Muslim American Spokesmanship in the Age of Islamophobia
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 The Struggle for Recognition: Muslim American Spokesmanship in the Age of Islamophobia Nazia Kazi Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/436 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION: MUSLIM AMERICAN SPOKESMANSHIP IN THE AGE OF ISLAMOPHOBIA Nazia Kazi Dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 2014 © 2014 NAZIA KAZI All rights reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________ VINCENT CRAPANZANO Date ____________________________________ (SIGNATURE) Chair of Examining Committee _______________ GERALD CREED Date ____________________________________ (SIGNATURE) Executive Officer JEFF MASKOVSKY DANA-AIN DAVIS DEEPA KUMAR Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract The Struggle for Recognition: Muslim American Spokesmanship in the Age of Islamophobia by Nazia Kazi Advisor: Vincent Crapanzano The events of 9/11/2001 intensified the hypervisibility of U.S. Muslims, making them the subject of academic, artistic, and cultural curiosity. Alongside this public hypervisibility came a campaign of institutionalized Islamophobia, manifest in such measures as the anti-Muslim legislation of the USA PATRIOT Act. The result for Islamic Representative Organizations (or IRO’s) was that combatting Islamophobia became a central concern. In this dissertation, I consider the multifaceted and complicated politics of representation used by IRO’s in the aftermath of 9/11. I consider both the negative, or Islamophobic, and the so-called positive, or Islamophilic, representations of U.S. Muslims in the discourse of these groups. Based on multi- sited ethnographic fieldwork at IRO events dealing with the subject of “Islam in America,” this dissertation addresses the racial, class-based, and cultural politics of representing U.S. Muslims. I consider the aspirations and ambitions of IRO members: Do they understand their anti- Islamophobia activism as a way to include Muslims in the existing social order, or do they imagine themselves engaged in a revolutionary process of transformation? I present ethnographic data that reveals IRO members imagining the United States as at once a pluralistic, diverse, and egalitarian nation and a foundationally racist, imperial formation. Hardly uniform, IRO representations reveal both transformative, counterhegemonic processes and a deeply entrenched neoliberal multiculturalism that is constitutive of the paradox of representation in the age of empire. iv DEDICATION For Maya and Zara Acknowledgements I would like to express deep appreciation for all the guidance, encouragement, patience, availability, and thoughtful feedback provided by my advisor, Vincent Crapanzano. For mentorship and continual reassurance, I thank Jeff Maskovsky. Dana-Ain Davis’ support and availability on my dissertation committee was also invaluable in this writing. Gary Wilder, Jacqueline Nassy-Brown, and Leith Mullings provided valuable guidance in the early stages of my dissertation research. Deepa Kumar provided a close reading as an external reader and indispensable feedback on the subject of empire. Neil Smith and Fernando Coronil were also enthusiastic about my work in the early conceptualization of this project. May they rest in power. Graduate Center faculty Michael Blim and John Collins were readily available to discuss my project and provide much-needed advice. In addition, I’d like to thank the members of my dissertation writing group at the CUNY Graduate Center, Karen Williams, Risa Cromer, Maggie Dickinson, Michael Polson, and Preeti Sampat, for attentive and engaging responses to my writing. I’m grateful to Raymond Pettit and Ryan Mann-Hamilton for their faith in this project. Anuj Shrestha also provided useful comments on drafts and much-needed laughter throughout my doctoral studies. Special thanks to my sisters, Ruby and Safia, for endless support and late- night phone calls as I completed my graduate studies. To my parents, thank you for your support and concern as I undertook a quite uncertain endeavor. v TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………1 a. Muslims and Islamic Organizations in the U.S. ………………………10 b. Representational Politics in the Age of Islamophobia………………...15 c. Methodology…………………………………………………………..18 d. Overview……………………………………………………………….22 e. Reflections……………………………………………………………..27 II. “EVERYTHING I DO IS BEING WATCHED” : Hypervisibility and the Islamoscopic Regime……………………………………………………………………..32 a. Hypervisibilities and U.S. Muslims……………………………………39 b. The Gendered Body…………………………………………………….62 c. Lingering Invisibility…………………………………………………..67 d. Conclusion……………………………………………………….…….70 vi III. “THOMAS JEFFERSON OWNED A QURAN”: Cultural Citizenship and Counternarratives……………………………………………………….….72 Part One: Muslims: Citizen Outsiders………………………………..…….76 a. “Islam in America”: A cultural Citizenship Strategy……………..……82 b. Constructing a Muslim American (Counter)Narrative………..…….….84 c. Americanizing Islam: The Nawawi Foundation……………..…………91 d. Political Engagement as Cultural Citizenship…………………..………94 Part Two: IRO Leadership: “Homegrown” Representatives and Whiteness..97 a. The Prominence of White IRO Leaders………………………………...97 b. Whiteness, Leadership, and IRO Strategy……………………………...101 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….110 IV. “WE HAVE A DREAM”: Islamophilia and Representational Practices…..112 a. Islamophilia: Class and Legitimacy………………………………...…..114 b. Islamophilia and the Production of the Moderate Muslim………...…....126 c. Neoliberal Multiculturalism and New Forms of Privilege………………133 d. Conclusion………………………………………………………………137 vii V. “IT’S JUST NOT THE RIGHT TIME TO TALK ABOUT THAT”: Silence, Hope, and Imaginative Possibilities…………………………………………….140 a. Deliberate Silences…………………………………………………..147 b. Between Hope and Impossibility……………………………………165 c. Conclusion…………………………………………………………..173 VI. Conclusion: Islamophilia and the New Imperial Homeland…………….174 a. Islamophobia and Islamophilia: Foundational, or Anomaly?.............181 b. IRO’s in the New Imperial Homeland……………………………….185 c. Reflections……………………………………………………………195 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………...200 viii LIST OF TABLES: TABLE 1: Scales of Islamophobia……………………………………………….3 TABLE 2: Hypervisibilities………………………………………………………35 ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this dissertation, I consider the intersection of race, the War on Terror, and multiculturalism by focusing on Muslim American organizations and the representational politics they have employed in the face of Islamophobia. The amount of scholarship devoted to U.S. Muslims has undoubtedly skyrocketed since September 11th, 2001. Much of this work has focused on the racialization, demonization, and exclusion experienced by Muslims, South Asians, and Arab Americans. Certainly, this is an important scholarly focus. The events of 9/11/2001 and the ensuing War on Terror ostensibly reconfigured Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians1 as a potential threat to homeland security. As Bayoumi (2009), Ewing (2008), Stubbs (2003), Cainkar (2002), and others demonstrate, Muslim Americans (and those mistakenly thought to be Muslims) have been the prime targets in this hostile climate. While leaders assured Americans that 9/11 would not usher in an era of anti-Muslim bigotry2, the age of Islamophobia has been undeniable. On an official or institutional level, domestic Islamophobia is evident in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 attacks. More than 1200 people were detained without trial in the immediate months following 9/11, most of whom were detained not for reasons related to terrorism but rather immigration-related charges such as overstaying a visa (Hing 2006). The Special Registration program similarly subjected thousands of Arabs and Muslims to additional surveillance in a purported attempt to uncover terror links. 1 In an analytic and practical sense, it is important to note that the term “Muslim” is a slippery category. Those of us who study Muslim Americans find ourselves awkwardly using terms like “Muslims and South Asians,” “Muslims and Arab Americans,” or “Muslims and Sikhs,” demonstrating the inadequacy of the term “Muslims,” a difficulty Naber has called “the politics of naming” (Naber 2008: 5). 2President George W. Bush famously visited a mosque on September 17th, 2001 and delivered comments on the importance of inclusion of Muslim Americans. 1 The passage of the USA PATRIOT Act on October 26, 2001 ushered in a new age in which civil rights, especially for those deemed 'suspicious' of terrorist activity, were waived, and a newfound surveillance state took shape. On a cultural and structural level, Islamophobia surfaced in the abundance of pejorative racialized representations in film and on television, of an Islamophobia “industry” that targeted not just Muslims but their pro-Muslim allies, and an overarching bigotry and questioning