Racial and Ethnic Differences in Perceptions of Discrimination among Muslim Americans

• In Event: 130 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Islamophobia

Abstract

Muslim Americans experience discrimination on multiple fronts, in a number of social settings, and in various forms. While discrimination against Muslims has been broadly researched and well documented, this group has been mainly looked at through an oversimplified homogenous lens. I use weighted data from the 2011 Pew Religion and Public Life Survey of 1,033 adult Muslim Americans to examine differences in the prevalence of perceived discrimination across Muslim racial/ethnic groups. I assess the socio-demographic correlates of perceived discrimination. I control for possible socio-demographic confounders, to determine whether the observed relationship between racial/ethnic groups and perceived discrimination persists. Hispanic and Asian Muslims are significantly more likely to acknowledge experiencing four out of five forms of discrimination. Black Muslims are more likely to report a greater number of discriminatory acts only on one type of discrimination, which is “being single out by law enforcement officers.” The percent of black Muslims reporting this type of discrimination is four times greater than that of Asian Muslims. Nearly all non-white Muslim ethnic groups have notably higher odds of reporting experiencing one or more types of discrimination, relative to white Muslims. Women who are Muslims are less likely than Muslim men to report several forms of discrimination. Older Muslims report lower rates of perceived discrimination than their younger co-religionists. These findings suggest moving beyond the employment of broad categorization while emphasizing the differences of experiences that exist within heterogeneous racial/ethnic minority groups.

Author

• Hakim Zainiddinov, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers