Muslim American Students' Identities and Sense of Belonging in Post-9/11 and Neoliberal Capitalism

• In Event: 26.034 - Intersections of Faith in Education: The Often Silenced Connections of Faith, Education, and Global Religions

Abstract

This study employed qualitative interviews and incorporated interdisciplinary theories of socio-cultural studies, imperial and post-colonial studies, citizenship studies, and identity to explore the roles of schools, teachers, and general society in shaping disadvantaged students’ identities and sense of belonging based on the divisive categories of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and religion. Specifically, this study examined the role of Islamophobia, in the context of neo-liberalism, in shaping Muslim American students’ social, cultural, and educational experiences, as well as their religious and national identities and sense of belonging (Haddad & Senzai & Smith, 2009; Abdo, 2006; Sirin & Fine, 2008), The researcher interviewed nine second generation and beyond Muslim American students between the ages of 18-26 who attended New Mexico public schools when 9/11 happened. This research challenges Islamophobia (Van Driel, 2004; Haque, 2004; Zine, 2006) by highlighting it as a system of oppression that has national and imperialist goals (Abu El-Haj & Bonet, 2011; Maira, 2009). While such paradigms construct Islam and Muslims as oppressors, instead, based on the findings, this study highlights my Muslim American student participants as victims of oppression. By doing so, the study provides a counter argument to dominant narratives that propagate Islamophobia and present Islam and Muslims as violent (Van Driel, 2004; Zine, 2001), terrorists, and enemies of the US (Nimer, 2007; Safi, 2007). The study provides teachers with suggestions and another way of thinking and teaching about the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror. This way, the study assists teachers in facilitating dialectical and dialogical processes among students to develop critical thinking and achieve critical education, while being respectful of others, thus creating alternatives to and complications of the subject counter to reproduction of Islamophobia.
References
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Author

• Randa Nabil Elbih, Grand Valley State University