such as civil rights, immigration, and homeland security. The story of the organization’s growth and success reveals key issues for American Muslim involvement in politics, including those surrounding the First Amendment and the intersection of religion and race. In 2016, the National Board named its first female Chair, Roula Allouch, a lawyer from Cincinnati, who in the University of Kentucky’s Law School alumni magazine was described as “the only Muslim in her class,” and a person who “knows how to put people at ease . . . to break down misconceptions [and] seek peace.” The CAIR Board has become more diverse and representative since its founding and has ventured into defending non-Muslims from civil rights violations. Today CAIR describes its mission on its national website and in many state office annual reports as follows: “To enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.” While it is primarily a civil rights organization, since its founding the organization’s leaders have found it necessary to counter misinformation by introducing educational information about Islam. Key civil rights efforts it has engaged in include support for thousands of immigration and religious discrimination cases every year, documenting hate crimes in annual reports, and challenging anti-shari’ah legislation. CAIR further leads educational efforts by coordinating diversity training sessions, a public library project, and media appearances.

Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration1. An Institutional Approach to the Politics of Western Muslim Minorities, by Adulkader H. Sinno, Indiana University Part 1. Western Muslims and Etablished State-Religion Relations 2. Claiming Space in America's Pluralism: Muslims Enter the Political Maelstrom, by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Georgetown University and Robert Stephen Ricks, Georgetown University 3. The Practice of Their Faith: Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany, by J. Christopher Soper, Pepperdine University and Joel S. Fetzer, Pepperdine University 4. Religion, Muslims, and the State in Britain and France: From Westphalia to 9/11, by Jorgen S. Nielsen, University of BirminghamPart 2. Western Muslims and Political Institutions 5. Muslim Underrepresentation in American Politics, by Abdulkader H. Sinno, Indiana University 6. Muslims Representing Muslims in Europe: Parties and Associations after 9/11, by Jytte Klausen, Brandeis University 7. Muslims in UK Institutions: Effective Representation or Tokenism? by Abdulkader H. Sinno, Indiana University and Eren Tatari, Indiana UniversityPart 3. Institutional Underpinnings of Perceptions of Western Muslims 8. How Europe and Its Muslim Populations See Each Other, by Jodie T. Allen, Pew Research Center and Richard Wike, Pew Research Center 9. Public Opinion toward Muslim Americans: Civil Liberties and the Role of Religiosity, Ideology, and Media Use, by Erik C. Nisbet, Cornell University, Ronald Ostman, Cornell University,and James Shanahan, Cornell University 10. The Racialization of Muslim Americans, by Amaney Jamal, Princeton UniversityPart 4. Western Muslims, Civil Rights, and Legal Institutions 11. Canadian National Security Policy and Canadian Muslim Communities, by Kent Roach, University of Toronto 12. Counter-Terrorism and the Civil Rights of Muslim Minorities in the European Union, by Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, Danish Institute for International Studies 13. The Preventive Paradigm and the Rule of Law: How Not to Fight Terrorism, by David Cole, Georgetown University 14. Recommendations for Western Policymakers and Muslim Organizations, by Abdulkader H. Sinno, Indiana UniversityList of Contributors Index

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5915/21-4-13510 The American food supply is the most abundant and varied in the world and American Muslims have access to this tremendous bounty at an extremely low cost. The average American Muslim spends only 15% of disposable income on food. Two-thirds of this is spent on food consumed at home and about one-third on food away from home. The technological wonder we call the US food system is in flux. Before our very eyes, a new, modern global food system is being built on the remnants of traditional agriculture, food processing, food distribution, food marketing, and food consumption patterns. American Muslims are looking for excitement in their foods. This can be seen in the increased consumption of processed meats and poultry foods among first and second generation American Muslims. Processed meats and poultry products such as hot dogs, bologna, salami, pastrami, roast beef, and many others labeled Halal are appearing in specialty stores. For the first time in US history, the American Muslims' existence is being recognized in social, political, and economic sectors. This review will explore, for the first time, the current trends in consumption of processed meats and poultry by the North American Muslim population and its impact on the meat processing industry. The processed meats and poultry industry had better make the most of the present. The availability of these products will generate interest among Americans consumers from outside the Muslim minority.

Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence