Digital Resilience: Queer Muslim Community Through Social Media

• In Event: Digital Dissent

Abstract

With the increase in visibility among LGBTQ Muslim populations in activist circles, the desire to understand the critical formation of this community and its impacts on individual identity construction is integral to the project of conflicting intersectional identity analysis. In this paper, I trouble constructions of community through exploring temporal spatial configurations of support for LGBTQ-identified Muslims living in America. I assert that when community cannot be accessed physically, use of the internet to create temporary spaces is critical in identity formation and resistance to oppression. As it relates to LGBTQ-identified Muslims, where there is a distinct lack of public community, individuals mitigate identity crises using online vehicles to establish social support systems that would otherwise not be accessible. Analysis of community formation among LGBTQ Muslims include ethnography through an online presence, in addition to fieldwork with this population throughout the United States.

Author

• Mariam Mustafa, Western Michigan University