Although research on attachment theory has grown exponentially in the field of psychology, few studies exist that examine this theory among young Muslim-American adults, despite the fact that Muslim-Americans represent a significant and growing segment of the U.S. population. The first goal of the current study was to replicate the results of previous studies demonstrating a strong relationship between attachment and the selected wellbeing indicators of psychological symptoms and life satisfaction. The second goal of the proposed study was to examine the relationships among maternal attachment, Islamic religiosity, and psychological wellbeing. Findings provided partial support to the direct effects of attachment and religiosity variables on particular outcome variables but did not support the moderating effect of religiosity. High maternal Control was found to be predictive of less psychological distress, whereas both maternal control and care were found to be negatively associated with an interpersonal behaviors aspect of religiosity. In addition, those who endorsed practicing Islamic rituals were found to report less life satisfaction, and individuals who viewed the world through an Islamic lens reported higher psychological distress. Discussion on the findings, limitations of the study, future research directions, and counseling implications are addressed.

The aim of this research project is to investigate how Muslim-American undergraduate women experience racialization in public and private spaces, examine whether those experiences give rise to a racialized identity, and highlight how they resist and cope with their racialization. The recent application of the term racialization to discuss the Muslim experience in the west has encouraged scholars such as Leon Moosavi, Saher Selod, Mythili Rajiva, Ming H. Chen and others, to engage in critical discourse within the scholarship of race and ethnicity regarding this often-neglected population. It is due to the unique, and gendered relationship that the female Muslim-American population has with the United States, particularly as a result of 9/11 and the label of 'oppressed' being imposed upon them, that it is important to comprehend how specifically Muslim-American women experience racialization. While these studies have broadened the understanding of how Muslims are, and continue to be othered, few studies have focused on the specific areas within public and private spaces where this marginalized group is racialized. This study attempts to fill this gap in existing research by examining how peers, mass media, educational institutions, law enforcement, family, and religious communities racialize Muslim-American women, and how these gendered experiences shape their racialized sense of self. In doing so, it also examines the impact of religious, racial, ethnic and cultural signifiers on the female Muslim-American experience of racialization, and demonstrates how these women employ certain strategies of resistance and coping mechanisms to deal with their racialization. / Master of Science / The aim of this research project is to investigate how Muslim-American undergraduate women specifically experience racialization in public and private spaces, examine whether those experiences give rise to their sense of self as the other, and highlight how they resist and cope with their experiences of racialization. The term racialization, understood by Barot and Bird (2010) as a process that ascribes physical and cultural differences to an individual or group(s) in order to define the other, has only recently been applied to understand and discuss the Muslim experience in the west. Due to the unique relationship that the Muslim female population has with the United States, particularly as a result of 9/11, and the label of ‘oppressed’ being imposed upon them, it is important to understand how specifically Muslim-American women experience racialization. While previous studies on racialization have broadened the understanding of how Muslims are, and continue to be othered, few studies have focused on the specific areas within public and private spaces where this marginalized group experiences racialization. This study attempts to fill this gap in existing research by examining how peers, mass media, educational institutions, law enforcement, family, and religious communities racialize Muslim-American women, and how these gendered experiences shape their sense of self as the other. In doing so, it also examines the impact of religious, racial, ethnic and cultural signifiers on the female Muslim-American experience of racialization, and demonstrates how these women employ certain strategies of resistance and coping mechanisms to deal with their racialization. This study finds that participants do in fact, experience othering in both public and private spaces. Within public spaces, participants reported experiencing the most othering in the media and in educational institutions, with the least in their neighborhoods. In private spaces, participants reported experiencing the most othering at the hands of the family and their religious communities, with the least othering by their peers. This study also finds that as a result of their racialized experiences, participants do possess a sense of self as the Other, albeit this changes according to the different spaces they occupy.

Over the past thirteen years the United States has used military force against three different Muslim-majority nations. These conflicts have lead to the deaths of many Muslims, including many innocent civilians. Meanwhile, American Muslims have become conflicted about their identities as Muslims and Americans. However, this does not mean that they have become a fifth column within America. What it does mean is that they have felt anguish regarding the torment of their religious brethren, while at the same time retaining their American identity. Post-9/11, Muslim American groups have acknowledged their place in the racial ordering of America. Muslim Americans understand that they are second rate citizens within their own country.

Leadership has been a foundational component of any society, religion, culture, and human development. The purpose of this study was six fold: to examine the concept of leadership in Muslim communities in America, to observe the first-generation Muslim Americans’ perception of Muslim leadership in mosques and community centers, to examine the practice and beliefs of Muslims in America, to view the social interaction of American Muslims within their community, to view the mentorship and leadership aspects of first-generation Muslim Americans in their community, and to inspect the marriage and cultural aspects that are practiced by first-generation Muslim Americans. This study was conducted through a qualitative case study of 15 first-generation Muslim American college students and professionals from around the United States. The participants’ responses and the literature suggest that Islamic leadership has failed in America for the first- and second-generation American Muslims. Four themes emerged as relevant to the participants’ identity formation in the Islamic leadership in America: promoting Muslim youth to the leadership positions in Islamic centers, marriages in the Muslim community, mentoring Muslim youth to pursue higher education, and adapting to the new lifestyle of a Muslim American living in the United States.

After 9/11, American stand-up comedy includes an increasing presence of Arab and Muslim comedians whose humor engages some of the recurring Islamophobic stereotypes circulating in the United States. These comedians combine self-deprecating humor and critique of American society. In doing so, they continue a rich tradition of American ethnic comedy, first used by other minorities to negotiate positive recognition of their ethnicities in American society. Although Arab and Muslim American stand-up comedy continues to grow, there is little academic analysis of it. My research attempts to fill this gap. I examine two video-recorded comedy tours, Allah Made Me Funny and The Axis of Evil, and draw on my experiences as participant observer at the 8th annual edition of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival. In my examination, I explore Arab and Muslim American stand-up comedy after 9/11 as a set of performances that challenge Islamophobic political discourses and contest stereotypical representations of Arabs and Muslims circulating in the media and popular culture. I begin this thesis with a discussion that defines Islamophobia after 9/11 as a pervasive ideological formation and explores the relationship between Islamophobia and stereotypical representations of Arabs and Muslims in the media and popular culture. Second, I identify political activism, personal narrative, as well as both artistic and historical opportunism as complex and interrelated dimensions of this stand-up comedy. Third, I examine how Arab and Muslim American comedians use humor to navigate the poles of their hyphenated identities and negotiate their belonging in American society. Finally, I examine the ways in which stand-up comedy reverses the discourses and representations of Islamophobia by drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque.

The research question for this study is: how do religious and ethnic identities intersect for second-generation Americans? Is religious identification consistently coupled with strong ethnic identity among second-generation Americans, as posited by the current literature on is this issue, or are there other extant patterns that need to be further examined? I considered this question by comparing religious and non-religious second-generation Americans from Muslim-origin families from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. I interviewed 44 individuals across a range of religious and ethnic identification, and found six main patterns in how ethno-religious identities do and do not map on to one another. I titled these six patterns thusly: "Religion > Ethnicity; Higher Religion, Higher Ethnicity," "Religion > Ethnicity; Higher Religion, Lower Ethnicity," "Religion = Ethnicity," "Religion < Ethnicity," "Somewhat Ethnic, Somewhat Religious," and "Critics of Religion and Ethnicity."The case of second-generation Muslim Americans is particularly interesting, given that what may actually be occurring is the growing importance of a "pan-religious" identity, rather than the continued dominance of specific ethnic identities at the group level. Indeed, the primary function of the congregation vis-à-vis ethnicity may not be to maintain the ascendancy of a particular ethnic identity, as the sociology of religion literature claims; rather, for second-generation Muslims, religiosity may encourage a "pan-ethnicity" based on shared religious identity. This is borne out in the presence of two forms of the "Religion > Ethnicity" category, and the differentiation in how segmented assimilation occurs between the highly religious and the less religious.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study aims to examine American Muslim well-being and social capital in the face of Islamophobia. Ecological frameworks and social capital theory were synthesized to provide an approach for research, analysis, and social work practice. A mediation analysis was conducted to test the mediating effect of cognitive social capital on the relationship between structural social capital and distress. The paths of structural social capital, cognitive social capital, and distress were conceptualized using the ecological framework of Berkman and colleagues. Special attention was paid to how experiences of Islamophobic discrimination affect cognitive social capital and distress. Structural social capital was operationalized as the number of active memberships in civic organizations; Cognitive social capital was operationalized as trust in major institutions such as schools and the local police and Distress was operationalized using the Kessler Distress Scale. It was hypothesized that an increase in structural social capital would show a decrease in distress with cognitive social capital mediating the path. Results showed that cognitive social capital mediates the relationship between structural social capital and distress. However, an inconsistent mediation was found where an increase in cognitive social capital shows a decrease in distress, but higher levels of structural social capital show an increase in distress. Lastly, the results of the analysis were interpreted to inform current interventions with the American Muslim community through a social work lens.

As the number of Islamic institutions increases in America, the need for greater understanding of the Muslim community, and the challenges faced by this minority, increases as well. This project seeks to provide such knowledge by exploring one of these rapidly growing institutions founded and funded by Muslims, private Islamic schools. Absent from media and literature is an understanding of Islamic schools and the experiences of youth as their attendees. This project addresses this gap through an ethnographic focus on female students at one Islamic school. Data was collected via interviews, focus groups, observation, and participant observation. This student-centered approach provides qualitative insight on the perspectives of Muslim girls on identity, schooling, and community in order to foster greater understanding of the mission, social function, and practices of Islamic schools.

No description available.