The Criminalization of Muslims in the Contemporary United States

• In Event: Islamophobia, Immigration, and Social Control

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary findings from a study conducted during the 2016 Presidential Campaign. Presidential candidates use political rhetoric to garner support from constituents. In the current election, candidates have presented one such appeal by constructing Islam as a “threat” to national security. Donald Trump exemplified an extreme version of this when he suggested banning Muslims from entering the country. Drawing on data gathered from focus groups and qualitative interviews with religious community members in Texas – both Muslim and non-Muslim - we lay out how the rhetoric surrounding the “Islamic threat” has impacted the American imagination. We argue that the criminalization of Muslims can be best understood in contrast to the criminalization of African-Americans. Both result in moral panics that wax and wane, and both have very real impacts on the everyday experiences of the targeted populations. Likewise, both are rooted in socio-historic assumptions about race and ethnicity that aim to constrain minority participation in the democratic process. African-American criminalization stems from the socioeconomic arrangements that followed the end of slavery, while Muslim criminalization stems from the arrangements in the post-Colonialism West. We demonstrate how these racial ideologies influence the fears and assumptions about Muslim-Americans today.

Authors

• Sarah Beth Kaufman, Trinity University

• Hanna Niner, Trinity University