Perceived Value Compatibility in a Muslim American Community

• In Event: 545 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Migration and Identity

Abstract

This paper engages Muslim American acculturation in a novel way, by inquiring into whether or not 246 members of a Muslim American community perceive their own values as being compatible with those of most other Americans. Analyses reveal intra-communal diversity with respect to community members’ perceptions of (1) what are most Americans’ top five values and (2) whether or not they view their own values as overlapping with those of “most Americans”. No significant associations are found between respondents’ demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, age, ethnic group or nativity generation) and their likelihood of reporting their own values as (in)compatible with those of most other Americans. Results illuminate aspects of acculturation in this Muslim American community that only somewhat overlap with previous theorizations. The paper concludes with a consideration of how Islam/West incompatibility discourses might contribute to Muslim and non-Muslim American assumptions about the prospects of Muslim American values being compatible with so-called “mainstream American” ones.

Author

• Melissa J. K. Howe, NORC-University of Chicago