American Muslim Community Research Articles

Domestic Violence in Urban American Muslim Women

Muslims constitute about one percent of the U.S. population. Ten percent of U.S. media stories on domestic violence (DV) focus on American Muslims, implying a higher-than-average rate of DV in the American Muslim community. Our study estimates the prevalence of DV among Muslim women in greater Boston and compares it to DV rates among American women as a whole. The study also examines the effect of education, income, and employment status on DV in both samples in comparison with each other. We anonymously surveyed 332 American Muslim women over the age of 18 at five mosques in the greater Boston area and found the DV rate among our study participants to be comparable with that among American women in general.We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (AddHealth) as a surrogate for the U.S. as a whole. Our study participants experienced less intimate partner violence and more aggression from parents and siblings than the women in AddHealth. Also, rising socioeconomic and employment status were not buffers against DV in our study as they were for the AddHealth participants. Ethnicity or country of birth had no impact on DV risk among the women in our study. These results are important because they counter the bias in U.S. media that implies DV is more prevalent among American Muslims than in the U.S. population at large. Our data also suggests measures to ameliorate DV in American Muslims need to target the whole family (i.e., parents and children of both genders).

Fighting Global Surveillance: Lessons from the American Muslim Community

The United States government has been spying on its citizens through a massive surveillance infrastructure that is unrestricted to a particular target or suspicion of wrongdoing. The statutory and regulatory authorities responsible for this infrastructure are sprawling and often secret. Built-in limitations and oversight mechanisms are riddled with loopholes or inaccessible due to exceedingly high thresholds. Litigation challenges to surveillance overreach often fail at standing. Under the current doctrine, plaintiffs must show that their own communications have been surveilled by a specific surveillance program. This Note contributes to surveillance reform by proposing a private right of action that sets the requirements for Article III standing in surveillance cases to broaden access to judicial redress for would-be plaintiffs with meritorious claims.

White Duality: The (dis)Advantage of Being a White Convert in the Muslim American Community

Social identity theory tells us that our identities are context specific—they gain or lose salience depending upon the situation and setting in which we find ourselves. In the context of largely immigrant Muslim communities in the United States, most members are of Arab or South Asian descent. Yet converts to Islam in these communities reflect the predominant racial and ethnic categories of the US (black, white, and Hispanic). Using data from interviews with 39 American Muslim converts, I examine the implications of their racial identities for their credibility and authenticity as Muslims. Findings suggest that white converts experienced what may be called “white duality”, in which they were “prized” for their whiteness yet also met with belittlement and suspicion. I argue that white American converts’ racial identities play a major role in preventing them from achieving authentic Muslim identities within the context of predominantly immigrant Muslim communities.

Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence

Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence

Turks and Other Muslims in the US: An Analysis of Perceptions

Surveys show that, in the United States, Americans have a less favorable view of Muslims due to various reasons as opposed to American Muslims who conversely favor the American state and population. In line with this fact, this study tries to understand whether the Turkish community living in the US has different views about Americans than American Muslims do. This study makes a comparison because not all ethnic groups in the American Muslim community have the same views about Americans. While analyzing the Turkish community’s perceptions, this study also analyzes the views Americans and Muslim Americans have towards each other. The study compares previous surveys with the survey conducted among Turks living in the US and concludes that Muslims generally have the same perceptions regarding Americans. It also reveals that aside from the basic reasons which result in a negative view towards Muslims, being a small community and fragmented are two significant factors that damage the image of Muslims. In addition, it reveals that a lack of knowledge about each other increases negative perceptions.

Engaging Muslim Americans for Research on Community Health: Lessons Learned from a PCOR Capacity-Building Program

Background: Although racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse, American Muslim communities share a religious worldview that contributes to similar health and health care behaviors. Yet, this “Muslim” dimension largely overlooked in health disparity research and intervention programs. As such, Muslim community leaders have few opportunities to participate in, and shape, research that addresses religion-related factors impacting Muslim community health outcomes.

“An undercover problem in the Muslim community”: A qualitative study of imams' perspectives on substance use

BackgroundMainstream Islam prohibits alcohol and other drugs, yet substance use is prevalent in Muslim-American communities. Previous studies have not examined how imams, leaders of mosques, address substance use in their communities. This study aimed to explore imams' perspectives and approaches toward Muslim Americans with substance use disorders (SUD). MethodsQualitative study of imams in New York City recruited by convenience sampling. We conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews to address how imams perceive and address substance use. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach, we created an initial coding scheme which was refined iteratively, identified prominent themes, and created an explanatory model to depict relationships between themes. ResultsAll imams described substance use within a shared underlying framework of religious prohibition of alcohol and other drugs. Their perceptions of individuals with SUD diverged between a focus on sin, shame, and social disruption vs. a focus on acceptance and forgiveness. Furthermore, imams diverged between conceptualizing their communities as comprising mosque-going individuals without SUD vs. broader communities that include individuals with SUD. While imams acknowledged how some imams' judgmental language toward SUD may perpetuate stigma, they also identified therapeutic approaches toward SUD: non-judgmental engagement, encouragement of recovery, prayer, and referral to resources. ConclusionsThis study is among the first to illustrate the range of perceptions and approaches to substance use among Muslim American imams. These perceptions have potentially divergent impacts— shaming or assisting individuals with SUD. An understanding of these complexities can inform provision of culturally competent care to Muslim-American patients with SUD.

Advance Care Planning Engagement Among Muslim Community-Dwelling Adults Living in the United States.

Advance care planning (ACP) is a cornerstone of self-determination for the type of care provided at the end of life. Despite many national efforts to improve American adults' engagement in ACP, statistics indicate low engagement. Low engagement, especially among racial and ethnic minority populations, immigrants, people with lower socioeconomic status, young adults, rural residents, or non-English speakers, is common. Advance care planning engagement among Muslims living in the United States has been minimally studied. The purpose of this study was to explore Muslims' engagement in ACP. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. Participants were recruited from Islamic organizations through convenience and snowball sampling. Engagement in ACP was measured by the Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey. A sample of 148 Muslims (18-79 years of age) participated in the study. The average engagement scores ranged from 1.97 to 2.09, with about two-thirds in the precontemplation stage. Significant differences in engagement scores were found according to health condition and end of life experiences. Results suggest a need for further collaborative efforts by health care providers, policymakers, and researchers to mitigate the disparities in ACP engagement in the American Muslim community.

"A lot of us have a very difficult time reconciling what being Muslim is": A phenomenological study on the meaning of being Muslim American.

Little is known about the lived experiences of Muslim Americans and what it means to identify as "Muslim American" within the sociopolitical context of Islamophobia. Although xenophobia, racism, and religious discrimination have been shown to impact identity development, it is unclear how Muslim American youth negotiate and make sense of their identities against this backdrop. A qualitative, phenomenological approach guided the research design to explore how 11 Muslim American late adolescents/emerging adults make sense of their Muslim American identities. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Social Identity Theory (SIT) to guide this investigation, we sought to explore the narratives of what it means to be members of the Muslim American community and how participants experienced cultural belongingness. Participants identified four key components that are central to their essence of being Muslim American. These elements were, having (a) a "built-in community," (b) "a lot of ethnic diversity," (c) "a religious practice," and (d) "a feeling that we all have to be this very united group." Our findings capture the complexities of what it means to be Muslim American, particularly given the heterogeneity within the community. Islamophobia contextualized their meaning-making process by perpetuating group homogeneity as the problem and solution. Clinical and research implications highlight the need to recognize intersectionality and systemic oppression as part of the identity negotiation. Pressures from within and outside of the community converged to impede participants' feelings of cultural belongingness and identity exploration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Muslim orphan paradox: Muslim Americans negotiating the Islamic law of adoption

While the care of orphans is a much lauded form of giving, precisely what care should look like is highly contested. This is due, in large part, to a consensus among the Islamic legal schools that adoption (tabanni) is prohibited. This article explores contemporary Muslim Americans’ negotiations of Islamic law to find ethical ways to care for non-biological children within their household. Through Muslim American collaborations and contentions over the regulation of orphan care, including the interventions of Islamic scholars and scholar-activists, as well as the intimate reflections of adoptive and foster parents, I demonstrate how Islamic law is not the exclusive domain of jurists, but of Muslim American communities forging new notions of care, kinship, and family as they draw together distinct legal bodies, traditions, and values.

American Muslim Community under Bush and Obama Administration

American Muslim Community under Bush and Obama Administration

The Impact of Us Governmental Policies on the American Muslim Community after 9/11

The Impact of Us Governmental Policies on the American Muslim Community after 9/11

Slow nonviolence: Muslim women resisting the everyday violence of dispossession and marginalization

This paper draws upon ethnographic research with Muslim communities in Hyderabad, India and South Asian Muslim American communities in Seattle, USA, showcasing the work of grassroots women’s organizations that negotiate and theorize tangled webs of marginalization and their violent effects. Building from their insights, I offer a critical theorization of slow nonviolence, or ideas and actions focused on long-term, incremental (but substantial) change, which resist both the visible and invisible effects of structural violence. I argue that these organizations undertake slow nonviolence by responding to the slow violence of dispossession, operationalizing the everyday as a site of politics, and constructing more equitable relationships. This slow nonviolence varies across place and community, but demonstrates a purposeful effort to contest violence as organizers encounter it, as a complex, everyday, layered, diffuse, slow, and yet material reality.

Ministering to Other People's Fears: Effects of Anti-Muslim Hostility on American Muslim Participation in Public Life

This article explores the manifestations and effects of anti-Muslim hostility in the United States, asking how anti-Muslim hostility affects the nature of American Muslim participation in public life. It argues that cultural trauma among American Muslim communities, resulting from an expectation of routine harm, conditions the nature of participation in public life undertaken by many American Muslims. Drawing on original datasets documenting anti-Muslim hostility and outreach efforts undertaken by American Muslim communities, we can see that ministering to non-Muslim fears has become a central element of participation in public life. This burden of “humanization” pushes us to consider central elements of American “freedom mythologies” around public life and to ask what responsibility non-Muslims have in advocacy work on behalf of American Muslim communities.

MS. MARVEL AS A REPRESENTATION OF THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN IDENTITY

In early 2014, Marvel Comics released a new series called Ms. Marvel. The main character of this series is a Pakistani-American Muslim girl named Kamala Khan. Her story is a breakthrough against the negative representation of Islam in the Western world, especially after 9/11. This research examines five issues taken from the first volume of the Ms. Marvel comic book series. The paper discusses the reason why this series is substantial in the struggle of Muslim immigrants to survive as a minority group in the United States. The results show that Ms. Marvel serves as a medium of communication for the under-represented American Muslim community. Furthermore, by accepting the new superhero, the American society itself has also transformed and it is beginning to adapt to the idea that Muslim immigrants are members of their society.Keywords: Muslim, superhero, comic book, identity, popular culture

“Walking Gently on the Earth”: An Interview with Nana Firman on Islamic Environmental Ethics

This paper explores Islamic interpretations that contribute to understandings of the importance of protecting the environment and living a “green” lifestyle. These concepts are explored within the wider sphere of eco-theology. In addition to an exploration of these concepts in general, this paper specifically aims to understand how Muslims interpret their role in environmental stewardship. Its focus is an interview with Nana Firman, GreenFaith’s Muslim director and the co-director of the Islamic Society of North America’s Green Mosque Initiative. This interview provides the basis for explorations into a faith-based environmental activism in the Muslim American community.

Practicing Clinical Bioethics: Reflections from the Bedside

Biomedical dilemmas are becoming more complex as modern medical technologies continue to advance. In my capacity as a clinical bioethicist, I deal with patients and families confronted by ethical issues and questions that arise during medical treatment. Muslim patients often turn to their faith to help them make medical decisions. In their efforts to avoid what is religiously impermissible, they often ask local imams, community leaders, or Muslim physicians for advice. But these groups typically lack sufficient training when it comes to applying Islamic concepts to the medical dilemmas we face in American hospitals today. In fact, Muslim religious advisors who lack the appropriate medical and religious training should not be giving medical advice. Instead, they should refer their questions to the appropriate scholars, professionals, or referral centers. I have noticed that recommendations received from higher-level Islamic scholars with clinical backgrounds are usually more thoughtful, nuanced, and flexible. Clinicians, patients, and families must be able to access thoughtful Islamic scholarship that supports medical decision making in an accessible, timely, and clinically useful way. By intensifying efforts to combine religious scholarship, clinical understanding, and the effective dissemination of information, those in the field of Islamic bioethics scholarship can better help and support patients and families in determining the most appropriate religiously sanctioned options for their particular circumstances. The American Muslim community must prioritize this field of study.

Shifting Paradigms Islamic just Sustainabilities and American Muslim in the Age of Trump

This paper explores how Trump-era American Muslim activists and organizations have contributed to the development of what we call an “Islamic Just Sustainability”. We explore how this emerging paradigm has restructured Muslim identity in the American context, while reinforcing a foundational shift in religious and sociocultural understanding of the environment and its corresponding intersectional identities. The paper will discuss how the Trumpian context has buttressed American Muslim activist networks that first arose in the post-9/11 environment then explore the development of Islamic Just Sustainability as a theological precept in the American Muslim community. Finally, we will explore the way American Muslim scholars and activists have promoted and implemented the Islamic Just Sustainability paradigm through the pulpit and in their communities.

Changing constructions of religious visibility: The case of an African American Muslim community in South Central LA

Through a case study of a mosque in Los Angeles, I examine how changing constructions of space affect the ways a religious community comes together to engage faith. I show how as the neighborhood was undergoing dramatic change, so too were the ways believers at the mosque interpreted Islam. I divide my analyses into three parts, following the major chronological shifts of religious praxis in this African American Muslim community: (1) early days as members of the Nation of Islam (1950–1975); (2) ‘transition’ from the Nation to Sunni Islam in the mid 1970s; (3) and the post-transition period of rebuilding that continues into the present day. Together they produce a historical interaction effect of economic, demographic (immigration) and internal religious changes that lead to current dilemmas mosque members must address.

American Muslim Community under Bush and Obama Administration

American Muslim Community under Bush and Obama Administration Abdullah Alshrari Abstract Incidents of 9/11 caused American government to shift policy towards American Muslims. The policy changes involved legislative measures. One major legislative measure was the Patriot Act. The FBI was authorized to increase the surveillance of Muslim American citizens. These measures negatively affected the Muslim American communities including restrictions on immigration rules. The political and the social environment in Bush and Obama administrations were different; the public have different views of the problem of National Security and Muslim community. Local and state government reflects to these views at the federal level specific laws such as the Patriot Act, also changed in each administration. The Muslim community is now learning to find its voice and become participant in the American society and politics. In order to understand the different impact of government policies on the American Muslim community in the post 9/11 environment, it is necessary to analyze what happened during each administration. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/rhps.v7n2a2