Muslim American/American Muslim Identity: Authoring Self in Post-9/11 America

This paper examines the proposition that Muslim American identity, whether as individual or group identity, is "forged" and "forced" by the American experience that brings together immigrant and American-born Muslims from diverse cultural backgrounds and disparate understandings of Islam. It is here that the histories of the "Muslim world" and the "West", nationalism, inter-generational struggles, and the politics of race/ethnicity, gender, and class come into contact. American Muslim becomes part of a discursive contact zone where America and Islam are debated and defined. This paper analyzes how self-image and (re) presentations in this contact zone are contested and constructed by a group of Muslims in Phoenix, Arizona. Specifically, it addresses the following questions: What does "American Muslim"/" Muslim American" mean? What do such labels conceal or reveal about the convergence of history, politics, national identity, and Muslims' multi-factorial diversity? How does life as a Muslim in Arizona differ from what it was on September 10th, 2001? Data gathered from this ethnographic project reveal three emerging themes. (1) Muslims in Phoenix perceive that the Islam practiced in America is "more authentic" than that practiced in Muslim-majority countries. (2) They fear that their religious faith is under attack and their loyalty to America is under suspicion. (3) The meaning of the American Muslim / Muslim American label has not yet crystallized.