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Generation Next Young Muslim Americans Narrating Self While Generation Next Young Muslim Americans Narrating Self While Debating Faith, Community, and Country By Muna Ali A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved October 2013 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: James Eder, Chair Sherman Jackson Hjorleifur Jonsson Takeyuki Tsuda ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2013 ©2013 Muna Ali All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT “Culture talk” figures prominently in the discussions of and about Muslims, both locally and globally. Culture, in these discussions, is considered to be the underlying cause of gender and generational divides giving rise to an alleged “identity crisis.” Culture also presumably conceals and contaminates “pure/true Islam.” Culture serves as the scaffold on which all that divides Muslim American immigrants and converts is built; furthermore, the fear of a Muslim cultural takeover underpins the “Islamization of America” narrative. This dissertation engages these generational and “immigrant”- “indigenous” fissures and the current narratives that dominate Muslim and public spheres. It does so through the perspectives of the offspring of converts and immigrants. As the children and grandchildren of immigrants and converts come of age, and distant as they are from historical processes and experiences that shaped the parents’ generations while having shared a socialization process as both Muslim and American, what role do they play in the current chapter of Islam in post-9/11 America? Will the younger generation be able to cross the divides, mend the fissures, and play a pivotal role in an “American Muslim community”? Examining how younger generations of both backgrounds view each other and their respective roles in forging an American Muslim belonging, agenda and discourse is a timely and much needed inquiry. This project aims to contribute by shedding more light on the identities, perspectives and roles of these younger generations through the four dominant narratives of identity crisis, pure/true Islam vs. Cultural Islam, the Islamization of America, and creation of an American Muslim community/identity/culture. These narratives are both part of public discourse and themes generated from interviews, a questionnaire\survey, and personal observation. This ethnographic study examines how American born and/or raised offspring of both converts to Islam and immigrant i Muslims in the Phoenix and Chicago metropolitan areas define self and community, how they negotiate fissures and fault lines (ethnicity, race, class, gender, and religious interpretation) within their communities, and how their faith informs daily life and envisions a future. I utilize participant observation, interviews, and surveys and examine digital, visual and published media to answer these questions. ii DEDICATION To all my teachers who walked with me on the path to knowledge and let me venture out, to my family and friends whose support and faith in me sustain me, to the young Muslims of America who give me hope, I dedicate this dissertation to you. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who saw me through this dissertation project and my graduate education. Because I am likely to forget some names, I start with a heartfelt thank you to everyone who offered me encouragement and assistance. I thank Prof. James Eder, my committee chair, who mentored me throughout graduate school. You helped me stay on the page while allowing me to color outside the lines. With your knowledge and care, you challenged my intellect, built my confidence, and taught me about mentorship. Prof. Hjorleifur Jonsson, thank you for your encouragement and critical feedback and for teaching me to explore beyond disciplinary expectations. Prof. Takeyuki Tsuda, thank you for your critical feedback and for helping me to see broader connections. Prof. Sherman Jackson, I cannot thank you enough for serving on my committee when you already had countless commitments. Being in a different state deprived me of the opportunity to take courses with you, but your work has inspired and challenged me and has greatly influence this project. The mentoring of my committee made it possible for me to do this project while I pursued my other passions in healthcare, education and social justice projects. The work of Prof. Tariq Ramadan, with whom I have worked for over a decade and from whom I learned much, demonstrated to me the critical role of engaged scholarship and inspired and influenced my work. Your unwavering support of my intellectual endeavors helped me persevere. Thank you! I am grateful to Lubayna Fawcett, Dolma Roder, and Dr. Shelly Isai for reviewing earlier drafts of this dissertation and for their valuable critical comments. I thank Nihal Hassan for help with transcription, my sister Maram Ahmed for assisting with the bibliography, and Angie Abdelmonem, Dolma Roder, and Jaime Holthuysen for cheering me on and up and for our collaborations in graduate school. Thanks to Josephus Verheijde for all those philosophical debates that sharpened my critical thinking and for iv reviewing my dissertation. I also thank my colleagues at Mayo Clinic Physical Therapy department for all their support. The love and support of Cynthia Maher, Iman Ramadan, Afiga Heydarova, Shareefa Choudhury, Najah Naji, Azra Hussain, Arifa Ahmad, Anwar Abdel Rahman, Dr. Aneesah Nadir, Zarinah Nadir and Frieda Muwakkil nourished my soul. Thank you one and all. I am thankful to the Muslim community in Arizona for assisting me and facilitating my fieldwork. In Chicago, my fieldwork was only possible because of the generosity and kindness of many people. I am indebted to Tabassum, Dr. Azeem Haleem, and their sons; thank you for your friendship and hospitality in Chicago. I thank Prof. Susan Thistlethwaite and the Chicago Theological Seminary for giving me an academic home during my fieldwork there. I thank Prof. Aminah McCloud for sharing her insights and for putting me in touch with community leaders and potential collaborators. Thank you to Ahmed Rehab and the entire staff of CAIR-Chicago and to Council of Islamic Organizations in Greater Chicago particularly Mohamad Nasir, Dr. Mohammed Sahloul, and Amal Ali. I am also grateful to Dr. Rami Nashashibi and the staff of IMAN for their assistance. The late Mary Ali was a great resource and introduced my project to many young people and I am grateful to her. This project would not be were it not for the many participants who took time and interest in it. Their collaboration, insights, wisdom, honesty, and generosity are the substance of this dissertation. I only hope that I do justice in representing your insights in my writing. Thank you for everything. This research project was supported by grants from Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Graduate and Professional Students’ Association and the Graduate College. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Background .................................................................................................. 6 Dissertation Questions, Objectives and Structure ...................................... 10 Dissertation Organization ........................................................................... 12 2 NARRATIVE AS METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 20 Narrative as a Way of Knowing ................................................................... 21 Anthropology’s Narrative and Finding “My Village” ................................. 24 “Locating” The Field ............................................................................ 26 Phoenix-valley and Chicagoland: Connections and Disjunctures .............. 31 Situated individuals in socio-cultural landscapes ............................... 35 Being Muslim, Black and Woman Researcher ............................................ 41 Research in the “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim” Era .............................. 44 Multiple Accountabilities .................................................................... 50 vi CHAPTER Page Significance ................................................................................................. 51 3 COMMUNITY AND COLLABORATOR PROFILE ............................................ 56 Divergent Origins and Converging Histories .............................................. 57 Project Collaborators: A Profile .................................................................. 64 Collaborators’ Schooling ...................................................................... 67 Collaborators’ Social Networks ........................................................... 70 Generation Next and the Current Chapter of Islam in America .................. 72 4 THE “IDENTTY CRISIS” OF YOUNGER MUSLIMS ......................................... 77 Identity Matters .......................................................................................... 84 Self and Personhood: An Interactionist Approach ............................. 85 Deconstructing the Self ....................................................................... 88 In Defense of the Self .......................................................................... 89 New Perspectives and Creative Synthesis .................................................
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