American Muslim Research Articles

Building partnerships through third-party facilitation: best practices from the Community Collaborative Initiative

Small minority group organisations rarely collaborate with other nonprofits owing to a lack of expertise and resources. Third-party facilitators can help these groups navigate the process of collaboration. However, the literature has largely ignored their role in the process. We address this gap by studying the challenges third-party facilitators face in the collaboration process and best practices they can apply using the Community Collaboration Initiative (CCI), a unique third-party-facilitated collaboration process working with Muslim American nonprofits.

The Impact of Islamophobia on the Education and Religious Identity of Muslims in the USA

The experiences of Islamophobia among Muslims in Western countries, especially in the United States, escalated rapidly following the aftermath of 9/11. This study aims to investigate the Islamophobia experiences of American Muslims and its impact on their education and religious identity. By employing a systematic literature review, this research indicates that the challenges endured by Muslims not only complicated the reconciliation between their Muslim and American identities but also impeded the proper education of Muslim children. In the resurgence of Neo-racism, Muslims have experienced numerous adversities, ranging from hostile stares to the extent of being deported. Muslims have responded to this in various ways, such as hiding their Muslim identities or educating themselves and non-Muslims about Islam. Muslim women have been subjected to unfortunate incidents, including staying indoors, removing their headscarves, and facing negative perceptions in the mainstream American media. Muslim children have encountered difficulties in their education due to misconceptions about Islam both in the media and school curriculum. Although completely eradicating Islamophobia from the USA may be an unrealistic goal, it is feasible to mitigate its adverse impacts through decent education about Islam. This education could be achieved through elevating the voices of knowledgeable Muslims in the American media, increasing Islamic educational programs on TV, raising awareness among the American public, and integrating details about the origins of Muslims in the USA, the contributions of Muslims to science, the similarities of Islam with other major religions in the USA, and the diverse spectrum within Islam into school curriculums.

Tackling ‘Big’ questions at the bioscience-Islam interface: reporting on the efficacy of an educational programme designed for Muslim high school students

ABSTRACT ‘Big Questions' about the human being regarding its origin, nature, malleability, culpability and uniqueness lie at the core of the religion-science dialogue. Modern science discoveries have spurred Muslim intellectuals and students to grapple with these fundamental questions anew. In this study, we measured the efficacy of a novel curriculum at the intersection of bioscience and Islam tailored for American Muslim high school students. The educational intervention comprised seven seminars, each developed and delivered by a bioscientist-theologian dyad. Outcome measures, based on the Kilpatrick’s Evaluation model were: (a) knowledge; (b) participant interest, intention, and preparedness to learn, engage with, and pursue opportunities at this intersection; and (c) opinion/belief about science-religion compatibility. Our seminars positively impacted participant knowledge and preparedness (knowledge: pre = 14.7, post = 18.6, p = <0.01, preparedness: pre = 10.8, post = 12.8, p < 0.01). There was no change in aggregate participant interest, intention and opinion/belief pre- and post-intervention (interest: pre = 51.2, post = 50.6, p = 0.35, intention: pre = 18.7, post = 18.5, p = 0.74, opinion: pre = 42.5, post = 41.1, p = 0.12). Baseline interest independently predicted knowledge gain (B: 0.68, 95%CI: 0.13, 1.23, p = 0.02), while lower baseline knowledge predicted improvement in preparedness (B: −0.07, 95%CI: −0.13, −0.01, p = 0.02). We encourage researchers and educators to continue exploring ways to build stable professional identities among students with religious orientations at the science-religion intersection.

Contemporary Legal Pluralism, the Modern Metropole, and Immigrant Integration: Negotiating the Law and Legal Institutions in Immigrant Contexts

Social actors’ ability to navigate multiple—and at times contradictory—institutions is essential to the well-being of contemporary diverse societies. For immigrants, the process and outcome of this negotiation shape the trajectories of their integration. Through in-depth interviews, participant observations, and the analysis of written and online materials, this paper studies Muslim immigrants’ experiences of, responses to, and negotiations with the coexistence of American and Islamic laws in the U.S. The data show that legal pluralism (LP) in the modern Metropole has given way to new and novel understandings and practices of LP: the “right to the law” and the “cosmopolitization of the legal field.” Also, whether and how Muslim immigrants negotiate American and Islamic laws is deeply rooted in and critically engaged with the prevailing discussions of equality, pluralism, inclusion, and citizenship. The findings of the study demonstrate that the American Muslim community has developed multiple creative responses to the challenges of LP, and these responses are constantly evolving and readapting through redefinition of acceptable practices, reordering of authoritative voices within the community, creative legal interpretations, and hybridization of the coexisting laws. Thus, the idiosyncrasies of LP in the modern Metropole have created simultaneous drives for adjustment and preservation.

Islamophobia and (Mis)profiling: American Muslims as a Non-model Minority in Post-9/11 Novels

Islamophobia and (Mis)profiling: American Muslims as a Non-model Minority in Post-9/11 Novels

Once a Muslim Always a Muslim: The Rise and Fall of the Muslim American Protagonist in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced

The post 9/11 atmosphere of terror made Muslim Americans highly visible in the U.S.and they have been viewed as potential terrorist suspects. Therefore, in the light of these circumstances, Ayad Akhtar&amp;rsquo;s Play Disgraced is most apropos to be revisited as his works focus on the existence of Muslims in America as a post-colonial contact zone. In fact, the play puts the interracial marriage of Amir, and his wife Emily, a White American woman on center stage and makes it fall down before our eyes. Despite the fact that Amir&amp;rsquo;s credentials qualify him to be a model minority citizen, and reach the American Dream, he falls out of grace as soon as he appears in court to show support as a pro bono lawyer to a Muslim Imam who is tried for raising fund for a mosque in the Middle East. This paper belabors the reasons that led to the reversal of the hero&amp;rsquo;s fortune from prosperity to misery in the wake of the collapse of New York twin towers.

Debunking the "White Devils" and Black Supremacy Myths in the Teaching and Spreading of Islam in America in the 1950s and 1960s

Debunking the "White Devils" and Black Supremacy Myths in the Teaching and Spreading of Islam in America in the 1950s and 1960s

Does Ramadan serve as a naturalistic intervention to promote Muslim American adolescents’ daily virtues? Evidence from a three wave experience sampling study

ABSTRACT Religion/spirituality has been linked to virtue development across individuals, but most of this evidence is derived from decontextualized one-time survey studies. We employed a three-wave experience sampling study to examine whether Ramadan heightens Muslim American adolescents’ connectedness to Allah, inhibitory self-control, initiatory self-control, patience, and compassion within individuals. Adolescents (N = 202) were prompted to complete three daily surveys for a week before, during, and after Ramadan each. Results indicated that adolescents grew more connected to Allah and exhibited greater inhibitory self-control, initiatory self-control, and patience in their daily lives from pre-Ramadan to Ramadan, with continued elevated effects for initiatory self-control and patience – but not for inhibitory self-control – after Ramadan. In contrast, adolescents reported high levels of daily compassion before and during Ramadan, but lower levels after Ramadan. Our findings emphasized the importance of disentangling within- and between-person effects and have implications for virtue theories and the design of intervention programs.

Belonging as a Predictor of Substance Use for Muslim American Emerging Adults

Identified as a human need, belonging is severely under-studied among Muslim American&amp;nbsp;emerging adults. During this transitional period, Muslim American emerging adults&amp;nbsp;must also grapple with experiences of discrimination and ostracization, which may&amp;nbsp;increase the likelihood of substance use as a coping mechanism. Due to the experiences&amp;nbsp;of marginalization, combined with the taboo nature of substance use in religious and&amp;nbsp;cultural contexts, Muslim American young adults may be at an increased risk for negative&amp;nbsp;mental health outcomes compared to their non-Muslim peers. Therefore, it is important&amp;nbsp;to identify predictors of substance use in Muslim American young adults to provide&amp;nbsp;culturally relevant and responsive prevention and intervention measures. Our study&amp;nbsp;surveyed 183 Muslim American young adults using snowball sampling to collect data&amp;nbsp;on substance use and belonging experiences. Findings from the study provide evidence&amp;nbsp;of moderate substance use among Muslim American young adults, with nearly half of&amp;nbsp;the sample reporting lifetime use. Results from a binary logistic regression indicate that&amp;nbsp;young American Muslims with higher rates of belonging to the Muslim community are&amp;nbsp;less likely to report using substances compared to young Muslims with lower rates of&amp;nbsp;belonging to the Muslim community.

Intention of filing tax claims for religious donations: Results from a Muslim American survey

AbstractThis study examined the intention to claim exemption for zakat and other monetary donations on the annual tax return among US Muslims. We used a survey of 575 Muslims living in the United States to test several exploratory hypotheses. Our statistical results suggest that after controlling for other demographic differences, (1) respondents who identified as non‐Sunni (as opposed to Sunni) Muslims, had medium or high (as opposed to low) income, and those who believed that Covid‐19 is a Zakat‐eligible cause had higher odds of claiming an exemption for their Zakat donations; and (2) permanent residents (as opposed to US citizens), high (as opposed to low) income earners, non‐faith‐based donors, and those who believed that Covid‐19 is a Zakat‐eligible cause had higher odds of claiming exemption for their non‐Zakat monetary donations. Implications are discussed.

Anti-Muslim policy preferences and boundaries of American identity across partisanship

AbstractDoes American identity predict preferences for anti-democratic policies that aim to marginalize Muslim Americans? Absent significant priming of inclusive elements of American identity, we argue that individuals with stronger attachments to American identity will be less likely than their counterparts to reject a range of anti-Muslim policies that are antithetical to principles of religious liberty and equality. Across three surveys and multiple measures, American identity powerfully predicts preferences for curbing the civil liberties of Muslim citizens. Particularly striking is the finding that the effect of American identity spans the partisan divide; it consistently explains the endorsement of exclusionary policies among self-identified Democrats, who typically hold more progressive policy positions toward minority groups than Republicans. Overall, our study highlights the contradictory and exclusionary nature of American identity, which has important implications for minority groups constructed as outside the boundaries of Americanness.

Mourning the greatest: “unforgivably black” and peacefully Muslim Muhammad Ali

ABSTRACT When Muhammad Ali died in June 2016, media were filled with remembrances of the boxer. Some memories focused on what he meant to his home state of Kentucky, or how an individual had bonded with their father while watching Ali in the ring. Others focused on what Ali’s status as a celebrity Black Muslim man meant to them. The boxer who called himself “the Greatest” joined the Nation of Islam after his first fight with Sonny Liston in 1964 and later became a Sufi Muslim. Islam, in its many forms, is viewed with suspicion in the United States and Ali was likely the most visible Muslim American during his lifetime. This research examines how writers remembered Ali in the week after his death and identifies three themes which seemed most prominent: Ali as the proud Black Muslim man, Ali as freedom fighter, and Ali as an embodiment of peace.

The Development and Implementation of a Custom-Tailored Suicide Response Training for Muslim Communities.

Research indicates that the suicide attempt rate among American Muslims is at least twice the rate of the national US average and follows a different trend of suicide behavior compared to other groups. Religious leaders, such as Imams, are commonly sought out for support, but many lack training in mental health crisis management. The Stanford Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab created the Muslim Community Suicide Response Manual and its accompanying training modules to address this issue. This paper describes the creation, evolution, and future directions of the Suicide Response Training from an Islamic perspective to reduce suicide risk in Muslim communities.

The Necessity of a Standard Prenuptial Agreement for American Muslims

For many Sunni Muslims in the U.S., one of the most important documents in their life might be a marriage contract that unintentionally contains an impermissible amount of gharar (uncertainty). There are seldom disputes when contracts go smoothly, even if gharar is present, but when there are disagreements, it is a cause of major strife. If two Muslims get married, they usually perform a nikāḥ (Islamic marriage contract/ceremony) and then sign a civil marriage contract in their state of residence. Although it would seem that the nikāḥ would imply certain terms for dissolution perhaps based on a classical school of Islamic law or contemporary ijtihād (juristic reasoning) adjusted for modern times and circumstances, the actual authority belongs to a non-Muslim judge and legal system. Does this legal system have a moral right over Muslim marriage contracts in this country, or is the use of such a court an un-Islamic infringement on the other party’s rights and therefore a violation of God’s law? This author recommends couples should explicitly discuss this issue prior to marriage and proposes a standardized prenuptial agreement to minimize unnecessary disputes.

An Overview of Resources on the Family in the American Muslim Context

An Overview of Resources on the Family in the American Muslim Context

Making Muslim Americans: Parenting Practices, Parochial Schools, and the Transmission of Faith Across Generations in Metropolitan Detroit

Making Muslim Americans: Parenting Practices, Parochial Schools, and the Transmission of Faith Across Generations in Metropolitan Detroit

The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network.

The Developing Belief Network is a consortium of researchers studying human development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the interplay between general cognitive development and culturally specific processes of socialization and cultural transmission in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network's first wave of data collection, which aims to explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior. This work is guided by three key research questions: (1) How do children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents? (2) How do children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity? (3) How are religious and supernatural beliefs transmitted within and between generations? The protocol is designed to address these questions via a set of nine tasks for children between the ages of 4 and 10 years, a comprehensive survey completed by their parents/caregivers, and a task designed to elicit conversations between children and caregivers. This study is being conducted in 39 distinct cultural-religious groups (to date), spanning 17 countries and 13 languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities, and present the final, English-language study materials for 6 of the 39 cultural-religious groups who are currently being recruited for this study: Protestant Americans, Catholic Americans, American members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, and religiously unaffiliated Americans.

Gender and Muslim philanthropy: the role of prosociality in women’s giving intention during COVID-19

Drawing on prosocial motivation and social identity theory, this study uses an original survey (n=653) of Muslims in the United States to explore gender differences in charitable giving amongst Muslims during COVID-19. We use a series of regression models to determine the effect of gender on giving intentions to Muslims (in-group) and non-Muslims (out-group) and find evidence of gender differences. Specifically, Muslim women were more likely than Muslim men to report intentions to give to non-Muslim individuals and causes. To probe this further, we tested the mediating effect of prosocial motivation on gender and willingness to give Zakat to non-Muslim causes. The findings indicate that gender differences in Muslims’ giving intentions are driven by higher levels of prosocial motivation among Muslim women. This study contributes to the limited literature on Muslim Americans’ charitable giving by examining how gender influences Muslims’ giving intentions, more specifically in times of crisis.

Living Islamic psychology: Portrait of a Muslim American psychologist.

Living Islamic psychology: Portrait of a Muslim American psychologist.

Muslim women consumers: Critical interpretations of US modest fashion brands entangled with the fashion-advocacy-capitalist-façade

Following 9/11, some young Muslim American women have been wearing hijabs to assert their Islamic identities. They are also seeking fashionable modest clothing, yet, despite their growing buying power, the US modest fashion market targeting Muslim women appears underserved. The purpose of this study was to critically examine how niche modest fashion brands in the United States target Muslim women while drawing upon theoretical concepts centring on oppression and agency related to the long history of gendered Islamophobia Muslims have experienced. We analysed eleven brands’ websites and social media applying the constant comparative method and identified four themes: empowering Muslim women, reclaiming modesty as modern and beautiful, meeting fashionable modest wear demand, and rejecting and perpetuating colourism. In our analysis of the digital discourses of US modest fashion brands, we revealed that these brands emerged to meet the demand of young Muslim woman in the United States who are embracing the hijab and modest clothing as a potent symbol of resistance against western ideologies, the fashion system’s oppressive acts towards Muslim women and traditional Islamic dress codes. Yet, their advocacy-centred messages – empowerment, reclaiming modesty as beautiful – operate within a profit-driven system, which we theorize as a fashion-advocacy-capitalistic-façade. The fashion-advocacy-capitalist-façade concept helps explain the slippery slope that fashion brands are tiptoeing as they aim to empower Muslim women, offer trendy modest clothing, reject traditional Islamic dress codes for women and create space in the fashion market for this unmet demand. Although these brands aim to promote a positive sense of self for Muslim women, they cannot be withheld from critical examination and potential interpretations when operating within the capitalist-driven industry that is so often plagued with significant injustices.