American Muslim Men and Stigma : the Use of Religious Communities As Mechanisms for Stigma Management
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University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2017 American Muslim men and stigma : the use of religious communities as mechanisms for stigma management. Jack R. Allen III University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Race and Ethnicity Commons Recommended Citation Allen, Jack R. III, "American Muslim men and stigma : the use of religious communities as mechanisms for stigma management." (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2803. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2803 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AMERICAN MUSLIM MEN AND STIGMA: THE USE OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AS MECHANISMS FOR STIGMA MANAGEMENT By Jack R. Allen III B.A., Asbury University, 2015 A Thesis Submitted to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in Sociology Department of Sociology University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky August 2017 Copyright 2017 by Jack R. Allen III All Rights Reserved AMERICAN MUSLIM MEN AND STIGMA: THE USE OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF STIGMA By Jack R. Allen III B.A., Asbury University, 2015 A Thesis Approved on May 31, 2017 By the following Thesis Committee: ________________________________________ Thesis Director Dr. Derrick R. Brooms ________________________________________ Dr. Ryan Schroeder ________________________________________ Dr. Siobhan Smith ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents Dr. Lisa S. Allen and Jack R. Allen Jr. with love iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my Thesis Committee Chair, Dr. Brooms: for guiding me through the research process and engaging with me in discussion about research and teaching. To the Department of Sociology at the University of Louisville: thank you for instructing me and providing me space to find my research voice. To my beautiful wife, Sara: I owe my sanity to you, thank you for loving me and enduring the past two years with me. To the men who participated in this project, thank you for trusting your stories with me. iv ABSTRACT AMERICAN MUSLIM MEN AND STIGMA: THE USE OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF STIGMA Jack R. Allen III May 31, 2017 The experiences of American Muslim men deserve further study because they are relevant to current civil rights discussions, especially in a social-political climate that is growing increasingly hostile toward the Islamic world. Despite acknowledging the significant impact of gender, relatively little research has focused exclusively on masculine Muslim experiences of stigmatization. This research addresses the experiences of religiously practicing Muslim men and addresses the following questions: How do Muslim men experience stigma in their communities? What experience do these men have with religious institutions? And finally, how do these experiences with religious institutions inform how these individuals manage stigma? Using semi-structured qualitative research interviews with men who attend Islamic religious services in a large mid-western United States city and observation sessions at the religious services these men attend, this research finds that these men use stigma management techniques to navigate their social environments and combat racialized stigmatization. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ....................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 4 MUSLIM STIGMA IN HISTORY ......................................................................................... 4 POST-9/11 MUSLIM EXPERIENCES ................................................................................. 5 GENDER AND MUSLIM STIGMA ..................................................................................... 8 NEGOTIATING STIGMATIZED RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES .................................. 11 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................ 12 Stigma Management ........................................................................................................... 13 Intersectionality .................................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 18 RESEARCH SITES .................................................................................................................. 19 INTERVIEWING ...................................................................................................................... 20 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION ....................................................................................... 22 SAMPLING ................................................................................................................................. 22 PARTICIPANT OVERVIEW ............................................................................................... 24 Table 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 25 PARTICIPANT NAMING ..................................................................................................... 26 LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH ......................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ............................................................................................................ 29 BEING MUSLIM MEN IN THE UNITED STATES .................................................... 29 Muslim Racialized Identities ........................................................................................... 30 Interpreted Gender Difference....................................................................................... 34 Dichotomously Un-American ......................................................................................... 37 Dialogue on Terror ............................................................................................................. 40 Feelings of Surveillance .................................................................................................... 44 Masculine Muslim Signifiers ........................................................................................... 49 Passing as Non-Muslim ..................................................................................................... 54 STIGMA MANAGEMENT AND MUSLIM MEN ........................................................ 57 vi Withdrawing from Social Relationships..................................................................... 58 Concealing One’s Identity................................................................................................. 61 Educating Others ................................................................................................................. 71 RELIGIOUS STRUCTURES ................................................................................................ 76 Religious Teachings ............................................................................................................ 77 Mosques and Religious Centers ..................................................................................... 81 Non-Profit Organizations ................................................................................................. 85 Interfaith Dialogue .............................................................................................................. 86 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ........................................................ 88 IMPLICATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 94 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 99 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................... 104 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................. 104 APPENDIX B: RESEARCH CONSENT ........................................................................ 107 CURRICULUM VITAE ............................................................................................................ 109 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The United States is becoming an increasingly hostile place for Muslims