MUSLIM AND ARAB AMERICANS: DIVERSE MINORITIES CHAPTER 1

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MUSLIM AND ARAB AMERICANS DIVERSE MINORITIES

• CHAPTER 11

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Muslim and Arab People

• Muslim and Arab Americans are different groups in
  America
• Though they overlap with some Muslim Americans of
  Arab ancestry, they are distinct from each other
• Two objectives for considering Arab and Muslim
  Americans together
• 1st - clarify the distinction between two groups
  incorrectly referred as the same population
• 2nd - Overcome prism of Orientalism through which
  many Americans view the Arab and Muslim world
• Simplistic view of people and history of the
  orient with not recognition of change over time
  or the diversity in the many cultures

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• Arabs are an ethnic group
• Muslims are a religious group
• Islam is the faith (like Christianity)
• Muslim is a believer of that religion (like a
  Christian)
• One cannot accurately identify the Muslim
  faithful by nationality alone
• Clearly being Arab does not define one as being a
  follower of Islam

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Arab Americans

• Arab Americans
• Refers to immigrants and their descendants from
  the countries that now comprise the Arab world
• Middle Eastern
• Middle East is an ambiguous geographic
  designation the includes many that are neither
  Muslim nor Arab but is frequently used
• The Arabic language is the most single unifying
  force among Arabs

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• There are up to 3 million people with Arab
  ancestry in the U.S.
• Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine account fro
  2/3rd of Arab Americans in 2000
• Diversity of Arabs
• Variation in time of arrival
• Variation in the point of origin
• Variation of religious tradition
• Deficit Model of Ethnic Identity
• Ones ethnicity is viewed by others as a factor
  of subtracting away the characteristics
  corresponding to some ideal ethnic type

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Muslim Americans

• 1.3 billion followers worldwide and second to
  Christianity
• Islam is guided by the teaching of the Koran
  (Quran)
• Use religious rituals
• Divided into a variety of faiths and sects
• Jihad
• A struggle against enemies of Allah, usually
  taken to mean ones own internal struggle but
  recently reinterpreted to mean political enemies

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• Number of Muslim Americans is difficult to
  estimate
• 20-42 percent African American
• 24-33 percent South Asian (Afghan, Bangladeshi,
  Indian and Pakistani)
• 12-32 percent Arab
• 10-22 percent other (Bosnian, Iranian, Turk,
  and White and Hispanic converts)
• Total agreement that the population is growing
  rapidly
• Immigration and conversion

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• Blended Identity
• Is the self-image and worldview that is a
  combination of religious faith, cultural
  background based in nationality, and the status
  of being a resident of the U.S.
• Muslims often find their daily activities defined
  by their faith, their nationality, and their
  status as American, however defined in terms of
  citizenship
• In the US, many Muslims experience both the
  freedom to be Muslim and the pressure to be Muslim

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Black Muslims

• Estimated to account for 90 percent of all
  converts to Islam in the U.S.
• Not tightly organized into a single religious
  fellowship
• Against adultery and drinking alcohol
• The Nation of Islam became a well-known and
  controversial organization
• Trace roots to W. Fard Muhammad in (1930)
• Became well-known and controversial under Elijah
  Muhammad

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Malcolm X

• Originally a member of the Nation of Islam
• Was the most powerful and brilliant voice of
  Black self-determination in the 1960s
• Was highly critical of the civil rights movement
  in general and of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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• Remembered for
• His sharp attacks on Black leaders
• His break with the Nation of Islam
• His apparent shift to support the formation of
  coalitions with progressive whites
• Teaching that Black must resist violence by any
  means necessary.
• Created the Organization of Afro-American Unity
• Meant to internationalize the Civil Rights
  Movement
• Assassinated in 1964

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Louis Farrakhan

• Has been the most visible spokesperson among
  various Muslim groups in the African American
  community
• Anti-Israel foreign policy
• Pro Self-help, bootstrap capitalism, and strict
  punishment
• Against Abortion, drugs and homosexuality
• Leader of the 1995 Million Man March

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Immigration to the United States

• Some slaves were followers of Islam
• The National Origins System slowed immigration to
  the United States
• In 1919, the first mosque was established and a
  variety of service agencies to help the immigrant
  community
• Professional-Preference Clauses within 1965
  Immigration and Naturalization Act
• Increased immigration among Muslims and Arabs

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Contemporary Life in the United States

• Arab Americans tend to immigrate to urban areas
• Fill skilled and professional roles in US and
  become self-employed merchants or entrepreneurs
• Operate stores in low-income areas of central
  cities major retailers ignore
• Opportunities for success are great, but face
  challenges of serving low-income population with
  few consumer choices and history of being
  exploited by outsiders

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Family Life and Gender

• Traditionally, Islam has permitted men to have
  multiple wivesa maximum of four.
• Role of women receive much attention because
  outer clothing is a conspicuous symbol that to
  some seem to represent repression of women in
  society
• Perception of gender practices in Muslim
  societies receive special attention by Western
  media
• Particularly dress codes

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• Hijab
• Refers to a variety of garments that allow women
  to follow the guidelines of modest dress
• Three perspectives among Muslim women in US and
  settlements outside Islamic countries
• Younger, better educated, support hijab but draw
  upon Western ideas of individual rights
• Older, less-educated support hijab and make
  arguments without reference to Western ideology
• Third group of all ages and education, oppose the
  hijab
• There are differences in the role of women
  within the faith and the mosque
• Segregations of the sexes in mosques

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Education

• Recognize the importance of education and value
  formal instruction in their faith
• Schools are specific to particular expressions of
  Islam and specific nationalities
• Children attending public schools encounter the
  type of adjustment experienced by those of a
  religious faith different from the dominant one
  of society

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Politics

• Muslim and Arab Americans are politically aware
  and often active
• Most visible Arab American in politics
• Ralph Nader tried to open presidential politics
  to a true alternative to the two-party system
• Muslims in the U.S. often express the view that
  their faith encourages political participation
• There is a clear distancing that one can observe
  between the major parties and Muslims and Arab
  Americans

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• There is clear distancing between the major
  parties and Muslim and Arab Americans
• Contrast to the catering of African Americans and
  Latinos for votes
• In the last decade, escalation of charges that
  some organizations and charities assist groups
  unfriendly to Israel and support terrorism
• Some U.S. politicians have begun to take the safe
  position of refusing campaign money from
  virtually any group linked to the Muslim or Arab
  community

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Being Arab or Muslim in the United States

• News events have fueled anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
  feeling
• 1972 terrorist raid at the Munich Olympics
• 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies, Kenya and
  Tanzania
• September 11, 2001 engineered by Arab Muslim
  extremists
• The USA PATRIOT ACT, passed in October 2001, has
  specific provisions in it condemning
  discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans

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• Racial Profiling
• Any arbitrary police-initiated action based on
  race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than a
  persons behavior
• Became intense after 9/11
• The U.S. Department of Justice required that all
  foreign-born Muslim men be photographed,
  fingerprinted, and interviewed
• The registration process deepened fear and
  disillusionment among the many law-abiding
  Muslims in the U.S.

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Issues of Prejudice and Discrimination

• Motion pictures uniformly show Arabs and Muslims
  as savages, untrustworthy, and barbaric.
• On television, there is an overemphasis on the
  extreme representations
• Surveys conducted after 9/11 found a growing
  willingness to view Arabs and Muslims generally
  as a dangerous people and to require the
  carryingof special identification cards

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• Hate crimes and harassment rose sharply after
  9/11
• One in four people believe a number of
  anti-Muslim stereotypes
• Arab and Muslim Americans have not been passive
  to their treatment
• Organizations have been created
• To counter negative stereotypes and to offer
  schools material responding to the labeling that
  has occurred
• To represent their interests and to promote
  understanding as well as to bring attention to
  discrimination and expressions of prejudice in
  public life and the mass media

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QUESTIONS
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• What are the dimensions of diversity among Arab
  Americans and among Muslims?

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• What distinguishes African American Muslims from
  other practicing Muslims in the United States?

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• How has the immigration of Muslims and Arabs been
  influenced by the governmental policies of the
  United States?

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• What would you identify as the four most
  important differences between being a Christian
  in the United States and being a Muslim in this
  country?

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• Besides Arab Americans and Muslim Americans, what
  other groups can you identify that have recently
  been subjected to prejudice and discrimination in
  the United States?

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• 9/11 was a major tragic even in recent U.S.
  history. However, based on the functionalist
  perspective, it led to interesting changes.
  Identify three negative and three positive
  functions of the events of 9/11.

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• Identify the characteristics of the deficit model
  of ethnic identity related to Arab Americans and
  one other group in America.

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• What are some of the characteristics associated
  with Muslim and Arab Americans that come to be
  viewed as negatives, but when practiced by
  Christian Whites are seen as positive.