Muslims in the U.S.

Student Comment

Muslims have had a long and often tense history in the United States.  The earliest Muslims arrived from West Africa aboard slave ships in the 1600s; along with their freedom and dignity, many were forced to abandon their religion in early laws that promised freedom for conversion to Christianity.  Others converted under the brutal repression of the slave system.  Some of their descendents reclaimed a symbolic version of the faith by joining the Nation of Islam, which is linked with Black Nationalism.  The Nation’s role during the Civil Rights Movement placed it under the scrutiny of the U.S. government.

Internationally, the U.S. has had complicated relationships with Muslim nations, often supporting only those most brutal to their own people.  The depiction of Muslims broadcast in the States as a mysterious group of barbarians committed to terrorism have reinforced the belief that Muslims are violent and backwards, thereby producing Islamophobia.  Even domestic terrorist acts committed by non-Muslims reveals latent Islamophobia, as innocent Muslim individuals find themselves targets of criminal investigations and animosity.  Foreign conflicts and one-sided reporting in the media spark flare-ups of Islamophobia.

The events of September 11, 2001 sparked one such flare-up.  After September 11, 2001, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment intensified.  Within only a few weeks, reports of thousands of instances of bias and discrimination against Muslims or Muslim appearing individuals surfaced.  [Muneer Ahmad, A Rage Shared By Law: Post-September 11 Racial Violence as Crimes of Passion, 92 Cal. L. Rev. 1259, 1261 (2004)].  Those who appear Middle Eastern, Arab or Muslim are disidentified as citizens and in instead are are viewed as dangerous foreigners and terrorists.  [See Leti Volpp, The Citizen and the Terrorist, 49 UCLA L. Rev. 1575 (2002)].#_ftn2  The most alarming aspect of these incidents, whether it be physical violence or verbal harrassment, has been that they are “accepted as a regrettable, but expected, response to the terrorist attacks."#_ftn3  [Ahmad at 1262].

Private, individual violence has been accompanied and legitimized by state action targeting the same community.#_ftn4  [Id. at 1265].  State action has utilized racial profiling of Muslims and Muslim appearing people in three major arenas: airports; immigration; and secret arrests.#_ftn5  [Id. at 1269].  In addition to domestic policy there is also aggressive foreign policy leading to the invasion and occupation of two Muslim countries, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Muslims find themselves targeted rhetorically, physically, and legally.  The rage shared by both private individuals and public entities post-September 11 is used to rationalize and legitimize racial violence against Muslims in the United States.