Muslim Students Associations by Salua
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Experiencing Islam in America: Muslim Students Associations By Salua Fawzi Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University Montréal, Québec, Canada A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Salua Fawzi Copyright © 2019 ! ""! Table of Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgements vii A Note on Transliteration ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Making Muslim Space on College Campuses 29 Chapter 2: American Muslim Youth Identify with Whose Religion and Which Culture 86 Chapter 3: Righteous Guides: Muslim Chaplains and Celebrity Shaykhs 138 Chapter 4: Getting High on !m"n: Religious Study Practices of American Muslim Youth 191 Chapter 5: Being Woke: Social Justice Activism and American Muslim Youth 241 Conclusion 292 Bibliography 299 ! """! Abstract This dissertation is an ethnographic project on American Muslim youth participating in Muslim Students Associations (MSAs) on three college campuses in the northeastern United States. It argues that MSAs are discursive spaces through which American Muslim students experience Islam. In specific, it illustrates how MSAs, as discursive spaces, provide these youth with an opportunity to introspectively articulate and share particular existential and theological assumptions. For example, I examine how the discursive MSA space is one where some Muslim students distance themselves from the practices and beliefs of their parents’ generation as they exercise a sense of religious individualism. In addition, this dissertation analyzes how students’ participation in !alaq"t (study circles), led by university chaplains, transforms their engagement with religious texts. In speaking with students about their relationship with their chaplains and the appeal of other religious figures in the United States, my research demonstrates the affective qualities that are at stake for religiously guiding the new generation of American Muslims. It captures how MSA students are taught to appropriate self-reflexive textual hermeneutics that enables them to develop a personal and meaningful relationship with the Divine. As such, my research brings to the fore how MSA students’ relationship with the Divine, understudied in the literature on this demographic, is a primary catalyst and resource for how MSA students experience Islam in America. Lastly, this dissertation addresses how the discursive MSA space offers students an opportunity to engage with social justice activism as it pertains to race, gender, and sexual orientation. Despite, the Islamophobic rhetoric they have grown up with, this project describes how American Muslim youth have not abandoned their religiosity. By doing so, my dissertation offers a timely ethnography of what it means for American Muslim youth to experience Islam in America. ! "#! Abstrait Cette thèse est un projet ethnographique sur la jeunesse musulmane américaine participant aux associations d'étudiants musulmans (MSA) sur trois campus universitaires dans le nord-est des États-Unis. Il soutient que les MSA sont des endroits discursifs à travers lesquels les étudiants américains musulmans font l'expérience de l'islam. Précisément, il montre comment les MSA, comme des endroits discursifs, offrent à ces jeunes l’occasion de formuler et de partager de manière introspective des hypothèses existentielles et théologiques particulières. Par exemple, j’examine comment l’espace MSA discursif permet aux sertains étudiants musulmans de se démarquer des pratiques et des croyances de la génération de leurs parents qui projettent un sens de l’individualisme religieux. En plus, cette thèse analyse comments ces étudiants participant à des #alaq"t (cercles d’études), dirigés par des aumôniers d’universités, transforme leur engagement avec les textes religieux. En parlant avec les étudiants sur leurs relations avec leurs aumôniers et de l'attrait d'autres personnalités religieuses aux États-Unis, mes recherches démontrent les qualités affectives qui sont en jeu pour guider religieusement la nouvelle génération de musulmans américains. Il saisit comment les étudiants de MSA apprennent à s'approprier une herméneutique textuelle auto-réflexive qui leur permet de développer une relation personnelle et significative avec le Divin. En tant que tel, ma recherche met en évidence le fait que la relation des étudiants de MSA avec le Divin, qui n’est pas suffisamment renforcée la littérature sur ce groupe démographique, est un catalyseur et une ressource de base pour la façon comment étudiants de MSA vivent l’islam en Amérique. Enfin, cette thèse aborde la manière dont l'espace MSA discursif offre aux étudiants une opportunité de s'engager dans un activisme de justice sociale en ce qui concerne la race, le genre et l'orientation sexuelle. Malgré la rhétorique islamophobe avec laquelle ils ont grandi, ce projet décrit comment les jeunes ! #! musulmans américains n'ont pas abandonné leur religiosité. Ce faisant, ma thèse propose une ethnographie opportune de ce que signifie pour les jeunes musulmans américains l'expérience de l'islam en Amérique. ! #"! Acknowledgements I would first like to thank McGill University, the Institute of Islamic Studies and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for their financial support over the years, without which this project would have never come to fruition. My supervisor, Professor Setrag Manoukian, has been an indelible source of academic mentorship and guidance. Without his encouraging me to ruminate deeply on the questions that color this dissertation, many of this project’s findings would have remained dormant. I would also like to thank Professors Rula Abisaab and Robert Wisnovsky who have contributed greatly to my scholarly development. My committee members, Professors Katherine Lemons, Zareena Grewal, Michelle Hartman, Armando Salvatore, and Khalid Medani provided constructive feedback, which helped me sharpen my analysis. Their astute insights and questions have given me much to think about as this project takes on new forms. Zeitun Manjothi and Adina Sigartau’s patience and support of graduate students greatly eased the navigation of academic life. I would also like to thank Sean Swanick, Charles Fletcher, Stephen Miller, and Anaïs Salamon for their efforts in maintaining a library collection that is truly a privilege for students at the Institute. This dissertation would not have been possible without the many students and chaplains who participated. The generosity they have shown me over the years has left me eternally indebted. I would like to express my utmost gratitude for their indulging a graduate student such as myself and for opening up their lives and their communities to me in the most illuminating of ways. While many of my interlocutors have joked that no one reads PhD dissertations, I do hope that this project has done some justice to the enlightening reflections, insights, and experiences they have shared with me. ! #""! Over the years, I have enjoyed the company of my many colleagues at the Institute. I will truly miss the one of a kind collegiality I experienced there. In particular, I would like to thank Bariza Umar, Christopher Anzalone, Eliza Tasbihi, Heather Empey, and Jennifer Pineo-Dunn. This journey would have been incredibly dull without our lively and stimulating conversations and without their support, friendship, and much needed doses of comic relief. I have learned a great deal from Usman Hamid and Fadia Bahgat, who have taught me so much about academic commitment and integrity, and have supported me as a friend and colleague in incredibly selfless ways. Yasaman and Banafsheh Kashani and Amir Kilani made Montreal a home and believed in my academic pursuits with an unwaveringness that changed my life’s trajectory. My parents, Patricia and Richard Carney, have been invaluable sources of resolve over the years, bolstering my faith in this project during the most crucial of times. Their support of me is unparalleled and has been one of my life’s true blessings. Tarek Ismail, when I felt there was no end in sight, you tempered me. For that, I am eternally grateful. I dedicate this dissertation in loving memory of my father Mahmoud Fawzi and my grandmother Su‘ad el-Minawi both of whom continue to cast their n#r over me in the most numinous of ways. ! #"""! A Note on Transliteration This dissertation follows the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) guidelines. Terms such as hadith and salat for example, do not employ diacritics. Other common words that have become part of the English vernacular and do not appear on the IJMES word list such as iftar, haram, and Eid, have been written in their English forms. ! "$! Introduction In early 2015, I began my preliminary fieldwork. At the time, I scoured local Muslim Students Associations’ (MSA) websites and Facebook pages for upcoming events and purchased tickets for an all-day tazkiya (purification) conference. I later learned that the conference I planned on attending was a staple of that MSA’s annual calendar and amassed a turnout of over a hundred students and families with guest speakers hailing from all around North America. The conference took place in a large hall located within the university’s student center. Upon entering, I quickly noticed that the event was segregated; a space was left between the sections for men and women to sit in designated areas. Such segregation is not uncommon at American Muslim events but not necessarily the norm depending on the community one is a part of. The theme of that conference was on heroic !a"#ba (companions of the Prophet Muhammad) and the opening remarks delivered by an MSA student organizer explained that the invited guest speakers would be drawing on stories that Muslims do not often hear in order to demonstrate how the Prophet Muhammad and his companions were “examples of knowledge, fortitude, truth, and perseverance.” The event was divided into six sessions with a lunch break as well as other recesses for $uhr, ‘a!r and maghrib prayers. Each session recounted examples demonstrating the notable and emulative qualities of a particular !a"#b% or two.1 Five of the speakers were male, one was female, and they included a chaplain, shaykhs, an academic, and a local lecturer.