Hyper(in)visible Muslim Students and Racial-Religious Decoupling in the University

• In Event: Toward a Critical Muslim Youth Studies: Conceptual and Empirical Debates and Tensions

Abstract

After the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent intensification of the War on Terror, many scholars began articulating the ways that Islamophobia was intertwined with racism beyond religious discrimination (Elahi & Khan, 2018). As hate crimes against Muslims increase in educational settings, scholars have taken up how Muslim youth and students experience prejudice and microaggressions for their Muslim identities (Nasir and Al-Amin, 2006; Sirin & Fine, 2008). These studies find that young Muslims have to contend with stereotypes of being considered too radical, or oppressed, and foreign while receiving little support from institutional agents (Abu El-Haj, 2010; Ali, 2014; Nasir & Al-Amin, 2010). Yet few of these studies center race and the ways that anti-Muslim racism may be institutionalized.

Drawing on theories of racialized organizations (Ray, 2019), intersectionality (Collins, 2002), and critical race theory (Solórzano, & Villalpando, 1998), I propose to answer, how does anti-Muslim racism manifest within university structures to shape Muslim students' experiences? This study extends the literature on anti-Muslim bigotry by examining how critical race theory can be used to analyze the structural elements of anti-Muslim racism in higher education, such as unequal distribution and access to resources and safety and space. I extend critical race and racial organizations theory to consider intersectionality and how race and religion work in tandem to subordinate some students while privileging students from dominant groups.

I draw on a mixed-methods study design including large scale crossectional survey data from college students across nine public research universities (n=1,065 Muslim students, N=54,194), as well as qualitative data from a participatory action research photovoice project conducted with Muslim students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds (Black, Arab, Afghan, South Asian) at one public research university that includes participant observation data, photovoice narratives, 15 interviews, and iterative focus groups.

Findings suggest that university practices become intertwined with anti-Muslim racism in the following processes: hyper(in)visibility, intersectional oversights, and institutional neglect. Within the Muslim community, survey results suggest that Black Muslims experienced significantly lower institutional belonging than their peers. Qualitative findings indicate that this pattern can, in part, be attributed to social exclusion and discrimination based on race and religion within campus, community, and sociopolitical contexts.

These findings suggest that anti-Muslim racism manifests through racial-religious schemas, that become institutionalized through the unequal distribution and access to resources, safety, and space within the supposed secular university. I propose the concept, racial-religious decoupling, to refers to the separation of race and religion and commitments to equity that makes it difficult for universities to support multiple-marginalized Muslim students (Nojan, under review). In reality, Muslim students constitute a racialized-religious group that experiences marginalization differently based on the intersections of race and religion and their other social identities. Racial-religious decoupling legitimates anti-Muslim racism in the form of the unequal distribution of resources, constrained agency of non-dominant racialized-religious groups, and hyper(in)visibility of the racialized-Muslim figure.

Author

• Saugher Nojan, San Jose State University