Identifying as Muslim and American: The Role of Discrimination
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Identifying as Muslim and American: The Role of Discrimination Daniel Hummel1 · Mohamed Daassa2 · Nuha Alshabani3 · Leen Felo4 Received: 13 September 2019 / Accepted: 7 June 2020 © Religious Research Association, Inc. 2020
Abstract This study uniquely examines the relationship between specific forms of discrimination and how Muslim young adults in the United States choose to identify. A survey was distributed to Muslim young adults in Genesee County, Michigan, where 2.6% of the population is Muslim. Some experiences of discrimination were significantly related to identifying as a Muslim and not also as an American. In particular, experiences of being accused or suspected of doing something wrong because of one’s identity significantly predicted responses on the identity variable above and beyond other experiences of discrimination. The probability of a Muslim young adult identifying only as a Muslim when sometimes experiencing being accused of something wrong is 43.1%. This probability drops to 32.8% for those never experiencing this form of discrimination. The article discusses the implications of increasing discrimination on future generations of Muslims and their identity development.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1364 4-020-00418-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Daniel Hummel [email protected] Mohamed Daassa [email protected] Nuha Alshabani [email protected] Leen Felo [email protected] 1
Department of Philanthropy, Nonprofit Leadership and Public Affairs, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA 16057, USA
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Departments of Foreign Languages and History, University of Michigan, Flint, Flint, MI 48502, USA
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Department of Psychology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Michigan, Flint, Flint, MI 48502, USA
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13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Review of Religious Research
Keywords Islam · Muslim · American · Identity · Islamophobia · Discrimination · Young adult · Mid-Michigan
Introduction Within the United States the number of individuals who identity as Muslim is growing and expected to reach 8.1 million by the year 2050. Current estimates have the number of Muslim Americans around 3.45 million (Mohamad 2018). However, a precise number is unavailable due to the U.S. Census not including a religion category in its population statistics (Sirin et al. 2008). At this estimated rate, the Muslim population will soon become the second largest religion in America, after Christianity. Despite this trend, research on Muslim Americans and their identity development is lacking. Muslim Americans are racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse. Muslim Americans are comprised of three major groups these include African Americans consisting of 20–30% of the Muslim population, Arab Americans consisting of 25%, and South Asians comprising 30–33% of the population (Ahmed and Reddy 2007). The remaining pe
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